Red halos are faint, extended and extremely red structures that have been reported around various types of galaxies since the mid-1990s. The colours of these halos are too red to be reconciled with any hitherto known type of stellar population, and instead indicative of a very bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function (IMF). Due to the large mass-to-light ratios of such stellar halos, they could contribute substantially to the baryonic masses of galaxies while adding very little to their overall luminosities. The red halos of galaxies therefore constitute potential reservoirs for some of the baryons still missing from inventories in the low-redshift Universe. While most studies of red halos have focused on disk galaxies, a red excess has also been reported in the faint outskirts of blue compact galaxies (BCGs). A bottom-heavy IMF can explain the colours of these structures as well, but due to model degeneracies, stellar populations with standard IMFs and abnormally high metallicities have also been demonstrated to fit the data. Here, we show that due to recent developments in the field of spectral synthesis, the metallicities required in this alternative scenario may be less extreme than previously thought. This suggests that the red excess seen in the outskirts of BCGs may stem from a normal, intermediate-metallicity host galaxy rather than a red halo of the type seen around disk galaxies. The inferred host metallicity does, however, still require the host to be more metal-rich than the gas in the central starburst of BCGs, in contradiction with current simulations of how BCGs form.
It has been argued that the Swiss-Cheese cosmology can mimic Dark Energy, when it comes to the observed luminosity distance-redshift relation. Besides the fact that this effect tends to disappear on average over random directions, we show in this work that based on the Rees-Sciama effect on the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the Swiss-Cheese model can be ruled out if the voids have a radius larger than about 35 Mpc. We also show that for smaller voids, the CMB is not observably affected, and that the small voids can still mimic Dark Energy, as opposed to previous conclusions in the literature. However, in this limit, the probability of looking in a special direction where the luminosity of supernovae is sufficiently supressed becomes very small, at least in the case of a lattice of spherical voids considered in this paper.
We propose a simple dark energy model with the following properties: the model predicts a late-time dark radiation component that is not ruled out by current observational data, but which produces a distinctive time-dependent equation of state $w(z)$ for $z < 3$. The dark energy field can be coupled strongly enough to Standard Model particles to be detected in colliders, and the model requires only modest additional particle content and little or no fine-tuning other than a new energy scale of order milli-electron volts.
We present the modeling of SINFONI integral field dynamics of 18 star forming galaxies at z ~ 2 from Halpha line emission. The galaxies are selected from the larger sample of the SINS survey, based on the prominence of ordered rotational motions with respect to more complex merger induced dynamics. The quality of the data allows us to carefully select systems with kinematics dominated by rotation, and to model the gas dynamics across the whole galaxy using suitable exponential disk models. We obtain a good correlation between the dynamical mass and the stellar mass, finding that large gas fractions Mgas~M*) are required to explain the difference between the two quantities. We use the derived stellar mass and maximum rotational velocity Vmax from the modeling to construct for the first time the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation at z ~ 2.2. The relation obtained shows a slope similar to what is observed at lower redshift, but we detect an evolution of the zero point. We find that at z ~ 2.2 there is an offset in log(M*) for a given rotational velocity of 0.41+-0.11 with respect to the local Universe. This result is consistent with the predictions of the latest N-body/hydrodynamical simulations of disk formation and evolution, which invoke gas accretion onto the forming disk in filaments and cooling flows. This scenario is in agreement with other dynamical evidence from SINS, where gas accretion from the halo is required to reproduce the observed properties of a large fraction of the z ~ 2 galaxies.
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) produce a dominant fraction (~80%) of the Soft X-ray background (SXB) at photon energies 0.5<E<2 keV. If dust pervaded throughout the intergalactic medium, its scattering opacity would have produced diffuse X-ray halos around AGN. Taking account of known galaxies and galaxy clusters, only a fraction F_halo <10% of the SXB can be in the form of diffuse X-ray halos around AGN. We therefore limit the intergalactic opacity to optical/infrared photons from large dust grains (with radii in the range a=0.2-2.0 mum) to a level tau_GD<0.15(F_halo/10%) to a redshift z~1. Our results are only weakly dependent on the grain size distribution or the redshift evolution of the intergalactic dust. Stacking X-ray images of AGN can be used to improve our constraints and diminish the importance of dust as a source of systematic uncertainty for future supernova surveys which aim to improve the precision on measuring the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation-of-state.
High signal-to-noise, representative spectra of star-forming galaxies at z~2, obtained via stacking of the galaxies observed in the context of the SINS survey, reveal broad (FWHM > 1500 km/s) H-alpha emission. This feature is preferentially found in the more massive and more rapidly star-forming systems, which also tend to be older and larger galaxies. We interpret this feature as evidence of either powerful starburst-driven galactic winds or active supermassive black holes. If galactic winds are responsible for the broad H-alpha emission, the high velocities of this ionized gas indicate that much of it will be expelled from the host galaxy and its dark matter halo. On the other hand, if the broad line regions of active black holes account for the broad H-alpha feature, the corresponding black holes masses are estimated to be an order of magnitude lower than those predicted by local scaling relations, suggesting a delayed assembly of supermassive black holes with respect to their host bulges.
We present a simple analytic model for the structure of non-relativistic and relativistic radiation mediated shocks. At shock velocities \beta_s\equiv v_s/c\gtrsim 0.1, the shock transition region is far from thermal equilibrium, since the transition crossing time is too short for the production of a black-body photon density (by Bremsstrahlung emission). In this region, electrons and photons (and positrons) are in Compton (pair) equilibrium at temperatures T_s significantly exceeding the far downstream temperature, T_s\gg T_d\approx 2(\varepsilon n_u \hbar^3c^3)^{1/4}. T_s\gtrsim 10 keV is reached at shock velocities \beta_s\approx 0.2. At higher velocities, \beta_s\gtrsim0.6, the plasma is dominated in the transition region by e^\pm pairs and 60 keV\lesssim T_s \lesssim 200 keV. We argue that the spectrum emitted during the breaking out of supernova shocks from the stellar envelopes (or the surrounding winds) of Blue Super Giants and Wolf-Rayet stars, which reach \beta_s>0.1 for reasonable stellar parameters, may include a hard component with photon energies reaching tens or even hundreds of keV. This may account for the X-ray outburst associated with SN2008D, and possibly for other SN-associated outbursts with spectra not extending beyond few 100 keV (e.g. XRF060218/SN2006aj).
We model the dark sector of the cosmic substratum by a viscous fluid with an equation of state $p=-\zeta \Theta$, where $\Theta$ is the fluid-expansion scalar and $\zeta$ is the coefficient of bulk viscosity for which we assume a dependence $\zeta \propto \rho^{\nu}$ on the energy density $\rho$. The homogeneous and isotropic background dynamics coincides with that of a generalized Chaplygin gas with equation of state $p = - A/\rho^{\alpha}$. The perturbation dynamics of the viscous model, however, is intrinsically non-adiabatic and qualitatively different from the Chaplygin-gas case. In particular, it avoids short-scale instabilities and/or oscillations which apparently have ruled out unified models of the Chaplygin-gas type. We calculate the matter power spectrum and demonstrate that the non-adiabatic model is compatible with the data from the 2dFGRS and the SDSS surveys. A $\chi^{2}$-analysis shows, that for certain parameter combinations the viscous-dark-fluid (VDF) model is well competitive with the $\Lambda$CDM model. These results indicate that \textit{non-adiabatic} unified models can be seen as potential contenders for a General-Relativity-based description of the cosmic substratum.
We present medium-resolution spectra of 16 radial velocity red-giant members of the low-luminosity Bootes I dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy, that have sufficient S/N for abundance determination, based on the strength of the Ca II K line. Assuming [Ca/Fe] ~ +0.3, the abundance range in the sample is Delta [Fe/H] ~ 1.7 dex, with one star having [Fe/H] = -3.4. The dispersion is sigma([Fe/H]) = 0.45 +/- 0.08 -- similar to those of the Galaxy's more luminous dSph systems and Omega Centauri. This suggests that the large mass (greater than approximately 10 million solar masses) normally assumed to foster self-enrichment and the production of chemical abundance spreads was provided by the non-baryonic material in Bootes I.
Abridged: A photometric sample of ~7100 V<25.3 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) has been selected by combining Subaru/Suprime-Cam BVRci'z' data with deep GALEX/NUV imaging of the Subaru Deep Field. Follow-up spectroscopy confirmed 25 LBGs at 1.5<z<2.7. Among the optical spectra, 14 have Ly-alpha emission with rest-frame equivalent widths of ~5-60AA. The success rate for identifying LBGs as NUV-dropouts at 1.5<z<2.7 is 74%. The rest-frame UV (1700AA) luminosity function (LF) is constructed from the photometric sample with corrections for stellar contamination and z<1.5 interlopers. The LF is 1.7+/-0.1 times higher than those of z~2 BXs and z~3 LBGs. Three explanations were considered, and it is argued that significantly underestimating low-z contamination or effective comoving volume is unlikely: the former would be inconsistent with the spectroscopic sample at 97% confidence, and the second explanation would not resolve the discrepancy. The third scenario is that different photometric selection of the samples yields non-identical galaxy populations, such that some BX galaxies are LBGs and vice versa. This argument is supported by a higher surface density of LBGs at all magnitudes while the redshift distribution of the two populations is nearly identical. This study, when combined with other star-formation rate (SFR) density UV measurements from LBG surveys, indicates that there is a rise in the SFR density: a factor of 3-6 (3-10) increase from z~5 (z~6) to z~2, followed by a decrease to z~0. This result, along with past sub-mm studies that find a peak at z~2 in their redshift distribution, suggest that z~2 is the epoch of peak star-formation. Additional spectroscopy is required to characterize the complete shape of the z~2 LBG UV LF via measurements of contamination and accurate distances.
We present a general methodology for determining the gamma-ray flux from annihilation of dark matter particles in Milky Way satellite galaxies, focusing on two promising satellites as examples: Segue 1 and Draco. We use the SuperBayeS code to explore the best-fitting regions of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) parameter space, and an independent MCMC analysis of the dark matter halo properties of the satellites using published radial velocities. We present a formalism for determining the boost from halo substructure in these galaxies and show that its value depends strongly on the extrapolation of the concentration-mass (c(M)) relation for CDM subhalos down to the minimum possible mass. We show that the preferred region for this minimum halo mass within the CMSSM, accounting for general bino and wino-like neutralinos, is ~ 10^-9 - 10^-6 solar masses. For the boost model where the observed power-law c(M) relation is extrapolated down to the minimum halo mass we find average boosts of about 20, while the Bullock et al (2001) c(M) model results in boosts of order unity. We estimate that for the power-law c(M) boost model and photon energies greater than a GeV, the Fermi space-telescope has about 20% chance of detecting a dark matter annihilation signal from Draco with signal-to-noise greater than 3 after about 5 years of observation.
Great strides have been made in the last two decades in determining how galaxies evolve from their initial dark matter seeds to the complex structures we observe at z=0. The role of mergers has been documented through both observations and simulations, numerous satellites that may represent these initial dark matter seeds have been discovered in the Local Group, high redshift galaxies have been revealed with monstrous star formation rates, and the gaseous cosmic web has been mapped through absorption line experiments. Despite these efforts, the dark matter simulations that include baryons are still unable to accurately reproduce galaxies. One of the major problems is our incomplete understanding of how a galaxy accretes its baryons and subsequently forms stars. Galaxy formation simulations have been unable to accurately represent the required gas physics on cosmological timescales, and observations have only just begun to detect the star formation fuel over a range of redshifts and environments. How galaxies obtain gas and subsequently form stars is a major unsolved, yet tractable problem in contemporary extragalactic astrophysics. In this paper we outline how progress can be made in this area in the next decade.
The data collected in the Shapley-Ames catalog of bright galaxies show that lenticular (S0) galaxies are typically about a magnitude fainter than both elliptical (E) and early spiral (Sa) galaxies. Hubble (1936) was therefore wrong to regard S0 galaxies as being intermediate between morphological types E and Sa. The observation that E5-E7 galaxies are significantly fainter than objects of sub-types E0-E5 suggests that many of the flattest 'ellipticals' may actually be misclassified lenticular galaxies. In particular it is tentatively suggested all E7 galaxies might actually be misclassified S0_1 (7) galaxies. The present results are consistent with the view that galaxies belonging to the S0 class evolved in environments in which they typically lost more than half of their original luminous material.
We present VLT-SINFONI K-band IFU spectroscopy of the central galaxies in the
cool core clusters A1664, A2204 and PKS 0745-191, to probe the Pa-alpha and
ro-vibrational H2 line emission. In A1664 the two emission-line velocity
systems seen in our previous H-alpha data appear in both Pa-alpha and H2
emission, with notable morphological differences. The recession velocity of the
red component of Pa-alpha increases linearly with decreasing radius,
particularly along an 8 kpc filament aligned with the major axis of the
underlying galaxy and the cluster X-ray emission. These kinematics are modelled
as gravitational free-fall as gas cools rapidly out of the hot phase. In A2204
the gas shows 3 or 4 filaments reaching 10 kpc, three of which lie towards
`ghost bubbles' seen in X-ray imaging. For PKS 0745-191, we confirm the
twin-arm morphology of previous narrow-band images; the Pa-alpha kinematics
suggest rotational motion about an axis aligned with the kpc-scale radio jet;
on nucleus, we find a broad Pa-alpha component (FWHM 1700 km/s) and a secondary
H2 system redshifted by +500 km/s.
The H2 v=1-0 S(3)/Pa-alpha ratio is highest in isolated and extended regions
where it matches the levels in the NGC 1275 filaments as modelled by Ferland et
al. Regions with lower ratios highlight active star formation and are often
kinematically quiescent (FWHM < 200 km/s). Our findings suggest that these
clusters may be captured in different stages of the `cold feedback' cycle of
Pizzolato & Soker, with A1664 in a brief phase of extreme cooling and star
formation prior to an AGN heating event; PKS 0745-191 in outburst with the AGN
accreting from a cool gas disk, and A2204 in a later phase where cool gas is
dragged out of the galaxy by the buoyant rise of old radio bubbles (abridged).
Phase perturbations due to inclined surface magnetic field of active region strength are calculated numerically in quiet Sun and simple sunspot models in order to estimate and compare the direct and indirect (thermal) effects of the fields on helioseismic waves. It is found that the largest direct effects occur in highly inclined field characteristic of penumbrae, and scale roughly linearly with magnetic field strength. The combined effects of sunspot magnetic and thermal anomalies typically yield negative travel-time perturbations in penumbrae. Travel-time shifts in umbrae depend on details of how the thermal and density structure differs from the quiet Sun. The combined shifts are generally not well approximated by the sum of the thermal and magnetic effects applied separately, except at low field strengths of around 1 kG or less, or if the thermal shift is small. A useful rule-of-thumb appears to be that travel-time perturbations in umbrae are predominantly thermal, whereas in penumbrae they are mostly magnetic.
Here we generally prove that the axion as a coherently oscillating scalar field acts as a cold dark matter in nearly all cosmologically relevant scales. The proof is made in the linear perturbation order. Compared with our previous proof based on solutions, here we compare the equations in the axion with the ones in the cold dark matter, thus expanding the valid range of the proof. Deviation from purely pressureless medium appears in very small scale where axion reveals a peculiar equation of state. Our analysis is made in the presence of the cosmological constant, and our conclusions are valid in the presence of other fluid and field components.
We present results from 2.5-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations of the interaction of nonlinear Alfven waves with thin current sheets in relativistic plasmas. We find that the Alfven waves cause the current sheet to bend and kink and increase its dissipation. The electrons are eventually heated to form a double Maxwellian, with the hotter Maxwellian caused by the current sheet dissipation and cooler Maxwellian caused by the Alfven turbulence cascade. These results may have important implications for the kinetic dissipation of MHD turbulence in which both nonlinear Alfven waves and current sheets are present, such as turbulence in accretion flows driven by the saturated magnetorotational instability (MRI).
We report the discovery of a young, 0.16" binary, 2M2234+4041AB, found as the result of a Keck laser guide star adaptive optics imaging survey of young field ultracool dwarfs. Spatially resolved near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy indicate that the luminosity and temperature ratios of the system are near unity. From optical and near-infrared spectroscopy, we determine a composite spectral type of M6 for the system. Gravity-sensitive spectral features in the spectra of 2M2234+4041AB are best matched to those of young objects (~1 Myr old). A comparison of the Teff and age of 2M2234+4041AB to evolutionary models indicates the mass of each component is 0.10 (+0.075-0.04) Msun. Emission lines of H alpha in the composite optical spectrum of the system and Br gamma in spatially resolved near-IR spectra of the two components indicate that the system is actively accreting. Both components of the system have IR excesses, indicating that they both harbor circumstellar disks. Though 2M2234+4041AB was originally identified as a young field dwarf, it lies 1.5' from the well-studied Herbig Ae/Be star, LkHa 233. The distance to LkHa 233 is typically assumed to be 880 pc. It is unlikely 2M2234+4041AB could be this distant, as it would then be more luminous than any known Taurus objects of similar spectral type. We re-evaluate the distance to the LkHa 233 group and find a value of 325 (+72-50) pc, based on the Hipparcos distance to a nearby B3-type group member (HD 213976). 2M2234+4041AB is the first low-mass star to be potentially associated with the LkHa 233 group. At a distance of 325 pc, its projected physical separation is 51 AU, making it one of a growing number of wide, low-mass binaries found in young star-forming regions.
As the Galactic Neighborhood (GAN) panel is fully aware, the next decade will see major advances in our understanding of this area of research. To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of the galactic neighborhood, including the structure and properties of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and their stellar populations and evolution, as well as interstellar media and star clusters. Central to the progress in these areas are the corresponding advances in laboratory astrophysics that are required for fully realizing the GAN scientific opportunities within the decade 2010-2020. Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and experimental studies of the underlying physics and chemistry that produces the observed astrophysical processes. The 5 areas of laboratory astrophysics that we have identified as relevant to the GAN panel are atomic, molecular, solid matter, plasma, and nuclear physics. In this white paper, we describe in Section 2 some of the new scientific opportunities and compelling scientific themes that will be enabled by advances in laboratory astrophysics. In Section 3, we provide the scientific context for these opportunities. Section 4 briefly discusses some of the experimental and theoretical advances in laboratory astrophysics required to realize the GAN scientific opportunities of the next decade. As requested in the Call for White Papers, Section 5 presents four central questions and one area with unusual discovery potential. Lastly, we give a short postlude in Section 6.
(Abridged) Bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs) are isolated molecular clouds located on the edges of evolved HII regions where star formation is thought may have been triggered. In this paper we investigate the current level of star formation within a sample of BRCs and evaluate to what extent star formation may have been induced. We present the results of a programme of position-switched CO observations towards 45 southern BRCs. The 12CO, 13CO and C18O (J=1-0) were simultaneously observed using the 22m Mopra telescope. We complement these observations with archival mid-IR submm and radio data. Analysis of the CO, mid-IR and radio data result in the clouds being divided into three distinct groups. We refer to these groups as spontaneous, triggered, and zapped clouds, respectively. Comparing the physical parameters of spontaneous and triggered samples we find striking differences in luminosity, surface temperature and column density with all three quantities significantly enhanced for the clouds considered to have been triggered. Furthermore, we find strong evidence for star formation within the triggered sample by way of methanol and H_2O masers, embedded mid-IR point sources and CO wings, however, we find evidence of ongoing star formation within only two of the spontaneous sample. We have used CO, mid-IR and radio data to identify 24 of the 45 southern BRCs that are undergoing a strong interaction with their HII region. We can therefore exclude ~50% from future studies. 14 of the 24 interacting BRCs are found to be associated with embedded mid-IR point sources and we find strong evidence of that these clouds are forming stars. The absence of mid-infrared sources towards the remaining ten clouds leads us to conclude that these represent an earlier evolutionary stage of star formation.
The February 2009 edition of the AAO newsletter contains articles on the preliminary results from the WiggleZ dark energy survey, the analysis of near-IR observations of the galaxy IRAS18293-3413, the early results from the SPIRAL IFU investigation of the dynamics of a sample of nearby star forming galaxies, a summary of the successful outcome of the first on-sky test of photonic OH suppression and a number of regular features.
A new and powerful probe of the origin and evolution of structures in the Universe has emerged and been actively developed over the last decade. In the coming decade, non-Gaussianity, i.e., the study of non-Gaussian contributions to the correlations of cosmological fluctuations, will become an important probe of both the early and the late Universe. Specifically, it will play a leading role in furthering our understanding of two fundamental aspects of cosmology and astrophysics: (i) the physics of the very early universe that created the primordial seeds for large-scale structures, and (ii) the subsequent growth of structures via gravitational instability and gas physics at later times. To date, observations of fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe (LSS) have focused largely on the Gaussian contribution as measured by the two-point correlations (or the power spectrum) of density fluctuations. However, an even greater amount of information is contained in non-Gaussianity and a large discovery space therefore still remains to be explored. Many observational probes can be used to measure non-Gaussianity, including CMB, LSS, gravitational lensing, Lyman-alpha forest, 21-cm fluctuations, and the abundance of rare objects such as clusters of galaxies and high-redshift galaxies. Not only does the study of non-Gaussianity maximize the science return from a plethora of present and future cosmological experiments and observations, but it also carries great potential for important discoveries in the coming decade.
Quasars are powerful systems whose spectrum is rich of metal features that allow us to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies at very high redshift, even close to the reionization epoch. I review the main observational constraints on the metallicity of quasars host galaxies at high redshift and discuss the implications and issues for models of galaxy evolution in the early universe.
The letter presents 15 first discovered supernova candidates from SDSS-DR7 with our dedicated method, called Sample Decrease. In these candidates, there are 14 type Ia and one type II based on SNID analysis. With this method, we also selected other 10 supernova candidates which were confirmed by other research group. The result proved that our method is reliable, and the description of the method and some detailed spectra analysis procedures were also presented in this letter.
By using the multifiber spectrograph FLAMES mounted at the ESO-VLT, we have obtained high-resolution spectra for 18 giant stars, belonging to 3 old globular clusters of the Large Magellanic Cloud (namely NGC 1786, 2210 and 2257). While stars in each cluster showed quite homogeneous iron content, within a few cents of dex (the mean values being Fe/H]= -1.75+-0.01 dex, -1.65+-0.02 dex and -1.95+-0.02 dex for NGC 1786, 2210 and 2257, respectively), we have detected significant inhomogeneities for the [Na/Fe], [Al/Fe], [O/Fe] and [Mg/Fe] abundance ratios, with evidence of [O/Fe] vs [Na/Fe] and [Mg/Fe] vs [Al/Fe] anticorrelations. The trends detected nicely agree with those observed in Galactic Globular Clusters, suggesting that such abundance anomalies are ubiquitous features of old stellar systems and they do not depend on the parent galaxy environment. In NGC 1786 we also detected two extreme O-poor, Na-rich stars. This is the first time that a firm signature of extreme chemical abundance anomalies has been found in an extragalactic stellar cluster.
We present a systematic fit of a model of resonant cyclotron scattering (RCS) to the X and soft gamma-ray data of four magnetars, including anomalous X-ray pulsars, and soft gamma repeaters. In this scenario, non-thermal magnetar spectra in the soft X-rays result from resonant cyclotron scattering of the thermal surface emission by hot magnetospheric plasma. We find that this model can successfully account for the soft X-ray emission of magnetars, while an additional component is still required to model the hard X-ray persistent magnetar emission recently discovered by INTEGRAL. The latter is an important component in terms of magnetars' luminosity, and cannot be neglected when modelling the soft X-ray part of the spectrum.
Laboratory experiments to explore plasma conditions and stimulated particle acceleration can illuminate aspects of the cosmic particle acceleration process. Here we discuss the cosmic-ray candidate source object variety, and what has been learned about their particle-acceleration characteristics. We identify open issues as discussed among astrophysicists. -- The cosmic ray differential intensity spectrum is a rather smooth power-law spectrum, with two kinks at the "knee" (~10^15 eV) and at the "ankle" (~3 10^18 eV). It is unclear if these kinks are related to boundaries between different dominating sources, or rather related to characteristics of cosmic-ray propagation. We believe that Galactic sources dominate up to 10^17 eV or even above, and the extragalactic origin of cosmic rays at highest energies merges rather smoothly with Galactic contributions throughout the 10^15--10^18 eV range. Pulsars and supernova remnants are among the prime candidates for Galactic cosmic-ray production, while nuclei of active galaxies are considered best candidates to produce ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays of extragalactic origin. Acceleration processes are related to shocks from violent ejections of matter from energetic sources such as supernova explosions or matter accretion onto black holes. Details of such acceleration are difficult, as relativistic particles modify the structure of the shock, and simple approximations or perturbation calculations are unsatisfactory. This is where laboratory plasma experiments are expected to contribute, to enlighten the non-linear processes which occur under such conditions.
We present an analysis of three years of precision radial velocity measurements of 160 metal-poor stars observed with HIRES on the Keck 1 telescope. We report on variability and long-term velocity trends for each star in our sample. We identify several long-term, low-amplitude radial-velocity variables worthy of follow-up with direct imaging techniques. We place lower limits on the detectable companion mass as a function of orbital period. Our survey would have detected, with a 99.5% confidence level, over 95% of all companions on low-eccentricity orbits with velocity semi-amplitude K > 100 m/s, or M_p*sin(i) > 3.0 M_JUP*(P/yr)^(1/3), for orbital periods P< 3 yr. None of the stars in our sample exhibits radial-velocity variations compatible with the presence of Jovian planets with periods shorter than the survey duration. The resulting average frequency of gas giants orbiting metal-poor dwarfs with -2.0 < [Fe/H] < -0.6 is f_p<0.67% (at the 1-sigma confidence level). We examine the implications of this null result in the context of the observed correlation between the rate of occurrence of giant planets and the metallicity of their main-sequence solar-type stellar hosts. By combining our dataset with the Fischer & Valenti (2005) uniform sample, we confirm that the likelihood of a star to harbor a planet more massive than Jupiter within 2 AU is a steeply rising function of the host's metallicity. However, the data for stars with -1.0 < [Fe/H] < 0.0 are compatible, in a statistical sense, with a constant occurrence rate f_p~1%. Our results can usefully inform theoretical studies of the process of giant planet formation across two orders of magnitude in metallicity.
We use a model of polarized Galactic emission developed by the the Planck collaboration to assess the impact of foregrounds on B-mode detection at low multipoles. Our main interest is to applications of noisy polarization data and in particular to assessing the feasibility of B-mode detection by Planck. This limits the complexity of foreground subtraction techniques that can be applied to the data. We analyze internal linear combination techniques and show that the offset caused by the dominant E-mode polarization pattern leads to a fundamental limit of r approximately 0.1 for the tensor-scalar ratio even in the absence of instrumental noise. We devise a simple, robust, template fitting technique using multi-frequency polarization maps. We show that template fitting using Planck data alone offers a feasible way of recovering primordial B-modes from dominant foreground contamination, even in the presence of noise on the data and templates. We implement and test a pixel-based scheme for computing the likelihood function of cosmological parameters at low multipoles that incorporates foreground subtraction of noisy data.
SL2SJ02176-0513 is a remarkable lens for the presence of two multiply-imaged systems at different redshifts lensed by a foreground massive galaxy at $z_{\rm lens}=0.656$: a bright cusp arc at $z_{\rm arc}=1.847$ and an additional double-image system at an estimated redshift of $z_{\rm dbl}\sim2.9$ based on photometry and lensing geometry. The system is located about 400 kpc away from the center of a massive group of galaxies. Mass estimates for the group are available from X-ray observations and satellite kinematics. Multicolor photometry provides an estimate of the stellar mass of the main lens galaxy. The lensing galaxy is modeled with two components (stars and dark matter), and we include the perturbing effect of the group environment, and all available constraints. We find that classic lensing degeneracies, e.g. between external convergence and mass density slope, are significantly reduced with respect to standard systems and infer tight constraints on the mass density profile: (i) the dark matter content of the main lens galaxy is in line with that of typical galaxies $f_{\rm dm}(<R_{\rm e})=0.41^{+0.09}_{-0.06}$; (ii) the required mass associated with the dark matter halo of the nearby group is consistent with X-ray and weak-lensing estimates ($\sigma_{\rm grp}=550^{+130}_{-240}$); (iii) accounting for the group contribution in the form of an external convergence, the slope of the mass density profile of the main lens galaxy alone is found to be $\alpha=-1.03^{+0.22}_{-0.16}$, consistent with the isothermal ($\alpha=-1$) slope. We demonstrate that multiple source plane systems together with good ancillary dataset can be used to disentangle local and environmental effects.
