Clusters of galaxies are believed to be capable to accelerate protons at accretion shocks to energies exceeding 10^18 eV. At these energies, the losses caused by interactions of cosmic rays with photons of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) become effective and determine the maximum energy of protons and the shape of the energy spectrum in the cutoff region. The aim of this work is the study of the formation of the energy spectrum of accelerated protons at accretion shocks of galaxy clusters and of the characteristics of their broad band emission. The proton energy distribution is calculated self-consistently via a time-dependent numerical treatment of the shock acceleration process which takes into account the proton energy losses due to interactions with the CMBR. We calculate the energy distribution of accelerated protons, as well as the flux of broad-band emission produced by secondary electrons and positrons via synchrotron and inverse Compton scattering processes. We find that the downstream and upstream regions contribute almost at the same level to the emission. For the typical parameters characterising galaxy clusters, the synchrotron and IC peaks in the spectral energy distributions appear at comparable flux levels. For an efficient acceleration, the expected emission components in the X-ray and gamma-ray band are close to the detection threshold of current generation instruments, and will be possibly detected with the future generation of detectors.
We present a study of galaxy mergers and the influence of environment in the Abell 901/902 supercluster at z~0.165. We use HST ACS F606W data from the STAGES survey, COMBO-17, Spitzer 24um, and XMM-Newton X-ray data. Our analysis utilizes both a visual classification system, and quantitative CAS parameters to identify systems which show evidence of a recent or ongoing merger of mass ratio >1/10. Our results are: (1) After visual classification and minimizing the contamination from false projection pairs, we find that the merger fraction f_merge is 0.023+/-0.007. The estimated fractions of likely major mergers, likely minor mergers, and ambiguous cases are 0.01+/-0.004, 0.006+/-0.003, and 0.007+/-0.003, respectively. (2) The mergers lie outside the cluster core of radius R < 0.25 Mpc: the lack of mergers in the core is likely due to the large galaxy velocity dispersion in the core. Mergers populate the region (0.25 Mpc < R <= 2 Mpc) between the core and outskirt. In this region, the estimated frequency of mergers is similar to those seen at typical group overdensities. This suggests ongoing growth of the clusters via accretion of group and field galaxies. (3) We compare our observed merger fraction with those reported in other clusters and groups out to z~0.4. Existing data points on the merger fraction for L<= L* galaxies in clusters allow for a range of evolutionary scenarios. (4) The fraction of mergers, which lie on the blue cloud is 80%+/-18% versus 34%+/-7% for non-interacting galaxies, implying that interacting galaxies are preferentially blue. (5) The average SFR, based on UV or UV+IR data, is enhanced by a factor of ~1.5 to 2 in mergers compared to non-interacting galaxies. However, mergers in the clusters contribute only a small fraction (between 10% and 15%) of the total SFR density.(Abridged)
White dwarf-neutron star binaries generate detectable gravitational radiation. We construct Newtonian equilibrium models of corotational white dwarf-neutron star (WDNS) binaries in circular orbit and find that these models terminate at the Roche limit. At this point the binary will undergo either stable mass transfer (SMT) and evolve on a secular time scale, or unstable mass transfer (UMT), which results in the tidal disruption of the WD. The path a given binary will follow depends primarily on its mass ratio. We analyze the fate of known WDNS binaries and use population synthesis results to estimate the number of LISA-resolved galactic binaries that will undergo either SMT or UMT. We model the quasistationary SMT epoch by solving a set of simple ordinary differential equations and compute the corresponding gravitational waveforms. Finally, we discuss in general terms the possible fate of binaries that undergo UMT and construct approximate Newtonian equilibrium configurations of merged WDNS remnants. We use these configurations to assess plausible outcomes of our future, fully relativistic simulations of these systems. If sufficient WD debris lands on the NS, the remnant may collapse, whereby the gravitational waves from the inspiral, merger, and collapse phases will sweep from LISA through LIGO frequency bands. If the debris forms a disk about the NS, it may fragment and form planets.
We present a new analysis of stellar mass functions (MF) in the COSMOS field to fainter limits than has been previously probed to z~1. Neither the total nor the passive or star-forming MF can be well fit with a single Schechter function once one probes below 3e9 Msun. We observe a dip or plateau at masses ~1e10 Msun, and an upturn towards a steep faint-end slope of -1.7 at lower mass at any z<1. This bimodal nature of the MF is not solely a result of the blue/red dichotomy. The blue MF is by itself bimodal at z~1. This suggests a new dichotomy in galaxy formation that predates the appearance of the red sequence. We propose two interpretations for this bimodality. If the gas fraction increases towards lower mass, galaxies with M_baryon~1e10 Msun would shift to lower stellar masses, creating the observed dip. This would indicate a change in star formation efficiency, perhaps linked to supernovae feedback becoming much more efficient. Therefore, we investigate whether the dip is present in the baryonic (stars+gas) MF. Alternatively, the dip could be created by an enhancement of the galaxy assembly rate at ~1e11 Msun, a phenomenon that naturally arises if the baryon fraction peaks at M_halo ~1e12 Msun. In this scenario, galaxies occupying the bump around M* would be identified with central galaxies and the second fainter component having a steep faint-end slope with satellites. While the dip is apparent in the total MF at any z, it appears to shift from the blue to red population, likely as a result of transforming high-mass blue galaxies into red ones. At the same time, we detect a drastic upturn in the number of low-mass red galaxies. Their increase with time reflects a decrease in the number of blue systems and so we tentatively associate them with satellite dwarf galaxies that have undergone quenching.
One of the primary means of determining the spin of an astrophysical black hole is by actually measuring the inner radius of a surrounding accretion disk and using that to infer the spin. By comparing a number of different estimates of the inner radius from simulations of tilted accretion disks with differing black-hole spins, we show that such a procedure can give quite wrong answers. Over the range 0 <= a/M <= 0.9, we find that, for moderately thick disks (H/r ~ 0.2) with modest tilt (15 degrees), the inner radius is nearly independent of spin. This result is likely dependent on tilt, such that for larger tilts, it may even be that the inner radius would increase with increasing spin. In the opposite limit, we confirm through numerical simulations of untilted disks that, in the limit of zero tilt, the inner radius recovers approximately the expected dependence on spin.
Because cosmic superstrings generically form junctions and gauge theoretic strings typically do not, junctions may provide a signature to distinguish between cosmic superstrings and gauge theoretic cosmic strings. In cosmic microwave background anisotropy maps, cosmic strings lead to distinctive line discontinuities. String junctions lead to junctions in these line discontinuities. In turn, edge detection algorithms such as the Canny algorithm can be used to search for signatures of strings in anisotropy maps. We apply the Canny algorithm to simulated maps which contain the effects of cosmic strings with and without string junctions. The Canny algorithm produces edge maps. To distinguish between edge maps from string simulations with and without junctions, we examine the density distribution of edges and pixels crossed by edges. We find that in string simulations without Gaussian noise (such as produced by the dominant inflationary fluctuations) our analysis of the output data from the Canny algorithm can clearly distinguish between simulations with and without string junctions. In the presence of Gaussian noise at the level expected from the current bounds on the contribution of cosmic strings to the total power spectrum of density fluctuations, the distinction between models with and without junctions is more difficult. However, by carefully analyzing the data the models can still be differentiated.
Emission lines from metals offer one of the most promising ways to detect the elusive warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM; 10^5 K <T<10^7K), which is thought to contain a substantial fraction of the baryons in the low-redshift Universe. We present predictions for the soft X-ray line emission from the WHIM using a subset of cosmological simulations from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project. We use the OWLS models to test the dependence of the predicted emission on a range of physical prescriptions, such as cosmology, gas cooling and feedback from star formation and accreting black holes. Provided that metal-line cooling is taken into account, the models give surprisingly similar results, indicating that the predictions are robust. Soft X-ray lines trace the hotter part of the WHIM (T>10^6 K). We find that the OVIII 18.97 A is the strongest emission line, with a predicted maximum surface brightness of ~10^2 photon/s/cm^2/sr, but a number of other lines are only slightly weaker. All lines show a strong correlation between the intensity of the observed flux and the density and metallicity of the gas responsible for the emission. On the other hand, the potentially detectable emission consistently corresponds to the temperature at which the emissivity of the electronic transition peaks. The emission traces neither the baryonic nor the metal mass. In particular, the emission that is potentially detectable with proposed missions, traces highly overdense (rho > 10^3 rho_mean) and metal-rich (Z>Z_sun) gas in and around galaxies and groups. While soft X-ray line emission is therefore not a promising route to close the baryon budget, it does offer the exciting possibility to image the gas accreting onto and flowing out of galaxies.
We analyze the >100MeV data for 3 GRBs detected by Fermi (GRBs 080916C, 090510, 090902B) and find that these photons were generated via synchrotron emission in the external forward shock. We arrive at this conclusion by four different methods. (1) We checked the light curve and spectral behavior of the >100MeV data, and late time X-ray and optical data, and find them consistent with the closure relations for the external forward shock radiation. (2) We calculate the expected external forward shock synchrotron flux at 100MeV, and it matches the observed flux value. (3) We determine the external forward shock model parameters using the >100MeV data, and with these we calculate the expected X-ray and optical fluxes at late times (hours to days after the burst) and find these to be in good agreement with the observed data. (4) We calculate the external forward shock model parameters using only the late time X-ray, optical and radio data and from these estimate the expected flux at >100 MeV at the end of the sub-MeV burst (and at subsequent times) and find that to be entirely consistent with the high energy data obtained by Fermi/LAT. The ability of a simple external forward shock, to fit the entire data from the end of the burst (1-50s) to about a week, covering more than eight-decades in photon frequency provides compelling confirmation of the external forward shock synchrotron origin of the >100MeV radiation from these Fermi GRBs. Moreover, the parameters determined in points (3) and (4) show that the magnetic field required in these GRBs is consistent with shock-compressed magnetic field in the circum-stellar medium with pre-shocked values of a few tens of micro-Gauss.
Late X-ray flares observed in X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) suggest late central engine activities at a few minuets to hours after the burst. A few unambiguously confirmed cases of supernova associations with nearby long GRBs imply that an accompanying supernova-like component might be a common feature in all long GRB events. Those motivate us to study the interactions of a late jet, responsible for a x-ray flare, with various components in a stellar explosion responsible for a GRB. These components include a supernova shell-like ejecta, and a cocoon that was produced when the main jet producing the GRB itself was propagating through the progenitor star. We find that the interaction between the late jet and the supernova ejecta may produce a luminous (up to 10^49 erg s^-1) thermal X-ray transient lasting ~ 10 s. The interaction between the late jet and the cocoon produces synchrotron self-absorbed non-thermal emission, with the observed peak X-ray flux density at 1 keV of 0.001 micro Jy to 1 mJy and a peak optical flux density of 0.01 micro Jy to 0.1 Jy (for a red shift z= 2). The light curve due to the late jet - cocoon interaction has very small pulse-width-to-time ratio, \Delta t / t \approx 0.01 - 0.5, where t is the pulse peak time since the burst trigger. Identifying these features in current and future observations would open a new frontier in the study of GRB progenitor stars.
Using high resolution hydrodynamical simulations, we explore the spin evolution of massive dual black holes orbiting inside a circumnuclear disc, relic of a gas-rich galaxy merger. The black holes spiral inwards from initially eccentric co or counter-rotating coplanar orbits relative to the disc's rotation, and accrete gas that is carrying a net angular momentum. As the black hole mass grows, its spin changes in strength and direction due to its gravito-magnetic coupling with the small-scale accretion disc. We find that the black hole spins loose memory of their initial orientation, as accretion torques suffice to align the spins with the angular momentum of their orbit on a short timescale (<1-2 Myr). A residual off-set in the spin direction relative to the orbital angular momentum remains, at the level of <10 degrees for the case of a cold disc, and <30 degrees for a warmer disc. Alignment in a cooler disc is more effective due to the higher coherence of the accretion flow near each black hole that reflects the large-scale coherence of the disc's rotation. If the massive black holes coalesce preserving the spin directions set after formation of a Keplerian binary, the relic black hole resulting from their coalescence receives a relatively small gravitational recoil. The distribution of recoil velocities inferred from a simulated sample of massive black hole binaries has median <70 km/s much smaller than the median resulting from an isotropic distribution of spins.
Current and future weak lensing surveys will rely on photometrically estimated redshifts of very large numbers of galaxies. In this paper, we address several different aspects of the demanding photo-z performance that will be required for future experiments, such as the proposed ESA Euclid mission. It is first shown that the proposed all-sky near-infrared photometry from Euclid, in combination with anticipated ground-based photometry (e.g. PanStarrs-2 or DES) should yield the required precision in individual photo-z of sigma(z) < 0.05(1+z) at I_AB < 24.5. Simple a priori rejection schemes based on the photometry alone can be tuned to recognise objects with wildly discrepant photo-z and to reduce the outlier fraction to < 0.25% with only modest loss of otherwise usable objects. Turning to the more challenging problem of determining the mean redshift <z> of a set of galaxies to a precision of 0.002(1+z) we argue that, for many different reasons, this is best accomplished by relying on the photo-z themselves rather than on the direct measurement of <z> from spectroscopic redshifts of a representative subset of the galaxies. A simple adaptive scheme based on the statistical properties of the photo-z likelihood functions is shown to meet this stringent systematic requirement. We also examine the effect of an imprecise correction for Galactic extinction and the effects of contamination by fainter over-lapping objects in photo-z determination. The overall conclusion of this work is that the acquisition of photometrically estimated redshifts with the precision required for Euclid, or other similar experiments, will be challenging but possible. (abridged)
We study the observational signature of flux emergence in the photosphere using synthetic data from a 3D MHD simulation of the emergence of a twisted flux tube. Several stages in the emergence process are considered. At every stage we compute synthetic Stokes spectra of the two iron lines Fe I 6301.5 {\AA} and Fe I 6302.5 {\AA} and degrade the data to the spatial and spectral resolution of Hinode's SOT/SP. Then, following observational practice, we apply Milne-Eddington-type inversions to the synthetic spectra in order to retrieve various atmospheric parameters and compare the results with recent Hinode observations. During the emergence sequence, the spectral lines sample different parts of the rising flux tube, revealing its twisted structure. The horizontal component of the magnetic field retrieved from the simulations is close to the observed values. The flattening of the flux tube in the photosphere is caused by radiative cooling, which slows down the ascent of the tube to the upper solar atmosphere. Consistent with the observations, the rising magnetized plasma produces a blue shift of the spectral lines during a large part of the emergence sequence.