The Faulkes Telescope (FT) Project is an educational and research arm of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN). As well as producing spectacular images of galaxies, nebulae, supernovae remnants, star clusters, etc., the FT team is involved in several projects pursuing scientific goals. Many of these projects also incorporate data collected and analysed by schools and amateur astronomers.
We presented the results of several statistical tests of the randomness in the angular sky-distribution of gamma-ray bursts in BATSE Catalog. Thirteen different tests were presented based on Voronoi tesselation, Minimal spanning tree and Multifractal spectrum for five classes (short1, short2, intermediate, long1, long2) of gamma-ray bursts, separately. The long1 and long2 classes are distributed randomly. The intermediate subclass, in accordance with the earlier results of the authors, is distributed non-randomly. Concerning the short subclass earlier statistical tests also suggested some departure from the random distribution, but not on a high enough confidence level. The new tests presented in this article suggest also non-randomness here.
The atmosphere of the extremely high-velocity (530-920 km/s) early B-type star HD271791 is enriched in $\alpha$-process elements, which suggests that this star is a former secondary component of a massive tight binary system and that its surface was polluted by the nucleosynthetic products after the primary star exploded in a supernova. It was proposed that the (asymmetric) supernova explosion unbind the system and that the secondary star (HD271791) was released at its orbital velocity in the direction of Galactic rotation. In this Letter we show that to explain the Galactic rest-frame velocity of HD271791 within the framework of the binary-supernova scenario, the stellar remnant of the supernova explosion (a $\la$ 10 Msun black hole) should receive an unrealistically large kick velocity of $\geq$ 750-1200 km/s$. We therefore consider the binary-supernova scenario as highly unlikely and instead propose that HD271791 attained its peculiar velocity in the course of a strong dynamical three- or four-body encounter in the dense core of the parent star cluster. Our proposal implies that by the moment of encounter HD271791 was a member of a massive post-supernova binary.
We present a program tool, SimClust, designed for Monte-Carlo modeling of star clusters. It populates the available stellar isochrones with stars according to the initial mass function and distributes stars randomly following the analytical surface number density profile. The tool is aimed at simulating realistic images of extragalactic star clusters and can be used to: (i) optimize object detection algorithms, (ii) perform artificial cluster tests for the analysis of star cluster surveys, and (iii) assess the stochastic effects introduced into photometric and structural parameters of clusters due to random distribution of luminous stars and non-uniform interstellar extinction. By applying SimClust, we have demonstrated a significant influence of stochastic effects on the determined photometric and structural parameters of low-mass star clusters in the M31 galaxy disk. The source code and examples are available at the SimClust website: this http URL
High speed photometry in 2008 shows that the light curve of V842 Cen possesses a coherent modulation at 56.825 s, with sidebands at 56.598 s and 57.054 s. These have appeared since this nova remnant was observed in 2000 and 2002. We deduce that the dominant signal is the rotation period of the white dwarf primary and the sidebands are caused by reprocessing from a surface moving with an orbital period of 3.94 h. Thus V842 Cen is an intermediate polar (IP) of the DQ Herculis subclass, is the fastest rotating white dwarf among the IPs and is the third fastest known in a cataclysmic variable. As in other IPs we see no dwarf nova oscillations, but there are often quasi-periodic oscillations in the range 350 - 1500 s. There is a strong brightness modulation with a period of 3.78 h, which we attribute to negative superhumps, and there is an even stronger signal at 2.886 h which is of unknown origin but is probably a further example of that seen in GW Lib and some other systems. We used the Swift satellite to observe V842 Cen in the ultra-violet and in X-rays, although no periodic modulation was detected in the short observations. The X-ray luminosity of this object appears to be much lower than that of other IPs in which the accretion region is directly visible.
Measuring the electron antineutrino component of the cosmic diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) is the next ambitious goal for low-energy neutrino astronomy. The largest flux is expected in the lowest accessible energy bin. However, for E < 15 MeV a possible signal can be mimicked by a solar electron antineutrino flux that originates from the usual 8B neutrinos by spin-flavor oscillations. We show that such an interpretation is possible within the allowed range of neutrino electromagnetic transition moments and solar turbulent field strengths and distributions. Therefore, an unambiguous detection of the DSNB requires a significant number of events at E > 15 MeV.
I report the analysis of an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) located in the galaxy NGC 1291. This X-ray point source is denominated IXO6 in the Catalog of Candidate IXO (Colbert & Ptak). An Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Object (IXO) is defined as an off-nuclear, compact object with luminosity Lx [2-10keV] >= 1039 erg s-1. The cutoff Lx is defined as a value greater than the Eddington luminosity of a 1.4 Mo black hole (10 38.3 erg s-1). IXO is an early denomination of what is call now a ULX point source. The Catalog was derived from a ROSAT survey and represents 87 IXOS in 54 galaxies. IXO6 was selected because of being positioned in the outer disk of the galaxy, with no near X-ray source neighbors. The study of this ULX pretends to confirm certain assumptions related to this class of objects (Roberts et al.)
The time sequence of 105 spectra covering one full orbital period of AA Dor has been analyzed. Direct determination of Vsini for the sdOB component from 97 spectra outside of the eclipse for the lines MgII 4481 A and SiIV 4089 A clearly indicated a substantially smaller value than estimated before. Detailed modelling of line profile variations for 8 spectra during the eclipse for the MgII 4481 A line, combined with the out-of-eclipse fits, gave Vsini = 31.8+/-1.8 km/s. The previous determinations of Vsini, based on the HeII 4686 A line, appear to be invalid because of the large natural broadening of the line. With the assumption of the solid-body, synchronous rotation of the sdOB primary, the measured values of the semi-amplitude K1 and Vsini lead to the mass ratio q = 0.213+/-0.013 which in turn gives K2 and thus the masses and radii of both components. The sdOB component appears to be less massive than assumed before, M1 = 0.25+/-0.05 Msol, but the secondary has its mass-radius parameters close to theoretically predicted for a brown dwarf, M2 = 0.054+/-0.010 Msol and R2 = 0.089+/-0.005 Rsol. Our results do not agree with the recent determination of Vuckovic et al. 2008 based on a K2 estimate from line-profile asymmetries.
We discuss the central role played by the X-ray study of hot baryons within galaxy clusters to reconstruct the assembly of cosmic structures and to trace the past history of star formation and accretion onto supermassive Black Holes (BHs). We shortly review the progress in this field contributed by the current generation of X-ray telescopes. Then, we focus on the outstanding scientific questions that have been opened by observations carried out in the last years and that represent the legacy of Chandra and XMM: (a) When and how is entropy injected into the inter-galactic medium (IGM)? (b) What is the history of metal enrichment of the IGM? (c) What physical mechanisms determine the presence of cool cores in galaxy clusters? (d) How is the appearance of proto-clusters at z~2 related to the peak of star formation activity and BH accretion? We show that a highly efficient observational strategy to address these questions is to carry out a large-area X-ray survey, reaching a sensitivity comparable to that of deep Chandra and XMM pointings, but extending over several thousands of square degrees. A similar survey can only be carried out with a Wide-Field X-ray Telescope (WFXT), which combines a high survey speed with a sharp PSF across the entire FoV. We emphasize the important synergies that WFXT will have with a number of future ground-based and space telescopes, covering from the radio to the X-ray bands. Finally, we discuss the immense legacy value that such a mission will have for extragalactic astronomy at large.
A good particle candidate for Cold Dark Matter (CDM) is the supersymmetric neutralino or more generally a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). The expected interaction rate of WIMPs with the detector medium in the direct detection experiments is below 0.01 events/kg/day. This makes a good knowledge of the background conditions highly important, especially with ever increasing sensitivity of the detectors. One of the background components is related to cosmic muons and in particular to muon-induced neutrons. Detailed studies carried out by the Edelweiss collaboration in this respect are presented. This activity includes GEANT4 simulations with full event topology as well as a dedicated measurement with a new neutron counter installed in the fall of 2008 in LSM (Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, France). This counter is incorporated into the existing muon veto system thus allowing to monitor neutrons in coincidence with the incoming muons.
We build a spherical halo model for galaxies using a general scalar-tensor theory of gravity in its Newtonian limit. The scalar field is described by a time-independent Klein-Gordon equation with a source which is coupled to the standard Poisson equation of Newtonian gravity. Our model, by construction, fits both the observed rotation velocities of stars in spirals and a typical luminosity profile. As a result, the form of the new Newtonian potential, the scalar field, and DM distribution in a galaxy are determined. Taking into account the constraints for the fundamental parameters of the theory $(\lambda, \alpha)$, we analyse the influence of the scalar field in the DM distribution, resulting in shallow density profiles in galactic centres.
It has recently been suggested that the presence of multiple populations showing various amounts of helium enhancement is the rule, rather than the exception, among globular star clusters. An important prediction of this helium enhancement scenario is that the helium-enhanced blue horizontal branch (HB) stars should be brighter than the red HB stars which are not helium-enhanced. In this Letter, we test this prediction in the case of the Galactic globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272), for which the helium-enhancement scenario predicts helium enhancements of > 0.02 in virtually all blue HB stars. Using high-precision Stroemgren photometry and spectroscopic gravities for blue HB stars, we find that any helium enhancement among most of the cluster's blue HB stars is very likely less than 0.01, thus ruling out the much higher helium enhancements that have been proposed in the literature.
As the panel on Planetary Systems and Star Formation (PSF) is fully aware, the next decade will see major advances in our understanding of these areas of research. To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of solar system bodies (other than the Sun) and extrasolar planets, debris disks, exobiology, the formation of individual stars, protostellar and protoplanetary disks, molecular clouds and the cold ISM, dust, and astrochemistry. Central to the progress in these areas are the corresponding advances in laboratory astro- physics which are required for fully realizing the PSF scientific opportunities in the decade 2010-2020. Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and experimental studies of the underlying physics and chemistry which produce the observed spectra and describe the astrophysical processes. We discuss four areas of laboratory astrophysics relevant to the PSF panel: atomic, molecular, solid matter, and plasma physics. Section 2 describes some of the new opportunities and compelling themes which will be enabled by advances in laboratory astrophysics. Section 3 provides the scientific context for these opportunities. Section 4 discusses some experimental and theoretical advances in laboratory astrophysics required to realize the PSF scientific opportunities of the next decade. As requested in the Call for White Papers, we present in Section 5 four central questions and one area with unusual discovery potential. We give a short postlude in Section 6.
The large scale structure of the present Universe is determined by the growth
of dark matter density fluctuations and by the dynamical action of dark energy
and dark matter. While much progress has been made in recent years in
constraining the cosmological parameters, and in reconstructing the evolution
in the large--scale structure of the dark matter distribution, we still lack an
understanding of the evolution of the baryonic component of the Universe.
Located at nodes of the cosmic web, clusters of galaxies are the largest
collapsed structures in the Universe with total masses up to 10$^{15}$
M$_{\sun}$. Over 80% of their mass resides in the form of dark matter. The
remaining mass is composed of baryons, most of which (about 85%) is a diffuse,
hot plasma that radiates primarily in X-rays. X-ray observations of the
evolving cluster population provide a unique opportunity to address such open
and fundamental questions as: How do hot diffuse baryons dynamically evolve in
dark matter potentials? How and when was the excess energy which we observe in
the intergalactic medium generated? What is the cosmic history of heavy-element
production and circulation?
Our current knowledge comes primarily from detailed studies of clusters in
the relatively nearby Universe (z$<$0.5). Major advances will come from high
throughput, high spectral and spatial resolution X-ray observations that
measure the thermodynamical properties and metal content of the first low mass
clusters emerging at z $\sim$ 2 and directly trace their evolution into today's
massive clusters.
Making use of public spectra from Cimatti et al (2008), we constrain for the first time the velocity dispersion of spheroid-like massive (M_star ~ 10^11 M_sun) galaxies at z ~ 1.6. By comparing with galaxies of similar stellar mass at lower redshifts, we find evidence for a weak evolution in velocity dispersion, decreasing from ~240 km/s at z ~ 1.6 down to ~180 km/s at z ~ 0. Such mild evolution contrasts with the strong change in size (a factor of ~4) found for these type of objects in the same cosmic time, and it is consistent with a progressive larger role, at lower redshift, of the dark matter halo in setting the velocity dispersion of these galaxies. We discuss the implications of our results within the context of different scenarios proposed for the evolution of these massive objects.
We discuss the idea that the model-independent (MI) axion of string theory is the source of quintessential dark energy. The scenario is completed with a composite QCD axion from hidden sector squark condensation that could serve as dark matter candidate. The mechanism relies on the fact that the hidden sector anomaly contribution to the composite axion is much smaller than the QCD anomaly term. This intuitively surprising scenario is based on the fact that below the hidden sector scale $\Lambda_h$ there are many light hidden sector quarks. Simply, by counting engineering dimensions the hidden sector instanton potential can be made negligible compared to the QCD anomaly term.
The low-energy limit of string theory contains an anomaly-canceling correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action, which defines an effective theory: Chern-Simons (CS) modified gravity. The CS correction consists of the product of a scalar field with the Pontryagin density, where the former can be treated as a background field (non-dynamical formulation) or as an evolving field (dynamical formulation). Many solutions of general relativity persist in the modified theory; a notable exception is the Kerr metric, which has sparked a search for rotating black hole solutions. Here, for the first time, we find a solution describing a rotating black hole within the dynamical framework, and in the small-coupling/slow-rotation limit. The solution is axisymmetric and stationary, constituting a deformation of the Kerr metric with dipole scalar "hair," whose effect on geodesic motion is to weaken the frame-dragging effect and shift the location of the inner-most stable circular orbit outwards (inwards) relative to Kerr for co-rotating (counter-rotating) geodesics. We further show that the correction to the metric scales inversely with the fourth power of the radial distance to the black hole, suggesting it will escape any meaningful bounds from weak-field experiments. For example, using binary pulsar data we can only place an initial bound on the magnitude of the dynamical coupling constant of $\xi^{1/4} \lesssim 10^{4} {\textrm{km}}$. More stringent bounds will require observations of inherently strong-field phenomena.
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The growth rate of matter perturbation and the expansion rate of the Universe can be used to distinguish modified gravity and dark energy models in explaining the cosmic acceleration. We explore here the inclusion of spatial curvature into the growth factor. We expand previous results using the approximation $\Omega_{m}^\gamma$ and then suggest a new form, $\Omega_m^\gamma+(\gamma-4/7)\Omega_k$, as an approximation for the growth factor when the curvature $\Omega_k$ is not negligible, and where the growth index $\gamma$ is usually model-dependent. The expression recovers the standard results for the curved and flat $\Lambda$CDM and Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati models (DGP). Fitting the growth factor to observational data, we obtain $\gamma_{\Lambda}(\Omega_{k} \not= 0) = 0.65^{+0.17}_{-0.15}$ and $\gamma_{DGP}(\Omega_{k} \not= 0) = 0.53^{+0.14}_{-0.12}$. For the $\Lambda$CDM model, the observational bounds are found to be consistent with the theoretical value, unlike the case for the DGP model.
Determining the magnetic field of solar spicules is vital for developing adequate models of these plasma jets, which are thought to play a key role in the thermal, dynamic, and magnetic structure of the chromosphere. Here we report on magnetic spicule properties in a very quiet region of the off-limb solar atmosphere, as inferred from new spectropolarimetric observations in the HeI 10830 A triplet. We have used a novel inversion code for Stokes profiles caused by the joint action of atomic level polarization and the Hanle and Zeeman effects (HAZEL) to interpret the observations. Magnetic fields as strong as 40G were unambiguously detected in a very localized area of the slit, which may represent a possible lower value of the field strength of organized network spicules.
Models for the evolution of dust are used to show that the observed trend of the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with metallicity is the result of the delayed injection of carbon dust that formed in low mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars into the interstellar medium. We also use our dust evolution models to examine the origin of dust at redshifts > 6, when only supernovae and their remnants could have been, respectively, their sources of production and destruction. Unless an average supernova (or its progenitor) produces between 0.1 and 1 Msun of dust, alternative sources will need to be invoked to account for the massive amount of dust observed at these redshifts.
The experimental demonstration that neutrons can reside in gravitational quantum stationary states formed in the gravitational field of the Earth indicates a need to examine in more detail the general theoretical properties of gravitational eigenstates. Despite the almost universal study of quantum theory applied to atomic and molecular states very little work has been done to investigate the properties of the hypothetical stationary states that should exist in similar types of gravitational central potential wells, particularly those with large quantum numbers. In this first of a series of papers, we attempt to address this shortfall by developing analytic, non-integral expressions for the electromagnetic dipole state-to-state transition rates of charged particles for any given initial and final gravitational quantum states. The expressions are non-relativistic and hence valid provided the eigenstate wavefunctions do not extend significantly into regions of strong gravity. The formulae may be used to obtain tractable approximations to the transition rates that can be used to give general trends associated with certain types of transitions. Surprisingly, we find that some of the high angular momentum eigenstates have extremely long lifetimes and a resulting stability that belies the multitude of channels available for state decay.
This paper develops further approximate methods for obtaining the dipole matrix elements and corresponding transition and decay rates of the high-n, high-l gravitational eigenstates. These methods include (1) investigation of the polar spreads of the angular components of the high-n, high-l eigenstates and the effects these have on the limiting values of the angular components of the dipole matrix elements in the case of large l and m and (2) investigation of the rapid cut off and limited width of the low-p, high-n radial eigenfunctions, and the development of an equation to determine the width, position and oscillatory behaviour of those eigenfunctions in cases of arbitrarily large values of n, l and p. The methods have wider applicability than dipole transition rate estimates and may be also used to determine limits on the rates for more general interactions. Combining the methods enables the establishment of upper limits to the total dipole decay rates of many high-n, low-p states on the state diagram to be determined, even those that have many channels available for decay. The results continue to support the hypothetical existence of a specialized set of high-n, low-p gravitational eigenfunctions that are invisible and stable, both with respect to electromagnetic decay and gravitational collapse, making them excellent dark matter candidates.
We present a description of the public code XIM, a virtual X-ray observatory. XIM can be used to convert hydrodynamic simulations of astrophysical objects, such as large scale structure, galaxy clusters, groups, galaxies, supernova remnants, and similar extended objects, into virtual X-ray observations for direct comparison with observations and for post-processing with standard X-ray analysis tools. By default, XIM simulates Chandra and the International X-ray Observatory (IXO), but can accommodate any user-specified telescope parameters and instrument responses. Examples of XIM applications include virtual Chandra imaging of simulated X-ray cavities from AGN feedback in galaxy clusters, kinematic mapping of cluster velocity fields (e.g., due to mergers or AGN feedback), as well as detailed spectral modeling of multi-phase, multi-temperature spectra from space plasmas.
The space-time correlations of streams of photons can provide fundamentally new channels of information about the Universe. Today's astronomical observations essentially measure certain amplitude coherence functions produced by a source. The spatial correlations of wave fields has traditionally been exploited in Michelson-style amplitude interferometry. However the technology of the past was largely incapable of fine timing resolution and recording multiple beams. When time and space correlations are combined it is possible to achieve spectacular measurements that are impossible by any other means. Stellar intensity interferometry is ripe for development and is one of the few unexploited mechanisms to obtain potentially revolutionary new information in astronomy. As we discuss below, the modern use of stellar intensity interferometry can yield unprecedented measures of stellar diameters, binary stars, distance measures including Cepheids, rapidly rotating stars, pulsating stars, and short-time scale fluctuations that have never been measured before.
We report the discovery of a luminous, mini radio halo of ~240 kpc dimension at the center of a distant cluster of galaxies at redshift z = 0.131. Our optical and multi-wavelength GMRT and VLA observations reveal a highly unusual structure showing a twin bubble-like diffuse radio halo surrounding a cluster of bright elliptical galaxies; very similar to the large-scale radio structure of M87, the dominant galaxy in Virgo cluster. It presents an excellent opportunity to understand the energetics and the dynamical evolution of such radio jet inflated plasma bubbles in the hot cluster atmosphere.
McLaughlin et al. discovered a drifting sub-pulse phenomenon in the radio emission of PSR J0737-3039B (B) caused by electromagnetic radiation from PSR J0737-3039A (A). Here we describe a geometrical model which predicts the delay of B's sub-pulses relative to A's radio pulses. As we demonstrate, this technique provides a new way of timing A's radio pulses from the point of view of an hypothetical observer located at B. We detail three astrophysical applications of measuring these delays: (a) to determine the sense of rotation of A relative to its orbital plane; (b) to estimate where in B's magnetosphere the radio sub-pulses are generated and (c) to provide an independent estimate of the mass ratio of A and B. The latter might improve existing tests of gravitational theories using this system.
Fractal concepts have been introduced in the accretion disc as a new feature. Due to the fractal nature of the flow, its continuity condition undergoes modifications. The conserved stationary fractal flow admits only saddle points and centre-type points in its phase portrait. Completely analytical solutions of the equilibrium point conditions indicate that the fractal properties enable the flow to behave like an effective continuum of lesser density, and facilitates the generation of transonicity. However, strongly fractal flows inhibit multitransonicity from developing. The mass accretion rate exhibits a fractal scaling behaviour, and the entire fractal accretion disc is stable under linearised dynamic perturbations.
Using gamma-ray data collected by the AGILE satellite over a period of almost one year (from 2007 July to 2008 June), we searched for pulsed signal from 35 potentially interesting radio pulsars, ordered according to $F_{\gamma}\propto \sqrt{\dot{E}} d^{-2}$ and for which contemporary or recent radio data were available. AGILE detected 3 new top-ranking nearby and Vela-like pulsars with good confidence both through timing and spatial analysis. Among the newcomers we find pulsars with very high rotational energy losses, such as the remarkable PSR B1509-58 with a magnetic field in excess of 10^13 Gauss, and PSR J2229+6114 providing a reliable identification for the previously unidentified EGRET source 3EG 2227+6122. Moreover, the powerful millisecond pulsar B1821-24, in the globular cluster M28, is detected during a fraction of the observations. Other 4 promising gamma-ray pulsar candidates, among which the notable J2043+2740 with an age in excess of 1 million years, show a possible detection in the timing analysis only and deserve confirmation.
By making use of Duan-Ge's decomposition theory of gauge potential and the Duan's topological current theory proposed by Prof. Duan Yi-Shi, we study a two component superfluid Bose condensed system, which is supposed being realized in the interior of neutron stars in the form of a coexistent neutron superfluid and protonic superconductor. We propose that this system possesses vortex lines. The topological charge of the vortex lines are characterized by the Hopf indices and the Brower degrees of $\phi$-mapping.
This White Paper to the National Academy of Sciences Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee outlines some of the outstanding questions regarding the assembly history of Massive Black Holes in the nuclei of galaxies and the revolutionary contributions anticipated in this field from low-frequency gravitational wave astronomy.
The principal goal of this whitepaper is not so much to demonstrate that gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and LISA will help answer many central questions in astronomy and astrophysics, but to make the case that they can help answer a far greater range of questions if we prepare to make the (sometimes substantial) effort to identify electromagnetic counterparts to the gravitational wave sources.
We have proposed that the first phase of stellar evolution in the history of the Universe may be Dark Stars (DS), powered by dark matter heating rather than by nuclear fusion. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, which may be their own antipartners, collect inside the first stars and annihilate to produce a heat source that can power the stars. A new stellar phase results, a Dark Star, powered by dark matter annihilation as long as there is dark matter fuel, with lifetimes from millions to billions of years. We find that the first stars are very bright ($\sim 10^6 L_\odot$) and cool ($T_{surf} < 10,000$K) during the DS phase, and grow to be very massive (500-1000 times as massive as the Sun). These results differ markedly from the standard picture in the absence of DM heating, in which the maximum mass is about 140$M_\odot$ and the temperatures are much hotter ($T_{surf} > 50,000$K); hence DS should be observationally distinct from standard Pop III stars. Once the dark matter fuel is exhausted, the DS becomes a heavy main sequence star; these stars eventually collapse to form massive black holes that may provide seeds for supermassive black holes observed at early times as well as explanations for recent ARCADE data and for intermediate black holes.
We follow the galaxy stellar mass assembly by morphological and spectral type in the COSMOS 2-deg^2 field. We derive the stellar mass functions and stellar mass densities from z=2 to z=0.2 using 192,000 galaxies selected at F(3.6 micron) > 1 microJy with accurate photometric redshifts (sigma_dz/(1+z)~0.12). Using a spectral classification, we find that z~1 is an epoch of transition in the stellar mass assembly of quiescent galaxies. Their stellar mass density increases by 1.3 dex between z=1.5-2 and z=0.8-1 (dt~2.5Gyr), but only by 0.25 dex between z=0.8-1 and z~0.1 (dt~6Gyr). Then, we add the morphological information and find that 75-85% of the massive quiescent galaxies (log(M)~11) have an elliptical morphology at z<0.8. We also estimate that less than 20% of the morphologically selected massive elliptical galaxies exhibit ongoing star-formation. Therefore, a dominant mechanism links the shutdown of star formation and the acquisition of an elliptical morphology in massive galaxies. Still, a significant fraction of quiescent galaxies present a Spi/Irr morphology at low mass (30-50% at log(M)~9.5), but this fraction is smaller than predicted by semi-analytical models using a "halo quenching" recipe. We also analyse the evolution of star-forming galaxies and split them into "intermediate activity" and "high activity" galaxies. We find that the most massive "high activity" galaxies end their high star formation rate phase first. Finally, the space density of massive star-forming galaxies becomes lower than the space density of massive elliptical galaxies at z<1. As a consequence, the rate of "wet mergers" involved in the formation of the most massive ellipticals must decline very rapidly at z<1, which could explain the observed slow down in the assembly of these quiescent and massive sources.
This Astro2010 science white paper provides an overview of the opportunities in low-frequency gravitational-wave astronomy, a new field that is poised to make significant advances. While discussing the broad context of gravitational-wave astronomy, this paper concentrates on the low-frequency region (10^(-5) to 1 Hz), a frequency range abundantly populated in strong sources of gravitational waves including massive black hole mergers, ultra-compact stellar-mass galactic binaries, and capture of compact objects by massive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies.
In this talk we discuss intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) by their amplilification of distant sources; MACHO searches have studied event times $2 h \lesssim t_0 \lesssim 2 y$ corresponding masses in the range $10^{-6} M_{\odot} \lesssim M \lesssim 100 M_{\odot}$. We suggest that larger masses up to $10^6 M_{\odot}$ are also of considerable interest by arguments about the entropy of the universe. One percent by mass of dark energy can provide ninety-nine percent of total entropy.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment is designed for very high energy gamma-astronomy and cosmic ray researches. With a large sensitive area fully covered with resistive plate chambers at a very high altitude (4300m a.s.l.), the ARGO-YBJ detector is used to search for transient phenomena, such as gamma-ray bursts(GRB). Because the ARGO-YBJ detector has a large field of view (FOV>2sr) and is operated in a full duty cycle (>90%), it is one of the best ground-based GRB surveying apparatuses. Working at a relatively high energy threshold around few hundred GeV, the ARGO-YBJ detector is operated in searches for high energy GRBs following alarms set by satellite borne observations at lower energies. In this paper, a sensitivity of the ARGO-YBJ detector for GRB detection is estimated. Upper limits of fluence with 99% confidence level of 31 GRBs inside the FOV from June 2006 to January 2009 are set in two energy ranges of 10GeV-100GeV and 10GeV-1TeV.
We propose to use alternative cosmic tracers to measure the dark energy equation of state and the matter content of the Universe [w(z) & \Omega_m]. Our proposed method consists of two components: (a) tracing the Hubble relation using HII-like starburst galaxies, as an alternative to SNIa, which can be detected up to very large redshifts, z~4, and (b) measuring the clustering pattern of X-ray selected AGN at a median redshift of ~1. Each component of the method can in itself provide interesting constraints on the cosmological parameters, especially under our anticipation that we will reduce the corresponding random and systematic errors significantly. However, by joining their likelihood functions we will be able to put stringent cosmological constraints and break the known degeneracies between the dark energy equation of state (whether it is constant or variable) and the matter content of the universe and provide a powerful and alternative rute to measure the contribution to the global dynamics, and the equation of state, of dark energy. A preliminary joint analysis of X-ray selected AGN (based on a small XMM survey) and the currently largest SNIa sample (Kowalski et al 2008), provides: Omega_m=0.28^{+0.02}_{-0.04} and w=-1.0 +-0.1.
When we look at a nearby galaxy, we see a mixture of foreground stars and
bona fide extragalactic stars.
I will describe what we need to do to get meaningful statistics on the
massive star populations across the H-R diagram. Such a census provides the
means of a very powerful test of massive star evolutionary theory.
To better understand the initial conditions of the high-mass star formation process, it is crucial to study at high-angular resolution the morphology, the kinematics, and eventually the interactions of the coldest condensations associated with intermediate-/high-mass star forming regions. The paper studies the cold condensations in the intermediate-/high-mass proto-cluster IRAS 05345+3157, focusing the attention on the interaction with the other objects in the cluster. We have performed millimeter high-angular resolution observations, both in the continuum and several molecular lines, with the PdBI and the SMA. In a recent paper, we have already published part of these data. The main finding of that work was the detection of two cold and dense gaseous condensations, called N and S (masses ~2 and ~9 M_sun), characterised by high values of the deuterium fractionation (~0.1 in both cores). In this paper, we present a full report of the observations, and a complete analysis of the data obtained. The millimeter maps reveal the presence of 3 cores inside the interferometers primary beam, called C1-a, C1-b and C2. None of them are associated with cores N and S. C1-b is very likely associated with a newly formed early-B ZAMS star embedded inside a hot-core, while C1-a is more likely associated with a class 0 intermediate-mass protostar. The nature of C2 is unclear. Both C1-a and C1-b are good candidates as driving sources of a powerful CO outflow, which strongly interacts with N and S, as demonstrated by the velocity gradient across both condensations. Our major conclusion is that the chemical properties of these pre-stellar cores are similar to those observed in low-mass isolated ones, while the kinematics is dominated by the turbulence triggered by the CO outflow and can influece their evolution.
Clumps of material orbiting a black hole may be disturbed, somewhat like comets in the Kuiper belt, to relatively small periastron orbits. Each periastron passage changes the orbital parameters in such a way that the orbit becomes more and more eccentric and the angular momentum approaches the critical value for tidal capture. When this value is reached, the body is suddenly caught by the relativistic potential to the last periastron (occurring at two Schwarzschild radii for a non rotating black hole). In this process the transfer of orbital into internal energy heats the body before it makes a few more turns toward the horizon of the black hole. Because of strong relativistic effects this last bright message from the object is seen as a quasi-periodic flare. Assuming that a black hole may be fed by a large number of such small debris we calculate light curves expected from such events. We investigate the resemblance of the Fourier spectra of such light curves with those of observed QPOs.
We present the telltale signature of the tidal capture and disruption of an object by a massive black hole in a galactic centre. As a result of the interaction with the black hole's strong gravitational field, the object's light curve can flare-up with characteristic time of the order of 100 sec \times (M_{bh} / 10^6 M_{Solar}). Our simulations show that general relativity plays a crucial role in the late stages of the encounter in two ways: (i) due to the precession of perihelion, tidal disruption is more severe, and (ii) light bending and aberration of light produce and enhance flares seen by a distant observer. We present our results for the case of a tidally disrupted Solar-type star. We also discuss the two strongest flares that have been observed at the Galactic centre. Although the first was observed in X-rays and the second in infra-red, they have almost identical light curves and we find it interesting that it is possible to fit the infra-red flare with a rather simple model of the tidally disrupted comet-like or planetary object. We discuss the model and possible scenarios how such an event can occur.
The flux of the diffuse gamma-ray background radiation (GBR) does not confirm that the excess in the flux of cosmic ray electrons between 300-800 GeV, which was measured locally with the ATIC instrument in balloon flights over Antartica, is universal as expected from dark matter annihilation. Neither does the increase with energy of the fraction of positrons in the cosmic ray flux of electrons in the 10-100 GeV range that was measured by PAMELA imply a dark matter origin: It is consistent with that expected from the sum of the two major sources of Galactic cosmic rays, non relativistic spherical ejecta and highly relativistic jets from supernova explosions.
MARVELS, the Multi-Object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey, is a 6-year program to characterize the distribution of gas giant planets with orbital periods ranging from several hours to two years. MARVELS will use multi-fiber interferometric spectrographs on the wide-field, 2.5-meter Sloan Foundation telescope at Apache Point Observatory to monitor ~11,000 stars in the magnitude range V=8-12, visiting each star ~30 times over an 18-month interval, with velocity precision of 14, 18, and 35 m/s at V=8, 10, and 12. MARVELS will survey far more stars with a wider range of spectral types and metallicities than previous radial velocity searches, yielding a statistically well defined sample of ~150 giant planets drawn from a host sample with well understood selection biases. With a unique combination of large numbers and well characterized sensitivity, MARVELS will provide a critical data set for testing theories of the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. The MARVELS detections will also be an ideal sample for follow-up observations to identify multiple planet systems and understand the influence of giant planet migration on the formation and survival of less massive planets. MARVELS is one of four surveys that comprise SDSS-III (the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III), a 6-year program that will use highly multiplexed spectrographs on the Sloan Foundation Telescope to investigate cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way galaxy, and the population of giant planet systems.
We explore what dominant physical mechanism sets the kinetic energy contained in neutral, atomic (HI) gas. We compare the HI line widths predicted from turbulence driven by supernova (SN) explosions and magneto-rotational instability (MRI) to direct observations in 11 disk galaxies. We use high-quality maps of the HI mass surface density and line width, obtained by the THINGS survey. We show that all sample galaxies exhibit a systematic radial decline in the HI line width, which appears to be a generic property of HI disks and also implies a radial decline in kinetic energy density of HI. At a galactocentric radius of r25 there is a characteristic value of the HI velocity dispersion of $10\pm2$ \kms. Inside this radius, galaxies show HI line widths above the thermal value expected from a warm HI component, implying that turbulence drivers must be responsible for maintaining this line width. Therefore, we compare maps of HI kinetic energy to maps of the star formation rate (SFR) and to predictions for energy generated by MRI. We find a positive correlation between kinetic energy of HI and SFR. For a given turbulence dissipation timescale we can estimate the energy input required to maintain the observed kinetic energy. The SN rate implied by the observed recent SFR is sufficient to maintain the observed velocity dispersion, if the SN feedback efficiency is at least \epsilon_SN\simeq0.1. Beyond r25, this efficiency would have to increase to unrealistic values, $\epsilon>1$, suggesting that mechanical energy from young stars does not supply most energy in outer disks. On the other hand, both thermal broadening and turbulence driven by MRI can produce the velocity dispersions and kinetic energies that we observe in this regime.
The kinetic decoupling of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the early universe sets a scale that can directly be translated into a small-scale cutoff in the spectrum of matter density fluctuations. The formalism presented here allows a precise description of the decoupling process and thus the determination of this scale to a high accuracy from the details of the underlying WIMP microphysics. With decoupling temperatures of several MeV to a few GeV, the smallest protohalos to be formed range between 10^-10 and 10^-3 solar masses -- a somewhat smaller range than what was found earlier using order-of-magnitude estimates for the decoupling temperature; for a given WIMP model, the actual cutoff mass is typically about a factor of 10 greater than derived in that way, though in some cases the difference may be as large as a factor of several 100. Observational consequences and prospects to probe this small-scale cutoff, which would provide a fascinating new window into the particle nature of dark matter, are discussed.
Magnetic pressure has long been known to dominate over gas pressure in atomic and molecular regions of the interstellar medium. Here I review several recent observational studies of the relationships between the H^+, H^0 and H_2 regions in M42 (the Orion complex) and M17. A simple picture results. When stars form they push back surrounding material, mainly through the outward momentum of starlight acting on grains, and field lines are dragged with the gas due to flux freezing. The magnetic field is compressed and the magnetic pressure increases until it is able to resist further expansion and the system comes into approximate magnetostatic equilibrium. Magnetic field lines can be preferentially aligned perpendicular to the long axis of quiescent cloud before stars form. After star formation and pushback occurs ionized gas will be constrained to flow along field lines and escape from the system along directions perpendicular to the long axis. The magnetic field may play other roles in the physics of the H II region and associated PDR. Cosmic rays may be enhanced along with the field and provide additional heating of atomic and molecular material. Wave motions may be associated with the field and contribute a component of turbulence to observed line profiles.
A fundamental question that can be answered in the next decade is: WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE HIGHEST ENERGY COSMIC PARTICLES? The discovery of the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays will reveal the workings of the most energetic astrophysical environments in the recent universe. Candidate sources range from the birth of compact objects to explosions related to gamma-ray bursts or generated around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. In addition to beginning a new era of high-energy astrophysics, the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays will constrain the structure of the Galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. The propagation of these particles from source to Earth also probes the cosmic background radiation and gives insight into particle interactions at orders of magnitude higher energy than can be achieved in terrestrial laboratories. Next generation observatories designed to study the highest energy cosmic rays will have unprecedented sensitivity to ultra-high energy photons and neutrinos, which will further illuminate the workings of the universe at the most extreme energies. For this challenge to be met during the 2010-2020 decade, a significant increase in the integrated exposure to cosmic rays above 6 1019 eV will be necessary. The technical capabilities for answering this open question are at hand and the time is ripe for exploring Charged Particle Astronomy.
We observed two surges in H-alpha from the super-active region NOAA 10484. The first surge was associated with an SF/C4.3 class flare. The second one was a major surge associated with a SF/C3.9 flare. This surge was also observed with SOHO/EIT in 195 angstrom and NoRh in 17 GHz, and showed similar evolution in these wavelengths. The major surge had an ejective funnel-shaped spray structure with fast expansion in linear (about 1.2 x 10^5 km) and angular (about 65 deg) size during its maximum phase. The mass motion of the surge was along open magnetic field lines, with average velocity about 100 km/s. The de-twisting motion of the surge reveals relaxation of sheared and twisted magnetic flux. The SOHO/MDI magnetograms reveal that the surges occurred at the site of companion sunspots where positive flux emerged, converged, and canceled against surrounding field of opposite polarity. Our observations support magnetic reconnection models for the surges and jets.
We analyze a time sequence of He II 256.32 angstrom images obtained with EIS/Hinode, sampling a small magnetic loop in magnetic network. Wavelet analysis indicates 11-min periodicity close to the loop apex. We interprete this oscillation as forcing through upward leakage by the fundamental acoustic eigenmode of the underlying field-free cavity. The observed loop length corresponds to the value predicted from this mechanism.
We study the behaviors of galactic disks in triaxial halos both numerically and analytically to see if warps can be excited and sustained in triaxial potentials. We consider the following two scenarios: 1) galactic disks that are initially tilted relative to the equatorial plane of the halo (for a pedagogical purpose), and 2) tilted infall of dark matter relative to the equatorial plane of the disk and the halo. With numerical simulations of 100,000 disk particles in a fixed halo potential, we find that in triaxial halos, warps can be excited and sustained just as in spherical or axisymmetric halos but they show some oscillatory behaviors and even can be transformed to a polar-ring system if the halo has a prolate-like triaxiality. The non-axisymmetric component of the halo causes the disk to nutate, and the differential nutation between the inner and outer parts of the disk generally makes the magnitude of the warp slightly diminish and fluctuate. We also find that warps are relatively weaker in oblate and oblate-like triaxial halos, and since these halos are the halo configurations of disk galaxies inferred by cosmological simulations, our results are consistent with the fact that most of the observed warps are quite weak. We derive approximate formulae for the torques exerted on the disk by the triaxial halo and the dark matter torus, and with these formulae we successfully describe the behaviors of the disks in our simulations. The techniques used in deriving these formulae could be applied for realistic halos with more complex structures.
We report the discovery from Hubble Space Telescope ACS images of an extended globular cluster, denoted by Scl-dE1 GC1, in the Sculptor Group dwarf Elliptical galaxy Scl-dE1 (Sc22). The distance of the dE is determined as 4.3 +/- 0.25 Mpc from the I magnitude of the tip of the red giant branch in the color-magnitude diagram. At this distance the half-light radius of Scl-dE1 GC1 is ~22 pc, placing it among the largest clusters known, particularly for globular clusters associated with dwarf galaxies. The absolute magnitude of Scl-dE1 GC1 is Mv = -6.7 and, to within the photometric uncertainties of the data, the cluster stellar population appears indistinguishable from that of the dE. We suggest that there may be two modes of globular cluster formation in dwarf galaxies, a "normal" mode with half-light radii of typically 3 pc, and an "extended" mode with half-light radii of ~10 pc or more.
Core--collapsed supernovae (CCSNe) have been considered to be one of sources of dust in the universe. What kind and how much mass of dust are formed in the ejecta and are injected into the interstellar medium (ISM) depend on the type of CCSNe, through the difference in the thickness (mass) of outer envelope. In this review, after summarizing the existing results of observations on dust formation in CCSNe, we investigate formation of dust in the ejecta and its evolution in the supernova remnants (SNRs) of Type II--P and Type IIb SNe. Then, the time evolution of thermal emission from dust in the SNR of Type IIb SN is demonstrated and compared with the observation of Cas A. We find that the total dust mass formed in the ejecta does not so much depend on the type; $\sim 0.3-0.7 M_{\odot}$ in Type II--P SNe and $\sim 0.13 M_{\odot}$ in Type IIb SN. However the size of dust sensitively depends on the type, being affected by the difference in the gas density in the ejecta: the dust mass is dominated by grains with radii larger than 0.03 $\mu$m in Type II-P, and less than 0.006 $\mu$m in Type IIb, which decides the fate of dust in the SNR. The surviving dust mass is $\sim 0.04-0.2 M_{\odot}$ in the SNRs of Type II--P SNe for the ambient hydrogen density of $n_{\rm H}=10.0-1.0$ cm$^{-3}$, while almost all dust grains are destroyed in the SNR of Type IIb. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of thermal emission from dust in SNR well reflects the evolution of dust grains in SNR through erosion by sputtering and stochastic heating. The observed SED of Cas A SNR is reasonably reproduced by the model of dust formation and evolution for Type IIb SN.
Two different reasons make the search for transients in the nearby Universe (d < 200 Mpc) interesting and urgent. First, there exists a large gap in the luminosity of the brightest novae (-10 mag) and that of sub-luminous supernovae (-16 mag). However, theory and reasonable speculation point to several potential classes of objects in this "gap". Such objects are best found in the Local Universe. Second, the nascent field of Gravitational Wave (GW) astronomy and the budding fields of Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, TeV photons, astrophysical neutrinos are likewise limited to the Local Universe by physical effects (GZK effect, photon pair production) or instrumental sensitivity (neutrino and GW). Unfortunately, the localization of these new telescopes is poor and precludes identification of the host galaxy (with attendant loss of distance and physical diagnostics). Both goals can be met with wide field imaging telescopes acting in concert with follow-up telescopes. Astronomers must also embark upon completing the census of galaxies in the nearby Universe.
We study the dynamics and evolution of a C2.3 two-ribbon flare, developed on 2002 August 11, during the impulsive and the long gradual phase. To this end we obtained multiwavelength observations using the CDS spectrometer aboard SOHO, facilities at the NSO/Sacramento Peak, and the TRACE and RHESSI spacecrafts. CDS spectroheliograms in the Fe XIX, Fe XVI, O V and He I lines allows us to determine the velocity field at different heights/temperatures during the flare and to compare them with the chromospheric velocity fields deduced from H alpha image differences. TRACE images in the 17.1 nm band greatly help in determining the morphology and the evolution of the flaring structures. During the impulsive phase a strong blue-shifted Fe XIX component (-200 km/s) is observed at the footpoints of the flaring loop system, together with a red-shifted emission of O V and He I lines (20 km/s). In one footpoint simultaneous H alpha data are also available and we find, at the same time and location, downflows with an inferred velocity between 4 and 10 km/s. We also verify that the "instantaneous" momenta of the oppositely directed flows detected in Fe XIX and H alpha are equal within one order of magnitude. These signatures are in general agreement with the scenario of explosive chromospheric evaporation. Combining RHESSI and CDS data after the coronal upflows have ceased, we prove that, independently from the filling factor, an essential contribution to the density of the post-flare loop system is supplied from evaporated chromospheric material. Finally, we consider the cooling of this loop system, that becomes successively visible in progressively colder signatures during the gradual phase. We show that the observed cooling behaviour can be obtained assuming a coronal filling factor between 0.2 and 0.5.
We analyze two flare events which occurred in active region NOAA 501 on November 20, 2003. The H-alpha and magnetogram measurements show interaction between two filaments which produced a slowly rising flare event, corresponding to two stages of magnetic reconnection. The relative clockwise rotation between the two sunspot systems caused filament destabilization. The cusp-shaped magnetic field in the main phase of the second flare and its evolution in correlation with ribbon separation provide evidence for the cause of the CME eruption. The propagation and orientation of the CME with respect to the ecliptic plane is illustrated by IPS images.
The anomalous chemical abundances and the structure of the Edgewood-Kuiper belt observed in the solar system constrain the initial mass and radius of the star cluster in which the sun was born to $M\simeq500$ to 3000 \msun and $R\simeq 1$ to 3 pc. When the cluster dissolved the siblings of the sun dispersed through the galaxy, but they remained on a similar orbit around the Galactic center. Today these stars hide among the field stars, but 10 to 60 of them are still present within a distance of $\sim 100$ pc. These siblings of the sun can be identified by accurate measurements of their chemical abundances, positions and their velocities. Finding even a few will strongly constrain the parameters of the parental star cluster and the location in the Galaxy where we were born.
It has been argued that the energy content in time varying spacetimes can be obtained by using the approximate Lie symmetries of the geodesics equations in that spacetime. When applied to cylindrical gravitational waves, it gives an enhancement of the waves. While, according to this proposal, the energy of the waves does go to zero asymptotically, it decreases as the inverse square root of the radial distance instead of the inverse of the distance. Since SN1987A showed distinct asphericity, a substantial portion of the energy could have come out as gravitational waves. As such, the claim of Weber to have observed gravitational waves from it needs to be re-assessed.
We present a brief introduction to the phenomenon of "social networking" and its potentially powerful use as an astronomy outreach and educational tool. We briefly discuss the development of applications for websites and facebook and the use of web trackers e.g. Google Analytics to analyze your audience. Finally we discuss how social bookmarking can be used to promote your work to unexpected audiences.
Jets and outflows produced during star-formation are observed on many scales: from the "micro-jets" extending a few hundred Astronomical Units to the "super-jets" propagating to parsecs distances. Recently, a new "class" of short-lived (hundreds of nano-seconds) centimetre-long jets has emerged in the laboratory as a complementary tool to study these complex astrophysical flows. Here I will discuss and review the recent work done on "simulating" protostellar jets in the laboratory using z-pinch machines.
Hierarchical models of galaxy formation predict that the properties of a dark matter halo depend on the large-scale environment surrounding the halo. As a result of this correlation, we expect massive haloes to be present in larger number in overdense regions than in underdense ones. Given that a correlation exists between a galaxy stellar mass and the hosting dark matter halo mass, the segregation in dark matter halo mass should then result in a segregation in the distribution of stellar mass in the galaxy population. In this work we study the distribution of galaxy stellar mass and rest-frame optical color as a function of the large-scale galaxy distribution using the VLT VIMOS Deep Survey sample, in order to verify the presence of segregation in the properties of the galaxy population. We use the VVDS redshift measurements and multi-band photometric data to derive estimates of the stellar mass, rest-frame optical color, and of the large-scale galaxy density, on a scale of approximately 8 Mpc, for a sample of 5619 galaxies in the redshift range 0.2<z<1.4. We observe a significant mass and optical color segregation over the whole redshift interval covered by our sample, such that the median value of the mass distribution is larger and the rest-frame optical color is redder in regions of high galaxy density. The amplitude of the mass segregation changes little with redshift, at least in the high stellar mass regime that we can uniformely sample over the 0.2<z<1.4 redshift interval. The color segregation, instead, decreases significantly for z>0.7. However, when we consider only galaxies in narrow bins of stellar mass, in order to exclude the effects of the stellar mass segregation on the galaxy properties, we do not observe any more any significant color segregation.
The importance of magnetic reconnection as an energy release mechanism in
many solar, stellar, magnetospheric and astrophysical phenomena has long been
recognised. Reconnection is the only mechanism by which magnetic fields can
globally restructure, enabling them to access a lower energy state. Over the
past decade, there have been some major advances in our understanding of
three-dimensional reconnection. In particular, the key characteristics of 3D
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) reconnection have been determined. For instance, 3D
reconnection (i) occurs with or without nulls, (ii) occurs continuously and
continually throughout a diffusion region and (iii) is driven by counter
rotating flows.
Furthermore, analysis of resistive 3D MHD magnetic experiments have revealed
some intriguing effects relating to where and how reconnection occurs. To
illustrate these new features, a series of constant-resistivity experiments,
involving the interaction of two opposite-polarity magnetic sources in an
overlying field, are considered. Such a simple interaction represents a typical
building block of the Sun's magnetic atmosphere. By following the evolution of
the magnetic topology, we are able to explain where, how and at what rate the
reconnection occurs. Remarkably there can be up to five energy release sites at
anyone time (compared to one in the potential case) and the duration of the
interaction increases (more than doubles) as the resistivity decreases (by a
factor of 16). The decreased resistivity also leads to a higher peak ohmic
dissipation and more energy being released in total, as a result of a greater
injection of Poynting flux.
Electromagnetic observations over the last 15 years have yielded a growing appreciation for the importance of supermassive black holes (SMBH) to the evolution of galaxies, and for the intricacies of dynamical interactions in our own Galactic center. Here we show that future low-frequency gravitational wave observations, alone or in combination with electromagnetic data, will open up unique windows to these processes. In particular, gravitational wave detections in the 10^{-5}-10^{-1} Hz range will yield SMBH masses and spins to unprecedented precision and will provide clues to the properties of the otherwise undetectable stellar remnants expected to populate the centers of galaxies. Such observations are therefore keys to understanding the interplay between SMBHs and their environments.
We apply a simple model, tested on local ULIRGs, to disentangle the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and starburst contributions in submillimiter and 24um-selected ULIRGs observed with the Spitzer-IRS spectrometer. We quantitatively estimate the average AGN contribution to the stacked 6-8um rest-frame spectra of these sources in different luminosity and redshift ranges, and, under the assumption of similar infrared-to-bolometric ratios as in local ULIRGs, the relative AGN/starburst contributions to the total infrared luminosity. Though the starburst component is always dominant in submillimeter-selected ULIRGs, we find a significant increase of the AGN contribution at redshift z>2.3 with respect to lower z objects. Finally, we quantitatively confirm that the mid-infrared emission of 24um-selected ULIRGs is dominated by the AGN component, but the starburst component contributes significantly to the bolometric luminosity.
We present spatially resolved distributions and kinematics of the stars and molecular gas in the central 350pc of NGC1097. The stellar continuum confirms the previously reported 3-arm spiral pattern extending into the central 100pc. The stellar kinematics and the gas distribution imply this is a shadowing effect due to extinction by gas and dust in the molecular spiral arms. The molecular gas kinematics show a strong residual (i.e. non-circular) velocity, which is manifested as a 2-arm kinematic spiral. Linear models indicate that this is the line-of-sight velocity pattern expected for a density wave in gas that generates a 3-arm spiral morphology. We estimate the inflow rate along the arms. Using hydrodynamical models of nuclear spirals, we show that when deriving the accretion rate into the central region, outflow in the disk plane between the arms has to be taken into account. For NGC1097, despite the inflow rate along the arms being ~1.2M_sun/yr, the net gas accretion rate to the central few tens of parsecs is only ~0.06M_sun/yr. This inflow rate is consistent with the observed properties of the nuclear stellar population. The nuclear spiral represents a mechanism that can feed gas into the central parsecs of the galaxy, with the gas flow remaining in equilibrium for timescales of a Gigayear.
There have been observations, first from the MAGIC Telescope (July 2005) and quite recently (September 2008) from the FERMI Satellite Telescope, on non-simultaneous arrival of high-energy photons from distant celestial sources. In each case, the highest energy photons were delayed, as compared to their lower-energy counterparts. Although the astrophysics at the source of these energetic photons is still not understood, and such non simultaneous arrival might be due to non simultaneous emission as a result of conventional physics effects, nevertheless, rather surprisingly, the observed time delays can also fit excellently some scenarios in quantum gravity, predicting Lorentz violating space-time "foam" backgrounds with a non-trivial subluminal vacuum refractive index suppressed linearly by a quantum gravity scale of the order of the reduced Planck mass. In this pedagogical talk, I discuss the MAGIC and FERMI findings in this context and I argue on a theoretical model of space-time foam in string/brane theory that can accommodate the findings of those experiments in agreement with all other stringent tests of Lorentz invariance. However, I stress the current ambiguities/uncertainties on the source mechanisms, which need to be resolved first before definite conclusions are reached regarding quantum gravity foam scenarios.
In this paper we report on observations of the CoRoT LRa1 field with the Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope (BEST). The current paper is part of the series of papers describing the results of our stellar variability survey. BEST is a small aperture telescope with a wide field-of-view (FOV). It is dedicated to search for stellar variability within the target fields of the CoRoT space mission to aid in minimizing false-alarm rates and identify potential targets for additional science. The LRa1 field is CoRoT's third observed field and the second long run field located in the galactic anticenter direction. We observed the LRa1 stellar field on 23 nights between November and March 2005/2006. From 6099 stars marked as variable, 39 were classified as periodic variable stars and 27 of them are within the CoRoT FOV. We also confirmed the variability for 4 stars listed in GCVS catalog.
We present the broad-band noise structure of selected Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars (AXPs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) in the 2-60 keV energy band. We have analyzed Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array archival light curves for four AXPs and one SGR. We detect that the persistent emission of these sources show band limited noise at low frequencies in the range 0.005-0.05 Hz varying from 2.5% to 70% integrated rms in times of prolonged quiescence and following outbursts. We discovered band-limited red noise in 1E 2259+586 only for $\sim$2 years after its major 2002 outburst. The system shows no broad-band noise otherwise. Although this rise in noise in 1E 2259+586 occurred following an outburst which included a rotational glitch, the other glitching AXPs showed no obvious change in broad-band noise, thus it does not seem that this noise is correlated with glitches. The only source that showed significant variation in broad-band noise was 1E 1048.1-5937, where the noise gradually rose for 1.95 years at a rate of $\sim$3.6% per year. For this source the increases in broad-band noise was not correlated with the large increases in persistent and pulsed flux, or its two short SGR-like bursts. This rise in noise did commence after a long burst, however given the sparsity of this event, and the possibility that similar bursts went unnoticed the trigger for the rise is noise in 1E 1048.1-5937 is not as clear as for 1E 2259+586. The other three sources indicate a persistent band-limited noise at low levels in comparison.