Current models of pulsar gamma-ray emission use the magnetic field of a rotating dipole in vacuum as a first approximation to the shape of plasma-filled pulsar magnetosphere. In this paper we revisit the question of gamma-ray light-curve formation in pulsars in order to ascertain the robustness of the "two-pole caustic" (TPC) and "outer gap" (OG) models based on the vacuum magnetic field. We point out an inconsistency in the literature on the use of the relativistic aberration formula, where in several works the vacuum field was treated as known in the instantaneously corotating frame, rather than in the laboratory frame. With the corrected formula, the TPC model using the vacuum field may no longer produce sharp peaks in the light curve. The OG model is less affected by this change, but the range of magnetic inclination angles and viewing geometries resulting in double-peaked light curves is reduced. In a realistic magnetosphere, the modification of field structure near the light cylinder due to plasma effects may change the shape of the polar cap and the location of the emission zones. We study the sensitivity of the light curves to different shapes of the polar cap for static and retarded vacuum dipole fields. In particular, we consider polar caps traced by the last open field lines and compare them to circular polar caps. We find that the TPC model is very sensitive to the shape of the polar cap, and a circular polar cap can lead to four peaks of emission. The OG model is less affected by polar cap shapes, but is subject to big uncertainties of applying the vacuum field near the light cylinder. We conclude that deviations from vacuum field can lead to large uncertainties in the pulse shapes, and a more realistic force-free field should be applied to the study of pulsar high energy emission.
(Abridged) Gamma-ray emission from pulsars has long been modeled using a vacuum dipole field. This approximation ignores changes in the field structure caused by the magnetospheric plasma and strong plasma currents. We present the first results of gamma-ray pulsar light curve modeling using the more realistic field taken from 3D force-free magnetospheric simulations. Having the geometry of the field, we apply several prescriptions for the location of the emission zone, comparing the light curves to observations. We find that the conventional two-pole caustic model fails to produce double-peak pulse profiles, mainly because the size of the polar cap in force-free magnetosphere is larger than the vacuum field polar cap. The conventional outer-gap model is capable of producing only one peak under general conditions, because a large fraction of open field lines does not cross the null charge surface. We propose a novel "annular gap" model, where the high-energy emission originates from a thin layer on the open field lines just inside of the current sheet that bounds the open flux tube. The emission from this layer generates two strong caustics on the sky map due to the effect we term "Sky Map Stagnation" (SMS). It is related to the fact that force-free field asymptotically approaches the field of a rotating split monopole, and the photons emitted on such field lines in the outer magnetosphere arrive to the observer in phase. The double-peak light curve is a natural consequence of SMS. We show that most features of the currently available gamma-ray pulsar light curves can be reasonably well reproduced and explained with the force-free field model. Association of the emission region with the current sheet will guide more detailed future studies of the magnetospheric acceleration physics.
In an effort to understand the origin of the Main Belt Comets (MBCs) 7968 Elst-Pizzaro, 118401, and P/2005 U1, the dynamics of these three icy asteroids and a large number of hypothetical MBCs were studied. Results of extensive numerical integrations of these objects suggest that these MBCs were formed in-place through the collisional break up of a larger precursor body. Simulations point specifically to the Themis family of asteroids as the origin of these objects and rule out the possibility of a cometary origin (i.e. inward scattering of comets from outer solar system and their primordial capture in the asteroid belt). Results also indicate that while 7968 Elst-Pizzaro and 118401 maintain their orbits for 1 Gyr, P/2005 U1 diffuses chaotically in eccentricity and becomes unstable in ~20 Myr. The latter suggest that this MBC used to be a member of the Themis family and is now escaping away. Numerical integrations of the orbits of hypothetical MBCs in the vicinity of the Themis family show a clustering of stable orbits (with eccentricities smaller than 0.2 and inclinations less than 25 deg.) suggesting that many more MBCs may exist in the vicinity of this family (although they might have not been activated yet). The details of the results of simulations and the constraints on the models of the formation and origins of MBCs are presented, and their implications for the detection of more of these objects are discussed.
We present interferometric CO observations of twelve z~2 submillimeter-faint, star-forming radio galaxies (SFRGs) which are thought to be ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) dominated by hotter dust (T_dust > 40K) than submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) of similar luminosities. Four other CO-observed SFRGs are included from the literature, and all observations are taken at the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) in the compact configuration. Ten of the sixteen SFRGs observed in CO (63%) are detected at >4sigma with a mean inferred molecular gas mass of ~8x10^9 M_sun. Like SMGs, SFRGs follow the local ULIRG L_FIR-L'_CO relation although our SFRG sample is about two times fainter than CO-observed SMGs (in both radio and CO luminosities) and have narrower CO line widths, ~360km/s. We explore the various physical conditions, like merger stage or secular evolution, which could lead to line width and luminosity differences between the populations, and we deduce that SFRGs are most consistent with the aggregate properties of local ULIRGs. High stellar mass fractions (<M_star/M_dyn> ~ 0.8) and low gas mass fractions (<M_H2/M_dyn> ~ 0.2) suggest that most of the galaxies' star formation has already occurred. High-resolution (0.3") MERLIN radio mapping indicates that extended star formation dominates SFRG radio emission with sizes R_eff ~ 2.5kpc. Better constraints on the CO properties and FIR dust emission ofdiverse high-z ULIRG populations are needed to determine the evolutionary causes of hotter dust temperature, the effects it has on high star formation rates, and what role the ULIRG phase serves in catalyzing the formation of massive stellar systems in the early Universe.
A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of a large number of unresolved gravitational-wave sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. It is expected to carry unique signatures from the earliest epochs in the evolution of the universe, inaccessible to the standard astrophysical observations. Direct measurements of the amplitude of this background therefore are of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of the universe when it was younger than one minute. Here we report direct limits on the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational-wave background using the data from a two-year science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Our result constrains the energy density of the stochastic gravitational-wave background normalized by the critical energy density of the universe, in the frequency band around 100 Hz, to be less than 6.9 x 10^{-6} at 95% confidence. The data rule out models of early universe evolution with relatively large equation-of-state parameter, as well as cosmic (super)string models with relatively small string tension that are favoured in some string theory models. This search for the stochastic background improves upon the indirect limits from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave background at 100 Hz.
We present multi-band results for GRB071010B based on \Swift, \Suzaku, and ground-based optical observations. This burst is an ideal target to evaluate the robustness of the ${\rm E^{src}_{peak}-E_{iso}}$ and ${\rm E^{src}_{peak}-E_{\gamma}}$ relations, whose studies have been in stagnation due to the lack of the combined estimation of $\rm E^{src}_{peak}$ and long term optical monitoring. The joint prompt spectral fitting using \Swift/Burst Alert Telescope and \Suzaku/Wide-band All sky Monitor data yielded the spectral peak energy as E$^{src}_{peak}$ of $86.5^{+6.4}_{-6.3}$ keV and E$_{iso}$ of $2.25^{+0.19}_{-0.16}\times10^{52}$ erg with $z=0.947$. The optical afterglow light curve is well fitted by a simple power law with temporal index $\alpha=-0.60\pm0.02$. The lower limit of temporal break in the optical light curve is 9.8 days. Our multi-wavelength analysis reveals that GRB071010B follows ${\rm E^{src}_{peak}-E_{iso}}$ but violates the ${\rm E^{src}_{peak}-E_{\gamma}}$ and ${\rm E_{iso}-E^{src}_{peak}-t^{src}_{jet}}$ at more than the 3$\sigma$ level.
Ten years ago our team completed the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the extragalactic distance scale. Cepheids were detected in some 25 galaxies and used to calibrate four secondary distance indicators that reach out into the expansion field beyond the noise of galaxy peculiar velocities. The result was H_0 = 72 +/- 8 km/sec/Mpc and put an end to galaxy distances uncertain by a factor of two. This work has been awarded the Gruber Prize in Cosmology for 2009.
The majority of stars in the Galactic field and halo are part of binary or multiple systems. A significant fraction of these systems have orbital separations in excess of thousands of astronomical units, and systems wider than a parsec have been identified in the Galactic halo. These binary systems cannot have formed through the 'normal' star-formation process, nor by capture processes in the Galactic field. We propose that these wide systems were formed during the dissolution phase of young star clusters. We test this hypothesis using N-body simulations of evolving star clusters and find wide binary fractions of 1-30%, depending on initial conditions. Moreover, given that most stars form as part of a binary system, our theory predicts that a large fraction of the known wide 'binaries' are, in fact, multiple systems.
We report the result of a search for the infrared counterparts of 37 planetary nebulae (PNs) and PN candidates in the Spitzer Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire II (GLIMPSE II) survey. The photometry and images of these PNs at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24mum, taken through the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS), are presented. Most of these nebulae are very red and compact in the IRAC bands, and are found to be bright and extended in the 24mum band. The infrared morphology of these objects are compared with Ha images of the Macquarie-AAO-Strasbourg (MASH) and MASH II PNs. The implications for morphological difference in different wavelengths are discussed. The IRAC data allow us to differentiate between PNs and HII regions and be able to reject non-PNs from the optical catalogue (e.g., PNG 352.1-00.0). Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are constructed by combing the IRAC and MIPS data with existing near-, mid-, and far-IR photometry measurements. The anomalous colors of some objects allow us to infer the presence of aromatic emission bands. These multi-wavelength data provide useful insights into the nature of different nebular components contributing to the infrared emission of PNs.
The detection of rotational transitions of the AlO radical at millimeter wavelengths from an astronomical source has recently been reported. In view of this, rotational transitions in the ground X^2 Sigma^+ state of AlO have been reinvestigated. Comparisons between Fourier transform and microwave data indicate a discrepancy regarding the derived value of gamma_D in the v = 0 level of the ground state. This discrepancy is discussed in the light of comparisons between experimental data and synthesized rotational spectra in the v = 0, 1 and 2 levels of X^2 Sigma^+. A list of calculated rotational lines in v = 0, 1 and 2 of the ground state up to N' = 11 is presented which should aid astronomers in analysis and interpretation of observed AlO data and also facilitate future searches for this radical.
In this letter, we report on dual-frequency European VLBI Network (EVN) observations of the faintest and least luminous radio cores in Seyfert nuclei, going to sub-mJy flux densities and radio luminosities around 10^19 W/Hz. We detect radio emission from the nuclear region of four galaxies (NGC 4051, NGC 4388, NGC 4501, and NGC 5033), while one (NGC 5273) is undetected at the level of ~100 microJy. The detected compact nuclei have rather different radio properties: spectral indices range from steep (alpha>0.7) to slightly inverted (alpha=-0.1), brightness temperatures vary from T_B=10^5 K to larger than 10^7 K and cores are either extended or unresolved, in one case accompanied by lobe-like features (NGC 4051). In this sense, diverse underlying physical mechanisms can be at work in these objects: jet-base or outflow solutions are the most natural explanations in several cases; in the case of the undetected NGC 5273 nucleus, the presence of an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) is consistent with the radio luminosity upper limit.
We show that a cosmic standard ruler can be constructed from the joint measurement of the time delay (dt) between gravitationally lensed quasar images and the velocity dispersion (sigma^2) of the lensing galaxy. This is specifically shown, for a singular isothermal sphere lens, where the angular diameter distance to the lens is proportional to dt/sigma^2. Using MCMC simulations we illustrate the constraints set in the density of dark matter and dark energy plane from future observations.
We have used the zCOSMOS-bright 10k sample to identify 3244 Spitzer/MIPS 24-micron-selected galaxies with 0.06< S(24um)< 0.50 mJy and I(AB)<22.5, over 1.5 deg^2 of the COSMOS field, and studied different spectral properties, depending on redshift. At 0.2<z<0.3, we found that different reddening laws of common use in the literature explain the dust extinction properties of around 80% of our infrared (IR) sources, within the error bars. For up to 16% of objects, instead, the Halpha/Hbeta ratios are too high for their IR/UV attenuations, which is probably a consequence of inhomogenous dust distributions. In only a few of our galaxies at 0.2<z<0.3 the IR emission could be mainly produced by dust heated by old rather than young stars. Besides, the line ratios of ~22% of our galaxies suggest that they might be star-formation/nuclear-activity composite systems. At 0.5<z<0.7, we estimated galaxy metallicities for 301 galaxies: at least 12% of them are securely below the upper-branch mass-metallicity trend, which is consistent with the local relation. Finally, we performed a combined analysis of the Hdelta equivalent-width versus Dn(4000) diagram for 1722 faint and bright 24um galaxies at 0.6<z<1.0, spanning two decades in mid-IR luminosity. We found that, while secondary bursts of star formation are necessary to explain the position of the most luminous IR galaxies in that diagram, quiescent, exponentially-declining star formation histories can well reproduce the spectral properties of ~40% of the less luminous sources. Our results suggest a transition in the possible modes of star formation at total IR luminosities L(TIR)=(3 +/-2)x10^11 Lsun.
We report the discovery of a type IIn supernova in the low-metallicity dwarf galaxy J1320+2155, with an oxygen abundance 12+logO/H = 8.0+/-0.2. This finding is based on SDSS (February 2008) and 3.5m Apache Point Observatory (February 2009) spectra taken one year apart, and on the observations that: the Hbeta and Halpha emission lines show broad components corresponding to gas expansion velocities of ~1600 km/s; the Balmer decrement is exceeedingly high: the Halpha/Hbeta flux ratio, being more than 30, implies a very dense environment (>10^7 cm^-3); and the Halpha broad luminosity decreases slowly, by only a factor of ~1.8 over the course of a year, typical of the slow luminosity evolution of a type IIn supernova. Several weak coronal lines of [Fe VII] and [Fe X] are also seen in the SDSS spectrum, implying ionization of the pre-shock circumstellar medium by shock-induced X-ray emission. The galaxy J1320+2155 is the first dwarf system ever to be discovered with a type IIn supernova exhibiting coronal lines in its spectrum.
Constraints on the original Cardassian model and the modified polytropic Cardassian model are examined from the recently derived 42 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) data calibrated with the method avoiding the circularity problem. The results show that GRBs can be an optional observation to constrain on the Cardassian models. Combining the GRBs data with the newly derived size of baryonic acoustic oscillation peak from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the position of first acoustic peak of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), we find $\Omega_{m0}=0.27_{-0.02}^{+0.02}, n=0.06_{-0.08}^{+0.07}$ ($1\sigma$) for the original Cardassian model, and $\Omega_{m0}=0.27^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$, $n=-0.09_{-1.91}^{+0.23}, \beta=0.82_{-0.62}^{+2.10}$ ($1\sigma$) for the modified polytropic Cardassian model.
It has generally been thought that in perturbed Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker models of the Universe, global topology should not have any feedback effects on dynamics. However, a weak-field limit heuristical argument, assuming a finite particle horizon for the transmission of gravitational signals, shows that a residual acceleration effect can occur. The nature of this effect differs algebraically between different constant curvature 3-manifolds. This potentially provides a selection mechanism for the 3-manifold of comoving space.
We test the theoretical prediction that the straightest dust lanes in bars are found in strongly barred galaxies, or more specifically, that the degree of curvature of the dust lanes is inversely proportional to the strength of the bar. The test used archival images of barred galaxies for which a reliable non-axisymmetric torque parameter (Qb) and the radius at which Qb has been measured (r(Qb)) have been published in the literature. Our results confirm the theoretical prediction but show a large spread that cannot be accounted for by measurement errors. We simulate 238 galaxies with different bar and bulge parameters in order to investigate the origin of the spread in the dust lane curvature versus Qb relation. From these simulations, we conclude that the spread is greatly reduced when describing the bar strength as a linear combination of the bar parameters Qb and the quotient of the major and minor axis of the bar, a/b. Thus we conclude that the dust lane curvature is predominantly determined by the parameters of the bar.
We review three Li problems. First, the Li problem in the Sun, for which some previous studies have argued that it may be Li-poor compared to other Suns. Second, we discuss the Li problem in planet hosting stars, which are claimed to be Li-poor when compared to field stars. Third, we discuss the cosmological Li problem, i.e. the discrepancy between the Li abundance in metal-poor stars (Spite plateau stars) and the predictions from standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In all three cases we find that the "problems" are naturally explained by non-standard mixing in stars.
We present a transport model that describes the orbital diffusion of asteroids in chaotic regions of the 3-D space of proper elements. Our goal is to use a simple random-walk model to study the evolution and derive accurate age estimates for dynamically complex asteroid families. To this purpose, we first compute local diffusion coefficients, which characterize chaotic diffusion in proper eccentricity (e_p) and inclination (I_p), in a selected phase-space region. Then, a Monte-Carlo-type code is constructed and used to track the evolution of random walkers (i.e. asteroids), by coupling diffusion in (e_p,I_p) with a drift in proper semi-major axis (a_p) induced by the Yarkovsky/YORP thermal effects. We validate our model by applying it to the family of (490) Veritas, for which we recover previous estimates of its age (~8.3 Myr). Moreover, we show that the spreading of chaotic family members in proper elements space is well reproduced in our random-walk simulations. Finally, we apply our model to the family of (3556) Lixiaohua, which is much older than Veritas and thus much more affected by thermal forces. We find the age of the Lixiaohua family to be 155+/-36 Myr.
We present the two- and three-point real space correlation functions of the five-year WMAP sky maps, and compare the observed functions to simulated LCDM concordance model ensembles. In agreement with previously published results, we find that the temperature correlation functions are consistent with expectations. However, the pure polarization correlation functions are acceptable only for the 33GHz band map; the 41, 61 and 94 GHz band correlation functions all exhibit significant large-scale excess structures. Further, these excess structures very closely match the correlation functions of the two (synchrotron and dust) foreground templates used to correct the WMAP data for galactic contamination, with a cross-correlation statistically significant at the 2-3sigma confidence level. The correlation is slightly stronger with respect to the thermal dust template than with the synchrotron template.
Timing noise in the data on accretion-powered millisecond pulsars (AMP) appears as irregular pulse phase jumps on timescales from hours to weeks. A large systematic phase drift is also observed in the first discovered AMP SAX J1808.4-3658. To study the origin of these timing features, we use here the data of the well studied 2002 outburst of SAX J1808.4-3658. We develop first a model for pulse profile formation accounting for the screening of the antipodal emitting spot by the accretion disk. We demonstrate that the variations of the visibility of the antipodal spot associated with the receding accretion disk cause a systematic shift in Fourier phases, observed together with the changes in the pulse form. We show that a strong secondary maximum can be observed only in a narrow intervals of inner disk radii, which explains the very short appearance of the double-peaked profiles in SAX J1808.4-3658. By directly fitting the pulse profile shapes with our model, we find that the main parameters of the emitting spot such as its mean latitude and longitude as well as the emissivity pattern change irregularly causing small shifts in pulse phase, and the strong profile variations are caused by the increasing inner disk radius. We finally notice that significant variations in the pulse profiles in the 2002 and 2008 outbursts of SAX J1808.4-3658 happen at fluxes differing by a factor of 2, which can be explained if the inner disk radius is not a simple function of the accretion rate, but depends on the previous history.
For axisymmetric models for coronal loops the relationship between the bifurcation points of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium sequences and the points of linear ideal MHD instability is investigated imposing line-tied boundary conditions. Using a well-studied example based on the Gold-Hoyle equilibrium, it is demonstrated that if the equilibrium sequence is calculated using the Grad-Shafranov equation, the instability corresponds to the second bifurcation point and not the first bifurcation point because the equilibrium boundary conditions allow for modes which are excluded from the linear ideal stability analysis. This is shown by calculating the bifurcating equilibrium branches and comparing the spatial structure of the solutions close to the bifurcation point with the spatial structure of the unstable mode. If the equilibrium sequence is calculated using Euler potentials the first bifurcation point of the Grad-Shafranov case is not found, and the first bifurcation point of the Euler potential description coincides with the ideal instability threshold. An explanation of this results in terms of linear bifurcation theory is given and the implications for the use of MHD equilibrium bifurcations to explain eruptive phenomena is briefly discussed.
We have used archival HST H$\alpha$ images to study the immediate environments of massive and intermediate-mass young stellar object (YSO) candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The sample of YSO candidates, taken from Gruendl & Chu (2009), was selected based on Spitzer IRAC and MIPS observations of the entire LMC and complementary ground-based optical and near-infrared observations. We found HST H$\alpha$ images for 99 YSO candidates in the LMC, of which 82 appear to be genuine YSOs. More than 95% of the YSOs are found to be associated with molecular clouds. YSOs are seen in three different kinds of environments in the H$\alpha$ images: in dark clouds, inside or on the tip of bright-rimmed dust pillars, and in small H II regions. Comparisons of spectral energy distributions for YSOs in these three different kinds of environments suggest that YSOs in dark clouds are the youngest, YSOs with small H II regions are the most evolved, and YSOs in bright-rimmed dust pillars span a range of intermediate evolutionary stages. This rough evolutionary sequence is substantiated by the presence of silicate absorption features in the Spitzer IRS spectra of some YSOs in dark clouds and in bright-rimmed dust pillars, but not those of YSOs in small H II regions. We present a discussion on triggered star formation for YSOs in bright-rimmed dust pillars or in dark clouds adjacent to H II regions. As many as 50% of the YSOs are resolved into multiple sources in high-resolution HST images. This illustrates the importance of using high-resolution images to probe the true nature and physical properties of YSOs in the LMC.
Imaging of galaxies to study the interstellar medium on scales of a few pc is difficult. However, for the Milky Way galaxy two major Galactic all sky HI 21-cm line surveys will become available soon with unprecedented quality. We present the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS) obtained with the Parkes 64-m telescope for the southern hemisphere with a resolution of 15 arcmin. The Effelsberg Bonn HI Survey (EBHIS) will complete the survey for the northern sky with 9 arcmin resolution and we describe this project. A combined All Sky Survey will become available in 2010/2011, early enough to serve as short spacing information for ASKAP. We envision a Galactic 21-cm line database with arcsecond resolution for all declinations <30 deg.
Until now, most members of the Ursa Major (UMa) group of stars have been identified by means of kinematic criteria. However, in many cases kinematic criteria alone are insufficient to ascertain, whether an individual star is really a member of this group. Since photometric criteria are ineffective in the case of cool dwarf members, one must use spectroscopic criteria. Nevertheless, resulting membership criteria are inconclusive. We reanalyse spectroscopic properties of cool UMa group dwarfs. In particular, we study the distribution of iron abundance, the strength of the Li I absorption at 6708 A and the Li abundance, and the infilling of the core of the H alpha line. Twenty-five cool and northern bona-fide members are carefully selected from the literature. Homogeneously measured stellar parameters and iron abundances are given for all Sun-like stars selected, based on spectra of high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we measure the Li equivalent width and abundance as well as the relative intensity of the H alpha core and the corresponding chromospheric flux. The studied stars infer an average Ursa Major group iron abundance of -0.03+-0.05 dex, which is higher by about 0.06 dex than determined elsewhere. The Li abundance derived of Ursa Major group dwarf stars is higher than in the Hyades at effective temperatures cooler than the Sun, but lower than in the younger Pleiades, a result which is independent of the exact value of the effective temperature adopted. The Sun-like and cooler dwarfs also display chromospheric infilling of the H alpha core. We present spectroscopic criteria that may be used to exclude non-members.
Axions in the micro eV mass range are a plausible cold dark matter candidate and may be detected by their conversion into microwave photons in a resonant cavity immersed in a static magnetic field. The first result from such an axion search using a superconducting first-stage amplifier (SQUID) is reported. The SQUID amplifier, replacing a conventional GaAs field-effect transistor amplifier, successfully reached axion-photon coupling sensitivity in the band set by present axion models and sets the stage for a definitive axion search utilizing near quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers.
The presence of convective motions in the atmospheres of metal-poor halo stars leads to systematic asymmetries of the emergent spectral line profiles. Since such line asymmetries are very small, they can be safely ignored for standard spectroscopic abundance analysis. However, when it comes to the determination of the 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio, q(Li)=n(6Li)/n(7Li), the intrinsic asymmetry of the 7Li line must be taken into account, because its signature is essentially indistinguishable from the presence of a weak 6Li blend in the red wing of the 7Li line. In this contribution we quantity the error of the inferred 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio that arises if the convective line asymmetry is ignored in the fitting of the lithium blend at 6707 A. Our conclusion is that 6Li/7Li ratios derived by Asplund et al. (2006), using symmetric line profiles, must be reduced by typically dq(Li) ~ 0.015. This diminishes the number of certain 6Li detections from 9 to 4 stars or less, casting some doubt on the existence of a 6Li plateau.
The radii of some transiting extrasolar giant planets are larger than would be expected by the standard theory. We address this puzzle with the model of coupled radius-orbit tidal evolution developed by \citet{Ibgui_and_Burrows_2009}. The planetary radius is evolved self-consistently with orbital parameters, under the influence of tidal torques and tidal dissipation in the interior of the planet. A general feature of this model, which we have previously demonstrated in the generic case, is that a possible transient inflation of the planetary radius can temporarily interrupt its standard monotonic shrinking and can lead to the inflated radii that we observe. In particular, a bloated planet with even a circular orbit may still be inflated due to an earlier episode of tidal heating. We have modified our model to include an orbital period dependence of the tidal dissipation factor in the star, $Q'_{\ast} \propto P^{\gamma}$, $-1 \leqslant \gamma \leqslant 1$. With this model, we search, for a tidally heated planet, orbital and radius evolutionary tracks that fall within the observational limits of the radius, the semimajor axis, and the eccentricity of the planet in its current estimated age range. We find that, for some inflated planets (WASP-6b and WASP-15b), there are such tracks; for another (TrES-4), there are none; and for still others (WASP-4b and WASP-12b), there are such tracks, but our model might imply that we are observing the planets at a special time. Finally, we stress that there is a two to three order-of-magnitude timescale uncertainty of the inspiraling phase of the planet into its host star, arising from uncertainties in the tidal dissipation factor in the star $Q'_{\ast}$.
In a previous paper [arXiv:0712.2391], we presented the selection criteria needed to search for symbiotic stars in IPHAS, the INT Halpha survey of the Northern Galactic plane. IPHAS gives us the opportunity to make a systematic, complete search for symbiotic stars in a magnitude-limited volume. Follow-up spectroscopy at different telescopes worldwide of a sample of sixty two symbiotic star candidates is presented. Seven out of nineteen S-type candidates observed spectroscopically are confirmed to be genuine symbiotic stars. The spectral type of their red giant components, as well as reddening and distance, were computed by modelling the spectra. Only one new D-type symbiotic system, out of forty-three candidates observed, was found. This was as expected (see discussion in our paper on the selection criteria). The object shows evidence for a high density outflow expanding at a speed larger than 65 km/s. Most of the other candidates are lightly reddened classical T Tauri stars and more highly reddened young stellar objects that may be either more massive young stars of HAeBe type or classical Be stars. In addition, a few notable objects have been found, such as three new Wolf-Rayet stars and two relatively high-luminosity evolved massive stars. We also found a helium-rich source, possibly a dense ejecta hiding a WR star, which is surrounded by a large ionized nebula.
During the past decade there have been several attempts to detect cosmogenic ultra high energy (UHE) neutrinos by searching for radio Cerenkov bursts resulting from charged impact showers in terrestrial ice or the lunar regolith. So far these radio searches have yielded no detections, but the inferred flux upper limits have started to constrain physical models for UHE neutrino generation. For searches which use the Moon as a target, we summarize the physics of the interaction, properties of the resulting Cerenkov radio pulse, detection statistics, effective aperture scaling laws, and derivation of upper limits for isotropic and point source models. We report on initial results from the RESUN search, which uses the Expanded Very Large Array configured in multiple sub-arrays of four antennas at 1.45 GHz pointing along the lunar limb. We detected no pulses of lunar origin during 45 observing hours. This implies upper limits to the differential neutrino flux E^2 dN/dE < 0.003 EeV km^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} and < 0.0003 EeV km$^{-2} s^{-1} at 90% confidence level for isotropic and sampled point sources respectively, in the neutrino energy range 10^{21.6} < E(eV) < 10^{22.6}. The isotropic flux limit is comparable to the lowest published upper limits for lunar searches. The full RESUN search, with an additional 200 hours observing time and an improved data acquisition scheme, will be be an order of magnitude more sensitive in the energy range 10^{21} < E(eV) < 10^{22} than previous lunar-target searches, and will test Z burst models of neutrino generation.
A study of IGM metal enrichment using a series of SPH simulations is presented, employing metal cooling and the turbulent diffusion of metals and thermal energy. Stellar feedback naturally drives winds in the simulations reproducing both the observed star formation history (SFH) and the universal neutral hydrogen fraction. This challenges assumptions that wind recipes are necessary for correct SFH. The mass and metal evolution in stars and various gas phases was investigated. At z=0, 40 % of the baryons are in the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), but most metals (82 %) are in stars. At higher z the most metals were in the IGM was higher due to more efficient winds. This indicates that IGM metals primarily reside in the WHIM throughout cosmic history (unlike momentum driven wind model). The WHIM metallicity is 0.01-0.1 solar with a slight decrease at lower z. The metallicity evolution is consistent with observations. Galactic winds most efficiently enrich the IGM for intermediate mass galaxies ($10^{10}$M$_{\sun}$ - $10^{11.5}$ M$_{\sun}$). For galaxies under $10^{10}$M$_{\sun}$, UV prevents gas accretion, resulting in low metallicities. For $10^{10-11}$M$_{\sun}$, increased star formation efficiency increases wind enrichment. Beyond $10^{11.5} M_{\sun}$, star formation declines as in the classic Rees & Ostriker (1977) picture and the metallicity saturates. Metals enable cooling which allows WHIM gas to recool onto galaxies and increases star formation. Metal diffusion allows winds to mix prior to escape, decreasing the IGM metal content in favour of galactic halo and star forming gas. Diffusion significantly increases the amount of gas with low metallicities and changes the density-metallicity relation.