We have conducted a search for pulsar companions to 15 low-mass white dwarfs (LMWDs; M < 0.4 M_Sun) at 820 MHz with the NRAO Green Bank Telescope (GBT). These LMWDs were spectroscopically identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and do not show the photometric excess or spectroscopic signature associated with a companion in their discovery data. However, LMWDs are believed to evolve in binary systems and to have either a more massive WD or a neutron star as a companion. Indeed, evolutionary models of low-mass X-ray binaries, the precursors of millisecond pulsars (MSPs), produce significant numbers of LMWDs (e.g., Benvenuto & De Vito 2005), suggesting that the SDSS LMWDs may have neutron star companions. No convincing pulsar signal is detected in our data. This is consistent with the findings of van Leeuwen et al. (2007), who conducted a GBT search for radio pulsations at 340 MHz from unseen companions to eight SDSS WDs (five are still considered LMWDs; the three others are now classified as "ordinary" WDs). We discuss the constraints our non-detections place on the probability P_MSP that the companion to a given LMWD is a radio pulsar in the context of the luminosity and acceleration limits of our search; we find that P_MSP < 10 +4 -2 %.
We have performed the the first census of Mpc-scale radio emission to include control fields and quantifiable upper limits for bright X-ray clusters in the range 0.03<z<0.3 . Through reprocessing radio images from the WENSS survey, we detect diffuse emission from approximately 30% of the sample. We find a correlation similar to the well-studied relationship between radio halo and X-ray luminosities of the host cluster, but also find that large scale radio galaxy detections follow a similar trend to that for radio halos. With this quantitative study, we thus confirm the upper envelope to the radio luminosities for X-ray selected clusters, and the higher detection rates for diffuse radio emission (including halos, relics and radio galaxies) at X-ray luminosities above approximately 10**45 erg/s. We can neither confirm nor refute the claims for a tight correlation between these radio halo and X-ray luminosities, i.e. whether the halo luminosity function of X-ray clusters is bimodal (having high/on and low/off states), or whether the radio luminosity can take on a wide range of values up to a maximum at each cluster X-ray luminosity. The resolution of this issue may provide a unique diagnostic for the timescales over which relativistic particles can be accelerated following cluster mergers. We discuss several important selection effects on radio vs. X-ray luminosity correlations, including surface brightness thresholds and non-X-ray-selected diffuse radio sources. We also report several new detections of diffuse emission, including a Mpc-scale relic in RXJ1053.7+5450, a possible halo/relic combination in Abell 2061, a serendipitous diffuse X-ray source associated with poor clusters in the Abell 781 field, and confirmation of very weak diffuse emission patches outside of Abell~2255.
We present intermediate resolution long-slit spectra and narrow-band Halpha, [NII] and [OIII] images of PM1-242, PM318 and PM1-333, three IRAS sources classified as possible planetary nebulae. The spectra show that the three objects are true planetary nebulae and allow us to study their physical properties; the images provide a detailed view of their morphology. PM1-242 is a medium-to-high-excitation (e.g., HeII4686/Hbeta ~0.4; [NII]6584/Halpha ~0.3) planetary nebula with an elliptical shape containing [NII] enhanced point-symmetric arcs. An electron temperature [Te([SIII])] of ~10250 K and an electron density [Ne([SII])] of ~2300 cm-3 are derived for PM1-242. Abundance calculations suggest a large helium abundance (He/H ~0.29) in PM1-242. PM1-318 is a high-excitation (HeII4686/Hbeta ~1) planetary nebula with a ring-like inner shell containing two enhanced opposite regions, surrounded by a fainter round attached shell brighter in the light of [OIII]. PM1-333 is an extended planetary nebula with a high-excitation (HeII4686/Hbeta up to ~0.9) patchy circular main body containing two low-excitation knotty arcs. A low Ne([SII]) of ~450 cm-3 and Te([OIII]) of ~15000 K are derived for this nebula. Abundance calculations suggest that PM1-333 is a type I planetary nebula. The lack of a sharp shell morphology, low electron density, and high-excitation strongly suggest that PM1-333 is an evolved planetary nebula. PM1-333 also shows two low-ionization polar structures whose morphology and emission properties are reminiscent of collimated outflows. We compare PM1-333 with other evolved planetary nebulae with collimated outflows and find that outflows among evolved planetary nebulae exhibit a large variety of properties, in accordance with these observed in younger planetary nebula.
The Planck satellite has a nominal mission lifetime of 14 months allowing two complete surveys of the sky. Here we investigate the potential of an extended Planck mission of four sky surveys to constrain primordial B-mode anisotropies in the presence of dominant Galactic polarized foreground emission. An extended Planck mission is capable of powerful constraints on primordial B-modes at low multipoles, which cannot be probed by ground based or sub-orbital experiments. A tensor-scalar ratio of r=0.05 can be detected at a high significance level by an extended Planck mission and it should be possible to set a 95% upper limit on r of 0.03 if the tensor-scalar ratio is vanishingly small. Furthermore, extending the Planck mission to four sky surveys offers better control of polarized Galactic dust emission, since the 217 GHz frequency band can be used as an effective dust template in addition to the 353 GHz channel.
We study the effects of WIMP dark matter (DM) annihilations on the thermal and chemical evolution of the gaseous clouds where the first generation of stars in the Universe is formed. We follow the collapse of the gas inside a typical halo virializing at very high redshift, from well before virialization until a stage where the heating from DM annihilations exceeds the gas cooling rate. The DM energy input is estimated by inserting the energy released by DM annihilations (as predicted by an adiabatic contraction of the original DM profile) in a spherically symmetric radiative transfer scheme. In addition to the heating effects of the energy absorbed, we include its feedback upon the chemical properties of the gas, which is critical to determine the cooling rate in the halo, and hence the fragmentation scale and Jeans mass of the first stars. We find that DM annihilation does alter the free electron and especially the H2 fraction when the gas density is n>~ 10^4 cm^-3, for our fiducial parameter values. However, even if the change in the H2 abundance and the cooling efficiency of the gas is large (sometimes exceeding a factor 100), the effects on the temperature of the collapsing gas are far smaller (a reduction by a factor <~1.5), since the gas cooling rate depends very strongly on temperature: then, the fragmentation mass scale is reduced only slightly, hinting towards no dramatic change in the initial mass function of the first stars.
In millisecond pulsars the existence of the Coriolis force allows the development of the so-called Rossby oscillations (r-modes) which are know to be unstable to emission of gravitational waves. These instabilities are mainly damped by the viscosity of the star or by the existence of a strong magnetic field. A fraction of the observed millisecond pulsars are known to be inside Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs), systems in which a neutron star (or a black hole) is accreting from a donor whose mass is smaller than 1 $M_\odot$. Here we show that the r-mode instabilities can generate strong toroidal magnetic fields by inducing differential rotation. In this way we also provide an alternative scenario for the origin of the magnetars.
Context. A short duration burst reminiscent of a soft gamma-ray
repeater/anomalous X-ray pulsar behaviour was detected in the direction of LS I
+61 303 by the Swift satellite. While the association with this well known
gamma-ray binary is likely, a different origin cannot be excluded.
Aims. We explore the error box of this unexpected flaring event and establish
the radio, near-infrared and X-ray sources in our search for any peculiar
alternative counterpart.
Methods. We carried out a combined analysis of archive Very Large Array radio
data of LS I +61 303 sensitive to both compact and extended emission. We also
reanalysed previous near infrared observations with the 3.5 m telescope of the
Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman and X-ray observations with the Chandra
satellite.
Results. Our deep radio maps of the LS I +61 303 environment represent a
significant advancement on previous work and 16 compact radio sources in the LS
I +61 303 vicinity are detected. For some detections, we also identify near
infrared and X-ray counterparts. Extended emission features in the field are
also detected and confirmed. The possible connection of some of these sources
with the observed flaring event is considered. Based on these data, we are
unable to claim a clear association between the Swift-BAT flare and any of the
sources reported here. However, this study represents the most sophisticated
attempt to determine possible alternative counterparts other than LS I +61 303.
The main objective of this work is to investigate the role played by Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC) and Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL), both subcomponents of the Scorpio Centaurus OB association (Sco-Cen), in the formation of the groups beta Pictoris, TW Hydrae and the eta Chamaeleontis cluster. The dynamical evolution of all the stellar groups involved and of the bubbles and shells blown by LCC and UCL are calculated and followed from the past to the present. This leads to a formation scenario in which (1) the groups beta Pictoris, TW Hydrae were formed in the wake of the shells created by LCC and UCL, (2) the young cluster eta Chamaeleontis was born as a consequence of the collision of the shells of LCC and UCL, and (3) the formation of Upper Scorpius (US), the other main subcomponent of the Sco-Cen association, may have been started by the same process that created eta Chamaeleontis.
Most stars are born in rich young stellar clusters (YSCs) embedded in giant molecular clouds. The most massive stars live out their short lives there, profoundly influencing their natal environments by ionizing HII regions, inflating wind-blown bubbles, and soon exploding as supernovae. Thousands of lower-mass pre-main sequence stars accompany the massive stars, and the expanding HII regions paradoxically trigger new star formation as they destroy their natal clouds. While this schematic picture is established, our understanding of the complex astrophysical processes involved in clustered star formation have only just begun to be elucidated. The technologies are challenging, requiring both high spatial resolution and wide fields at wavelengths that penetrate obscuring molecular material and remove contaminating Galactic field stars. We outline several important projects for the coming decade: the IMFs and structures of YSCs; triggered star formation around YSC; the fate of OB winds; the stellar populations of Infrared Dark Clouds; the most massive star clusters in the Galaxy; tracing star formation throughout the Galactic Disk; the Galactic Center region and YSCs in the Magellanic Clouds. Programmatic recommendations include: developing a 30m-class adaptive optics infrared telescope; support for high-resolution and wide field X-ray telescopes; large-aperture sub-millimeter and far-infrared telescopes; multi-object infrared spectrographs; and both numerical and analytical theory.
We show that, if decaying gravitino dark matter is responsible for the PAMELA and ATIC/PPB-BETS anomalies in the cosmic-ray electron and positron fluxes, both a reheating temperature and a gluino mass are constrained from above. In particular, the gluino mass is likely within the reach of LHC, if the observed baryon asymmetry is explained by thermal leptogenesis scenario.
The unification of relativity and thermodynamics has been a subject of considerable debate over the last 100 years. The reasons for this are twofold: (i) Thermodynamic variables are nonlocal quantities and, thus, single out a preferred class of hyperplanes in spacetime. (ii) There exist different, seemingly equally plausible ways of defining heat and work in relativistic systems. These ambiguities led, for example, to various proposals for the Lorentz transformation law of temperature. Traditional 'isochronous' formulations of relativistic thermodynamics are neither theoretically satisfactory nor experimentally feasible. Here, we demonstrate how these deficiencies can be resolved by defining thermodynamic quantities with respect to the backward-lightcone of an observation event. This approach yields novel, testable predictions and allows for a straightforward-extension of thermodynamics to General Relativity. Our theoretical considerations are illustrated through three-dimensional relativistic many-body simulations.
The eigen-frequencies of the first few axial w-modes of oscillating neutron stars are studied using the continued fraction method with an Equation of State (EOS) partially constrained by the recent terrestrial nuclear laboratory data. It is shown that the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(\rho)$ affects significantly both the frequencies and the damping times of these modes. Besides confirming the previously found universal behavior of the mass-scaled eigen-frequencies as functions of the compactness of neutron stars, we explored several alternative universal scaling functions. Moreover, the $w_{II}$-mode is found to exist only for neutron stars having a compactness of $M/R\geq 0.1078$ independent of the EOS used.
We provide conservative bounds on the dark matter cross-section and lifetime from final state radiation produced by annihilation or decay into charged leptons, either directly or via an intermediate particle $\phi$. Our analysis utilizes the experimental gamma-ray flux upper limits from four Milky Way dwarf satellites: HESS observations of Sagittarius and VERITAS observations of Draco, Ursa Minor, and Willman 1. Using 90% confidence level lower limits on the integrals over the dark matter distributions, we find that these constraints are largely unable to rule out dark matter annihilations or decays as an explanation of the PAMELA and ATIC/PPB-BETS excesses. However, if there is an additional Sommerfeld enhancement in dwarfs, which have a velocity dispersion ~10 to 20 times lower than that of the local Galactic halo, then the cross-sections for dark matter annihilating through $\phi$'s required to explain the excesses are very close to the cross-section upper bounds from Willman 1. Dark matter annihilation directly into $\tau$'s is also marginally ruled out by Willman 1 as an explanation of the excesses, and the required cross-section is only a factor of a few below the upper bound from Draco. Finally, we make predictions for the gamma-ray flux expected from the dwarf galaxy Segue 1 for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We find that for a sizeable fraction of the parameter space in which dark matter annihilation into charged leptons explains the PAMELA excess, Fermi has good prospects for detecting a gamma-ray signal from Segue 1 after one year of observation.
We study a scenario that a U(1) hidden gaugino constitutes the dark matter in the Universe and decays into a lepton and slepton pair through a mixing with a U(1)B-L gaugino. We find that the dark-matter decay can account for the recent PAMELA and ATIC anomalies in the cosmic-ray positrons and electrons without an overproduction of antiprotons.
We consider a Taylor-Couette (TC) flow of an electrically conducting liquid in an annulus between two infinitely long, perfectly conducting cylinders subject to a generally helical magnetic field. The cylinders are electrically connected through a remote, perfectly conducting endcap, which allows a radial electric current to connect through the liquid. The radial current interacting with the axial component of magnetic field gives rise to the azimuthal electromagnetic force, which destabilizes the base flow by making its angular momentum decrease radially outwards. This instability, which we refer to as the pseudo-magnetorotational instability (MRI), looks like an MRI although its mechanism is purely hydrodynamic. In a helical magnetic field, the radial current interacting with the azimuthal component of the field gives rise to an axial electromagnetic force, which drives a longitudinal circulation. First, this circulation advects the Taylor vortices generated by the pseudo-MRI mechanism, which results in a traveling wave as in the helical MRI (HMRI). However, the direction of travel of this wave is opposite to that of the true HMRI. Second, at sufficiently strong differential rotation the longitudinal flow becomes hydrodynamically unstable itself. For electrically connected cylinders in a helical magnetic field, hydrodynamic instability is possible at any sufficiently strong differential rotation. In this case, there is no hydrodynamic stability limit defined in the terms of the critical ratio of rotation rates of inner and outer cylinders that would allow one to distinguish a hydrodynamic instability from the HMRI. These effects can critically interfere with experimental as well as numerical determination of MRI.
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The dwarf satellite galaxies in the Local Group are generally considered to be hosted in dark matter subhalos that survived the disruptive processes during infall onto their host halos. It has recently been argued that if the majority of satellites entered the Milky Way halo in a group rather than individually, this could explain the spatial and dynamical peculiarities of its satellite distribution. Such groups were identified as dwarf galaxy associations that are found in the nearby Universe. In this paper we address the question whether galaxies in such associations can be the progenitors of the Milky Way satellite galaxies. We find that the dwarf associations are much more extended than would be required to explain the disk-like distribution of the Milky Way and Andromeda satellite galaxies. We further identify a possible minor filamentary structure, perpendicular to the supergalactic plane, in which the dwarf associations are located, that might be related to the direction of infall of a progenitor galaxy of the Milky Way satellites, if they are of tidal origin.
Our multi-epoch survey of ~20 sq. deg. of the Canis Major overdensity has detected only 10 RR Lyrae stars (RRLS). We show that this number is consistent with the number expected from the Galactic halo and thick disk populations alone, leaving no excess that can be attributed to the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy that some authors have proposed as the origin of the CMa overdensity. If this galaxy resembles the dSph satellites of the Milky Way and of M31 and has the putative Mv~-14.5, our survey should have detected several tens of RRLS. Even if Mv<-12, the expected excess is >10, which is not observed. Either the old stellar population of this galaxy has unique properties or, as others have argued before, the CMa overdensity is produced by the thin and thick disk and spiral arm populations of the Milky Way and not by a collision with a dSph satellite galaxy.
GALEV evolutionary synthesis models describe the evolution of stellar
populations in general, of star clusters as well as of galaxies, both in terms
of resolved stellar populations and of integrated light properties over
cosmological timescales of > 13 Gyr from the onset of star formation shortly
after the Big Bang until today.
For galaxies, GALEV includes a simultaneous treatment of the chemical
evolution of the gas and the spectral evolution of the stellar content,
allowing for what we call a chemically consistent treatment: We use input
physics (stellar evolutionary tracks, stellar yields and model atmospheres) for
a large range of metallicities and consistently account for the increasing
initial abundances of successive stellar generations.
Here we present the latest version of the galev evolutionary synthesis models
that are now interactively available at www.galev.org. We review the currently
used input physics, and also give details on how this physics is implemented in
practice. We explain how to use the interactive web-interface to generate
models for user-defined parameters and also give a range of applications that
can be studied using GALEV, ranging from star clusters, undisturbed galaxies of
various types E ... Sd to starburst and dwarf galaxies, both in the local and
the high-redshift universe.
High precision measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies, as can be expected from the Planck satellite, will require high-accuracy theoretical predictions as well. One possible source of theoretical uncertainty is the numerical error in the output of the Boltzmann codes used to calculate angular power spectra. In this work, we carry out an extensive study of the numerical accuracy of the public Boltzmann code CAMB, and identify a set of parameters which determine the error of its output. We show that at the current default settings, the cosmological parameters extracted from data of future experiments like Planck can be biased by several tenths of a standard deviation for the six parameters of the standard Lambda-CDM model, and potentially more seriously for extended models. We perform an optimisation procedure that leads the code to achieve sufficient precision while at the same time keeping the computation time within reasonable limits. Our conclusion is that the contribution of numerical errors to the theoretical uncertainty of model predictions is well under control -- the main challenges for more accurate calculations of CMB spectra will be of an astrophysical nature instead.
As the closest example of a galactic nucleus, the Galactic center presents an exquisite laboratory for learning about supermassive black holes (SMBH) and their environs. Detailed studies of stellar dynamics deep in the potential well of a galaxy, with exisiting and future large ground-based telescopes, offer several exciting directions in the coming decade. First, it will be possible to obtain precision measurements of the Galaxy's central potential, providing both a unique test of General Relativity (GR) and a detection of the extended dark matter distribution that is predicted to exist around the SMBH. Tests of gravity have not previously been possible on the mass scale of a SMBH. Similarly, only upper limits on the extended matter distribution on small scales currently exist; detection of dark matter on these scales is an important test of Lambda-CDM and the detection of stellar remnants would reveal a population that may dominate the stellar dynamics on the smallest scales. Second, our detailed view of the SMBH and its local gas and stellar environment provides insight into how SMBHs at the centers of galaxies form, grow and interact with their environs as well as on the exotic processes at work in the densest stellar clusters in the Universe. The key questions, still unanswered, of when and how SMBHs formed in the early universe, and the myriad ways in which feedback from SMBHs can affect structure formation, can be informed by directly observing the physical processes operating at the SMBH.
In the covariant cosmological perturbation theory, a 1+3 decomposition ensures that all variables in the frame-independent equations are covariant, gauge-invariant and have clear physical interpretations. We develop this formalism in the case of Brans-Dicke gravity, and apply this method to the calculation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and large scale structures (LSS). We modify the publicly available Boltzmann code CAMB to calculate numerically the evolution of the background and adiabatic perturbations, and obtain the temperature and polarization spectra for the Brans-Dicke theory. In this paper, we describe our theoretical formalism in detail, and compare the CMB and LSS spectra in Brans-Dicke theory with those in the standard general relativity theory. Constraints on Brans-Dicke model with current observational data is presented in a companion paper (paper II).
Using the covariant formalism developed in a companion paper (paper I), we derive observational constraint on the Brans-Dicke model in a flat FLRW universe with cosmological constant and cold dark matter. The CMB observations we use include the WMAP five year data, the ACBAR 2007 data, the CBI polarization data, and the BOOMERanG 2003 flight data. For the large scale structure we use the matter power spectrum data measured with the LRG survey of the SDSS DR4. We parameterize the Brans-Dicke parameter $\omega$ with a new parameter $\zeta=\ln(1/\omega+1)$, and use the Markov-Chain Monte Carlo method to explore the parameter space. We find that using CMB data alone, one could place some constraint on positive $\zeta$ or $\omega$, but negative $\zeta$ or $\omega$ could not be constrained effectively. However, with additional large scale structure data, one could break the degeneracy at $\zeta<0$. The $2\sigma$ (95.5%) bound on $\zeta$ is $-0.00837<\zeta<0.01018$ (corresponding to $\omega < -120.0$ or $\omega > 97.8$). We also obtained constraint on $\dot{G}/G$, the rate of change of $G$ at present, as $-1.75 \times 10^{-12} \yr^{-1}<\dot{G}/G < 1.05 \times 10^{-12}\yr^{-1}$, and $\delta G/G$, the total variation of $G$ since the epoch of recombination, as $ -0.083 < \delta{G}/G < 0.095$ at $2\sigma$ confidence level.
We have constructed an analytical model of AGN feedback and studied its implications for elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. The results show that momentum injection above a critical value will eject material from low mass elliptical galaxies, and leads to an X-ray luminosity, $L_{\rm X}$, that is $\propto$ $\sigma^{8-10}$, depending on the AGN fuelling mechanism, where $\sigma$ is the velocity dispersion of the hot gas. This result agrees well with both observations and semi-analytic models. In more massive ellipticals and clusters, AGN outflows quickly become buoyancy-dominated. This necessarily means that heating by a central cluster AGN redistributes the intracluster medium (ICM) such that the mass of hot gas, within the cooling radius, should be $ \propto L_{\rm X}(<r_{\rm cool})/[g(r_{\rm cool})\sigma]$, where $g(r_{\rm cool})$ is the gravitational acceleration at the cooling radius. This prediction is confirmed using observations of seven clusters. The same mechanism also defines a critical ICM cooling time of $\sim 0.5$ Gyr, which is in reasonable agreement with recent observations showing that star formation and AGN activity are triggered below a universal cooling time threshold.
Groups and clusters of galaxies occupy a special position in the hierarchy of large-scale cosmic structures because they are the largest and the most massive (from ~10^13 Msun to over 10^15 Msun) objects in the universe that have had time to undergo gravitational collapse. The large masses of clusters imply that their contents have been accreted from regions of ~8-40 comoving Mpc in size and should thus be representative of the mean matter content of the universe. During the next decade sensitive multi-wavelength observations should be able to map the radial distributions of all main mass components (stars, cold, warm, and hot gas and total mass) at z<~ 1 out to the virial radius. At the same time, comparative studies of real and simulated cluster samples sould allow us to use clusters as veritable astrophysical laboratories for studying galaxy formation, as well as testing our theoretical models of structure formation and underlying assumptions about fundamental physics governing the universe.
We study the feedback from an AGN on stellar formation within its host galaxy, mainly using one high resolution numerical simulation of the jet propagation within the interstellar medium of an early-type galaxy. In particular, we show that in a realistic simulation where the jet propagates into a two-phase ISM, star formation can initially be slightly enhanced and then, on timescales of few million years, rapidly quenched, as a consequence both of the high temperatures attained and of the reduction of cloud mass (mainly due to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities). We then introduce a model of (prevalently) {\em negative} AGN feedback, where an exponentially declining star formation is quenched, on a very short time scale, at a time t_AGN, due to AGN feedback. Using the Bruzual & Charlot (2003) population synthesis model and our star formation history, we predict galaxy colours from this model and match them to a sample of nearby early-type galaxies showing signs of recent episodes of star formation (Kaviraj et al. 2007). We find that the quantity t_gal - t_AGN, where t_gal is the galaxy age, is an excellent indicator of the presence of feedback processes, and peaks significantly around t_gal - t_AGN \approx 0.85 Gyr for our sample, consistent with feedback from recent energy injection by AGNs in relatively bright (M_{B} \lsim -19) and massive nearby early-type galaxies. Galaxies that have experienced this recent feedback show an enhancement of 3 magnitudes in NUV(GALEX)-g, with respect to the unperturbed, no-feedback evolution. Hence they can be easily identified in large combined near UV-optical surveys.
Observational data imply the presence of superluminal electric currents in pulsar magnetospheres. Such sources are not inconsistent with special relativity; they have already been created in the laboratory. Here we describe the distinctive features of the radiation beam that is generated by a rotating superluminal source and show that (i) it consists of subbeams that are narrower the farther the observer is from the source: subbeams whose intensities decay as 1/R instead of 1/R^2 with distance (R), (ii) the fields of its subbeams are characterized by three concurrent polarization modes: two modes that are 'orthogonal' and a third mode whose position angle swings across the subbeam bridging those of the other two, (iii) its overall beam consists of an incoherent superposition of such coherent subbeams and has an intensity profile that reflects the azimuthal distribution of the contributing part of the source (the part of the source that approaches the observer with the speed of light and zero acceleration), (iv) its spectrum (the superluminal counterpart of synchrotron spectrum) is broader than that of any other known emission and entails oscillations whose spacings and amplitudes respectively increase and decrease algebraically with increasing frequency, and (v) the degree of its mean polarization and the fraction of its linear polarization both increase with frequency beyond the frequency for which the observer falls within the Fresnel zone. We also compare these features with those of the radiation received from the Crab pulsar.
We are learning much about how structure forms, in particular how clusters as nodes in the cosmic web evolve and accrete matter, and about the physical processes within these objects. In the next decade, the study of clusters will enable us to tackle important questions regarding the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, how clusters co-evolve with super-massive black holes at their centers, and to advance our knowledge about fundamental plasma astrophysics. This science white paper outlines the key questions and research opportunities in cluster astrophysics that are emerging in the coming decade and beyond, and serves as an overview to other cluster related white papers.
The analysis of high-energy air shower data allows one to study the proton-air cross section at energies beyond the reach of fixed target and collider experiments. The mean depth of the first interaction point and its fluctuations are a measure of the proton-air particle production cross section. Since the first interaction point in air cannot be measured directly, various methods have been developed in the past to estimate the depth of the first interaction from air shower observables. In this work we perform a detailed Monte Carlo study of the potential and limitations of different methods to measure the proton-air cross section. We demonstrate and quantify the dependence of the derived cross section on the used hadronic interaction model needed for simulating air showers. Based on these results, an improved analysis method is proposed that significantly reduces the model dependence by accounting for the actually derived cross section already in the simulation of reference showers.
The mid-IR spectra of six large, irregular PAHs with formulae (C84H24 - C120H36) have been computed using Density Functional Theory (DFT). Trends in the dominant band positions and intensities are compared to those of large, compact PAHs as a function of geometry, size and charge. Irregular edge moieties that are common in terrestrial PAHs, such as bay regions and rings with quartet hydrogens, are shown to be uncommon in astronomical PAHs. As for all PAHs comprised solely of C and H reported to date, mid-IR emission from irregular PAHs fails to produce a strong CCstr band at 6.2 um, the position characteristic of the important, class A astronomical PAH spectra. Earlier studies showed inclusion of nitrogen within a PAH shifts this to 6.2 um for PAH cations. Here we show this band shifts to 6.3 um in nitrogenated PAH anions, close to the position of the CC stretch in class B astronomical PAH spectra. Thus nitrogenated PAHs may be important in all sources and the peak position of the CC stretch near 6.2 um appears to directly reflect the PAH cation to anion ratio. Large irregular PAHs exhibit features at 7.8 um but lack them near 8.6 um. Hence, the 7.7 um astronomical feature is produced by a mixture of small and large PAHs while the 8.6 um band can only be produced by large compact PAHs. As with the CCstr, the position and profile of these bands reflect the PAH cation to anion ratio.
I discuss the implications of the recently introduced Sommerfeld enhancement of the dark matter annihilation cross section for the detection of subhalos in the Galactic halo. In addition to the boost to the dark matter annihilation cross section from the high densities of these subhalos with respect to the main halo, an additional boost due to Sommerfeld enhancement results from the fact that they are kinematically colder than the Galactic halo. If we further believe the generic prediction of CDM that in each subhalo there is an abundance of substructure which is approximately self-similar to that of the Galactic halo, then additional boosts coming from the density enhancements of these small substructures and their small velocity dispersions enhance the dark matter annihilation cross section even further. I show that very large boost factors ($10^5$ -- $10^9$) are obtained in a large class of models. The implications of these boost factors for the detection of dark matter annihilation from dwarf Spheroidal galaxies in the Galactic halo are such that they outshine the background gamma-ray flux and should be detectable by Fermi.