(ABRIDGED)In previous work, two platforms have been developed for testing computer-vision algorithms for robotic planetary exploration (McGuire et al. 2004b,2005; Bartolo et al. 2007). The wearable-computer platform has been tested at geological and astrobiological field sites in Spain (Rivas Vaciamadrid and Riba de Santiuste), and the phone-camera has been tested at a geological field site in Malta. In this work, we (i) apply a Hopfield neural-network algorithm for novelty detection based upon color, (ii) integrate a field-capable digital microscope on the wearable computer platform, (iii) test this novelty detection with the digital microscope at Rivas Vaciamadrid, (iv) develop a Bluetooth communication mode for the phone-camera platform, in order to allow access to a mobile processing computer at the field sites, and (v) test the novelty detection on the Bluetooth-enabled phone-camera connected to a netbook computer at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. This systems engineering and field testing have together allowed us to develop a real-time computer-vision system that is capable, for example, of identifying lichens as novel within a series of images acquired in semi-arid desert environments. We acquired sequences of images of geologic outcrops in Utah and Spain consisting of various rock types and colors to test this algorithm. The algorithm robustly recognized previously-observed units by their color, while requiring only a single image or a few images to learn colors as familiar, demonstrating its fast learning capability.
Many extensions of the standard model predict the existence of hidden sectors that may contain unbroken abelian gauge groups. We argue that in the presence of quantum decoherence photons may convert into hidden photons on sufficiently long time scales and show that this effect is strongly constrained by CMB and supernova data. In particular, Planck-scale suppressed decoherence scales D ~ E^2/M_Pl (characteristic for non-critical string theories) are incompatible with the presence of even a single hidden U(1). The corresponding bounds on the decoherence scale are four orders of magnitude stronger than analogous bounds derived from solar and reactor neutrino data and complement other bounds derived from atmospheric neutrino data.
The decay of dark matter is predicted by many theoretical models and can produce observable contributions to the cosmic-ray fluxes. I shortly discuss the interpretation of the positron and electron excess as observed by PAMELA and Fermi LAT in terms of decaying dark matter, and I point out the implications for the Fermi LAT observations of the gamma-ray flux with emphasis on its dipole-like anisotropy.
Hamiltonian perturbation theory is used to analyse the stability of f(R) models. The Hamiltonian equations for the metric and its momentum conjugate are written for f(R) Lagrangian in the presence of perfect fluid matter. The perturbations examined are perpendicular to R. As perturbations are added to the metric and momentum conjugate to the induced metric instabilities are found, depending on the form of f(R). Thus the examination of these instabilities is a way to rule out certain f(R) models.
The radioscience experiment is one of the on board experiment of the Mercury ESA mission BepiColombo that will be launched in 2014. The goals of the experiment are to determine the gravity field of Mercury and its rotation state, to determine the orbit of Mercury, to constrain the possible theories of gravitation (for example by determining the post-Newtonian (PN) parameters), to provide the spacecraft position for geodesy experiments and to contribute to planetary ephemerides improvement. This is possible thanks to a new technology which allows to reach great accuracies in the observables range and range rate; it is well known that a similar level of accuracy requires studying a suitable model taking into account numerous relativistic effects. In this paper we deal with the modelling of the space-time coordinate transformations needed for the light-time computations and the numerical methods adopted to avoid rounding-off errors in such computations.
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We present the full source catalogue from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) Survey. The AT20G is a blind radio survey carried out at 20 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) from 2004 to 2008, and covers the whole sky south of declination 0 deg. The AT20G source catalogue presented here is an order of magnitude larger than any previous catalogue of high-frequency radio sources, and includes 5890 sources above a 20 GHz flux-density limit of 40 mJy. All AT20G sources have total intensity and polarisation measured at 20 GHz, and most sources south of declination -15 deg also have near-simultaneous flux-density measurements at 5 and 8 GHz. A total of 1559 sources were detected in polarised total intensity at one or more of the three frequencies. We detect a small but significant population of non-thermal sources that are either undetected or have only weak detections in low-frequency catalogues. We introduce the term Ultra-Inverted Spectrum (UIS) to describe these radio sources, which have a spectral index alpha(5, 20) > +0.7 and which constitute roughly 1.2 per cent of the AT20G sample. The 20 GHz flux densities measured for the strongest AT20G sources are in excellent agreement with the WMAP 5-year source catalogue of Wright et al. (2009), and we find that the WMAP source catalogue is close to complete for sources stronger than 1.5 Jy at 23 GHz.
We study the properties of a sample of 211 heavily-obscured Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) candidates in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South selecting objects with f_24/f_R>1000 and R-K>4.5. Of these, 18 were detected in X-rays and found to be obscured AGN with neutral hydrogen column densities of ~10^23 cm^-2. In the X-ray undetected sample, the following evidence suggests a large fraction of heavily-obscured (Compton Thick) AGN: (i) The stacked X-ray signal of the sample is strong, with an observed ratio of soft to hard X-ray counts consistent with a population of ~90% heavily obscured AGN combined with 10% star-forming galaxies. (ii) The X-ray to mid-IR ratios for these sources are significantly larger than that of star-forming galaxies and ~2 orders of magnitude smaller than for the general AGN population, suggesting column densities of N_H>5x10^24 cm^-2. (iii) The Spitzer near- and mid-IR colors of these sources are consistent with those of the X-ray-detected sample if the effects of dust self-absorption are considered. Spectral fitting to the rest-frame UV/optical light (dominated by the host galaxy) returns stellar masses of ~10^11 M_sun and <E(B-V)> =0.5, and reveals evidence for a significant young stellar population, indicating that these sources are experiencing considerable star-formation. This sample of heavily-obscured AGN candidates implies a space density at z~2 of ~10^-5 Mpc^-3, finding a strong evolution in the number of L_X>10^44 erg/s sources from z=1.5 to 2.5, possibly consistent with a short-lived heavily-obscured phase before an unobscured quasar is visible.
One of the most fundamental problems in the study of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) is to know their true physical size. Without knowledge of their albedos we are not able to distinguish large and dark from small and bright KBOs. Spitzer produced rough estimates of the sizes and albedos of about 20 KBOs, and the Herschel space telescope will improve on those initial measurements by extending the sample to the ~150 brightest KBOs. SPICA's higher sensitivity instruments should allow us not only to broaden the sample to smaller KBOs but also to achieve a statistically significant sample of KBO thermal light curves (Herschel will measure only six objects). A large sample covering a broad range of sizes will be key to identify meaningful correlations between size and other physical and surface properties that constrain the processes of formation and evolution of the solar system.
The star formation rate (SFR) and black hole accretion rate (BHAR) functions are measured to be proportional to each other at z < ~3. This close correspondence between SF and BHA would naturally yield a BH mass-galaxy mass correlation, whereas a BH mass-bulge mass correlation is observed. To explore this apparent contradiction we study the SF in spheroid-dominated galaxies between z=1 and the present day. We use 903 galaxies from the COMBO-17 survey with M* >2x10^10M_sun, ultraviolet and infrared-derived SFRs from Spitzer and GALEX, and morphologies from GEMS HST/ACS imaging. Using stacking techniques, we find that <25% of all SF occurs in spheroid-dominated galaxies (Sersic index n>2.5), while the BHAR that we would expect if the global scalings held is three times higher. This rules out the simplest picture of co-evolution, in which SF and BHA trace each other at all times. These results could be explained if SF and BHA occur in the same events, but offset in time, for example at different stages of a merger event. However, one would then expect to see the corresponding star formation activity in early-stage mergers, in conflict with observations. We conclude that the major episodes of SF and BHA occur in different events, with the bulk of SF happening in isolated disks and most BHA occurring in major mergers. The apparent global co-evolution results from the regulation of the BH growth by the potential well of the galactic spheroid, which includes a major contribution from disrupted disk stars.
Kuiper belt object 136108 Haumea is one of the most fascinating bodies in our solar system. Approximately 2000x1600x1000 km in size, it is one of the largest Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and an unusually elongated one for its size. The shape of Haumea is the result of rotational deformation due to its extremely short 3.9-hour rotation period. Unlike other 1000 km-scale KBOs which are coated in methane ice the surface of Haumea is covered in almost pure water-ice. The bulk density of Haumea, estimated around 2.6 g/cc, suggests a more rocky interior composition, different from the water-ice surface. Recently, Haumea has become the second KBO after Pluto to show observable signs of surface features. A region darker and redder than the average surface of Haumea has been identified, the composition and origin of which remain unknown. I discuss this recent finding and what it may tell us about Haumea.
Leading models of galaxy formation require large-scale energetic outflows to regulate the growth of distant galaxies and their central black holes. However, current observational support for this hypothesis at high redshift is mostly limited to rare z>2 radio galaxies. Here we present Gemini-North NIFS Intregral Field Unit (IFU) observations of the [OIII] emission from a z~2 ultraluminous infrared galaxy (L_IR>10^12 solar luminosities) with an optically identified Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). The spatial extent (~4-8 kpc) of the high velocity and broad [OIII] emission are consistent with that found in z>2 radio galaxies, indicating the presence of a large-scale energetic outflow in a galaxy population potentially orders of magnitude more common than distant radio galaxies. The low radio luminosity of this system indicates that radio-bright jets are unlikely to be responsible for driving the outflow. However, the estimated energy input required to produce the large-scale outflow signatures (of order ~10^59 ergs over ~30 Myrs) could be delivered by a wind radiatively driven by the AGN and/or supernovae winds from intense star formation. The energy injection required to drive the outflow is comparable to the estimated binding energy of the galaxy spheroid, suggesting that it can have a significant impact on the evolution of the galaxy. We argue that the outflow observed in this system is likely to be comparatively typical of the high-redshift ULIRG population and discuss the implications of these observations for galaxy formation models.
Very-high energy photons emitted by distant cosmic sources are absorbed on the extragalactic background light (EBL) during their propagation. This effect can be characterized in terms of a photon transfer function at Earth. The presence of extragalactic magnetic fields could also induce conversions between very high-energy photons and hypothetical axion-like particles (ALPs). The turbulent structure of the extragalactic magnetic fields would produce a stochastic behaviour in these conversions, leading to a statistical distribution of the photon transfer functions for the different realizations of the random magnetic fields. To characterize this effect, we derive new equations to calculate the mean and the variance of this distribution. We find that, in presence of ALP conversions, the photon transfer functions on different lines of sight could have relevant deviations with respect to the mean value, producing both an enhancement or a suppression in the observable photon flux with respect to the expectations with only absorption. As a consequence, the most striking signature of the mixing with ALPs would be a reconstructed EBL density from TeV photon observations which appears to vary over different directions of the sky: consistent with standard expectations in some regions, but inconsistent in others.
We study structure formation in the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type with parameters f_NL and g_NL. We show that the distribution of dark-matter halos is naturally described by a multivariate bias scheme where the halo overdensity depends not only on the underlying matter density fluctuation \delta but also on the Gaussian part of the primordial gravitational potential \phi. We derive the coefficients of the bias expansion as a function of the halo mass by applying the peak-background split to common parameterizations for the halo mass function in the non-Gaussian scenario. We then compute the halo power spectrum and halo-matter cross spectrum in the framework of Eulerian perturbation theory up to third order. Comparing our results against N-body simulations, we find that our model accurately describes the numerical data for wavenumbers k < 0.1-0.3 h/Mpc depending on redshift and halo mass. In our multivariate approach, perturbations in the halo counts trace \phi on large scales and this explains why the halo and matter power spectra show different asymptotic trends for k->0. This strongly scale-dependent bias originates from terms at leading order in our expansion. This is different from what happens using the standard univariate local bias where the scale-dependent terms come from badly behaved higher-order corrections. On the other hand, our biasing scheme reduces to the usual local bias on smaller scales where |\phi| is typically much smaller than the density perturbations. We finally discuss the halo bispectrum in the context of multivariate biasing and show that, due to its strong scale and shape dependence, it is a powerful tool for the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity from future galaxy surveys.
We use Spitzer data to infer that the small infrared excess of V819 Tau, a weak-lined T Tauri star in Taurus, is real and not attributable to a "companion" 10 arcsec to the south. We do not confirm the mid-infrared excess in HBC 427 and V410 X-ray 3, which are also non-accreting T Tauri stars in the same region; instead, for the former object, the excess arises from a red companion 9 arcsec to the east. A single-temperature blackbody fit to the continuum excess of V819 Tau implies a dust temperature of 143 K; however, a better fit is achieved when the weak 10 and 20 micron silicate emission features are also included. We infer a disk of sub-micron silicate grains between about 1 AU and several 100 AU with a constant surface density distribution. The mid-infrared excess of V819 Tau can be successfully modeled with dust composed mostly of small amorphous olivine grains at a temperature of 85 K, and most of the excess emission is optically thin. The disk could still be primordial, but gas-poor and therefore short-lived, or already at the debris disk stage, which would make it one of the youngest debris disk systems known.
We present analytical estimates of the large scale bias of neutral Hydrogen (HI) based on the Halo Occupation Distribution formalism. We use a simple, non-parametric model which monotonically relates the total mass of a halo with its HI mass at zero redshift; for earlier times we assume limiting models for the HI density parameter evolution, consistent with the data presently available, as well as two main scenarios for the evolution of our HI mass - Halo mass relation. We find that both the linear and the first non-linear bias terms exhibit a remarkable evolution with redshift, regardless of the specific limiting model assumed for the HI evolution. These analytical predictions are then shown to be consistent with measurements performed on the Millennium Simulation. Additionally, we show that this strong bias evolution does not sensibly affect the measurement of the HI Power Spectrum.
We examine the colour-magnitude relation of approximately 5000 Brightest
Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and compare with
non-BCG E/S0 galaxies. The colour-magnitude and colour-sigma (velocity
dispersion) relations are flatter in slope for BCGs than for non-BCG E/S0s, and
the BCGs are also redder by 0.01 magnitudes in g-r.
We investigate radial colour gradients in both samples, using the ratio of
the de Vaucouleurs radii in the g and r bands. We find BCGs have significantly
flatter (by 20%) mean colour gradients than the other E/S0s. In early-type
galaxies, we find colour gradients are strongest at intermediate luminosities
of Mr=-22. Colour gradients in E/S0s increase with radius (up to 10kpc) and are
negatively correlated with 10sigma + Mr (velocity dispersion relative to
luminosity) and with mass density. The gradients also tend to decrease with
increasing stellar age. These trends are not seen in BCGs in which the mean
colour gradient is low whatever the other properties. We discuss possible
explanations, which involve a greater amount of 'dry' merging in the formation
history of the BCGs.
Aims. With an observed and rest-frame duration of < 2s and < 0.5s, respectively, GRB090426 could be classified as a short GRB. The prompt detection, both from space and ground-based telescopes, of a bright optical counterpart to this GRB offered a unique opportunity to complete a detailed study. Methods. Based on an extensive ground-based observational campaign, we obtained the spectrum of the optical afterglow of GRB090426, measuring its redshift and obtaining information about the medium in which the event took place. We completed follow-up observation of the afterglow optical light curve down to the brightness level of the host galaxy that we firmly identified and studied. We also retrieved and analyzed all the available high-energy data of this event, and compared the results with our findings in the optical. This represents one of the most detailed studies of a short-duration event presented so far. Results. The time properties qualify GRB090426 as a short burst. In this case, its redshift of z = 2.61 would be the highest yet found for a GRB of this class. On the other hand, the spectral and energy properties are more similar to those of long bursts. LBT late-time deep imaging identifies a star-forming galaxy at a redshift consistent with that of the GRB. The afterglow lies within the light of its host and shows evidence of local absorption.
We present a tomographic cosmological weak lensing analysis of the HST COSMOS Survey. Applying our lensing-optimized data reduction, principal component interpolation for the ACS PSF, and improved modelling of charge-transfer inefficiency, we measure a lensing signal which is consistent with pure gravitational modes and no systematics. We carefully estimate the statistical uncertainty from simulated COSMOS-like fields obtained from ray-tracing through the Millennium Simulation. We test our pipeline on simulated space-based data, recalibrate non-linear power spectrum corrections using the ray-tracing, employ photometric redshifts to reduce potential contamination by intrinsic galaxy alignments, and marginalize over systematic uncertainties. We find that the lensing signal scales with redshift as expected from General Relativity for a concordance LCDM cosmology, including the full cross-correlations between different redshift bins. For a flat LCDM cosmology, we measure sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^0.51=0.75+-0.08 from lensing, in perfect agreement with WMAP-5, yielding joint constraints Omega_m=0.266+0.025-0.023, sigma_8=0.802+0.028-0.029 (all 68% conf.). Dropping the assumption of flatness and using HST Key Project and BBN priors only, we find a negative deceleration parameter q_0 at 94.3% conf. from the tomographic lensing analysis, providing independent evidence for the accelerated expansion of the Universe. For a flat wCDM cosmology and prior w in [-2,0], we obtain w<-0.41 (90% conf.). Our dark energy constraints are still relatively weak solely due to the limited area of COSMOS. However, they provide an important proof of concept for future missions such as Euclid or JDEM, which will deliver precision dark energy constraints from potentially more than 10 000 times larger space-based surveys. (abridged)
The magnetorotational instability (MRI) plays a crucial role for cosmic structure formation by enabling turbulence in Keplerian disks which would be otherwise hydrodynamically stable. With particular focus on MRI experiments with liquid metals, which have small magnetic Prandtl numbers, it has been shown that the helical version of this instability (HMRI) has a scaling behaviour that is quite different from that of the standard MRI (SMRI). We discuss the relation of HMRI to SMRI by exploring various parameter dependencies. We identify the mechanism of transfer of instability between modes through a spectral exceptional point that explains both the transition from a stationary instability (SMRI) to an unstable travelling wave (HMRI) and the excitation of HMRI in the inductionless limit. For certain parameter regions we find new islands of the HMRI.
Using XMM-Newton and Chandra, we achieved phase-connected timing of the 105 ms X-ray pulsar PSR J1852+0040 that provides the first measurement of the spin-down rate of a member of the class of Central Compact Objects (CCOs) in supernova remnants. We measure P-dot = 8.68(9)E-18, and find no evidence for timing noise or variations in X-ray flux over 4.8 yr. In the dipole spin-down formalism, this implies a surface magnetic field strength B_s = 3.1E10 G, the smallest ever measured for a young neutron star, and consistent with being a fossil field. In combination with upper limits on B_s from other CCO pulsars, this is strong evidence in favor of the "anti-magnetar" explanation for their low luminosity and lack of magnetospheric activity or synchrotron nebulae. While this dipole field is small, it is able to prevent accretion of enough fall-back material to account for the observed X-ray luminosity of L_x = 5.3E33(d/7.1 kpc}^2 erg/s, which instead must be residual cooling. The spin-down luminosity of PSR J1852+0040, E-dot = 3.0E32 erg/s, is an order-of-magnitude smaller than L_x. Fitting of the X-ray spectrum to two blackbodies finds small emitting radii, R_1 = 1.9 km and R_2 = 0.45 km, for components of kT_1 = 0.30 keV and kT_2 = 0.52 keV, respectively. Such small, hot regions are ubiquitous among CCOs, and are not yet understood in the context of the anti-magnetar picture because anisotropic surface temperature is usually attributed to the effects of strong magnetic fields.
We investigate claims according to which the X-ray selection of AGN is not as efficient compared to that based on [OIII] selection because of the effects of X-ray absorption.We construct the predicted X-ray luminosity function both for all Seyferts as well as separately for Seyfert-1 and Seyfert-2 type galaxies, by combining the optical AGN [OIII] luminosity functions derived in SDSS with the corresponding L_X-L_[OIII] relations. These relations are derived from XMM-Newton observations of all Seyfert galaxies in the Palomar spectroscopic sample of nearby galaxies after correction for X-ray absorption and optical reddening. We compare the predicted X-ray luminosity functions with those actually observed in the local Universe by HEAO-1, RXTE as well as INTEGRAL. The last luminosity function is derived in the 17-60 keV region and thus is not affected by absorption even in the case of Compton-thick sources. In the common luminosity regions, the optically and X-ray selected Seyfert galaxies show reasonable agreement. We thus find no evidence that the [OIII] selection provides a more robust tracer of powerful AGN compared to the X-ray. Still, the optical selection probes less luminous Seyferts compared to the current X-ray surveys. These low luminosity levels, are populated by a large number of X-ray unobscured Seyfert-2 galaxies.
X-ray imaging observatories have revealed hydrodynamic structures with linear scales ~ 10 kpc in clusters of galaxies, such as shock waves in the 1E0657-56 and A520 galaxy clusters and the hot plasma bubble in the MKW 3s cluster. The future X-ray observatory IXO will resolve for the first time the metal distribution in galaxy clusters at the these scales. Heating of plasmas by shocks and AGN activities can result in non-equilibrium ionization states of metal ions. We study the effect of the non-equilibrium ionization at linear scales <50 kpc in galaxy clusters. A condition for non-equilibrium ionization is derived by comparing the ionization time-scale with the age of hydrodynamic structures. Modeling of non-equilibrium ionization when the plasma temperature suddenly change is performed. An analysis of relaxation processes of the FeXXV and FeXXVI ions by means of eigenvectors of the transition matrix is given. We conclude that the non-equilibrium ionization of iron can occur in galaxy clusters if the baryonic overdensity delta is smaller than 11.0/tau, where tau<<1 is the ratio of the hydrodynamic structure age to the Hubble time. Our modeling indicates that the emissivity in the helium-like emission lines of iron increases as a result of deviation from the ionization equilibrium. A slow process of helium-like ionic fraction relaxation was analyzed. A new way to determine a shock velocity is proposed.
Gamma-ray emission from pulsars is thought to arise from accelerating regions in pulsar's outer magnetosphere. The shape of the light curves is thus sensitive to the details of the magnetic geometry of the magnetosphere. In this work, we show the first calculations of light curves from the more realistic force-free field under the framework of conventional emission models. We compare the properties of gamma-ray emission between the commonly used vacuum dipole magnetic field and the new force-free field. We discuss the role of the polar cap shape and aberration effect on the appearance of the light curves as well as the formation of caustics on the sky map. With the force-free field, the double-peak pulse profile is best reproduced if the emission zone lies in a thin layer just outside the current sheet, and the peaks are mainly contributed from regions near the light cylinder. The conventional two-pole caustic model can produce up to four peaks in general, while the conventional outer-gap model can normally produce only one peak. These results will be useful for interpreting Fermi telescope observations.
This white paper describes the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, its capabilities, and its role in current and future research in planetary astronomy.
We report the discovery of a multiply lensed Ly Alpha (Lya) emitter at z = 3.90 behind the massive galaxy cluster WARPS J1415.1+3612 at z = 1.026. Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope(HST) using ACS reveal a complex lensing system that produces a prominent, highly magnified arc and a triplet of smaller arcs grouped tightly around a spectroscopically confirmed cluster member. Spectroscopic observations using FOCAS on Subaru confirm strong Lya emission in the source galaxy and provide redshifts for more than 21 cluster members, from which we obtain a velocity dispersion of 807+/-185 km/s. Assuming a singular isothermal sphere profile, the mass within the Einstein ring (7.13+/-0.38") corresponds to a central velocity dispersion of 686+15-19 km/s for the cluster, consistent with the value estimated from cluster member redshifts. Our mass profile estimate from combining strong lensing and dynamical analyses is in good agreement with both X-ray and weak lensing results.
We revisit the anisotropic universe model previously developed by Ackerman, Carroll and Wise (ACW), and generalize both the theoretical and computational framework to include polarization and various forms of systematic effects. We apply our new tools to simulated WMAP data in order to understand the potential impact of asymmetric beams, noise mis-estimation and potential Zodiacal light emission. We find that neither has any significant impact on the results. We next show that the previously reported ACW signal is also present in the 1-year WMAP temperature sky map presented by Liu & Li, where data cuts are more aggressive. Finally, we reanalyze the 5-year WMAP data taking into account a previously neglected (-i)^{l-l'}-term in the signal covariance matrix. We still find a strong detection of a preferred direction in the temperature map. Including multipoles up to l=400, the anisotropy amplitude for the W-band is found to be g = 0.29 +- 0.031, nonzero at 9 sigma. However, the corresponding preferred direction is also shifted very close to the ecliptic poles at (l,b)= (96,30), in agreement with the analysis of Hanson & Lewis, indicating that the signal is aligned along the plane of the solar system. This strongly suggests that the signal is not of cosmological origin, but most likely is a product of an unknown systematic effect. Determining the nature of the systematic effect is of vital importance, as it might affect other cosmological conclusions from the WMAP experiment. Finally, we provide a forecast for the Planck experiment including polarization.
Assuming that density waves trigger star formation, and that young stars preserve the velocity components of the molecular gas where they are born, we analyze the effects that non-circular gas orbits have on color gradients across spiral arms. We try two approaches, one involving semi-analytical solutions for spiral shocks, and another with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulation data. We find that, if non-circular motions are ignored, the comparison between observed color gradients and stellar population synthesis models would in principle yield pattern speed values that are systematically too high for regions inside corotation, with the difference between the real and the measured pattern speeds increasing with decreasing radius. On the other hand, image processing and pixel averaging result in systematically lower measured spiral pattern speed values, regardless of the kinematics of stellar orbits. The net effect is that roughly the correct pattern speeds are recovered, although the trend of higher measured $\Omega_p$ at lower radii (as expected when non-circular motions exist but are neglected) should still be observed. We examine the Martinez-Garcia et al. (2009) photometric data and confirm that this is indeed the case. The comparison of the size of the systematic pattern speed offset in the data with the predictions of the semi-analytical and MHD models corroborates that spirals are more likely to end at Outer Lindblad Resonance, as these authors had already found.
Aegaeon (Saturn LIII, S/2008 S1) is a small satellite of Saturn that orbits within a bright arc of material near the inner edge of Saturn's G ring. This object was observed in 21 images with Cassini's Narrow-Angle Camera between June 15 (DOY 166), 2007 and February 20 (DOY 51), 2009. If Aegaeon has similar surface scattering properties as other nearby small Saturnian satellites (Pallene, Methone and Anthe), then its diameter is approximately 500 m. Orbit models based on numerical integrations of the full equations of motion show that Aegaeon's orbital motion is strongly influenced by multiple resonances with Mimas. In particular, like the G-ring arc it inhabits, Aegaeon is trapped in the 7:6 corotation eccentricity resonance with Mimas. Aegaeon, Anthe and Methone therefore form a distinctive class of objects in the Saturn system: small moons in co-rotation eccentricity resonances with Mimas associated with arcs of debris. Comparisons among these different ring-arc systems reveal that Aegaeon's orbit is closer to the exact resonance than Anthe's and Methone's orbits are. This could indicate that Aegaeon has undergone significant orbital evolution via its interactions with the other objects in its arc, which would be consistent with the evidence that Aegaeon's mass is much smaller relative to the total mass in its arc than Anthe's and Methone's masses are.
Previous submillimetre (submm) observations detected 0.7 solar masses of cool dust emission around the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) star Eta Carinae. These observations were hindered by the low declination of Eta Carinae and contamination from free-free emission orginating from the stellar wind. Here, we present deep submm observations with LABOCA at 870um, taken shortly after a maximum in the 5.5-yr radio cycle. We find a significant difference in the submm flux measured here compared with the previous measurement: the first indication of variability at submm wavelengths. A comparison of the submm structures with ionised emission features suggests the 870um is dominated by emission from the ionised wind and not thermal emission from dust. We estimate 0.4 +/- 0.1 solar masses of dust surrounding Eta Carinae. The spatial distribution of the submm emission limits the mass loss to within the last thousand years, and is associated with mass ejected during the great eruptions and the pre-outburst LBV wind phase; we estimate that Eta Carinae has ejected > 40 solar masses of gas within this timescale.
We report the discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star in Aquila via detection of its circumstellar nebula (reminiscent of ring nebulae associated with late WN stars) using the Spitzer Space Telescope archival data. Our spectroscopic follow-up of the central point source associated with the nebula showed that it is a WN7h star (we named it WR121b). We analyzed the spectrum of WR121b by using the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmospheres, obtaining a stellar temperature of ~ 50 kK. The stellar wind composition is dominated by helium with ~ 20 per cent of hydrogen. The stellar spectrum is highly reddened (E_{B-V} = 2.85 mag). Adopting an absolute magnitude of M_v = -5.7, the star has a luminosity of log L/Lsun = 5.75 and a mass-loss rate of 10^{-4.7} Msun/yr, and resides in a distance of 6.3 kpc. We searched for a possible parent cluster of WR121b and found that this star is located at ~ 1 degree from the young star cluster embedded in the giant HII region W43 (containing another WN7 star -- WR121a). We also discovered a bow shock around the O9.5III star ALS9956, located at ~ 0.5 degree from the cluster. We discuss the possibility that WR121b and ALS9956 are runaway stars ejected from the cluster in W43.