Perhaps more than other physical sciences, astronomy is frequently statistical in nature. The objects under study are inaccessible to direct manipulation in the laboratory, so the astronomer is restricted to observing a few external characteristics and inferring underlying properties and physics. Astronomy played a profound role in the historical development of statistics from the ancient Greeks through the 19th century. But the fields drifted apart in the 20th century as astronomy turned towards astrophysics and statistics towards human affairs. Today we see a resurgence in astrostatistical activity with the proliferation of survey mega-datasets and the need to link complicated data to nonlinear astrophysical models. Several contemporary astrostatistical challenges are outlined: heteroscedastic measurement errors, censoring and truncation in multivariate databases; time series analysis of variable objects including dynamical models of extrasolar planetary systems; treatments of faint sources and other Poisson processes; the anisotropic spatial point process of galaxy clustering; and model fitting and selection for the cosmic microwave background.
The structure of globular clusters and elliptical galaxies are described in an unified way through a new class of lowered models inspired on the nonextensive kinetic theory. These power law models are specified by a single parameter q which quantifies to what extent they depart from the class of lowered stellar distributions discussed by Michie and King. For q equal to unity, the Michie-King profiles are recovered. However, for q smaller than unity there is a gradual modification in the shape of the density profiles which depends on the degree of tidal damage imposed on the model, thereby also providing a good fit for globular clusters. It is also shown that a subclass of these models, those with a deeper potential and $q$ slightly less than unity, present a distribution resembling the de Vaucoulers $r^{1/4}$ profile which yields a good description of the structure of elliptical galaxies. This subset of models follows this trend, with a slight departure over nearly 10 orders of magnitudes.
After several years of intensive technological development Virtual Observatory resources have reached a level of maturity sufficient for their routine scientific exploitation. The Virtual Observatory is starting to be used by astronomers in a transparent way. In this article I will review several research projects making use of the VO at different levels of importance. I will present two projects going further than data mining: (1) studies of environmental effects on galaxy evolution, where VO resources and services are used in connection with dedicated observations using a large telescope and numerical simulations, and (2) a study of optical and near-infrared colours of nearby galaxies complemented by the spectroscopic data.
The source of hot gas in elliptical galaxies is thought to be due to stellar mass loss, with contributions from supernova events and possibly from infall from a surrounding environment. This picture predicts supersolar values for the metallicity of the gas toward the inner part of the galaxy, which can be tested by measuring the gas phase abundances. We use high-quality data for 10 nearby early-type galaxy from XMM-Newton, featuring both the EPIC and the Reflection Grating Spectrometer, where the strongest emission lines are detected with little blending; some Chandra data are also used. We find excellent consistency in the elemental abundances between the different XMM instruments and good consistency with Chandra. Differences in abundances with aperture size and model complexity are examined, but large differences rarely occur. For a two-temperature thermal model plus a point source contribution, the median Fe and O abundances are 0.86 and 0.44 of the Solar value, while Si and Mg abundances are similar to that for Fe. This is similar to stellar abundances for these galaxies but supernovae were expected to enhance the gas phase abundances considerably, which is not observed.
HD 100453 has an IR spectral energy distribution (SED) which can be fit with a power-law plus a blackbody. Previous analysis of the SED suggests that the system is a young Herbig Ae star with a gas-rich, flared disk. We reexamine the evolutionary state of the HD 100453 system by refining its age (based on a candidate low-mass companion) and by examining limits on the disk extent, mass accretion rate, and gas content of the disk environment. We confirm that HD 100453B is a common proper motion companion to HD 100453A, with a spectral type of M4.0V - M4.5V, and derive an age of 10 +/- 2 Myr. We find no evidence of mass accretion onto the star. Chandra ACIS-S imagery shows that the Herbig Ae star has L_X/L_Bol and an X-ray spectrum similar to non-accreting Beta Pic Moving Group early F stars. Moreover, the disk lacks the conspicuous Fe II emission and excess FUV continuum seen in spectra of actively accreting Herbig Ae stars, and from the FUV continuum, we find the accretion rate is < 1.4x10^-9 M_Sun yr^-1. A sensitive upper limit to the CO J = 3-2 intensity indicates that the gas in the outer disk is likely optically thin. Assuming a [CO]/[H2] abundance of 1x10^-4 and a depletion factor of 10^3, we find that the mass of cold molecular gas is less than ~0.33 M_J and that the gas-to-dust ratio is no more than ~4:1 in the outer disk. The combination of a high fractional IR excess luminosity, a relatively old age, an absence of accretion signatures, and an absence of detectable circumstellar molecular gas suggests that the HD 100453 system is in an unusual state of evolution between a gas-rich protoplanetary disk and a gas-poor debris disk.
We obtained long-slit spectra of high signal-to-noise ratio of the galaxy M32 with the GMOS spectrograph at the GEMINI North telescope. We analysed the integrated spectra by means of full spectral fitting in order to extract the mixture of stellar populations that best represents its composite nature. Three different galactic radii were analysed, from the nuclear region out to 2 arcmin from the centre. This allows us to compare, for the first time, the results of integrated light spectroscopy with those of resolved colour-magnitude diagrams from the literature. As our main result, we propose that an ancient and an intermediate-age population coexist in M32, and that the balance between these two populations change between the nucleus and outside 1 effective radius in the sense that the contribution from the intermediate population is larger at the nuclear region. We retrieve a smaller signal of a young population at all radii whose origin is unclear and may be a contamination from horizontal-branch stars, such as the ones identified by Brown et al. in the nuclear region. We compare our metallicity distribution function for a region 1 to 2 arcmin from the centre to the one obtained with photometric data by Grillmair et al. Both distributions are broad, but our spectroscopically derived distribution has a significant component with $[Z/Z_{\sun}] \leq -1$, which is not found by Grillmair et al.
We study the dynamics of the FLRW flat cosmological models in which the vacuum energy varies with time, $\Lambda(t)$. In this model we find that the main cosmological functions such as the scale factor of the universe and the Hubble flow are defined in terms of exponential functions. Applying a joint likelihood analysis of the recent supernovae type Ia data, the Cosmic Microwave Background shift parameter and the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations traced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies, we place tight constraints on the main cosmological parameters of the $\Lambda(t)$ scenario. Also, we compare the $\Lambda(t)$ model with the traditional $\Lambda$ cosmology and we find that the former model provides a Hubble expansion which compares well with that of the $\Lambda$ cosmology. However, the $\Lambda(t)$ scenario predicts stronger small scale dynamics, which implies a faster growth rate of perturbations with respect to the usual $\Lambda$-cosmology, despite the fact that they share the same equation of state parameter. In this framework, we find that galaxy clusters in the $\Lambda(t)$ model appear to form earlier than in the $\Lambda$ model.
We present new thermal equilibrium solutions for optically thin and thick
disks incorporating magnetic fields. The purpose of this paper is to explain
the bright hard state and the bright/slow transition observed in the rising
phases of outbursts in BHCs. On the basis of the results of 3D MHD simulations,
we assume that magnetic fields inside the disk are turbulent and dominated by
the azimuthal component and that the azimuthally averaged Maxwell stress is
proportional to the total pressure. We prescribe the magnetic flux advection
rate to determine the azimuthal magnetic flux at a given radius.
We find magnetically supported, thermally stable solutions for both optically
thin and thick disks, in which the heating enhanced by the strong magnetic
field balances the radiative cooling. The temperature in a low-$\beta$ disk is
lower than that in an ADAF/RIAF but higher than that in a standard disk. We
also study the radial dependence of the thermal equilibrium solutions.
The optically thin, low-$\beta$ branch extends to $ \dot M \gtrsim 0.1 {\dot
M}_{\rm Edd}$, in which the temperature anti-correlates with the mass accretion
rate. Thus optically thin low-$\beta$ disks can explain the bright hard state.
Optically thick, low-$\beta$ disks have the radial dependence of the effective
temperature $T_{\rm eff} \propto \varpi^{-3/4}$. Such disks will be observed as
staying in a high/soft state. Furthermore, limit cycle oscillations between an
optically thick low-$\beta$ disk and a slim disk will occur because the
optically thick low-$\beta$ branch intersects with the radiation pressure
dominated standard disk branch. These limit cycle oscillations will show a
smaller luminosity variation than that between a standard disk and a slim disk.
The dust in the interstellar medium, that provides the material for forming stars - and circumstellar discs as a natural by-product - is known to have submicron sizes. As these discs are the sites of planet formation, those small grains are predicted to grow to larger entities when the stars are still young. will review evidence for the first steps in grain growth in proto-planetary discs around young stars, based on recent Spitzer and ground-based infrared observations. First, I will discuss disc and dust properties in Herbig Ae/Be stars, and then move to the lower-mass T Tauri stars and the brown dwarfs. Here, objects of different star-forming regions are compared, and the influence of the stellar parameters and environment on dust evolution, as witnessed by the observed dust characteristics, is discussed.
In this article I present some special astronomical scripts created for Google Earth, Google Sky and Twitter. These 'hacks' are examples of the ways in which such tools can be used either alone, in on conjunction with online services. The result of a combination of multiple, online services to form a new facility is called a mash-up. Some of what follows falls into that definition. As we move into an era of online data and tools, it is the network as a whole that becomes important. Tools emerging from this network can be capable of more than the sum of their parts.
We consider the currently observed spin distributions of various types of neutron stars, including isolated and binary radio millisecond pulsars in the Galactic plane and globular cluster system as well as neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binary systems where the spin rate is known either through coherent pulsations or burst oscillations. We find that the spin distributions of isolated and binary radio millisecond pulsars are statistically different, at least for those residing in globular clusters, with the binary pulsars being on average faster spinning. This result is likely to hold despite observational biases still affecting the observed spin distribution. A possible explanation for this is that the isolated radio millisecond pulsars are on average older than those in binary systems.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the variation in the line width with height in the inner corona (region above 1.1 Rsun), by using the spectral data from LASCO-C1 aboard SOHO. We used data acquired at activity minimum (August - October 1996) and during the ascending phase of the solar cycle (March 1998). Series of images acquired at different wavelengths across the Fe X 637.6 nm (red) and Fe XIV 530.3 nm (green) coronal lines by LASCO-C1 allowed us to build radiance and width maps of the off-limb solar corona. In 1996, the line width of Fe XIV was roughly constant or increased with height up to around 1.3 Rsun and then it decreased. The Fe X line width increased with height up to the point where the spectra were too noisy to allow line width measurements (around 1.3 Rsun). Fe X showed higher effective temperatures as compared with Fe XIV. In 1998 the line width of Fe XIV was roughly constant with height above the limb (no Fe X data available).
We quantify the evolution of the spiral, S0 and elliptical fractions in galaxy clusters as a function of cluster velocity dispersion (sigma) and X-ray luminosity (L_X) using a new database of 72 nearby clusters from the WIde-Field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS) combined with literature data at z=0.5-1.2. Most WINGS clusters have \sigma between 500 and 1100 km/s, and L_X between 0.2 and 5 X 10^{44} erg/s. The S0 fraction in clusters is known to increase with time at the expense of the spiral population. We find that the spiral and S0 fractions have evolved more strongly in lower sigma, less massive clusters. The proportion of ellipticals has remained unchanged in clusters with sigma >800 km/s, but has increased with time in less massive clusters. Our results demonstrate that morphological evolution since z=1 is not confined to massive clusters, but is actually more pronounced in low mass clusters, and therefore must originate either from secular (intrinsic) evolution and/or from environmental mechanisms that act preferentially in low-mass environments, or both in low- and high-mass systems. We also find that the evolution of the spiral fraction perfectly mirrors the evolution of the fraction of star-forming galaxies. Interestingly, at low-z the spiral fraction anticorrelates, and the S0 and elliptical fractions weakly correlate, with L_X. Conversely, no correlation is observed between morphological fractions and sigma. Given that both \sigma and L_X are tracers of the cluster mass, these results pose a challenge for current scenarios of morphological evolution in clusters.
In a general metric theory of gravitation in four dimensions, six polarizations of a gravitational wave are allowed: two scalar and two vector modes, in addition to two tensor modes in general relativity. Such additional polarization modes appear due to additional degrees of freedom in modified theories of gravitation or theories with extra dimensions. Thus, observations of gravitational waves can be utilized to constrain the extended models of gravitation. In this paper, we investigate detectability of additional polarization modes of gravitational waves, particularly focusing on a stochastic gravitational-wave background, with laser-interferometric detectors on the Earth. We found that multiple detectors can separate the mixture of polarization modes in detector outputs, and that they have almost the same sensitivity to each polarization mode of stochastic gravitational-wave background.
The data on arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) detected with the Yakutsk array are analyzed. The work is induced by the recent claim of the Pierre Auger collaboration for the significant correlation found between UHECRs and positions of nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) on the celestial sphere; and no correlation the HiRes collaboration stands for. Conflicting data of four giant arrays concern possible extragalactic sources of UHECRs and appeal to the profound analysis and to the future data from the Telescope Array/Northern Auger Observatory.
The binary LS 5039 is a non-thermal X-ray emitter that presents jet-like radio structures, and is also one of the most misterious TeV sources in our Galaxy. The presence of an O-type star in LS 5039 implies that the non-thermal emitter must be embedded in a strong stellar wind, and the role of the latter could be relevant for the understanding of the high-energy behavior of the source. In this work, we show that the lack of absorption features in the soft X-ray spectrum of LS 5039 can constrain strongly the parameters that describe the wind, and ultimately the location of the non-thermal emitter.
A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers ($10^4\le S\le 10^8$) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfv\'enically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as $S^{3/8}$ and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as $S^{1/4}$, in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [Phys. Plasmas {\bf 14}, 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely disrupt the reconnection layer. These results suggest that high-Lundquist-number reconnection is inherently time-dependent and hence call for a substantial revision of the standard Sweet-Parker quasi-stationary picture for $S>10^4$.
One of the main themes in extragalactic astronomy for the next decade will be the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Many future observatories, including JWST, ALMA, GMT, TMT and E-ELT will intensively observe starlight over a broad redshift range, out to the dawn of the modern Universe when the first galaxies formed. It has, however, become clear that the properties and evolution of galaxies are intimately linked to the growth of their central black holes. Understanding the formation of galaxies, and their subsequent evolution, will therefore be incomplete without similarly intensive observations of the accretion light from supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. To make further progress, we need to chart the formation of typical SMBH at z>6, and their subsequent growth over cosmic time, which is most effectively achieved with X-ray observations. Recent technological developments in X-ray optics and instrumentation now bring this within our grasp, enabling capabilities fully matched to those expected from flagship observatories at longer wavelengths.
We studied the radio properties of very young massive regions of star formation in HII galaxies, with the aim of detecting episodes of recent star formation in an early phase of evolution where the first supernovae start to appear. The observed radio spectral energy distribution (SED) covers a behaviour range; 1) there are galaxies where the SED is characterized by a synchrotron-type slope, 2) galaxies with a thermal slope, and 3) galaxies with possible free-free absorption at long wavelengths. The latter SED represents a signature of massive star clusters that are still well inside the progenitor molecular cloud. Based on the comparison of the star formation rates (SFR) determined from the recombination lines and those determined from the radio emission we find that SFR(Ha) is on average five times higher than SFR(1.4 GHz). These results suggest that the emission of these galaxies is dominated by a recent and massive star formation event in which the first supernovae (SN) just started to explode. We conclude that the systematic lack of synchrotron emission in those systems with the largest equivalent width of Hb can only be explained if those are young starbursts of less than 3.5Myr of age, i.e. before the first type II SNe emerge.
We find general relativistic solutions of equilibrium magnetic field configurations in magnetars, extending previous results of Colaiuda et al. (2008). Our method is based on the solution of the relativistic Grad-Shafranov equation, to which Maxwell's equations can be reduced in some limit. We obtain equilibrium solutions with the toroidal magnetic field component confined into a finite region inside the star, and the poloidal component extending to the exterior. These so-called twisted-torus configurations have been found to be the final outcome of dynamical simulations in the framework of Newtonian gravity, and appear to be more stable than other configurations. The solutions include higher order multipoles, which are coupled to the dominant dipolar field. We use arguments of minimal energy to constrain the ratio of the toroidal to the poloidal field.
This is an introduction to the basic elements needed for the measurements and interpretation of data in the millimeter and sub-mm wavelength range. A more complete version will be published in the proceedings of the Saas Fee Winter School 2008.
We investigate the clustering properties of dynamical Dark Energy even in association of a possible coupling between Dark Energy and Dark Matter. We find that within matter inhomogeneities, Dark Energy migth form voids as well as overdensity depending on how its background energy density evolves. Consequently and contrarily to what expected, Dark Energy fluctuations are found to be slightly suppressed if a coupling with Dark Matter is permitted. When considering density contrasts and scales typical of superclusters, voids and supervoids, perturbations amplitudes range from $|\delta_\phi|\sim {\cal O} (10^{-6})$ to $|\delta_\phi|\sim {\cal O} (10^{-4})$ indicating an almost homogeneous Dark Energy component.
We describe the design and performance of IceTop, the air shower array on top of the IceCube neutrino detector. After the 2008/09 antarctic summer season both detectors are deployed at almost 3/4 of their design size. With the current IceTop 59 stations we can start the study of showers of energy well above 10$^{17}$ eV. The paper also describes the first results from IceTop and our plans to study the cosmic ray composition using several different types of analysis.
Aims. Soft X-ray excesses have been detected in several Be/X-ray binaries and
interpreted as the signature of hard X-ray reprocessing in the inner accretion
disk. The system XMMU J054134.7-682550, located in the LMC, featured a giant
Type II outburst in August 2007. The geometry of this system can be understood
by studying the response of the soft excess emission to the hard X-ray pulses.
Methods. We have analyzed series of simultaneous observations obtained with
XMM-Newton/EPIC-MOS and RXTE/PCA in order to derive spectral and temporal
characteristics of the system, before, during and after the giant outburst.
Spectral fits were performed and a timing analysis has been carried out.
Spectral variability, spin period evolution and energy dependent pulse shapes
are analysed.
Results. The outburst (L_X = 3* 10^38 erg/s \approx L_EDD) spectrum could be
modeled successfully using a cutoff powerlaw, a cold disk emission, a hot
blackbody, and a cyclotron absorption line. The magnetic field and
magnetospheric radius could be constrained. The thickness of the inner
accretion disk is broadened to a width of 75 km. The hot blackbody component
features sinusoidal modulations indicating that the bulk of the hard X-ray
emission is emitted preferentially along the magnetic equator. The spin period
of the pulsar decreased very significantly during the outburst. This is
consistent with a variety of neutron star equations of state and indicates a
very high accretion rate.
We present the results of spectroscopic observations of eight globular cluster candidates in NGC147, a satellite dwarf elliptical galaxy of M31. Our goal is to make a complete inventory of the globular cluster system of this galaxy, determine the properties of their stellar populations, and compare these properties with those of systems of globular clusters in other dwarf galaxies. The candidates were identified on Canada-France-Hawaii telescope photographic plates. Medium resolution spectra were obtained with the SCORPIO spectrograph at the prime focus of the 6m telescope of the Russian Academy of Sciences. We were able to confirm the nature of all eight candidates, three of which (GC5, GC7, and GC10) are indeed globular clusters, and to estimate evolutionary parameters for the two brightest ones and for Hodge II. The bright clusters GC5 and GC7 appear to have metallicities ([Z/H]~ -1.5- -1.8) that are lower than the oldest stars in the galaxy. The fainter GC Hodge II has a metallicity [Z/H]=-1.1 dex, similar to that of the oldest stars in the galaxy. The clusters GC5 and GC7 have low alpha-element abundance ratios. The mean age of the globular clusters in NGC147 is 9+-1 Gyr. The frequency, S_n =6.4, and mass fraction, T=14 of globular clusters in NGC147 appear to be higher than those for NGC185 and 205. (Abridged)
The timing of the Local Group is used to test Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). The result shows that the masses predicted by MOND are well below the baryonic contents of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.
We perform a study of the spatial and kinematical distribution of young open clusters in the solar neighborhood, discerning between bound clusters and transient stellar condensations within our sample. Then, we discriminate between Gould Belt (GB) and local Galactic disk (LGD) members, using a previous estimate of the structural parameters of both systems obtained from a sample of O-B6 Hipparcos stars. Using this classified sample we analyze the spatial structure and the kinematic behavior of the cluster system in the GB. The two star formation regions that dominate and give the GB its characteristic inclined shape show a striking difference in their content of star clusters: while Ori OB1 is richly populated by open clusters, not a single one can be found within the boundaries of Sco OB2. This is mirrored in the velocity space, translating again into an abundance of clusters in the region of the kinematic space populated by the members of Ori OB1, and a marginal number of them associated to Sco OB2. In the light of these results we study the nature of the GB with respect to the optical segment of the Orion Arm, and we propose that the different content of star clusters, the different heights over the Galactic plane and the different residual velocities of Ori OB1 and Sco OB2 can be explained in terms of their relative position to the density maximum of the Local Arm in the solar neighborhood. Although morphologically intriguing, the GB appears to be the result of our local and biased view of a larger star cluster complex in the Local Arm, that could be explained by the internal dynamics of the Galactic disk.
While it may seem counterintuitive that X-ray astronomy should give any insights into low-temperature planetary systems, planets orbit stars whose magnetized surfaces divert a small fraction of the stellar energy into high energy products: coronal UV and X-rays, flare X-rays and energetic particles, and a high-velocity stellar wind. In our Solar System, X-ray emission gives unique insights into the solar activity, planetary atmospheres, cometary comae, charge exchange physics, and space weather across the Solar System. The stellar activity of young stars is greatly elevated and can substantially affect protoplanetary disks and planet formation processes. We highlight six studies achievable with the planned International X-ray Observatory which address in unique ways issues in planetary sciences: probing X-ray irradiation of protoplanetary disks with the iron fluorescent line and its effects on disk turbulence; study the complex charge-exchange X-ray emission from Jupiter and the Martian exosphere; elucidate charge-exchange processes in cometary comae; understanding heliospheric charge-exchange emission and the interpretation of the soft X-ray background; and examining the magnetic activity of planet-hosting stars and its evaporation of planetary atmospheres.
We present the analysis of the HI content of a sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in low-density environments (LDEs) using the data set provided by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. We compare their properties to the sample in the Virgo cluster that we studied in a previous paper (di Serego Alighieri et al. 2007, Paper I). We have selected a sample of 62 nearby ETGs (V< 3000 km/s) in an area of the sky where the ALFALFA data are already available (8h<RA<16h, 4 deg<DEC<16deg), avoiding the region of the Virgo cluster. Among these, 39 have absolute B magnitudes fainter than M_B = -17. Fifteen out of 62 galaxies have been firmly detected with ALFALFA (\sim 25%). Five additional galaxies show a weaker HI emission (S/N \sim 4) and they will need deeper observations to be confirmed. All together, our analysis doubles the number of known gas-rich ETGs in this area. The HI detection rate is 44% in luminous ETGs (M_B < -17) and 13% in dwarf ETGs (M_B > -17). In both cases it is 10 times higher than that of the Virgo cluster. The presence of gas can be related to a recent star formation activity: 60% of all ETGs with HI have optical emission line ratios typical of star-forming galaxies and blue colours suggesting the presence of young stellar populations, especially in the dwarf subsample. We show that the HI detection rate of ETGs depends both on the environment and mass. The fraction of early-type systems with neutral hydrogen is higher in more massive objects when compared to early-type dwarfs. The ETGs in LDEs seem to have more heterogeneous properties than their Virgo cluster counterparts, since they are able to retain a cold interstellar gas component and to support star formation activity even at recent epochs.
Only a few molecular clouds in the Solar Neighborhood exhibit the formation of only low-mass stars. Traditionally, these clouds have been assumed to be supported against more vigorous collapse by magnetic fields. The existence of strong magnetic fields in molecular clouds, however, poses serious problems for the formation of stars and of the clouds themselves. In this {\em Letter}, we review the three-dimensional structure and kinematics of Taurus --the archetype of a region forming only low-mass stars-- as well as its orientation within the Milky way. We conclude that the particularly low star-formation efficiency in Taurus may naturally be explained by tidal forces from the Galaxy, with no need for magnetic regulation or stellar feedback.
I provide an overview of the empirical mass-loss rates of hot and cool luminous stars. Stellar species included in this talk are luminous OB stars, Wolf-Rayet stars, asymptotic giant branch stars, and red supergiants. I discuss the scaling of mass loss with stellar properties, with special emphasis on the influences of chemical abundances. Observational errors and systematic uncertainties are still substantial and vary with stellar type. These uncertainties are a major impediment for the construction of reliable stellar evolution models.
We investigate the elemental and isotopic stratification in the atmospheres
of selected chemically peculiar (CP) stars of the upper main sequence.
Reconfiguration of the UVES spectrograph in 2004 has made it possible to
examine all three lines of the Ca II infrared triplet. Much of the material
analyzed was obtained in 2008.
We support the claim of Ryabchikova, Kochukhov & Bagnulo (RKB) that the
calcium isotopes have distinct stratification profiles for the stars 10 Aql, HR
1217, and HD 122970, with the heavy isotope concentrated toward the higher
layers. Better observations are needed to learn the extent to which Ca-40
dominates in the deepest layers of all or most CP stars that show the presence
of Ca-48. There is little evidence for Ca-40 in the spectra of some HgMn stars,
and the infrared triplet in the magnetic star HD 101065 is well fit by pure
Ca-48. In HR 5623 (HD 133792) and HD 217522 it is likely that the heavy isotope
dominates, though models are possible where this is not the case.
While elemental stratification is surely needed in many cases, we point out
the importance of including adjustments in the assumed Teff and log(g) values,
in attempts to model stratification. We recommend emphasis on profiles of the
strongest lines, where the influence of stratification is most evident.
Isotopic mixtures, involving the 4 stable calcium nuclides with masses
between 40 and 48 are plausible, but are not emphasized.
The inflationary paradigm, although very successful phenomenologically, suffers from several conceptual problems which motivate the search for alternative scenarios of early universe cosmology. Here, two possible alternatives will be reviewed. - "string gas cosmology" and the "matter bounce". Their successes and problems will be pointed out.
A short review about vacuum energy and the cosmological constant is presented. The observed acceleration of the universe introduces a new meV energy scale. The problem is that, theoretically, the predicted vacuum energy is many orders of magnitude larger than $10^{-3}$ eV. The problem is a link between two Standard Models, namely the Standard Model of Particles and their Interactions (where the vacuum energy appears) and the Standard Cosmological Model (where a cosmological constant is a good fit to data), and perhaps it is a clue in our search for new physics.
We present a new pseudospectral algorithm for the calculation of the structure of atoms in strong magnetic fields. We have verified this technique for one, two and three-electron atoms in zero magnetic fields against laboratory results and find typically better than one-percent accuracy. We further verify this technique against the state-of-the-art calculations of hydrogen, helium and lithium in strong magnetic fields (up to about $2\times 10^{6}$ T) and find a similar level of agreement. The key enabling advantages of the algorithm are its simplicity (about 130 lines of commented code) and its speed (about $10^2-10^5$ times faster than finite-element methods to achieve similar accuracy).
New results for attenuation and damping of electromagnetic fields in rigid conducting media are derived under the conjugate influence of inertia due to charge carriers and displacement current. Inertial effects are described by a relaxation time for the current density in the realm of an extended Ohm's law. The classical notions of poor and good conductors are rediscussed on the basis of an effective electric conductivity, depending on both wave frequency and relaxation time. It is found that the attenuation for good conductors at high frequencies depends solely on the relaxation time. This means that the penetration depth saturates to a minimum value at sufficiently high frequencies. It is also shown that the actions of inertia and displacement current on damping of magnetic fields are opposite to each other. That could explain why the classical decay time of magnetic fields scales approximately as the diffusion time. At very small length scales, the decay time could be given either by the relaxation time or by a fraction of the diffusion time, depending whether inertia or displacement current, respectively, would prevail on magnetic diffusion.
We show how easy it is to get the Sommerfeld enhancement for a Yukawa potential, for definite partial waves. We report results for the waves S and also P (for which the enhancement can be as much as several orders of magnitude) that could be relevant for the analysis of experimental cosmic rays data possibly signaling the annihilation of dark matter particles.
PAMELA data present a window of opportunity into a possible relationship between luminous and dark matter. Along with ATIC data the two positron excesses are interpreted as a reflection of dark matter family structure. In a unified model it is predicted that at least a third enhancement might show up at a different energy.
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We outline the case for a comprehensive wide and deep survey ultimately targeted at obtaining 21-cm HI line emission spectroscopic observations of more than a billion galaxies to redshift z=1.5 and greater over half the sky. This survey provides a database of galaxy redshifts, HI gas masses, and galaxy rotation curves that would enable a wide range of science, including fundamental cosmology and studies of Dark Energy. This science requires the next generation of radio arrays, which are being designed under the umbrella of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. We present a science roadmap, extending to 2020 and beyond, that would enable this ambitious survey. We also place this survey in the context of other multi-wavelength surveys.
Over the past two decades, helioseismology has revolutionized our understanding of the interior structure and dynamics of the Sun. Asteroseismology will soon place this knowledge into a broader context by providing structural data for hundreds of Sun-like stars. Solar-like oscillations have already been detected from the ground in several stars, and NASA's Kepler mission is poised to unleash a flood of stellar pulsation data. Deriving reliable asteroseismic information from these observations demands a significant improvement in our analysis methods. In this paper we report the initial results of our efforts to develop an objective stellar model-fitting pipeline for asteroseismic data. The cornerstone of our automated approach is an optimization method using a parallel genetic algorithm. We describe the details of the pipeline and we present the initial application to Sun-as-a-star data, yielding an optimal model that accurately reproduces the known solar properties.
In this paper we study the impact of the fractional matter density uncertainty in the reconstruction of the equation of state of dark energy. We consider both standard reconstruction methods, based on the dynamical effect that dark energy has on the expansion of the Universe, as well as non-standard methods, in which the evolution of the dark energy equation of state with redshift is inferred through the variation of fundamental couplings such as the fine structure constant, $\alpha$, or the proton-to-electron mass ratio, $\mu$. We show that the negative impact of the matter density uncertainty in the dark energy reconstruction using varying couplings may be very small compared to standard reconstruction methods. We also briefly discuss other fundamental questions which need to be answered before varying couplings can be successfully used to probe the nature of the dark energy.
Relativistic radiative transfer problems require the calculation of photon trajectories in curved spacetime. We present a novel technique for rapid and accurate calculation of null geodesics in the Kerr metric. The equations of motion from the Hamilton-Jacobi equation are reduced directly to Carlson's elliptic integrals, simplifying algebraic manipulations and allowing all coordinates to be computed semi-analytically for the first time. We discuss the method, its implementation in a freely available FORTRAN code, and its application to toy problems from the literature.
We investigate the secular evolution of the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity due to mass transfer in eccentric binaries, allowing for both mass and angular momentum loss from the system. Adopting a delta function mass transfer rate at the periastron of the binary orbit, we find that, depending on the initial binary properties at the onset of mass transfer, the orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity can either increase or decrease at a rate linearly proportional to the magnitude of the mass transfer rate at periastron. The range of initial binary mass ratios and eccentricities that leads to increasing orbital semi-major axes and eccentricities broadens with increasing degrees of mass loss from the system and narrows with increasing orbital angular momentum loss from the binary. Comparison with tidal evolution timescales shows that the usual assumption of rapid circularization at the onset of mass transfer in eccentric binaries is not justified, irrespective of the degree of systemic mass and angular momentum loss. This work extends our previous results for conservative mass transfer in eccentric binaries and can be incorporated into binary evolution and population synthesis codes to model non-conservative mass transfer in eccentric binaries.
Our aim is to present a fast and general Bayesian inference framework based on the synergy between machine learning techniques and standard sampling methods and apply it to infer the physical properties of clumpy dusty torus using infrared photometric high spatial resolution observations of active galactic nuclei. We make use of the Metropolis-Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for sampling the posterior distribution function. Such distribution results from combining all a-priori knowledge about the parameters of the model and the information introduced by the observations. The main difficulty resides in the fact that the model used to explain the observations is computationally demanding and the sampling is very time consuming. For this reason, we apply a set of artificial neural networks that are used to approximate and interpolate a database of models. As a consequence, models not present in the original database can be computed ensuring continuity. We focus on the application of this solution scheme to the recently developed public database of clumpy dusty torus models. The machine learning scheme used in this paper allows us to generate any model from the database using only a factor 10^-4 of the original size of the database and a factor 10^-3 in computing time. The posterior distribution obtained for each model parameter allows us to investigate how the observations constrain the parameters and which ones remain partially or completely undetermined, providing statistically relevant confidence intervals. As an example, the application to the nuclear region of Centaurus A shows that the optical depth of the clouds, the total number of clouds and the radial extent of the cloud distribution zone are well constrained using only 6 filters.
We perform a search for neutrinos coincident with GRB 080319B, the brightest GRB observed to date, in a +/- 1,000 s window. No statistically significant coincidences were observed and we thereby obtain an upper limit on the fluence of neutrino-induced muons from this source. From this we apply reasonable assumptions to derive a limit on neutrino fluence from the GRB.
A nonsingular bouncing cosmology in which the scales of interest today exit the Hubble radius in a matter-dominated contracting phase yields an alternative to inflation for producing a scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic cosmological fluctuations. In this paper we identify signatures in the non-Gaussianities of the fluctuations which are specific to this scenario and allow it to be distinguished from the results of inflationary models.
In this second paper of a series of papers based on the FIRST and SDSS surveys we investigate the evolution of galaxy morphology and nuclear activity in the look-back time of the SDSS (~2 Gyrs) for a sample of ~150000 galaxies in the local universe. We demonstrate an evolution in the strength of the radio power and the spectroscopic emission-lines typical of AGN, as well as in the morphology of their hosts. Such evolution appears more substantial for less luminous systems, and is possibly the low-redshift tail of the downsizing in star-formation, AGN activity and supermassive black hole build-up observed in higher redshift surveys.This suggests that the differences in intrinsic properties of galaxies along the Hubble Sequence may arise from the difference in the depth of their potential wells which leads to different evolutionary paths because of different timescales for gas infall. This primordial infall and the following secular evolution mediated by bar and density wave instabilities may bring galaxies of different mass to have the different activity levels and morphological features in the local universe shown in this study. In agreement with such a hypothesis, we find that star-formation as traced by radio emission is progressively more centrally concentrated in more evolved star-forming galaxies and we show that the environment in which a galaxy resides plays a lesser role in shaping the features and activity for the majority of systems.
We investigate the environment of the very low-luminosity object L1521F IRS using data from the Taurus Spitzer Legacy Survey. The MIPS 160 micron image shows both extended emission from the Taurus cloud as well as emission from multiple cold cores over a 1 X 2 deg region. Analysis shows that the cloud dust temperature is 14.2 +- 0.4 K and the extinction ratio is A_160/A_K = 0.010 +- 0.001 up to A_V ~ 4 mag. We find kappa_160 = 0.23 +- 0.046 cm^2/g for the specific opacity of the gas-dust mixture. Therefore, for dust in the Taurus cloud we find the 160 um opacity is significantly higher than that measured for the diffuse ISM, but not too different from dense cores, even at modest extinction values. Furthermore, the 160 um image shows features that do not appear in the IRAS 100 um image. We identify six regions as cold cores, i.e. colder than 14.2 K, all of which have counterparts in extinction maps or C18O maps. We compare the effects of L1521F IRS on its natal core and find there is no evidence for dust heating at 160 or 100 um by the embedded source. From the infrared luminosity L_TIR = 0.024 Lo we find L_bol = 0.034 - 0.046L_o, thus confirming the source's low-luminosity. Comparison of L1521F IRS with theoretical simulations for the very early phases of star formation appears to rule out the first core collapse phase. The evolutionary state appears similar to or younger than the class 0 phase, and the estimated mass is likely to be substellar.
We present an analysis of results on absorption from Ca II, Ca I, K I, and the molecules CH+, CH, C2, and CN that probes gas interacting with the supernova remnant IC443. The eleven directions sample material across the visible nebula and beyond its eastern edge. Most of the neutral material, including the diatomic molecules, is associated with the ambient cloud detected via H I and CO emission. Analysis of excitation and chemistry yields gas densities that are typical of diffuse molecular gas. The low density gas probed by Ca II extends over a large range in velocities, from -120 to +80 km/s in the most extreme cases. This gas is distributed among several velocity components, unlike the situation for the shocked molecular clumps, whose emission occurs over much the same range but as very broad features. The extent of the high-velocity absorption suggests a shock velocity of 100 km/s for the expanding nebula.
Extrasolar multiple-planet systems provide valuable opportunities for testing theories of planet formation and evolution. The architectures of the known multiple-planet systems demonstrate a fascinating level of diversity, which motivates the search for additional examples of such systems in order to better constrain their formation and dynamical histories. Here we describe a comprehensive investigation of 22 planetary systems in an effort to answer three questions: 1) Are there additional planets? 2) Where could additional planets reside in stable orbits? and 3) What limits can these observations place on such objects? We find no evidence for additional bodies in any of these systems; indeed, these new data do not support three previously announced planets (HD 20367b: Udry et al. 2003, HD 74156d: Bean et al. 2008, and 47 UMa c: Fischer et al. 2002). The dynamical simulations show that nearly all of the 22 systems have large regions in which additional planets could exist in stable orbits. The detection-limit computations indicate that this study is sensitive to close-in Neptune-mass planets for most of the systems targeted. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of these non-detections.
AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) binaries consist of a degenerate helium donor and a helium, C/O, or O/Ne WD accretor, with accretion rates of Mdot = 1e-13 - 1e-5 Msol/yr. For accretion rates < 1e-6 Msol/yr, the accreted helium ignites unstably, resulting in a helium flash. As the donor mass and Mdot decrease, the ignition mass increases and eventually becomes larger than the donor mass, yielding a "last-flash" ignition mass of < 0.1 Msol. Bildsten et al. (2007) predicted that the largest outbursts of these systems will lead to dynamical burning and thermonuclear supernovae. In this paper, we study the evolution of the He-burning shells in more detail. We calculate maximum achievable temperatures as well as the minimum envelope masses that achieve dynamical burning conditions, finding that AM CVn systems with accretors > 0.8 Msol will undergo dynamical burning. Triple-alpha reactions during the hydrostatic evolution set a lower limit to the 12C mass fraction of 0.001 - 0.05 when dynamical burning occurs, but core dredge-up may yield 12C, 16O, and/or 20Ne mass fractions of ~ 0.1. Accreted 14N will likely remain 14N during the accretion and convective phases, but regardless of 14N's fate, the neutron-to-proton ratio at the beginning of convection is fixed until the onset of dynamical burning. During explosive burning, the 14N will undergo 14N(a,g)18F(a,p)21Ne, liberating a proton for the subsequent 12C(p,g)13N(a,p)16O reaction, which bypasses the relatively slow alpha-capture onto 12C. Future hydrodynamic simulations must include these isotopes, as the additional reactions will reduce the Zel'dovich-von Neumann-Doring (ZND) length, making the propagation of the detonation wave more likely.
Multi-epoch radio-interferometric observations of young stellar objects can
be used to measure their displacement over the celestial sphere with a level of
accuracy that currently cannot be attained at any other wavelength. In
particular, the accuracy achieved using carefully calibrated, phase-referenced
observations with Very Long Baseline Interferometers such as NRAO's Very Long
Baseline Array is better than 50 micro-arcseconds. This is sufficient to
measure the trigonometric parallax and the proper motion of any radio-emitting
young star within several hundred parsecs of the Sun with an accuracy better
than a few percent. Using that technique, the mean distances to Taurus,
Ophiuchus, Perseus and Orion have already been measured to unprecedented
accuracy.
With improved telescopes and equipment, the distance to all star-forming
regions within 1 kpc of the Sun and beyond, as well as their internal structure
and dynamics could be determined. This would significantly improve our ability
to compare the observational properties of young stellar objects with
theoretical predictions, and would have a major impact on our understanding of
low-mass star-formation.
Models of disk galaxy formation commonly predict the existence of an extended reservoir of accreted hot gas surrounding massive spirals at low redshift. As a test of these models, we use X-ray and H-alpha data of the two massive, quiescent edge-on spirals NGC 5746 and NGC 5170 to investigate the amount and origin of any hot gas in their halos. Contrary to our earlier claim, the Chandra analysis of NGC 5746, employing more recent calibration data, does not reveal any significant evidence for diffuse X-ray emission outside the optical disk, with a 3-sigma upper limit to the halo X-ray luminosity of 4e39 erg/s. An identical study of the less massive NGC 5170 also fails to detect any extraplanar X-ray emission. By extracting hot halo properties of disk galaxies formed in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, we compare these results to expectations for cosmological accretion of hot gas by spirals. For Milky Way-sized galaxies, these high-resolution simulations predict hot halo X-ray luminosities which are lower by a factor of ~2 compared to our earlier results reported by Toft et al. (2002). We find the new simulation predictions to be consistent with our observational constraints for both NGC 5746 and NGC 5170, while also confirming that the hot gas detected so far around more actively star-forming spirals is in general probably associated with stellar activity in the disk. Observational results on quiescent disk galaxies at the high-mass end are nevertheless providing powerful constraints on theoretical predictions, and hence on the assumed input physics in numerical studies of disk galaxy formation and evolution.
This paper reports dual-epoch, Very Long Baseline Array observations of H I absorption toward 3C 147. One of these epochs (2005) represents new observations while one (1998) represents the reprocessing of previous observations to obtain higher signal-to-noise results. Significant H I opacity and column density variations, both spatially and temporally, are observed with typical variations at the level of \Delta\tau ~ 0.20 and in some cases as large as \Delta\tau ~ 0.70, corresponding to column density fluctuations of order 5 x 10^{19} cm^{-2} for an assumed 50 K spin temperature. The typical angular scale is 15 mas; while the distance to the absorbing gas is highly uncertain, the equivalent linear scale is likely to be about 10 AU. Approximately 10% of the face of the source is covered by these opacity variations, probably implying a volume filling factor for the small-scale absorbing gas of no more than about 1%. Comparing our results with earlier results toward 3C 138 (Brogan et al.), we find numerous similarities, and we conclude that small-scale absorbing gas is a ubiquitous phenomenon, albeit with a low probability of intercept on any given line of sight. Further, we compare the volumes sampled by the line of sight through the Galaxy between our two epochs and conclude that, on the basis of the motion of the Sun alone, these two volumes are likely to be substantially different. In order to place more significant constraints on the various models for the origin of these small-scale structures, more frequent sampling is required in any future observations.
We present combined interferometer and single dish telescope data of NH3 (J,K) = (1,1) and (2,2) emission towards the clustered star forming Ophiuchus B, C and F Cores at high spatial resolution (~1200 AU) using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Very Large Array, and the Green Bank Telescope. While the large scale features of the NH3 (1,1) integrated intensity appear similar to 850 micron continuum emission maps of the Cores, on 15" (1800 AU) scales we find significant discrepancies between the dense gas tracers in Oph B, but good correspondence in Oph C and F. Using the Clumpfind structure identifying algorithm, we identify 15 NH3 clumps in Oph B, and 3 each in Oph C and F. Only five of the Oph B NH3 clumps are coincident within 30" (3600 AU) of a submillimeter clump. We find v_LSR varies little across any of the Cores, and additionally varies by only ~1.5 km/s between them. The observed NH3 line widths within the Oph B and F Cores are generally large and often mildly supersonic, while Oph C is characterized by narrow line widths which decrease to nearly thermal values. We find several regions of localized narrow line emission (\Delta v < 0.4 km/s), some of which are associated with NH3 clumps. We derive the kinetic temperatures of the gas, and find they are remarkably constant across Oph B and F, with a warmer mean value (T_K = 15 K) than typically found in isolated regions and consistent with previous results in clustered regions. Oph C, however, has a mean T_K = 12 K, decreasing to a minimum T_K = 9.4 K towards the submillimeter continuum peak, similar to previous studies of isolated starless cores. There is no significant difference in temperature towards protostars embedded in the Cores. [Abridged]
We have conducted a systematic investigation of the origin and underlying physics of the line--line and line--continuum correlations of AGNs, particularly the Baldwin effect. Based on the homogeneous sample of Seyfert 1s and QSOs in the SDSS DR4, we find the origin of all the emission-line regularities is Eddington ratio (L/Ledd). The essential physics is that L/Ledd regulates the distributions of the properties (particularly column density) of the clouds bound in the line-emitting region.
We propose a simple physical picture for the generation of coherent radio emission in the axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere that is quite different from the canonical paradigm of radio emission coming from the magnetic polar caps. In this first paper we consider only the axisymmetric case of an aligned rotator. Our picture capitalizes on an important element of the MHD representation of the magnetosphere, namely the separatrix between the corotating closed-line region (the `dead zone') and the open field lines that originate in the polar caps. Along the separatrix flows the return current that corresponds to the main magnetospheric electric current emanating from the polar caps. Across the separatrix, both the toroidal and poloidal components of the magnetic field change discontinuously. The poloidal component discontinuity requires the presence of a significant annular electric current which has up to now been unaccounted for. We estimate the position and thickness of this annular current at the tip of the closed line region, and show that it consists of electrons (positrons) corotating with Lorentz factors on the order of 10^5, emitting incoherent synchrotron radiation that peaks in the hard X-rays. These particles stay in the region of highest annular current close to the equator for a path-length of the order of one meter. We propose that, at wavelengths comparable to that path-length, the particles emit coherent radiation, with radiated power proportional to N^2, where N is the population of particles in the above path-length. We calculate the total radio power in this wavelength regime and its scaling with pulsar period and stellar magnetic field and show that it is consistent with estimates of radio luminosity based on observations.
From the Main galaxy sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6), we construct two volume-limited samples above and below the value of M, to explore the difference of the environmental dependence of galaxy properties between galaxies above and below the value of M . We measure the local three-dimensional galaxy density in a comoving sphere with a radius of the distance to the 5th nearest galaxy for each galaxy, and compare basic properties of galaxies in the lowest density regime with those of galaxies in the densest regime. It is found that the galaxy luminosity strongly depend on local environments only for galaxies above M, but this dependence is very weak for galaxies below M . It is worth noting that g-r color, concentration index ci and galaxy morphologies strongly depend on local environments for all galaxies with different luminosities. This shows that M is an characteristic parameter only for the environmental dependence of galaxy luminosity.
Using 3D hydrodynamical simulations, we studied in detail the fountain flow and its dependence with several factors, such as the Galactic rotation, the distance to the Galactic center, and the presence of a hot gaseous halo. We have considered the observed size-frequency distribution of young stellar clusters within the Galaxy in order to appropriately fuel the multiple fountains in our simulations. The present work confirms the localized nature of the fountain flows: the freshly ejected metals tend to fall back close to the same Galactocentric region where they are delivered. Therefore, the fountains do not change significantly the radial profile of the disk chemical abundance. The multiple fountains simulations also allowed to consistently calculate the feedback of the star formation on the halo gas. Finally, we have also considered the possibility of mass infall from the intergalactic medium and its interaction with the clouds that are formed by the fountains. Though our simulations are not suitable to reproduce the slow rotational pattern that is typically observed in the halos around the disk galaxies, they indicate that the presence of an external gas infall may help to slow down the rotation of the gas in the clouds and thus the amount of angular momentum that they transfer to the coronal gas, as previously suggested in the literature.
The spiral structure of our Milky Way Galaxy is not yet known. HII regions and Giant molecular clouds are the most prominent spiral tracers. The 2-, 3- and 4-arm models have previously been proposed to outline the structure of our Galaxy. Recently, new data of spiral tracers covering a larger region of the Galactic disk have been published in literature. We wish to obtain the updated spiral structure of the Milky way using all tracer data. We collected the spiral tracer data of our Milky Way from literature, namely, HII regions and giant molecular clouds (GMCs). With the weighting factors based on the excitation parameters of HII regions or the masses of GMCs, we fitted the distribution of these tracers with the models of two-, three-, four-spiral-arms or polynomial spiral arms. The distances of tracers, if not available from stellar or direct measurements, were estimated kinetically from the standard rotation curve of Brand & Blitz (1993) with R_0=8.5 kpc, and \Theta_0 =220 km s^{-1} or the newly fitted rotation curve with R_0 =8.0 kpc and \Theta_0 =220 km s^{-1}. We found that the two-arm logarithmic model can not fit the data in many regions. The three- and the four-arm logarithmic models are able to connect most tracers. However, at least two observed tangential directions can not be matched by the three- or four-arm model. We composed a polynomial spiral arm model, which can not only fit the tracer distribution but also match observed tangential directions. Using new rotation curves with R_0 =8.0 kpc and \Theta_0 =220 km s^{-1} and R_0 =8.4 kpc and \Theta_0 =254 km s^{-1} for estimation of kinematic distances, we found that the distribution of HII regions and GMCs can fit to the models well, though the results do not change significantly compared to the parameters with the standard R_0 and \Theta_0 .
We discuss how the conditions at high redshift differ from those at low redshift, and what the impact is on the galaxy population. We focus in particular on the role of gaseous dissipation and its impact on sustaining high star formation rates as well as on driving star-bursts in mergers. Gas accretion onto galaxies at high redshifts occurs on a halo dynamical time allowing for very efficiently sustained star formation. In addition cold accretion flows are able to drive turbulence in high redshift disks at the level observed if at least 20% of the accretion energy is converted into random motion in the gaseous disk. In general we find that the fraction of gas involved in galaxy mergers is a strong function of time and increases with redshift. A model combining the role of dissipation during mergers and continued infall of satellite galaxies allows to reproduce the observed size-evolution of early-type galaxies with redshift. Furthermore we investigate how the evolution of the faint-end of the luminosity function can be explained in terms of the evolution of the underlying dark matter evolution.
We discuss the transitions of galaxy morphologies within the CDM paradigm under the assumption of bulge formation in mergers and disk growth via cooling of gas and subsequent star formation. Based on the relative importance of these two competing processes it is possible to make predictions on the expected morphological mix of galaxies. In particular we here discuss the generation of massive disk galaxies with low bulge-to-total mass ratios. Our results indicate that it is difficult to generate enough massive disk galaxies with B/T $< 0.2$ via major mergers and subsequent disk re-growth, if during the major merger progenitor disks get disrupted completely. On average low B/T galaxies must have had there last major merger at $z \ge 2$. The main limiting factor is the ability to re-grow massive disks at late times after the last major merger of a galaxy. Taking into account the contribution from minor mergers ($4 \ge M_1/M_2$, $M_1 \ge M_2$) to the formation of bulges, we recover the right fraction of massive low B/T disk galaxies, indicating that minor mergers play an important role in the formation of massive low B/T disk galaxies.
We explore the hypothesis that some high-velocity runaway stars attain their peculiar velocities in the course of exchange encounters between hard massive binaries and a very massive star (either an ordinary 50-100 Msun star or a more massive one, formed through runaway mergers of ordinary stars in the core of a young massive star cluster). In this process, one of the binary components becomes gravitationally bound to the very massive star, while the second one is ejected, sometimes with a high speed. We performed three-body scattering experiments and found that early B-type stars (the progenitors of the majority of neutron stars) can be ejected with velocities of $\ga$ 200-400 km/s (typical of pulsars), while 3-4 Msun stars can attain velocities of $\ga$ 300-400 km/s (typical of the bound population of halo late B-type stars). We also found that the ejected stars can occasionally attain velocities exceeding the Milky Ways's escape velocity.
We present medium spectral resolution near-infrared (NIR) HK-band spectra for 8 low redshift (z<0.06) radio galaxies to study the NIR stellar properties of their host galaxies. As a homogeneous comparison sample, we used 9 inactive elliptical galaxies that were observed with similar resolution and wavelength range. The aim of the study is to compare the NIR spectral properties of radio galaxies to those of inactive early-type galaxies and, furthermore, produce the first NIR HK-band spectra for low redshift radio galaxies. For both samples spectral indices of several diagnostic absorption features, SiI(1.589microns), CO(1.619microns), NaI(2.207microns), CaI(2.263microns), CO(>2.29microns), were measured. To characterize the age of the populations, the measured EWs of the absorption features were fitted with the corresponding theoretical evolutionary curves of the EWs calculated by the stellar synthesis model. On average, EW(CO 2.29) of radio galaxies is somewhat greater than that of inactive ellipticals. Most likely, EW(CO 2.29) is not significantly affected by dilution, and thus indicating that elliptical galaxies containing AGN are in a different stage in their evolution than inactive ellipticals. This is also supported by comparing other NIR features, such as CaI and NaI, with each other. Absorption features are consistent with the intermediate age stellar population, suggesting that host galaxies contain both an old and intermediate age components. It is consistent with previous optical spectroscopy studies which have shown evidence on the intermediate age (~2 Gyr) stellar population of radio galaxies, and also in some of the early-type galaxies. The existence of intermediate age population is a link between the star formation episode, possibly induced by interaction or merging event, and the triggering of the nuclear activity.
CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) polarization observations test many aspects of cosmological models. Effective pseudoscalar-photon interaction(s) would induce a rotation of linear polarization of electromagnetic wave propagating with cosmological distance in various cosmological models. CMB polarization observations are superb tests of these models and have the potential to discover new fundamental physics. Pseudoscalar-photon interaction is proportional to the gradient of the pseudoscalar field. From phenomenological point of view, this gradient could be neutrino number asymmetry, other density current, or a constant vector. In these situations, Lorentz invariance or CPT may effectively be violated. In this paper, we review these results and anticipate what more precise observations can tell us about fundamental physics, inflation, etc. Better accuracy in CMB polarization observation is expected from PLANCK mission to be launched this year. Dedicated CMB polarization observers like B-Pol mission, CMBpol mission and LiteBIRD mission would probe this fundamental issue more deeply in the future. With these sensitivities, cosmic polarization rotations from effective pseudoscalar-photon interaction, Faraday polarization rotations from primordial and large-scale magnetic field, and tensor modes effects would have chances to be detected and distinguished. The subtracted tensor-mode effects are likely due to primordial gravitational waves. We discuss the direct detectability of these primordial gravitational waves using space GW detectors.
Carbon solids are ubiquitous material in the interstellar space. However, the formation pathway of carbonaceous matter in astrophysical environments as well as in terrestrial gas-phase condensation reactions is not yet understood. Laser ablation of graphite in different quenching gas atmospheres such as pure He, He/H$_2$, and He/H$_2$O at varying pressures is used to synthesize very small, fullerene-like carbon nanoparticles. The particles are characterized by very small diameters between 1 and 4 nm and a disturbed onion-like structure. The soot particles extracted from the condensation zone obviously represent a very early stage of particle condensation. The spectral properties have been measured from the far-ultraviolet (FUV) ($\lambda$=120 nm) to the mid-infrared (MIR) ($\lambda$=15 ~$\mu$m). The seed-like soot particles show strong absorption bands in the 3.4 ~$\mu$m range. The profile and the intensity pattern of the 3.4 ~$\mu$m band of the diffuse interstellar medium can be well reproduced by the measured 3.4 ~$\mu$m profile of the condensed particles, however, all the carbon which is left to form solids is needed to fit the intensity of the interstellar bands. In contrast to the assumption that onion-like soot particles could be the carrier of the interstellar ultraviolet (UV) bump, our very small onion-like carbon nanoparticles do not show distinct UV bands due to ($\pi-\pi$*) transitions.
We analyze the long-term tidal evolution of a single-planet system through the use of numerical simulations and averaged equations giving the variations of semi-major axis and eccentricity of the relative orbit. For different types of planets, we compute the variations due to the planetary and stellar tides. Then, we calculate the critical value of the eccentricity for which the stellar tide becomes dominant over the planetary tide. The timescales for orbital decay and circularization are also discussed and compared.