Theta 1 Ori E is a young, moderate mass binary system, a rarely observed case of spectral-type G-giants of about 3 Solar masses, which are still collapsing towards the main sequence. We have obtained high resolution X-ray spectra with Chandra and find that the system is very active and similar to coronal sources, having emission typical of magnetically confined plasma: a broad temperature distribution with a hot component and significant high energy continuum; narrow emission lines from H- and He-like ions, as well as a range of Fe ions, and relative luminosity, L_x/L_bol = 0.001. Density, while poorly constrained, is consistent with the low density limits as determined from Mg XI and Ne IX emission lines. Coronal elemental abundances are sub-Solar, with Ne being the highest at about 0.4 times Solar. We find a possible trend in Trapezium hot plasmas towards low relative abundances of Fe, O, and Ne, which is hard to explain in terms of the dust depletion scenarios of low-mass young stars. Variability was unusually low relative to other coronally active stars. The emission is similar to post main-sequence G-stars. Coronal structures could be compact or comparable to the dimensions of the stellar radii. We conclude that the X-rays in theta 1 Ori E are generated by a convective dynamo.
A hypothetical time-variation of the gravitational constant $G$ would make neutron stars expand or contract, so the matter in their interiors would depart from beta equilibrium. This induces non-equilibrium weak reactions, which release energy that is invested partly in neutrino emission and partly in internal heating. Eventually, the star arrives at a stationary state in which the temperature remains nearly constant, as the forcing through the change of $G$ is balanced by the ongoing reactions. Using the surface temperature of the nearest millisecond pulsar (PSR J0437$-$4715) inferred from ultraviolet observations and results from theoretical modelling of the thermal evolution, we estimate two upper limits for this variation: (1) $|\dot G/G| < 2 \times 10^{-10}\mathrm{yr}^{-1},$ if the fast, "direct Urca" reactions are allowed, and (2) $|\dot G/G|<4\times 10^{-12}\mathrm{yr}^{-1},$ considering only the slower, "modified Urca" reactions. The latter is among the most restrictive upper limits obtained by other methods.
The active RS CVn star II Peg has been spectroscopically monitored for almost 18 years with the SOFIN spectrograph at NOT, La Palma, Spain. In this paper we present five new surface temperature maps of the object for the years 1999 (two maps), 2001 (one map) and 2002 (two maps).
The most distant -ray burst yet sighted is the earliest astronomical object ever observed in cosmic history. This ancient beacon offers a glimpse of the little-known cosmic dark ages.
In the past several years high resolution kinematic data sets from Milky Way satellite galaxies have confirmed earlier indications that these systems are dark matter dominated objects. Further understanding of what these galaxies reveal about cosmology and the small scale structure of dark matter relies in large part on a more detailed interpretation of their internal kinematics. This article discusses a likelihood formalism that extracts important quantities from the kinematic data, including the amplitude of rotation, proper motion, and the mass distribution. In the simplest model the projected error on the rotational amplitude is shown to be $\sim 0.5 $ km s$^{-1}$ with $\sim 10^3$ stars from either classical or ultra-faint satellites. The galaxy Sculptor is analyzed for the presence of a rotational signal; no significant detection of rotation is found, and given this result limits are derived on the Sculptor proper motion. A criteria for model selection is discussed that determines the parameters required to describe the dark matter halo density profiles and the stellar velocity anisotropy. Applied to four data sets with a wide range of velocities, the likelihood is found to be more sensitive to variations in the slope of the dark matter density profile than variations in the velocity anisotropy. Models with variable radial velocity anisotropy are shown to be preferred relative to those in which this quantity is constant at all radii in the galaxy.
Porosity evolution of dust aggregates is crucial in understanding dust evolution in protoplanetary disks. In this study, we present useful tools to study the coagulation and porosity evolution of dust aggregates. First, we present a new numerical method for simulating dust coagulation and porosity evolution as an extension of the conventional Smoluchowski equation. This method follows the evolution of the mean porosity for each aggregate mass simultaneously with the evolution of the mass distribution function. This method reproduces the results of previous Monte Carlo simulations with much less computational expense. Second, we propose a new collision model for porous dust aggregates on the basis of our N-body experiments on aggregate collisions. We first obtain empirical data on porosity changes between the classical limits of ballistic cluster-cluster and particle-cluster aggregation. Using the data, we construct a recipe for the porosity change due to general hit-and-stick collisions as well as formulae for the aerodynamical and collisional cross sections. Simple coagulation simulations using the extended Smoluchowski method show that our collision model explains the fractal dimensions of porous aggregates observed in a full N-body simulation and a laboratory experiment. Besides, we discover that aggregates at the high-mass end of the distribution can have a considerably small aerodynamical cross section per unit mass compared with aggregates of lower masses. We point out an important implication of this discovery for dust growth in protoplanetary disks.
The implication of primordial magnetic-field-induced structure formation for the HI signal from the epoch of reionization is studied. Using semi-analytic models, we compute both the density and ionization inhomogeneities in this scenario. We show that: (a) The global HI signal can only be seen in emission, unlike in the standard $\Lambda$CDM models, (b) the density perturbations induced by primordial fields, leave distinctive signatures of the magnetic field Jeans' length on the HI two-point correlation function, (c) the length scale of ionization inhomogeneities is $\la 1 \rm Mpc$. We find that the peak expected signal (two-point correlation function) is $\simeq 10^{-4} \rm K^2$ in the range of scales $0.5\hbox{-}3 \rm Mpc$ for magnetic field strength in the range $5 \times 10^{-10} \hbox{-}3 \times 10^{-9} \rm G$. We also discuss the detectability of the HI signal. The angular resolution of the on-going and planned radio interferometers allows one to probe only the largest magnetic field strengths that we consider. They have the sensitivity to detect the magnetic field-induced features. We show that thefuture SKA has both the angular resolution and the sensitivity to detect the magnetic field-induced signal in the entire range of magnetic field values we consider, in an integration time of one week.
Faraday Rotation Measure (RM) Synthesis, as a method for analyzing multi-channel observations of polarized radio emission to investigate galactic magnetic fields structures, requires the definition of complex polarized intensity in the range of the negative lambda square. We introduce a simple method for continuation of the observed complex polarized intensity into this domain using symmetry arguments. The method is suggested in context of magnetic field recognition in galactic disks where the magnetic field is supposed to have a maximum in the equatorial plane. The method is quite simple when applied to a single Faraday-rotating structure on the line of sight. Recognition of several structures on the same line of sight requires a more sophisticated technique. We also introduce a wavelet-based algorithm which allows us to consider a set of isolated structures. The method essentially improves the possibilities for reconstruction of complicated Faraday structures using the capabilities of modern radio telescopes.
A selected overview of stellar effects and reaction mechanisms with relevance to the prediction of astrophysical reaction rates far off stability is provided.
We present the results from the spectral analysis of more than 7,500 RXTE spectra of 10 AGN, which have been observed by RXTE regularly over a long period of time ~ 7-11 years. These observations most probably sample most of the flux and spectral variations that these objects exhibit, thus, they are ideal for the study of their long term X-ray spectral variability. We modelled the 3-10 spectrum of each observation in a uniform way using a simple power-law model (with the addition of Gaussian line and/or edge to model the iron Kalpha emission/absorption features, if necessary) to consistently parametrize the shape of the observed X-ray continuum. We found that the average spectral slope does not correlate with source luminosity or black hole mass, while it correlates positively with the average accretion rate. We have also determined the (positive) "spectral slope-flux" relation for each object, over a larger flux range than before. We found that this correlation is similar in almost all objects. We discuss this global "spectral slope-flux" trend in the light of current models for spectral variability. We consider (i) intrinsic variability, expected e.g. from Comptonization processes, (ii) variability caused by absorption of X-rays by a single absorber whose ionization parameter varies proportionally to the continuum flux variations, (iii) variability resulting from the superposition of a constant reflection component and an intrinsic power-law which is variable in flux but constant in shape, and, (iv) variability resulting from the superposition of a constant reflection component and an intrinsic power-law which is variable both in flux and shape. Our final conclusion is that scenario (iv) describes better our results.
We present new photometric data and analysis of the long-duration UBV photoelectric observations for three candidates to protoplanetary objects - F-supergiants with IR-excesses located at large galactic latitudes, IRAS 18095+2704, IRAS 19386+0155, and IRAS 19500-1709. All three stars have revealed quasiperiodic low-amplitude variabilities caused by pulsations observed against the long-term trends of brightnesses. For IRAS 18095+2704=V887 Her we have found a pulsation period of 109 days and a linear trend of brightness under the constant colours if being averaged over the year timescale. The light curve of IRAS 19386+0155=V1648 Aql over 2000-2008 can be approximated by a wave with a main period of 102 days which is modulated by close frequency, with a period of 98 days, that results in brightness oscillations with a variable amplitude. V1648 Aql has also shown synchronous reddening together with a persistent rise of brightness in the V-band. IRAS 19500-1709=V5112 Sgr experiences irregular pulsations with the periods of 39 and 47 days. The long-term component of the variability of V5112 Sgr may be related to the binary character of this star.
We report photometry and analysis of a previously unknown SU UMa-type dwarf nova in Bootes detected in outburst by the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey on 2009 May 30 with the event identifier CSS090530:144011+494734. This apparently stellar object had previously been catalogued by the Sloan Digital Sky survey as SDSS J144011.01+494733.4. We measured its mean superhump period over the first 3 days following detection as 0.06500(4) d at which point this changed to 0.06438(3) d. We detected a possible orbital period of 0.06322(8) d implying a mean superhump period excess of 0.020(2). After detection, the dwarf nova maintained steady brightness for 5 days before starting to fade. The outburst amplitude was 5.5 magnitudes above its quiescent level.
Methanol and its precursor formaldehyde are among the most studied organic molecules in the interstellar medium and are abundant in the gaseous and solid phases. We recently developed a model to simulate CO hydrogenation via H atoms on interstellar ice surfaces, the most important interstellar route to H2CO and CH3OH, under laboratory conditions. We extend this model to simulate the formation of both organic species under interstellar conditions, including freeze-out from the gas and hydrogenation on surfaces. Our aim is to compare calculated abundance ratios with observed values and with the results of prior models. Simulations under different conditions, including density and temperature, have been performed. We find that H2CO and CH3OH form efficiently in cold dense cores or the cold outer envelopes of young stellar objects. The grain mantle is found to have a layered structure with CH3OH on top. The species CO and H2CO are found to exist predominantly in the lower layers of ice mantles where they are not available for hydrogenation at late times.
We test the truncated disc models using multiwavelength (optical/UV/X-ray)
data from the 2005 hard state outburst of the black hole SWIFT J1753.5-0127.
This system is both fairly bright and has fairly low interstellar absorption,
so gives one of the best datasets to study the weak, cool disc emission in this
state. We fit these data using models of an X-ray illuminated disc to constrain
the inner disc radius throughout the outburst. Close to the peak, the observed
soft X-ray component is consistent with being produced by the inner disc, with
its intrinsic emission enhanced in temperature and luminosity by reprocessing
of hard X-ray illumination in an overlap region between the disc and corona.
This disc emission provides the seed photons for Compton scattering to produce
the hard X-ray spectrum, and these hard X-rays also illuminate the outer disc,
producing the optical emission by reprocessing.
However, the situation is very different as the outburst declines. The
optical is probably cyclo-synchrotron radiation, self-generated by the flow,
rather than tracing the outer disc. Similarly, limits from reprocessing make it
unlikely that the soft X-rays are directly tracing the inner disc radius. This
is seen more clearly in a similarly dim low/hard state spectrum from XTE
J1118+480. The very small emitting area implied by the relatively high
temperature soft X-ray component is completely inconsistent with the much
larger, cooler, UV component which is well fit by a truncated disc. We
speculate on the origin of this component, but its existence as a clearly
separate spectral component from the truncated disc in XTE J1118+480 shows that
it does not simply trace the inner disc radius, so cannot constrain the
truncated disc models.
Stellar encounters potentially affect the evolution of the protoplanetary discs in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). However, the role of encounters in other cluster environments is less known. We investigate the effect of the encounter-induced disc-mass loss in different cluster environments. Starting from an ONC-like cluster we vary the cluster size and density to determine the correlation of collision time scale and disc-mass loss. We use the NBODY6++ code to model the dynamics of these clusters and analyze the effect of star-disc encounters. We find that the disc-mass loss depends strongly on the cluster density but remains rather unaffected by the size of the stellar population. The essential outcome of the simulations are: i) Even in clusters four times sparser than the ONC the effect of encounters is still apparent. ii) The density of the ONC itself marks a threshold: in less dense and less massive clusters it is the massive stars that dominate the encounter-induced disc-mass loss whereas in denser and more massive clusters the low-mass stars play the major role for the disc mass removal. It seems that in the central regions of young dense star clusters -- the common sites of star formation -- stellar encounters do affect the evolution of the protoplanetary discs. With higher cluster density low-mass stars become more heavily involved in this process. This finding allows for the extrapolation towards extreme stellar systems: in case of the Arches cluster one would expect stellar encounters to destroy the discs of most of the low- and high-mass stars in several hundred thousand years, whereas intermediate mass stars are able to retain to some extant their discs even under these harsh environmental conditions.
Magnetorotational instability (MRI) has been suggested to lead a rapid growth of the magnetic field in core collapse supernovae and produce departures from spherical syymmetry that can be important in determining the explosion mechanism. We address the problem of stability in differentially rotating magnetized proto-neutron stars at the beginning of their evolution. Criteria for MRI in proto-neutron stars are derived without simplying assumptions about a weak magnetic field and are substantially different from the standard condition. If the magnetic field is strong, MRI can occur only in the neighbourhood of the region where the spherical radial component of the magnetic field vanishes. The growth rate of MRI is relatively low except for perturbations with very small scales which usually are not detected in numerical simulations. We find that MRI in proto-neutron stars grows more slowly than than the double diffusive instability analogous the Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke instability in ordinary stars.