Gamma-ray line studies are capable of identifying radioactive tracer isotopes generated in cosmic nucleosynthesis events. Pioneering measurements were made 30 years ago with HEAO-C1, detecting the first interstellar gamma-ray line from 26Al, then with SMM and numerous balloon experiments, among their results the detection of radioactivity from supernova SN1987A, and with the Compton Observatory and its OSSE and COMPTEL instruments in 1991-2000, which performed sky surveys in 26Al and 511 keV annihilation emission and the detection of the Cas A supernova remnant in 44Ti radioactivity. The SPI high-resolution Ge spectrometer on INTEGRAL was launched in 2002 and continues to collect data on astrophysically-important gamma-ray lines from decays of 44Ti, 26Al, 60Fe, and positron annihilation. 44Ti decay lines from Cas A have been observed with both INTEGRAL telescopes, and constrain the expansion dynamics of the ejecta. The lack of other 44Ti remnants is a mystery. The 26Al gamma-ray line is now measured throughout the Galaxy, tracing the kinematics of interstellar gas near massive stars, and highlighting special regions of interest therein, such as groups of massive stars in Cygnus and even more nearby regions. The detection of 60Fe radioactivity lines at the level of 15% of the 26Al flux presents a challenge both for observers and models. Positron annihilation emission from the nucleosynthesis regions within the Galactic plane appears to be mainly from 26Al and other supernova radioactivity, while the bulge's positron annihilation brightness remains puzzling.
Carbonaceous grains represent a major component of cosmic dust. In order to understand their formation pathways, they have been prepared in the laboratory by gas-phase condensation reactions such as laser pyrolysis and laser ablation. Our studies demonstrate that the temperature in the condensation zone determines the formation pathway of carbonaceous particles. At temperatures lower than 1700 K, the condensation by-products are mainly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), that are also the precursors or building blocks for the condensing soot grains. The low-temperature condensates contain PAH mixtures that are mainly composed of volatile 3-5 ring systems. At condensation temperatures higher than 3500 K, fullerene-like carbon grains and fullerene compounds are formed. Fullerene fragments or complete fullerenes equip the nucleating particles. Fullerenes can be identified as soluble components. Consequently, condensation products in cool and hot astrophysical environments such as cool and hot AGB stars or Wolf Rayet stars should be different and should have distinct spectral properties.
Interpretation of imagery of the solar chromosphere in the widely used \CaIIIR infrared line is hampered by its complex, three-dimensional and non-LTE formation. Forward modelling is required to aid understanding. We use a 3D non-LTE radiative transfer code to compute synthetic \CaIIIR images from a radiation-MHD simulation of the solar atmosphere spanning from the convection zone to the corona. We compare the simulation with observations obtained with the CRISP filter at the Swedish 1--m Solar Telescope. We find that the simulation reproduces dark patches in the blue line wing caused by Doppler shifts, brightenings in the line core caused by upward-propagating shocks and thin dark elongated structures in the line core that form the interface between upward and downward gas motion in the chromosphere. The synthetic line core is narrower than the observed one, indicating that the sun exhibits both more vigorous large-scale dynamics as well as small scale motions that are not resolved within the simulation, presumably owing to a lack of spatial resolution.
Two blue compact dwarf galaxies Mkn 104 and I Zw 97 are studied photometrically and spectroscopically. Mkn 104 is found to contain three distinct bright star forming regions, whereas I Zw 97 is found to contain three bright and two faint star forming regions. Medium resolution spectra of three bright HII regions in the two galaxies were obtained. Estimation of oxygen abundance in these regions yields a value equal to log(O/H)+12 = 8.5 (Z=Z_sun/2.7). Star formation rates in these star forming regions are estimated. The highest star formation rate for I Zw 97 is found to be 0.04 M_sun/yr and for Mkn 104, it is 0.02 M_sun/yr. A U-B vs V-I colour-colour mixed population model is created using the Starburst99 evolutionary model curves. The spectrum of the bright star forming knot of I Zw 97 does not show any strong signature of an underlying relatively older stellar population, but the U-B vs V-I two colour diagram indicates a strong contribution of a ~500 Myr population. The age of the underlying population of Mkn 104 using the U-B vs V-I two colour diagram is estimated to be ~500 Myr. The surface brightness profile of both the galaxies can be represented well by a two-component Sersic profile consisting of a near exponential distribution and a Gaussian nuclear starburst. I Zw 97 is a cometary blue compact dwarf galaxy where the underlying low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy is a dwarf irregular observed during a major stochastic enhancement of its otherwise moderate star formation activity. Both these galaxies are very similar in their stellar content, showing an older 4 Gyr population, an intermediate 500 Myr population and the current burst of star formation of age 5-13 Myr.
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) can be captured by heavenly objects, like the Sun. Under the process of being captured by the Sun, they will build up a population of WIMPs around it, that will eventually sink to the core of the Sun. It has been argued with simpler estimates before that this halo of WIMPs around the Sun could be a strong enough gamma ray source to be a detectable signature for WIMP dark matter. We here revisit the problem using detailed Monte Carlo simulations and detailed composition and structure information about the Sun to estimate the size of the gamma ray flux. Compared to earlier estimates, we find that the gamma ray flux from WIMP annihilations in the Sun halo would be negligible and no current or planned detectors would even be able to detect this flux.
The Jodcast (www.jodcast.net) is a twice-monthly astronomy podcast from The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory. In this paper I give the motivation and history of The Jodcast, as well as a description of The Jodcast's content, operations, personnel, performance and aspirations.
We present new VLBI observations of a complete sample of Brigthest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in nearby Abell Clusters. These data show a possible difference between BCGs in cool core clusters (two-sided parsec scale jets) and in non cool core clusters (one-sided parsec scale jet). We suggest that this difference could be due to the jet interaction with the surrounding medium. More data are necessary to discuss whether parsec-scale properties of BCGs are influenced by their peculiar morphology and position at the center of rich galaxy clusters.
We announce the discovery of a new Milky Way satellite Segue 2 found in the data of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE). We followed this up with deeper imaging and spectroscopy on the Multiple Mirror Telescope. From this, we derive a luminosity of M_v = -2.5, a half-light radius of 34 pc and a systemic velocity of -40$ km/s. Our MMT data also provides evidence for a stream around Segue 2 at a similar heliocentric velocity, and the SEGUE data show that it is also present in neighboring fields. We resolve the velocity dispersion of Segue 2 as 3.4 km/s and the possible stream as about 7 km/s. This object shows points of comparison with other recent discoveries, Segue 1, Boo II and Coma. We speculate that all four objects may be representatives of a population of satellites of satellites -- survivors of accretion events that destroyed their larger but less dense parents. They are likely to have formed at redshifts z > 10 and are good candidates for fossils of the reionization epoch.
We have performed deep, wide-field imaging on a ~0.4 deg^2 field in the Pleiades (Melotte 22). The selected field was not yet target of a deep search for low mass stars and brown dwarfs. Our limiting magnitudes are R~22 mag and I~20 mag, sufficient to detect brown dwarf candidates down to 40 M_J. We found 189 objects, whose location in the (I,R-I) color magnitude diagram is consistent with the age and the distance of the Pleiades. Using CTK R and I as wel as JHK photometry from our data and the 2MASS survey we were able to identify 11 new brown dwarf candidates. We present our data reduction technique, which enables us to resample, calibrate, and co-add many images by just two steps. We estimate the interstellar extinction and the spectral type from our optical and the NIR data using a 2-dimensional chi^2 fitting.
For over four decades, synchrotron-radiating sources have played a series of pathfinding roles in the study of galaxy clusters and large scale structure. Such sources are uniquely sensitive to the turbulence and shock structures of large-scale environments, and their cosmic rays and magnetic fields often play important dynamic and thermodynamic roles. They provide essential complements to studies at other wavebands. Over the next decade, they will fill essential gaps in both cluster astrophysics and the cosmological growth of structure in the universe, especially where the signatures of shocks and turbulence, or even the underlying thermal plasma itself, are otherwise undetectable. Simultaneously, synchrotron studies offer a unique tool for exploring the fundamental question of the origins of cosmic magnetic fields. This work will be based on the new generation of m/cm-wave radio telescopes now in construction, as well as major advances in the sophistication of 3-D MHD simulations.
We present a new grid of stellar models and isochrones for old stellar populations, covering a large range of [Fe/H] values, for an heavy element mixture characterized by CNONa abundance anticorrelations as observed in Galactic globular cluster stars. The effect of this metal abundance pattern on the evolutionary properties of low mass stars, from the main sequence to the horizontal branch phase is analyzed. We perform comparisons between these new models, and our reference alpha-enhanced calculations, and discuss briefly implications for CMDs showing multiple main sequence or subgiant branches. A brief qualitative discussion of the effect of CN abundances on color-T_{eff} transformations is also presented, highlighting the need to determine theoretical color transformations for the appropriate metal mixture, if one wants to interpret observations in the Stroemgren system, or broadband filters blueward of the Johnson V-band.
We derive general equations for axisymmetric Newtonian MHD and use these as the basis of a code for calculating equilibrium configurations of rotating magnetised neutron stars in a stationary state. We investigate the field configurations that result from our formalism, which include purely poloidal, purely toroidal and mixed fields. For the mixed-field formalism the toroidal component appears to be bounded at less than 7%. We calculate distortions induced both by magnetic fields and by rotation. From our non-linear work we are able to look at the realm of validity of perturbative work: we find for our results that perturbative-regime formulae for magnetic distortions agree to within 10% of the nonlinear results if the ellipticity is less than 0.15 or the average field strength is less than $10^{17}$ G. We also consider how magnetised equilibrium structures vary for different polytropic indices.
We present a detailed analysis of all archival INTEGRAL data of the accreting X-ray pulsar Vela X-1. We extracted lightcurves in several energy bands from 20 keV up to 60 keV. The lightcurves show that the source was found in very active as well as quiet states. During the active states several giant flares were detected. For these states spectra between 5 keV and 120 keV were obtained. The spectra of the active states were found to be significantly softer than those from the quiet states. We performed a statistical analysis of the flaring behavior. The resulting log-normal distribution of the intensity of Vela X-1 shows that the source spends most of the time at an average flux level of 300 mCrab but also that the distribution extends well up to more than 2.0 Crab.
In this paper we will show that, the non-gaussian statistics framework based on the Kaniadakis statistics is more appropriate to fit the observed distributions of projected rotational velocity measurements of stars in the Pleiades open cluster. To this end, we compare the results from the $\kappa$ and $q$-distributions with the Maxwellian.
We present a Bayesian sampling algorithm called adaptive importance sampling or Population Monte Carlo (PMC), whose computational workload is easily parallelizable and thus has the potential to considerably reduce the wall-clock time required for sampling, along with providing other benefits. To assess the performance of the approach for cosmological problems, we use simulated and actual data consisting of CMB anisotropies, supernovae of type Ia, and weak cosmological lensing, and provide a comparison of results to those obtained using state-of-the-art Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). For both types of data sets, we find comparable parameter estimates for PMC and MCMC, with the advantage of a significantly lower computational time for PMC. In the case of WMAP5 data, for example, the wall-clock time reduces from several days for MCMC to a few hours using PMC on a cluster of processors. Other benefits of the PMC approach, along with potential difficulties in using the approach, are analysed and discussed.
We present an in-depth analysis of the spectral and temporal behavior of a long almost uninterrupted INTEGRAL observation of Vela X-1 in Nov/Dec 2003. In addition to an already high activity level, Vela X-1 exhibited several very intense flares with a maximum intensity of more than 5 Crab in the 20-40 keV band. Furthermore Vela X-1 exhibited several off states where the source became undetectable with ISGRI. We interpret flares and off states as being due to the strongly structured wind of the optical companion: when Vela X-1 encounters a cavity in the wind with strongly reduced density, the flux drops, thus potentially triggering the onset of the propeller effect which inhibits further accretion, thus giving rise to the off states. The required drop in density to trigger the propeller effect in Vela X-1 is of the same order as predicted by theoretical papers for the densities in the OB star winds. The same structured wind can give rise to the giant flares when Vela X-1 encounters a dense blob in the wind. Further temporal analysis reveals that a short lived QPO with a period of ~6800 sec is present. The part of the light curve during which the QPO is present is very close to the off states and just following a high intensity state, thus showing that all these phenomena are related.
We present new radio and X-ray observations of Abell 262. The X-ray residual image provides the first evidence of an X-ray tunnel in this system while the radio data reveal that the central radio source is more than three times larger than previously known. We find that the well-known cluster-center S-shaped radio source B2 0149+35 is surrounded by extended emission to the east and south-west. The south-western extension is co-spatial with the X-ray tunnel seen in our new Chandra images while the eastern extension shows three clumps of emission with the innermost coincident with a faint X-ray cavity. The outer two eastern radio extensions are coincident with a newly detected X-ray depression. We use the projected separation of the emission regions to estimate a lower limit of tau_rep=28 Myr to the outburst repetition timescale of the central AGN. The total energy input into the cluster over multiple outburst episodes is estimated to be 2.2x 10^{58} ergs, more than an order of magnitude larger than previously thought. The total AGN energy output determined from our new observations shows that the source should be capable of offsetting radiative cooling over several outburst episodes.
We have analyzed the double-lined eclipsing binary system OGLE-051019.64-685812.3 in the LMC which consists of two G4 giant components with very similar effective temperatures. A detailed analysis of the OGLE I-band light curve of the system, radial velocity curves for both components derived from high-resolution spectra, and near-infrared magnitudes of the binary system measured outside the eclipses has allowed us to obtain an accurate orbit solution for this eclipsing binary, and its fundamental physical parameters. Using a surface brightness-(V-K) color relation for giant stars we have calculated the distance to the system and obtain a true distance modulus of 18.50 mag, with an estimated total uncertainty of ~ 3 %. More similar eclipsing binary systems in the LMC which we have discovered and for which we are currently obtaining the relevant data will allow us to better check on the systematics of the method and eventually provide a distance determination to the LMC accurate to 1 percent, so much needed for the calibration of the distance scale.
The need for purely laboratory-based light pseudoscalar particles searches has been emphasized many times in the literature, since astrophysical bounds on these particles rely on several assumptions to calculate the flux produced in stellar plasmas. In this paper we study the use of light from synchrotron accelerators as a source for a photon regeneration experiment also know as "light shining through a wall". Such an experiment can significantly improve present limits on the pseudoscalar particle mass and the pseudoscalar-photon coupling constant obtained from laser experiments. This is possible even using a small number of powerful magnets (B = 10 T), due to the large incident photon flux. On the other hand, the use of a broadband incident photon-beam instead of infrared or optical lasers allows a significant improvement in the mass reach of the experiment (it is possible to test masses up to 0.01 eV without a drop in sensitivity). Large, but still feasible, configurations can explore in a quite model-independent way a large part of the parameter space examined by solar searches and HB stars in globular clusters. Additionally, the proposal may be useful for testing string motivated effective theories containing light and weakly interacting particles.
We study the production of sterile neutrinos in the region $T\sim M_W$ in an extension beyond the standard model with the see-saw mass matrix originating in Yukawa couplings to Higgs-like scalars with masses and vev's of the order of the electroweak scale. Sterile neutrinos are produced by the decay of scalars and standard model vector bosons. We obtain the index of refraction, dispersion relations, mixing angles in the medium and production rates including those for right-handed sterile neutrinos, from the standard model and beyond the standard model self-energies. For $1 \lesssim M_W/T \lesssim 3$ we find narrow MSW resonances with $k \lesssim T$ for both left and right handed neutrinos even in absence of a lepton asymmetry in the (active) neutrino sector, as well as very low energy ($k/T \ll |\xi|$) narrow MSW resonances in the presence of a lepton asymmetry consistent with the bounds from WMAP and BBN. For small vacuum mixing angle, consistent with observational bounds, the absorptive part of the self-energies lead to a strong damping regime very near the resonances resulting in the \emph{exact} degeneracy of the propagating modes with a concomitant breakdown of adiabaticity. We argue that cosmological expansion sweeps through the resonances, \emph{resonant and non-resonant} sterile neutrino production results in a highly \emph{non-thermal} distribution function enhanced at small momentum $k < T$, with potentially important consequences for their free streaming length and transfer function at small scales.
We use the power-counting formalism of effective field theory to study the size of loop corrections in theories of slow-roll inflation, with the aim of more precisely identifying the limits of validity of the usual classical inflationary treatments. We keep our analysis as general as possible in order to systematically identify the most important corrections to the classical inflaton dynamics. Although most slow-roll models lie within the semiclassical domain, we find the consistency of the Higgs-Inflaton scenario to be more delicate due to the proximity between the Hubble scale during inflation and the upper bound allowed by unitarity on the new-physics scale associated with the breakdown of the semiclassical approximation within the effective theory. Similar remarks apply to curvature-squared inflationary models.
Motivated by the recent PAMELA and ATIC results, we calculate the electron and positron fluxes from the decay of lightest-superparticle (LSP) dark matter. We assume that the LSP is the dominant component of dark matter, and consider the case that the R-parity is very weakly violated so that the lifetime of the LSP becomes of the order of 10^26 sec. We will see that, with such a choice of the lifetime, the cosmic-ray electron and positron from the decay can be the source of the anomalous electron and positron fluxes observed by PAMELA and ATIC. We consider the possibilities that the LSP is the gravitino, the lightest neutralino, and scalar neutrino, and discuss how the resultant fluxes depend on the dark-matter model. We also discuss the fluxes of gamma-ray and anti-proton, and show that those fluxes can be consistent with the observed value in the parameter region where the PAMELA and ATIC anomalies are explained.
We perform a study to describe motion of charged particles under the influence of electromagnetic and gravitational fields of a slowly rotating wormhole with nonvanishing magnetic moment. We present analytic expression for potentials of electromagnetic field for an axially symmetric slowly rotating magnetized wormholes. While addressing important issues regarding the subject, we compare our results of motion around black holes and wormholes in terms of the ratio of radii of event horizons of a black hole and of the throat of a wormhole. It is shown that both radial and circular motions of test bodies in the vicinity of a magnetized wormhole could give rise to a peculiar observational astrophysical phenomenon.
The description of the inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object into a massive black hole sitting at a galactic centre is a problem of major relevance for the future space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), as the signals from these systems will be buried in the data stream and accurate gravitational-wave templates will be needed to extract them. The main difficulty in describing these systems lies in the estimation of the gravitational effects of the stellar-mass compact object on his own trajectory around the massive black hole, which can be modeled as the action of a local force, the self-force. In this paper, we present a new time-domain numerical method for the computation of the self-force in a simplified model consisting of a charged scalar particle orbiting a nonrotating black hole. We use a multi-domain framework in such a way that the particle is located at the interface between two domains so that the presence of the particle and its physical effects appear only through appropriate boundary conditions. In this way we eliminate completely the presence of a small length scale associated with the need of resolving the particle. This technique also avoids the problems associated with the impact of a low differentiability of the solution in the accuracy of the numerical computations. The spatial discretization of the field equations is done by using the pseudospectral collocation method and the time evolution, based on the method of lines, uses a Runge-Kutta solver. We show how this special framework can provide very efficient and accurate computations in the time domain, which makes the technique amenable for the intensive computations required in the astrophysically-relevant scenarios for LISA.
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We have measured the surface magnetic flux on four accreting young brown dwarfs and one non-accreting young very low-mass star utilizing high resolution spectra of absorption lines of the FeH molecule. A magnetic field of 1-2 kG had been proposed for one of the brown dwarfs, 2MASS J1207334$-$393254, because of its similarities to higher mass T Tauri stars as manifested in accretion and the presence of a jet. We do not find clear evidence for a kilo-Gauss field in any of our young brown dwarfs but do find a 2 kG field on the young VLM star. Our 3-$\sigma$ upper limit for the magnetic flux in 2MASS J1207334$-$393254 just reaches 1 kG. We estimate the magnetic field required for accretion in young brown dwarfs given the observed rotations, and find that fields of only a few hundred Gauss are sufficient for magnetospheric accretion. This predicted value is less than our observed upper limit. We conclude that magnetic fields in young brown dwarfs are a factor of five or more lower than in young stars of about one solar mass, and in older stars with spectral types similar to our young brown dwarfs. It is interesting that, during the first few million years, the fields scale down with mass in line with what is needed for magnetospheric accretion, yet no such scaling is observed at later ages within the same effective temperature range. This scaling is opposite to the trend in rotation, with shorter rotation periods for very young accreting brown dwarfs compared with accreting solar-mass objects (and very low Rossby numbers in all cases). We speculate that in young objects a deeper intrinsic connection may exist between magnetospheric accretion and magnetic field strength, or that magnetic field generation in brown dwarfs may be less efficient than in stars. Neither of these currently have an easy physical explanation.
MWC 778 is an unusual and little-studied young stellar object located in the
IC 2144 nebula. Recent spectroscopy by Herbig and Vacca (2008) suggested the
presence of an edge-on circumstellar disk around it. We present near-infrared
adaptive optics imaging polarimetry and mid-infrared imaging which directly
confirm the suspected nearly-edge-on disk around MWC 778 (i ~ 70-80 degrees)
plus reveal a more extensive envelope pierced by bipolar outflow cavities. In
addition, our mid-infrared images and near-infrared polarization maps detect a
spiral-shaped structure surrounding MWC 778, with arms that extend beyond 6" on
either side of the star.
Although MWC 778 has previously been classified as an Herbig Ae/Be star, the
properties of its central source (including its spectral type) remain fairly
uncertain. Herbig & Vacca (2008) suggested an F or G spectral type based on the
presence of metallic absorption lines in the optical spectrum, which implies
that MWC 778 may belong to the fairly rare class of Intermediate-Mass T Tauri
Stars (IMTTSs) which are the evolutionary precursors to Herbig Ae/Be objects.
Yet its integrated bolometric luminosity, > 750 L_sun (for an assumed distance
of 1 kpc) is surprisingly high for an F or G spectral type, even for an IMTTS.
We speculate on several possible explanations for this discrepancy, including
its true distance being much closer than 1 kpc, the presence of a binary
companion, and/or a non-stellar origin for the observed absorption lines.
We present here HST NICMOS F110W and F160W observations of Haumea, and its two satellites Hi'iaka and Namaka. From the measured (F110W-F160W) colours of -1.209 +/-0.004, -1.48 +/- 0.06, and -1.4 +/- 0.2 mag for each object, respectively, we infer that the 1.6 imcron water-ice absorption feature depths on Hi'iaka and Namaka are at least as deep as that of Haumea. The light-curve of Haumea is detected in both filters, and we find that the infrared colour is bluer by approximately 2-3% at the phase of the red spot. These observations suggest that the satellites of Haumea were formed from the collision that produced the Haumea collisional family.
We report the detection of luminous CO(3-2) line emission in the halo of the z=2.6 radio galaxy (HzRG) TXS0828+193, which has no detected counterpart at optical to mid-infrared wavelengths implying a stellar mass < few x10^9 M_sun and relatively low star-formation rates. With the IRAM PdBI we find two CO emission line components at the same position at ~80 kpc distance from the HzRG along the axis of the radio jet, with different blueshifts of few 100 km s^-1 relative to the HzRG and a total luminosity of ~2x10^10 K km s^-1 pc^2 detected at 8 sigma significance. HzRGs have significant galaxy overdensities and extended halos of metal-enriched gas often with embedded clouds or filaments of denser material, and likely trace very massive dark-matter halos. The CO emission may be associated with a gas-rich, low-mass satellite galaxy with little on-going star formation, in contrast to all previous CO detections of galaxies at similar redshifts. Alternatively, the CO may be related to a gas cloud or filament and perhaps jet-induced gas cooling in the outer halo, somewhat in analogy with extended CO emission found in low-redshift galaxy clusters.
The discovery that the cosmic expansion is accelerating has been followed by an intense theoretical and experimental response in physics and astronomy. The discovery implies that our most basic notions about how gravity work are violated on cosmological distance scales. One simple fix is the introduction of a cosmological constant into the field equations for general relativity. However, the extremely small value of the cosmological constant, relative to theoretical expectations, has led theorists to explore a wide variety of alternative explanations that involve the introduction of an exotic negative-pressure fluid or a modification of general relativity. Here we briefly review the evidence for cosmic acceleration. We then survey some of the theoretical attempts to account for it, including the cosmological constant, quintessence and its variants, mass-varying neutrinos, and modifications of general relativity, such as scalar-tensor and $f(R)$ theories and braneworld scenarios. We discuss experimental and observational tests that may allow us to distinguish between some of the theoretical ideas that have been put forward.
In this letter we study the observed distributions of rotational velocity in a sample of more than 16,000 nearby F and G dwarf stars, magnitude complete and presenting high precision $Vsin i$ measurements. We show that the velocity distributions cannot be fitted by a maxwellian. On the other hand, an analysis based on both Tsallis and Kaniadakis power-law statistics is by far the most appropriate statistics and give a very good fit. It is also shown that single and binary stars have similar rotational distributions. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that these two new statistics are tested for the rotation of such a large sample of stars, pointing solidly to a solution of the puzzling problem on the function governing the distribution of stellar rotational velocity
Inhomogeneous recombination can give rise to perturbations in the electron number density which can be a factor of five larger than the perturbations in baryon density. We do a thorough analysis of the second order anisotropies generated in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) due to perturbations in the electron number density. We show that solving the second order Boltzmann equation for photons is equivalent to solving the first + second order Boltzmann equations and then taking the second order part of the solution. We find the approximate solution to the photon Boltzmann hierarchy in l modes and show that the contributions from inhomogeneous recombination to the second order monopole, dipole and quadrupole are numerically small. We also point out that arriving at the second order solution by perturbing the electron number density in the first order solution is incorrect and cannot be used to guess the magnitude of contribution to CMB anisotropy from inhomogeneous recombination. Finally we confirm our result in a previous paper that inhomogeneous recombination gives rise to a local type non-gaussianity parameter fNL of magnitude less than one. Also the shape of the bispectrum is sufficiently similar to the primordial bispectrum of local type that this result also implies the undetectablity of this effect by the Planck CMB experiment.
The magnetospheric emissions from extrasolar planets represent a science frontier for the next decade. All of the solar system giant planets and the Earth produce radio emissions as a result of interactions between their magnetic fields and the solar wind. In the case of the Earth, its magnetic field may contribute to its habitability by protecting its atmosphere from solar wind erosion and by preventing energetic particles from reaching its surface. Indirect evidence for at least some extrasolar giant planets also having magnetic fields includes the modulation of emission lines of their host stars phased with the planetary orbits, likely due to interactions between the stellar and planetary magnetic fields. If magnetic fields are a generic property of giant planets, then extrasolar giant planets should emit at radio wavelengths allowing for their direct detection. Existing observations place limits comparable to the flux densities expected from the strongest emissions. Additional sensitivity at low radio frequencies coupled with algorithmic improvements likely will enable a new means of detection and characterization of extrasolar planets within the next decade.
In the currently-favored paradigm of planet formation, the location of the snow line in the protoplanetary disk plays a crucial role. Determining the demographics of planets beyond the snow line of stars of various masses is thus essential for testing this model. Microlensing is sensitive to planets that are generally inaccessible to other methods, and in particular is most sensitive to cool planets at or beyond the snow line, including very low-mass (i.e. terrestrial) planets. Hence, microlensing is uniquely suited and so essential for a comprehensive study of this region. Microlensing is also sensitive to planets orbiting low-mass stars, free-floating planets, planets in the Galactic bulge and disk, and even planets in external galaxies. These planets can also provide critical constraints on models of planet formation. Although microlensing searches have so far detected only a handful of planets, these have already changed our understanding of planet formation beyond the snow line. Next generation microlensing surveys, which would be sensitive to tens of "cold Earths" in this region, are well advanced in design conception and are starting initial practical implementation.
We present the first large-scale mosaic performed with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) in the Galactic center. We have produced a 25-pointing mosaic, covering a ~2' x 2' area around Sgr A*. We have detected emission from two high-density molecular tracers, HCN(4-3) and CS(7-6), the latter never before reported in this region. The data have an angular resolution of 4.6" x 3.1", and the spectral window coverage is from -180 km/s to 1490 km/s for HCN(4-3) and from -1605 km/s to 129 km/s for CS(7-6). Both molecular tracers present a very clumpy distribution along the circumnuclear disk (CND), and are detected with a high signal-to-noise ratio in the southern part of the CND, while they are weaker towards the northern part. Assuming that the clumps are as close to the Galactic center as their projected distances, they are still dense enough to be gravitationally stable against the tidal shear produced by the supermassive black hole. Therefore, the CND is a non-transient structure. This geometrical distribution of both tracers suggests that the southern part of the CND is denser than the northern part. Also, by comparing the HCN(4-3) results with HCN(1-0) results we can see that the northern and the southern parts of the CND have different excitation levels, with the southern part warmer than the northern. Finally, we compare our results with those obtained with the detection of NH3, which traces the warmer and less dense material detected in the inner cavity of the CND. We suggest that we are detecting the origin point where a portion of the CND becomes destabilized and approaches the dynamical center of the Milky Way, possibly being impacted by the southern streamer and heated on its way inwards.
A new chemical model is presented for the carbon-rich circumstellar envelope of the AGB star IRC+10216. The model includes shells of matter with densities that are enhanced relative to the surrounding circumstellar medium. The chemical model uses an updated reaction network including reactions from the RATE06 database and a more detailed anion chemistry. In particular, new mechanisms are considered for the formation of CN-, C3N- and C2H-, and for the reactions of hydrocarbon anions with atomic nitrogen and with the most abundant cations in the circumstellar envelope. New reactions involving H- are included which result in the production of significant amounts of C2H- and CN- in the inner envelope. The calculated radial molecular abundance profiles for the hydrocarbons C2H, C4H and C6H and the cyanopolyynes HC3N and HC5N show narrow peaks which are in better agreement with observations than previous models. Thus, the narrow rings observed in molecular microwave emission surrounding IRC+10216 are interpreted as arising in regions of the envelope where the gas and dust densities are greater than the surrounding circumstellar medium. Our models show that CN- and C2H- may be detectable in IRC+10216 despite the very low theorised radiative electron attachment rates of their parent neutral species. We also show that magnesium isocyanide (MgNC) can be formed in the outer envelope through radiative association involving Mg+ and the cyanopolyyne species.
We calculate the bispectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies induced by the second-order fluctuations in the Boltzmann equation. In this paper, which is one of a series of papers on the numerical calculation of the bispectrum from the second-order fluctuations, we consider the terms that are products of the first-order perturbations, and leave intrinsically second-order terms and perturbations in the recombination history to the subsequent papers. We show that the bispectrum has the maximum signal in the squeezed triangles, similar to the local-type primordial bispectrum, as both types generate non-linearities via products of the first-order terms in position space. However, detailed calculations show that their shapes are sufficiently different: the cross-correlation coefficient reaches 0.5 at the maximum multipole of l_{max}~ 200, and then weakens to 0.3 at l_{max}~ 2000. The differences in shape arise from (i) the way the acoustic oscillations affect the bispectrum, and (ii) the second-order effects not being scale-invariant. This implies that the contamination of the primordial bispectrum due to the second-order effects (from the products of the first-order terms) is small. The expected signal-to-noise ratio of the products of the first-order terms is ~ 0.4 at l_{max}~ 2000 for a full-sky, cosmic variance limited experiment. We therefore conclude that the products of the first-order terms may be safely ignored in the analysis of the future CMB experiments. The expected contamination of the local-form f_{NL} is f^{local}_{NL}~ 0.9 at l_{max}~ 200, and f^{local}_{NL}~ 0.5 at l_{max}~ 2000.
Context: We present the physical and chemical properties of intermediate-mass
stars models of low metallicity, evolved along the thermal pulse phase.
Aims: The target of this work is to extend to low metallicities, Z=1,2 and 6
x 10^{-4}, the models previously computed for chemistries typical of Globular
Clusters of an intermediate metallicity (Z=0.001), and for the most metal-rich
clusters found in our Galaxy (Z=0.004); the main goal is to test the
self-enrichment scenario also for metal poor Globular Clusters
Methods: We calculated three grids of intermediate-mass models with
metallicities Z=10^{-4}, 2x10^{-4}, and 6x10^{-4}; the evolutionary sequences
are followed from the pre-main sequence throughout the AGB phase, almost until
the ejection of the whole envelope. We discuss the chemistry of the ejecta, and
in particular the mass fractions of those elements that have been investigated
during the many, deep, spectrocopic surveys of Globular Clusters
Results: Although the data for oxygen and sodium are scarce for low
metallicity Globular Clusters, the few data for the unevolved stars in NGC6397
are compatible with the models. Further, we find good agreement with the C--N
anticorrelation of unevolved stars in the cluster M15. In this cluster,
however, no stars having low oxygen ([O/Fe] = -1) have been detected. The most
massive, very metal poor clusters, should contain such stars, according to the
present models. At the lowest metallicity Z=10^{-4}, the ejecta of the most
massive AGBs have C/O>1, due to the dramatic decrease of the oxygen abundance.
We discuss the possible implications of this prediction.
How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and
polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the
evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address
everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star
formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track
the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass.
We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky
can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in
microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose
telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and
the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new
generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in
the planning stages.
By examining the absolute magnitude (H) distributions (hereafter HD) of the cold and hot populations in the Kuiper belt and of the Trojans of Jupiter, we find evidence that the Trojans have been captured from the outer part of the primordial trans-Neptunian planetesimal disk. We develop a sketch model of the HDs in the inner and outer parts of the disk that is consistent with the observed distributions and with the dynamical evolution scenario known as the `Nice model'. This leads us to predict that the HD of hot population should have the same slope of the HD of the cold population for 6.5 < H < 9, both as steep as the slope of the Trojans' HD. Current data partially support this prediction, but future observations are needed to clarify this issue. Because the HD of the Trojans rolls over at H~9 to a collisional equilibrium slope that should have been acquired when the Trojans were still embedded in the primordial trans-Neptunian disk, our model implies that the same roll-over should characterize the HDs of the Kuiper belt populations, in agreement with the results of Bernstein et al. (2004) and Fuentes and Holman (2008). Finally, we show that the constraint on the total mass of the primordial trans-Neptunian disk imposed by the Nice model implies that it is unlikely that the cold population formed beyond 35 AU.
We have developed a grid of chemical evolution models applied to dwarf isolated galaxies, using \cite{gav05} yields. The input data enclose different star formation efficiencies, galaxy mass and collapse time values. The result is a wide collection of solutions that vary from objects with low metallicity and great amount of gas, to those with little gas and high metallicity. No environmental effects like tidal or galactic winds have been treated, so these objects are expected to be close to field dwarf galaxies, more than cluster ones. We have studied the time evolution of the abundance of oxygen and nitrogen and the amount of gas, related to their star formation history, as well as the possibility of gas losses by SN winds.
High mass star formation and the evolution of HII regions have a substantial impact on the morphology and star formation history of molecular clouds. The HII region Gum 48d, located in the Centaurus Arm at a distance of 3.5 kpc, is an old, well evolved HII region whose ionizing stars have moved off the main sequence. As such, it represents a phase in the evolution of HII regions that is less well studied than the earlier, more energetic, main sequence phase. In this paper we use multi-wavelength archive data from a variety of sources to perform a detailed study of this interesting region. Morphologically, Gum 48d displays a ring-like faint HII region associated with diffuse emission from the associated PDR, and is formed from part of a large, massive molecular cloud complex. There is extensive ongoing star formation in the region, at scales ranging from low to high mass, which is consistent with triggered star formation scenarios. We investigate the dynamical history and evolution of this region, and conclude that the original HII region was once larger and more energetic than the faint region currently seen. The proposed history of this molecular cloud complex is one of multiple, linked generations of star formation, over a period of 10 Myr. Gum 48d differs significantly in morphology and star formation that the other HII regions in the molecular cloud; these differences are likely the result of the advanced age of the region, and its different evolutionary status.
AIMS:The aim of this paper is to study the characteristics of the stellar populations and the metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge. We study the entire stellar population, but also retrieve information using only the red clump stars. METHODS: To study the characteristics of the stellar populations and the metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge, we compared the output of the galaxy model TRILEGAL, which implements the Binney et al. (1997) bulge model, with observations from 2MASS and OGLE-II. A minimisation procedure has been set up to retrieve the best fitting model with different stellar populations and metallicity distributions. RESULTS: Using the TRILEGAL code we find that the best model resembling the characteristics of the Galactic bulge is a model with the distance to the Galactic centre $R_0 = 8.7\pm^{0.57}_{0.43}$ kpc, the major axis ratios of the bar $1:\eta:\zeta = 1 : 0.68\pm_{0.19}^{0.05} : 0.31\pm_{0.04}^{0.06}$, and the angle between the Sun-centre line and the bar $\phi = 15\deg\pm_{12.7}^{13.3}$. Using these parameters the best model is found for a burst of 8 Gyr, although it is almost indistinguishable from models with ages of 9 and 10 Gyr. The metallicity distribution found is consistent with metallicity distributions in the literature based on spectroscopic results.
The nonlinear theory of driven magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) waves in strongly anisotropic and dispersive plasmas, developed for slow resonance by Clack and Ballai [Phys. Plasmas, 15, 2310 (2008)] and Alfv\'en resonance by Clack \emph{et al.} [A&A,494, 317 (2009)], is used to study the weakly nonlinear interaction of fast magnetoacoustic (FMA) waves in a one-dimensional planar plasma. The magnetic configuration consists of an inhomogeneous magnetic slab sandwiched between two regions of semi-infinite homogeneous magnetic plasmas. Laterally driven FMA waves penetrate the inhomogeneous slab interacting with the localized slow or Alfv\'{e}n dissipative layer and are partly reflected, dissipated and transmitted by this region. The nonlinearity parameter defined by Clack and Ballai (2008) is assumed to be small and a regular perturbation method is used to obtain analytical solutions in the slow dissipative layer. The effect of dispersion in the slow dissipative layer is to further decrease the coefficient of energy absorption, compared to its standard weakly nonlinear counterpart, and the generation of higher harmonics in the outgoing wave in addition to the fundamental one. The absorption of external drivers at the Alfv\'{e}n resonance is described within the linear MHD with great accuracy.
The production of acoustic signals from the interactions of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic ray neutrinos in water and ice has been studied. A new computationally fast and efficient method of deriving the signal is presented. This method allows the implementation of up to date parameterisations of acoustic attenuation in sea water and ice that now includes the effects of complex attenuation, where appropriate. The methods presented here have been used to compute and study the properties of the acoustic signals which would be expected from such interactions. A matrix method of parameterising the signals, which includes the expected fluctuations, is also presented. These methods are used to generate the expected signals that would be detected in acoustic UHE neutrino telescopes.
One of the most striking features predicted by standard models of galaxy formation is the presence of anti-correlations in the matter distribution at large enough scales ($r>r_c$). Simple arguments show that the location of the length-scale $r_c$, marking the transition from positive to negative correlations, is the same for any class of objects as for the full matter distribution, i.e. it is invariant under biasing. Considering several main-galaxy and luminous-red-galaxy volume-limited samples of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we measure, with the standard methods, that the redshift-space galaxy two-point correlation function remains positive at scales $>250$ Mpc/h, while in the concordance LCDM it should be negative beyond $r_c\approx 120$ Mpc/h. However we show that the large scale behavior of $\xi(r)$ is affected by systematic volume-dependent effects which make the detection of correlations to be only an estimate of a lower limit of their amplitude, spatial extension and statistical errors. We also show that because of the same systematic effects, the scale signaling the real space counterpart of the baryon acoustic oscillations is located, if present at all, at scales larger than 250 Mpc/h. These results are challenging for any model of structure formation.
The A7 star Altair is one of the hottest magnetically active stars. Its proximity to the Sun allows a detailed investigation of a corona in X-rays for a star with a shallow convection zone. We used a deep XMM-Newton observation of Altair and analyzed X-ray light curves, spectra, and emission lines, investigated the temporal behavior and properties of the X-ray emitting plasma and studied the global coronal structure. We find that Altair's corona with an X-ray luminosity of L_X =1.4 x 10^27 erg/s and a very low activity level of log L_X/L_bol = -7.4, is located predominantly at low latitude regions. The X-ray emission is dominated by cool plasma (1-4 MK) at low density, and elemental abundances exhibit a solar-like FIP effect and Ne/O ratio. The X-ray brightness varies by 30 % over the observation, most likely due to rotational modulation and minor activity; in contrast, no strong flares or significant amounts of hot plasma were detected. The X-ray activity level of Altair is apparently close to the saturation level, which is reduced by roughly four orders of magnitude when compared to late-type stars. With its fast rotation, Altair provides an inefficient, but very stable dynamo that mainly operates in convective layers below its 'cooler' surface areas around the equator. This dynamo mechanism results in magnetic activity and leads to X-ray properties that are overall very similar to those of the quiescent Sun, despite very different underlying stars.
We have calculated the relativistic reflection component of the X-ray spectra of accretion disks in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our calculations have shown that the spectra can be significantly modified by the motion of the accretion flow and the gravity and rotation of the central black hole. The absorption edges in the spectra suffer severe energy shifts and smearing, and the degree of distortion depends on the system parameters, in particular, the inner radius of the accretion disk and the disk viewing inclination angles. The effects are significant. Fluorescent X-ray emission lines from the inner accretion disk could be powerful diagnostic of space-time distortion and dynamical relativistic effects near the event horizons of accreting black holes. However, improper treatment of the reflection component in fitting the X-ray continuum could give rise to spurious line-like features. These features mimic the true fluorescent emission lines and may mask their relativistic signatures. Fully relativistic models for reflection continua together with the emission lines are needed in order to extract black-hole parameters from the AGN X-ray spectra.
This thesis deals with detector concepts aiming at a precise measurement of the cosmic-ray positron fraction extending to an as yet unreached range of energy. The indirect search for dark matter is the main motivation for this endeavour.
In this chapter we discuss the X-ray radiation from relativistic accretion disks around supermassive black holes, supposed to exist in the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Our focus is on the X-ray radiation, especially in the Fe K$\alpha$ line which originates in the innermost parts of an accretion disk. Moreover, here we discuss some effects which can disturb the Fe K$\alpha$ profile and cause its rapid and irregular variability, observed in the X-ray spectra of some AGN. We will pay attention to three such effects: perturbations in the disk emissivity, absorbtion by warm absorbers and gravitational microlensing. The X-ray emission from accretion disks around non-rotating (Schwarzschild metric), as well as rotating (Kerr metric) supermassive black holes, is discussed. The X-ray radiation of AGN is probably produced in a compact region near their central supermassive black holes, and can provide us some essential information about the plasma conditions and the space-time geometry in these regions. The goal of this chapter is mainly to present a short overview of some important and recent investigations in this field.
Young Massive Clusters (YMCs) represent ideal testbeds in which to study massive stellar evolution as they contain large, coeval, chemically homogeneous, samples of massive stars. By studying YMCs with a range of ages (and hence turn-off masses), we can investigate the post main-sequence evolution of massive stars as a function of initial mass. Recent discoveries of YMCs over a range of ages within our own Galaxy - where we can successfully resolve individual stars - offers the unprecedented opportunity to test our ideas of massive stellar evolution. Here, I review some of the recent works in this field, and describe how we can use YMCs to investigate several topics, including (a) the evolutionary state of H-rich Wolf-Rayet stars; (b) the influence of binarity on stellar evolution in dense clusters; and (c) Red Supergiants and the post-supernova remnants they leave behind.
The possible role of a first order QCD phase transition at nonvanishing quark chemical potential and temperature for cold neutron stars and for supernovae is delineated. For cold neutron stars, we use the NJL model with nonvanishing color superconducting pairing gaps, which describes the phase transition to the 2SC and the CFL quark matter phases at high baryon densities. We demonstrate that these two phase transitions can both be present in the core of neutron stars and that they lead to the appearance of a third family of solution for compact stars. In particular, a core of CFL quark matter can be present in stable compact star configurations when slightly adjusting the vacuum pressure to the onset of the chiral phase transition from the hadronic model to the NJL model. We show that a strong first order phase transition can have strong impact on the dynamics of core collapse supernovae. If the QCD phase transition sets in shortly after the first bounce, a second outgoing shock wave can be generated which leads to an explosion. The presence of the QCD phase transition can be read off from the neutrino and antineutrino signal of the supernova.
Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs), produced from material expelled in galactic interactions, are well--suited to test the laws of star formation (SF) due to their simple structure, high metallicity -- making CO a reliable tracer of the molecular gas content -- and recent SF. Here, we study the conditions for the onset of SF and for the rate at which SF proceeds once above a threshold in a small sample of TDGs. We use data for the gas (atomic and molecular) surface density and SF rate per area to test the laws of SF found for spiral and dwarf galaxies in this more extreme environment. We find in general a good agreement with the Schmidt law found for the total gas and for the molecular gas but note that higher resolution CO observations are necessary to clarify some possible discrepancies. We find, down to a scale of $\sim$1 kpc, in general a good agreement between the peaks of SF and of the molecular gas, but also find in some objects surprisingly large quantities of molecular gas at places where no SF is occuring. A high column density of molecular gas is therefore not a sufficient condition for the onset of SF. We find that the kinematical properties of the gas are also relevant: in two objects our observations showed that SF only occured in regions with a narrow line width.
We redetermine the relationship between absolute magnitude and orbital period
for dwarf novae, based on 46 stars with good or excellent distance estimates.
This improves upon Warner's previous relation, building upon today's improved
estimates of distance and binary inclination, and greater wavelength coverage.
This calibration is then applied to a set of 210 known or likely dwarf novae,
to study the dependence of quiescent M_v, and time-averaged M_v, on orbital
period. The resultant M_v(P_orb) curves appear to establish the existence of a
lower branch of cataclysmic-variable evolution, resembling the previously known
q(P_orb) relation. Stars on the lower branch seem to have the expected
properties of "period bouncers" -- with a feeble secondary, faint accretion
light, cool white dwarf, and long recurrence time between eruptions. They may
also have higher velocities, consistent with a greater age. Some are very
nearby, despite strong selection effects discriminating against the discovery
of these faint stars accreting at very low rates. Period bouncers appear to be
very common, and probably would dominate a complete census of cataclysmic
variables.
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now...
-- Dylan (1965)
Zeeman-Doppler Imaging (ZDI) is a powerful inversion method to reconstruct stellar magnetic surface fields. The reconstruction process is usually solved by translating the inverse problem into a regularized least-square or optimization problem. In this contribution we will emphasize that ZDI is an inherent non-linear problem and the corresponding regularized optimization is, like many non-linear problems, potentially prone to local minima. We show how this problem will be exacerbated by using an inadequate forward model. To facilitate a more consistent full radiative transfer driven approach to ZDI we describe a two-stage strategy that consist of a principal component analysis (PCA) based line profile reconstruction and a fast approximate polarized radiative transfer method to synthesize local Stokes profiles. Moreover, we introduce a novel statistical inversion method based on artificial neural networks (ANN) which provide a fast calculation of a first guess model and allows to incorporate better physical constraints into the inversion process.
We present Zeeman-Doppler images of the active K2 star II Peg for the years 2004 and 2007. The surface magnetic field was reconstructed with our new ZDI code "iMap" which provides a full polarized radiative transfer driven inversion to simultaneously reconstruct the surface temperature and magnetic vector field distribution. II Peg shows a remarkable large scale magnetic field structure for both years. The magnetic field is predominantly located at high latitudes and is arranged in active longitudes. A dramatic evolution in the magnetic field structure is visible for the two years, where a dominant and largely unipolar field in 2004 has developed into two distinct and large scale bipolar structures in 2007.
We present optical R-band light curves of five SDSS double QSOs (SDSS J0903+5028, SDSS J1001+5027, SDSS J1206+4332, SDSS J1353+1138, SDSS J1335+0118) obtained from monitoring at the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) between September 2005 and September 2007. We also present analytical and pixelated modeling of the observed systems. For SDSS J1206+4332, we measured the time delay to be 116 days, which, for a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid model, corresponds to a Hubble constant of 73 km/s/Mpc. Simultaneous pixeleted modeling of five other systems for which a time delay has now been previously measured at the NOT leads to H_0 = 61.5 km/s/Mpc. Finally, by comparing lightcurves of the two images of each system, suitably shifted by the predicted or observed time-delays, we found no evidence for microlensing variability over the course of the monitoring period.
We present spectroscopic observations from the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope} of six carbon-rich AGB stars in the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph) and two foreground Galactic carbon stars. The band strengths of the observed C$_2$H$_2$ and SiC features are very similar to those observed in Galactic AGB stars. The metallicities are estimated from an empirical relation between the acetylene optical depth and the strength of the SiC feature. The metallicities are higher than those of the LMC, and close to Galactic values. While the high metallicity could imply an age of around 1 Gyr, for the dusty AGB stars, the pulsation periods suggest ages in excess of 2 or 3 Gyr. We fit the spectra of the observed stars using the DUSTY radiative transfer model and determine their dust mass-loss rates to be in the range 1.0--3.3$\times 10^{-8} $M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$. The two Galactic foreground carbon-rich AGB stars are located at the far side of the solar circle, beyond the Galactic Centre. One of these two stars show the strongest SiC feature in our present Local Group sample.
The chemical compositions of stars from the Asymptotic Giant Branch are still poorly known due to the low temperatures of their atmospheres and therefore the presence of many molecular transitions hampering the analysis of atomic lines. One way to overcome this difficulty is by the study of lines in regions free from molecular contamination. We have chosen some of those regions to study the chemical abundance of the S-type star GZ Peg. Stellar parameters are derived from spectroscopic analysis and a metallicity of -0.77 dex is found. Chemical abundances of 8 elements are reported and an enhancement of s-process elements is inferred, typical to that of an S-type star.
In the next decade Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) will be used to test theories
predicting changes in the Dark Energy equation of state with time. Ultimately
this requires a dedicated space mission like JDEM. SNe Ia are mature
cosmological probes --- their limitations are well characterized, and a path to
improvement is clear. Dominant systematic errors include photometric
calibration, selection effects, reddening, and population-dependent
differences. Building on past lessons, well-controlled new surveys are poised
to make strides in these areas: the Palomar Transient Factory, Skymapper, La
Silla QUEST, Pan-STARRS, the Dark Energy Survey, LSST, and JDEM. They will
obviate historical calibrations and selection biases, and allow comparisons via
large subsamples. Some systematics follow from our ignorance of SN Ia
progenitors, which there is hope of determining with SN Ia rate studies from
0<z<4.
Aside from cosmology, SNe Ia regulate galactic and cluster chemical
evolution, inform stellar evolution, and are laboratories for extreme physics.
Essential probes of SNe Ia in these contexts include spectroscopy from the UV
to the IR, X-ray cluster and SN remnant observations, spectropolarimetry, and
advanced theoretical studies. While there are an abundance of discovery
facilities planned, there is a deficit of follow-up resources. Living in the
systematics era demands deep understanding rather than larger statistics. NOAO
ReSTAR initiative to build 2-4m telescopes would provide necessary follow-up
capability. Finally, to fully exploit LSST, well-matched wide-field
spectroscopic capabilities are desirable.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) originate from closed magnetic field regions on the Sun, which are active regions and quiescent filament regions. The energetic populations such as halo CMEs, CMEs associated with magnetic clouds, geoeffective CMEs, CMEs associated with solar energetic particles and interplanetary type II radio bursts, and shock-driving CMEs have been found to originate from sunspot regions. The CME and flare occurrence rates are found to be correlated with the sunspot number, but the correlations are significantly weaker during the maximum phase compared to the rise and declining phases. We suggest that the weaker correlation results from high-latitude CMEs from the polar crown filament regions that are not related to sunspots.
The distribution of galaxy properties in groups and clusters holds important
information on galaxy evolution and growth of structure in the Universe. While
clusters have received appreciable attention in this regard, the role of groups
as fundamental to formation of the present day galaxy population has remained
relatively unaddressed. Here we present stellar ages, metallicities and
alpha-element abundances derived using Lick indices for 67 spectroscopically
confirmed members of the NGC 5044 galaxy group with the aim of shedding light
on galaxy evolution in the context of the group environment.
We find that galaxies in the NGC 5044 group show evidence for a strong
relationship between stellar mass and metallicity, consistent with their
counterparts in both higher and lower mass groups and clusters. Galaxies show
no clear trend of age or alpha-element abundance with mass, but these data form
a tight sequence when fit simultaneously in age, metallicity and stellar mass.
In the context of the group environment, our data support the tidal disruption
of low-mass galaxies at small group-centric radii, as evident from an apparent
lack of galaxies below ~10^9 M_sun within ~100 kpc of the brightest group
galaxy. Using a joint analysis of absorption- and emission-line metallicities,
we are able to show that the star-forming galaxy population in the NGC 5044
group appears to require gas removal to explain the ~1.5 dex offset between
absorption- and emission-line metallicities observed in some cases. A
comparison with other stellar population properties suggests that this gas
removal is dominated by galaxy interactions with the hot intragroup medium.
We present a systematic study of the sub-sample of Shakhbazyan groups (SHKs) covered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release--5 (SDSS-5). SHKs probe an environment with characteristics which are intermediate between those of loose and very compact groups. Surprisingly, we found that several groups identifying algorithms (e.g. Berlind qt al. 2006, Tago et al. 2008) miss this type of structures. Using the SDSS-5 spectroscopic data and the photometric redshifts derived in D'Abrusco et al. 2007, we identified possible group members in photometric redshift space and derived, for each group, several individual properties. We also combined pointed and stacked Rosat All Sky Survey data to investigate the X-ray luminosities of these systems. Our study confirms that the majority of groups are physical entities with richness in the range 3--13 galaxies, and properties ranging between those of loose and compact groups. We confirm that SHK groups are richer in early-type galaxies than the surrounding environment and the field, as expected from the morphology-density relation and from the selection of groups of red galaxies. Furthermore, our work supports the existence of two sub-classes of structures, the first one being formed by compact and isolated groups and the second formed by extended structures. We suggest that while the first class of objects dwells in less dense regions like the outer parts of clusters or the field, possibly sharing the properties of Hickson Compact Groups, the more extended structures represent a mixture of [core+halo] configurations and cores of rich clusters. X-ray luminosities for SHKs are generally consistent with these results and with the expectations for the L_X-sigma_v relation, but also suggest the velocity dispersions reported in literature are underestimated for some of the richest systems.
The conditions for the existence and stability of cosmological power-law scaling solutions are established when the Einstein-Hilbert action is modified by the inclusion of a function of the Gauss-Bonnet curvature invariant. The general form of the action that leads to such solutions is determined for the case where the universe is sourced by a barotropic perfect fluid. It is shown by employing an equivalence between the Gauss-Bonnet action and a scalar-tensor theory of gravity that the cosmological field equations can be written as a plane autonomous system. It is found that stable scaling solutions exist when the parameters of the model take appropriate values.
We propose a cosmological scenario based on the assumption that the Standard Model possesses a large number of copies. It is demonstrated that baryons in the hidden copies of the standard model can naturally account for the dark matter. The right abundance of the hidden-sector baryons and the correct spectrum of density perturbations are simultaneously generated during modulated reheating. We show that for the natural values of inflaton coupling constants, dictated by unitarity, the dark-matter abundance is predicted to be proportional to the ratio of observed cosmological parameters: the square of the amplitude of cosmological perturbations and the baryon-to-photon number ratio.
We propose and investigate a general form of the dissipative coefficient $\Gamma=C_{\phi}T^{m}/\phi^{m-1}$ in warm inflation. We focus on discussing the strong dissipative processes $r=\Gamma/3H\gg1$ in the thermal state of approximate equilibrium. To this toy model, we give the slow-roll conditions, the amplitude and the index of the power spectrum under the general form of dissipative coefficient. Furthermore, the monomial potential and the hybrid-like potential are analyzed specifically. We conclude that the $m=0,3$ cases are worthy further investigation especially.
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