By constructing a global model based on 3D local magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations, we show that the disk wind driven by magnetorotational instability (MRI) play a significant role in the dispersal of the gas component of proto-planetary disks. Because the mass loss time scale by the MRI-driven disk winds is proportional to the local Keplerian rotation period, a gas disk dynamically evaporates from the inner region with possibly creating a gradually expanding inner hole, while a sizable amount of the gas remains in the outer region. The disk wind is highly time-dependent with quasi-periodicity of several times Keplerian rotation period at each radius, which should be observable as a variability due to the motion of the effective surface of the disk. Moreover, the predicted inside-out clearing significantly suppresses the infall of boulders to a central star and the Type I migration of newly formed planets, which are favorable for the formation and survival of planets.
Context. In this paper we present the first system test in which we demonstrate the concept of using an array of Distributed Read Out Imaging Devices (DROIDs) for optical photon detection. Aims. After the successful S-Cam 3 detector the next step in the development of a cryogenic optical photon counting imaging spectrometer under the S-Cam project is to increase the field of view using DROIDs. With this modification the field of view of the camera has been increased by a factor of 5 in area, while keeping the number of readout channels the same. Methods. The test has been performed using the flexible S-Cam 3 system and exchanging the 10x12 Superconducting Tunnel Junction array for a 3x20 DROID array. The extra data reduction needed with DROIDs is performed offline. Results. We show that, although the responsivity (number of tunnelled quasiparticles per unit of absorbed photon energy, e- /eV) of the current array is too low for direct astronomical applications, the imaging quality is already good enough for pattern detection, and will improve further with increasing responsivity. Conclusions. The obtained knowledge can be used to optimise the system for the use of DROIDs.
Solar flare hard X-ray spectra from RHESSI are normally interpreted in terms of purely collisional electron beam propagation, ignoring spatial evolution and collective effects. In this paper we present self-consistent numerical simulations of the spatial and temporal evolution of an electron beam subject to collisional transport and beam-driven Langmuir wave turbulence. These wave-particle interactions represent the background plasma's response to the electron beam propagating from the corona to chromosphere and occur on a far faster timescale than coulomb collisions. From these simulations we derive the mean electron flux spectrum, comparable to such spectra recovered from high resolution hard X-rays observations of solar flares with RHESSI. We find that a negative spectral index (i.e. a spectrum that increases with energy), or local minima when including the expected thermal spectral component at low energies, occurs in the standard thick-target model, when coulomb collisions are only considered. The inclusion of wave-particle interactions does not produce a local minimum, maintaining a positive spectral index. These simulations are a step towards a more complete treatment of electron transport in solar flares and suggest that a flat spectrum (spectral index of 0 to 1) down to thermal energies maybe a better approximation instead of a sharp cut-off in the injected electron spectrum.
Several works have recently shown that there is an important extra line-broadening (usually called $macroturbulence$) affecting the spectra of O and B Supergiants that adds to stellar rotation. So far, the only (very recent) physical explanation for the appearance of $macroturbulence$ relates to oscillations. This is a plausible explanation, but no direct evidence confirming its validity has been presented yet. We recently started an observational project to obtain constraints on the time-scales of variability associated to this extra line-broadening and its possible origin. Our observational strategy consists of the study of a well selected group of O and B stars, for which we obtain time series of high-quality spectra. We present some preliminary results from our first campaign with FIES@NOT2.5m.
We present the case for a dark matter detector with directional sensitivity. This document was developed at the 2009 CYGNUS workshop on directional dark matter detection, and contains contributions from theorists and experimental groups in the field. We describe the need for a dark matter detector with directional sensitivity; each directional dark matter experiment presents their project's status; and we close with a feasibility study for scaling up to a one ton directional detector, which would cost around $150M.
Pulsars and central engines of long gamma ray burst -- collapsars -- may
produce highly magnetized (Poynting flux dominated) outflows expanding in a
dense surrounding (interstellar medium or stellar material). For certain
injection conditions, the magnetic flux of the wind cannot be accommodated
within the cavity. In this case, ideal (non-dissipative) MHD models, similar to
the Kennel and Coroniti (1984) model of the Crab nebular, break down (the
so-called sigma problem). This is typically taken to imply that the wind should
become particle-dominated on scales much smaller than the size of the cavity.
The wind is then slowed down by a fluid-type (low magnetization) reverse shock.
Recent Fermi results, indicating that synchrotron spectrum of the Crab nebula
extends well beyond the upper limit of the most efficient radiation
reaction-limited acceleration, contradict the presence of a low sigma reverse
shock.
We propose an alternative possibility, that the excessive magnetic flux is
destroyed in a reconnection-like process in two regions: near the rotational
axis and near the equator. We construct an example of such highly magnetized
wind having two distinct reconnection regions and suggest that these
reconnection cites are observed as tori and jets in pulsar wind nebulae. The
model reproduces, qualitatively, the observed morphology of the Crab nebula. In
parts of the nebular the dissipation occurs in a relativistically moving wind,
alleviating the requirements on the acceleration rate.
During the total solar eclipse at Akademgorodok, Siberia, Russia, in 1 August 2008, we imaged the flash spectrum with a slitless spectrograph. We have spectroscopically determined the duration of totality, the epoch of the 2nd and 3rd contacts and the duration of the flash spectrum (63 s during ingress and 48 s during egress). Here we compare the 2008 flash spectra with those that we similarly obtained from the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006, at Kastellorizo, Greece. Any changes of the intensity of the corona emission lines, in particularly those of [Fe X] and [Fe XIV], could give us valuable information about the energy content of the solar corona and the temperature distribution of the corona. The results show that the high-ionization state, the [Fe XIV] emission line, was much weaker during the 2008 eclipse, indicating that following the long, inactive period during the solar minimum, there is a probable drop in the energy content of the solar corona.
The study of scattering and extinction properties of possible nanodiamond grains in the ISM are reported. Calculations using Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) for varying ellipsoidal shapes and sizes from 2.5 to $10 nm$ are considered. Nanodiamonds show negligible extinction from IR to near-UV and very sharp far-UV rise. Comparison with observations rule out possibility of independent nanodiamond dust but point towards possibility of nanodiamonds as a component in the ISM. Radiation induced transformations may lead to carbonaceous grains with different core and mantles. So calculations are also performed for a core-mantle target model with nanodiamond core in graphite mantles. The graphite extinction features get modified with the peak at 2175 \AA{} being lowered, broadened, blue shifted and accompanied by enhanced extinction in the far-UV. Such variations in the 2175 \AA{} band and simultaneous far-UV rise are observed along some sources. A three component dust model incorporating silicate, graphite and graphite with nanodiamond core is also considered. The model extinction compares very well with the average galactic extinction in the complete range from 0.2 to $10 \mu m^{-1}$. The best fit requires small size and small number of nanodiamonds.
Correct distributions of extrasolar systems for their orbital parameters (semi-major axes, period, eccentricity) and physical characteristics (mass, spectral type of parent star) are received. Orbital resonances in extrasolar systems are considered. It is shown, that the account of more thin effects, including with use of wavelet methods, in obviously incorrectly reduced distributions it is not justified, to what the homogeneous statistical distributions for dynamic parameters of exoplanets, received in the present work, testify.
The Telescopi ROBotic de ARas (TROBAR) is a new robotic facility built at Aras de Los Olmos (Valencia-Spain). This is a 60cm telescope equipped with a 4kx4k optical camera, corresponding to 30x30 arcmin2 FoV, and it will be primarily used for a systematic search of Ha emitting stars in the Galactic Plane to a depth of ~14mag. Both data acquisition and reduction will be performed automatically. The robotization of data acquisition is now entering its final phase while the development of the data reduction pipeline has just started.
GS 1826-238 is a well-studied X-ray bursting neutron star in a low mass binary system. Thermal Comptonisation by a hot electron cloud is a widely accepted mechanism accounting for its high energy emission, while the nature of most of its soft X-ray output is not completely understood. A further low energy component is typically needed to model the observed spectra: pure blackbody and Comptonisation-modified blackbody radiation by a lower temperature (a few keV) electron plasma were suggested to explain the low energy data. We studied the steady emission of GS 1826-238 by means of broad band (X to soft Gamma-rays) measurements obtained by the INTEGRAL observatory in 2003 and 2006. The newly developed, up-to-date Comptonisation model CompTB is applied for the first time to study effectively the low-hard state variability of a low-luminosity neutron star in a low-mass X-ray binary system. We confirm that the 3-200 keV emission of \GS is characterised by Comptonisation of soft seed photons by a hot electron plasma. A single spectral component is sufficient to model the observed spectra. At lower energies, no direct blackbody emission is observed and there is no need to postulate a low temperature Compton region. Compared to the 2003 measurements, the plasma temperature decreased from 20 to 14 keV in 2006, together with the seed photons temperature. The source intensity was also found to be 30% lower in 2006, whilst the average recurrence frequency of the X-ray bursts significantly increased. Possible explanations for this apparent deviation from the typical limit-cycle behaviour of this burster are discussed.
Exceptional observational breakthroughs in the field of Gamma Ray Burst research are not paralleled by theoretical advances. In this review, based on the introductory talk given at the "The Shocking Universe" meeting, I argue that any present day model of GRBs, especially of Short type, is grossly incomplete. I will highlight various contradictions with observations that many models face and briefly mention a number of ideas that might or might not work. In particular, I will discuss (i) a possibility that early X-ray afterglows are coming from internal dissipation, and not from the forwards shock; (ii) that prompt radiation is beamed in the outflow frame.
In this non-specialist review I look at how weak lensing can provide information on the dark sector of the Universe. The review concentrates on what can be learned about Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Dark Gravity, and why. On Dark Matter, results on the confrontation of theoretical profiles with observation are reviewed, and measurements of neutrino masses discussed. On Dark Energy, the interest is whether this could be Einstein's cosmological constant, and prospects for high-precision studies of the equation of state are considered. On Dark Gravity, we consider the exciting prospects for future weak lensing surveys to distinguish General Relativity from extra-dimensional or other gravity theories.
We observed two fields near M32 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys/High Resolution Channel (ACS/HRC) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The main field, F1, is 1.8 arcmin from the center of M32; the second field, F2, constrains the M31 background, and is 5.4 arcmin distant. Each field was observed for 16-orbits in each of the F435W (narrow B) and F555W (narrow V) filters. The duration of the observations allowed RR Lyrae stars and other short-period variables to be detected. A population of RR Lyrae stars determined to belong to M32 would prove the existence of an ancient population in that galaxy, a subject of some debate. We detected 17 RR Lyrae variables in F1 and 14 in F2. A 1-sigma upper limit of 6 RR Lyrae variables belonging to M32 is inferred from these two fields alone. Use of our two ACS/WFC parallel fields provides better constraints on the M31 background, however, and implies that $7_{-3}^{+4}$ (68 % confidence interval) RR Lyrae variables in F1 belong to M32. We have therefore found evidence for an ancient population in M32. It seems to be nearly indistinguishable from the ancient population of M31. The RR Lyrae stars in the F1 and F2 fields have indistinguishable mean V-band magnitudes, mean periods, distributions in the Bailey diagram and ratios of RRc to RR(tot) types. However, the color distributions in the two fields are different, with a population of red RRab variables in F1 not seen in F2. We suggest that these might be identified with the detected M32 RR Lyrae population, but the small number of stars rules out a definitive claim.
The methodology for modeling grain-surface chemistry has been greatly
improved by taking into account the grain size and fluctuation effects.
However, the reaction rate coefficients currently used in all practical models
of gas-grain chemistry are inaccurate by a significant amount. We provide
expressions for these crucial rate coefficients that are both accurate and easy
to incorporate into gas-grain models.
We use exact results obtained in earlier work, where the reaction rate
coefficient was defined by a first-passage problem, which was solved using
random walk theory.
The approximate reaction rate coefficient presented here is easy to include
in all models of interstellar gas-grain chemistry. In contrast to the commonly
used expression, the results that it provides are in perfect agreement with
detailed kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We also show the rate coefficient for
reactions involving multiple species.
We examine the relationship between galaxies and the intergalactic medium at z < 1 using a group of three closely spaced background QSOs with z_em ~1 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Using a new grouping algorithm, we identify groups of galaxies and absorbers across the three QSO sightlines that may be physically linked. There is an excess number of such groups compared to the number we expect from a random distribution of absorbers at a confidence level of 99.9%. The same search is performed with mock spectra generated using a hydrodynamic simulation, and we find the vast majority of such groups arise in dense regions of the simulation. We find that at z<0.5, groups in the simulation generally trace the large-scale filamentary structure as seen in the projected 2-d distribution of the HI column density in a ~30 h^-1 Mpc region. We discover a probable sub-damped Lyman-alpha system at z=0.557 showing strong, low-ionisation metal absorption lines. Previous analyses of absorption across the three sightlines attributed these metal lines to HI. We show that even when the new line identifications are taken into account, evidence remains for planar structures with scales of ~1 Mpc absorbing across the three sightlines. We identify a galaxy at z=0.2272 with associated metal absorption in two sightlines, each 200 kpc away. By constraining the star formation history of the galaxy, we show the gas causing this metal absorption may have been enriched and ejected by the galaxy during a burst of star formation 2 Gyr ago.
We present initial results from a new 440-ks Chandra HETG GTO observation of the canonical Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068. The proximity of NGC 1068, together with Chandra's superb spatial and spectral resolution, allow an unprecedented view of its nucleus and circumnuclear NLR. We perform the first spatially resolved high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the `ionization cone' in any AGN, and use the sensitive line diagnostics offered by the HETG to measure the ionization state, density, and temperature at discrete points along the ionized NLR. We argue that the NLR takes the form of outflowing photoionized gas, rather than gas that has been collisionally ionized by the small-scale radio jet in NGC 1068. We investigate evidence for any velocity gradients in the outflow, and describe our next steps in modeling the spatially resolved spectra as a function of distance from the nucleus.
We report the results of an optical campaign carried out by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre with the specific goal of identifying the brightest X-ray sources in the XMM-Newton Galactic Plane Survey of Hands et al. (2004). In addition to photometric and spectroscopic observations obtained at the ESO-VLT and ESO-3.6m, we used cross-correlations with the 2XMMi, USNO-B1.0, 2MASS and GLIMPSE catalogues to progress the identification process. Active coronae account for 16 of the 30 identified X-ray sources. Many of the identified hard X-ray sources are associated with massive stars emitting at intermediate X-ray luminosities of 10^32-34 erg/s. Among these are a very absorbed likely hyper-luminous star with X-ray/optical spectra and luminosities comparable with those of eta Carina, a new X-ray selected WN8 Wolf-Rayet star, a new Be/X-ray star belonging to the growing class of Gamma-Cas analogs and a possible supergiant X-ray binary of the kind discovered recently by INTEGRAL. One of the sources, XGPS-25 has a counterpart which exhibits HeII 4686 and Bowen CIII-NIII emission lines suggesting a quiescent or X-ray shielded Low Mass X-ray Binary, although its properties might also be consistent with a rare kind of cataclysmic variable (CV). We also report the discovery of three new CVs, one of which is a likely polar. The soft (0.4-2.0 keV) band LogN-LogS curve is completely dominated by active stars in the flux range of 1x10^-13 to 1x10^-14 erg/cm2/s. In total, we are able to identify a large fraction of the hard (2-10 keV) X-ray sources in the flux range of 1x10^-12 to 1x10^-13 erg/cm2/s with Galactic objects at a rate consistent with that expected for the Galactic contribution only. (abridged)
Based on spectroscopic signatures, about one-third of known H$_2$O maser sources in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are believed to arise in highly inclined accretion disks around central engines. These "disk maser candidates" are of interest primarily because angular structure and rotation curves can be resolved with interferometers, enabling dynamical study. We identify five new disk maser candidates in studies with the Green Bank Telescope, bringing the total number published to 30. We discovered two (NGC1320, NGC17) in a survey of 40 inclined active galaxies (v_{sys}< 20000 kms^{-1}). The remaining three disk maser candidates were identified in monitoring of known sources: NGC449, NGC2979, NGC3735. We also confirm a previously marginal case in UGC4203. For the disk maser candidates reported here, inferred rotation speeds are 130-500 kms^{-1}. Monitoring of three more rapidly rotating candidate disks (CG211, NGC6264, VV340A) has enabled measurement of likely orbital centripetal acceleration, and estimation of central masses (2-7x10^7 M_\odot) and mean disk radii (0.2-0.4pc). Accelerations may ultimately permit estimation of distances when combined with interferometer data. This is notable because the three AGN are relatively distant (10000<v_{sys}<15000 kms^{-1}). As signposts of highly inclined geometries at galactocentric radii of \sim0.1-1pc, disk masers also provide robust orientation references that allow analysis of (mis)alignment between AGN and surrounding galactic stellar disks, even without interferometric mapping. We find no preference among published disk maser candidates to lie in high-inclination galaxies, providing independent support for conclusions that central engines and galactic plane orientations are not correlated. (ABRIDGED)
We derive the axis ratio distribution of X-ray clusters using the XMM-Newton catalogue (Snowden et al. 2008). By fitting the contour lines of the X-ray image by ellipses, we confirm the X-ray distribution is well approximated by the elliptic distribution with a constant axis ratio and direction. We construct a simple model describing the axis ratio of the X-ray gas assuming the hydrostatic equilibrium embedded in the triaxial dark matter halo model proposed by Jing & Suto (2002) and the hydrostatic equilibrium. We find that the observed axis ratio distribution is consistent with this model prediction. This is the first observational evidence in favor of the underlying triaxial dark halo model.
The incidence and properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the field, groups, and clusters can provide new information about how these objects are triggered and fueled, similar to how these environments have been employed to study galaxy evolution. We have obtained new XMM-Newton observations of seven X-ray selected groups and poor clusters with 0.02 < z < 0.06 for comparison with previous samples that mostly included rich clusters and optically-selected groups. Our final sample has ten groups and six clusters in this low-redshift range (split at a velocity dispersion of $\sigma = 500$ km/s). We find that the X-ray selected AGN fraction increases from $f_A(L_X>10^{41}; M_R<M_R^*+1) = 0.047^{+0.023}_{-0.016}$ in clusters to $0.091^{+0.049}_{-0.034}$ for the groups (85% significance), or a factor of two, for AGN above an 0.3-8keV X-ray luminosity of $10^{41}$ erg/s hosted by galaxies more luminous than $M_R^*+1$. The trend is similar, although less significant, for a lower-luminosity host threshold of $M_R = -20$ mag. For many of the groups in the sample we have also identified AGN via standard emission-line diagnostics and find that these AGN are nearly disjoint from the X-ray selected AGN. Because there are substantial differences in the morphological mix of galaxies between groups and clusters, we have also measured the AGN fraction for early-type galaxies alone to determine if the differences are directly due to environment, or indirectly due to the change in the morphological mix. We find that the AGN fraction in early-type galaxies is also lower in clusters $f_{A,n>2.5}(L_X>10^{41}; M_R<M_R^*+1) = 0.048^{+0.028}_{-0.019}$ compared to $0.119^{+0.064}_{-0.044}$ for the groups (92% significance), a result consistent with the hypothesis that the change in AGN fraction is directly connected to environment.
We report on the third phase of our study of the neutrino-cooled hyperaccreting torus around a black hole that powers the jet in Gamma Ray Bursts. We focus on the influence of the black hole spin on the properties of the torus. The structure of a stationary torus around the Kerr black hole is solved numerically. We take into account the detailed treatment of the microphysics in the nuclear equation of state that includes the neutrino trapping effect. We find, that in the case of rapidly rotating black holes, the thermal instability discussed in our previous work is enhanced and develops for much lower accretion rates. We also find the important role of the energy transfer from the rotating black hole to the torus, via the magnetic coupling.
We speculate on the dynamical critical behavior of gravity in the extreme ultra-infrared (EuIR) sector and a mechanism to relax the cosmological constant. We show that in the EuIR the cosmological constant term could be made irrelevant for values of the dynamical critical exponent z_EuIR greater than one. We discuss a possible realization of this idea that connects the relaxation of the cosmological constant to the ratio between the EuIR and IR scales, where the latter serves as the 'UV' cutoff of our (ultra long distance) effective theory, with z_IR ~ 1. For distances smaller than the IR regime Lorentz invariance emerges. We entertain the possibility that the effective description of the universe may not be Lorentz invariant at much larger scales. We discuss why local physics cannot detect the 'natural' value for the density of dark energy below the IR scale, and briefly comment on possible connections with holography.
We investigate whether a tachyonic scalar field, encompassing both dark energy and dark matter-like features will drive our universe towards a Big Brake singularity or a de Sitter expansion. In doing this it is crucial to establish the parameter domain of the model, which is compatible with type Ia supernovae data. We find the 1-sigma contours and evolve the tachyonic sytem into the future. We conclude, that both future evolutions are allowed by observations, Big Brake becoming increasingly likely with the increase of the positive model parameter k.
We have derived the quantum vacuum pressure P_vac as a primary entity, removing a trivial and a gauge terms from the cosmological constant-like part (the zeroth term) of the effective action for a free matter field. The quantum vacuum energy density G_vac appears a secondary entity, but both are of expected order. Moreover P_vac and G_vac are dynamical, and therefore they can be used in the Einstein equations. In particular, they could dynamically support holographic dark energy model as well as the `thermodynamic' one.
We discuss current cosmological constraints on axions, as well as future sensitivities. Bounds on axion hot dark matter are discussed first, and subsequently we discuss both current and future sensitivity to models in which axions play the role as cold dark matter, but where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is not restored during reheating.
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We use the largest complete sample of 64 galaxy clusters (HIghest X-ray FLUx Galaxy Cluster Sample) with available high-quality X-ray data from Chandra, and apply 16 cool-core diagnostics to them, some of them new. We also correlate optical properties of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with X-ray properties. To segregate cool core and non-cool-core clusters, we find that central cooling time, t_cool, is the best parameter for low redshift clusters with high quality data, and that cuspiness is the best parameter for high redshift clusters. 72% of clusters in our sample have a cool core (t_cool < 7.7 h_{71}^{-1/2} Gyr) and 44% have strong cool cores (t_cool <1.0 h_{71}^{-1/2} Gyr). For the first time we show quantitatively that the discrepancy in classical and spectroscopic mass deposition rates can not be explained with a recent formation of the cool cores, demonstrating the need for a heating mechanism to explain the cooling flow problem. [Abridged]
We present a detailed analysis of the relation between infrared luminosity and molecular line luminosity, for a variety of molecular transitions, using a sample of 34 nearby galaxies spanning a broad range of infrared luminosities (10^{10} < L_{IR} < 10^{12.5} L_sun). We show that the power-law index of the relation is sensitive to the critical density of the molecular gas tracer used, and that the dominant driver in observed molecular line ratios in galaxies is the gas density. As most nearby ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) exhibit strong signatures of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in their center, we revisit previous claims questioning the reliability of HCN as a probe of the dense gas responsible for star formation in the presence of AGN. We find that the enhanced HCN(1-0)/CO(1-0) luminosity ratio observed in ULIRGs can be successfully reproduced using numerical models with fixed chemical abundances and without AGN-induced chemistry effects. We extend this analysis to a total of ten molecular line ratios by combining the following transitions: CO(1-0), HCO+(1-0), HCO+(3-2), HCN(1-0), and HCN(3-2). Our results suggest that AGNs reside in systems with higher dense gas fraction, and that chemistry or other effects associated with their hard radiation field may not dominate (NGC 1068 is one exception). Galaxy merger could be the underlying cause of increased dense gas fraction and the evolutionary stage of such mergers may be another determinant of the HCN/CO luminosity ratio.
We develop a theoretical framework for describing the hierarchical structure of the phase space of cold dark matter haloes, due to gravitationally bound substructures. Because it includes the full hierarchy of the cold dark matter initial conditions and is hence complementary to the halo model, the stable clustering hypothesis is applied for the first time here to the small-scale phase space structure. As an application, we show that the particle dark matter annihilation signal could be up to two orders of magnitude larger than that of the smooth halo within the Galactic virial radius. The local boost is inversely proportional to the smooth halo density, and thus is O(1) within the solar radius, which could translate into interesting signatures for dark matter direct detection experiments: The temporal correlation of dark matter detection can change by a factor of 2 in the span of 10 years, while there will be significant correlations in the velocity space of dark matter particles. This can introduce O(1) uncertainty in the direction of local dark matter wind, which was believed to be a benchmark of directional dark matter searches or the annual modulation signal.
We present three-dimensional simulations on a new mechanism for the detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar CO white dwarf in a dynamically unstable system where the secondary is either a pure He white dwarf or a He/CO hybrid. For dynamically unstable systems where the accretion stream directly impacts the surface of the primary, the final tens of orbits can have mass accretion rates that range from $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-3} M_{\odot}$ s$^{-1}$, leading to the rapid accumulation of helium on the surface of the primary. After $\sim 10^{-2}$ $M_{\odot}$ of helium has been accreted, the ram pressure of the hot helium torus can deflect the accretion stream such that the stream no longer directly impacts the surface. The velocity difference between the stream and the torus produces shearing which seeds large-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities along the interface between the two regions. These instabilities eventually grow into dense knots of material that periodically strike the surface of the primary, adiabatically compressing the underlying helium torus. If the temperature of the compressed material is raised above a critical temperature, the timescale for triple-$\alpha$ reactions becomes comparable to the dynamical timescale, leading to the detonation of the primary's helium envelope. This detonation drives shockwaves into the primary which tend to concentrate at one or more focal points within the primary's CO core. If a relatively small amount of mass is raised above a critical temperature and density at these focal points, the CO core may itself be detonated.
The Smithsonian Hectospec Lensing Survey (SHELS) is a window on the star formation history over the last 4 Gyr. SHELS is a spectroscopically complete survey for Rtot < 20.3 over 4 square degrees. We use the 10k spectra to select a sample of pure star forming galaxies based on their Halpha emission line. We use the spectroscopy to determine extinction corrections for individual galaxies and to remove active galaxies in order to reduce systematic uncertainties. We use the large volume of SHELS with the depth of a narrowband survey for Halpha galaxies at z ~ 0.24 to make a combined determination of the Halpha luminosity function at z ~ 0.24. The large area covered by SHELS yields a survey volume big enough to determine the bright end of the Halpha luminosity function from redshift 0.100 to 0.377 for an assumed fixed faint-end slope alpha = -1.20. The bright end evolves: the characteristic luminosity L* increases by 0.84 dex over this redshift range. Similarly, the star formation density increases by 0.11 dex. The fraction of galaxies with a close neighbor increases by a factor of 2-5 for L(Halpha) >~ L* in each of the redshift bins. We conclude that triggered star formation is an important influence for star forming galaxies with Halpha emission.
Incorporating the QCD axion and simultaneously satisfying current constraints on the dark matter density and isocurvature fluctuations requires non-minimal fine-tuning of inflationary parameters or the axion misalignment angle (or both) for Peccei-Quinn symmetry-breaking scales $f_a > 10^{12}$ GeV. To gauge the degree of tuning in models with many axion-like fields at similar symmetry-breaking scales and masses, as may occur in string theoretic models that include a QCD axion, we introduce a figure of merit ${\cal F}$ that measures the fractional volume of allowed parameter space: the product of the slow roll parameter $\epsilon$ and each of the axion misalignment angles, $\theta_0$. For a single axion, $\mathcal{F} \lesssim 10^{-11}$ is needed to avoid conflict with observations. We show that the fine tuning of $\mathcal{F}$ becomes exponentially more extreme in the case of numerous axion-like fields. Anthropic arguments are insufficient to explain the fine tuning because the bulk of the anthropically allowed parameter space is observationally ruled out by limits on the cosmic microwave background isocurvature modes. Therefore, this tuning presents a challenge to the compatibility of string-theoretic models with light axions and inflationary cosmology.
The traditional view that Ly-alpha emission and dust should be mutually exclusive has been questioned more and more often, notably the observations of Ly-alpha emission from ULIRGs seems to counter this view. In this paper we seek to address the reverse question: How large a fraction of Ly-alpha selected galaxies are ULIRGs? Using two samples of 24/25 Ly-alpha emitting galaxies at z = 0.3/2.3 we perform this test, also including results at z = 3.1, and find that whereas the ULIRG fraction at z = 3.1 is very small, it systematically increases towards lower redshifts. There is a hint that this evolution may be quite sudden and that it happens around a redshift of z ~ 2.5. Measuring the infrared luminosities of the Ly-alpha emitters, we find that they are in the normal to ULIRG range in the lower redshift sample, whereas the higher redshift galaxies all have luminosities in the ULIRG category. The Ly-alpha escape fractions for these infrared bright galaxies are in the range 1-100 % in the low redshift galaxies, but are very low, 0.4 % on average, in the high redshift galaxies. The unobscured star formation rates are very high, ranging from 500 to more than 5000 Msun / yr. The dust attenuation derived are in the range 0.0 < A_V < 3.5.
(Abridged) We use the largest set of globular cluster velocities obtained so
far of any elliptical galaxy to revise and extend the previous investigations
of the dynamics of NGC 1399, the central dominant galaxy of the nearby Fornax
cluster of galaxies. Our sample now comprises velocities for almost 700 GCs
with projected galactocentric radii between 6 and 100 kpc. In addition, we use
velocities published by Bergond et al. (2007). We study the kinematics of the
metal-poor and metal-rich subpopulations and perform spherical Jeans modelling.
The most important results are: The metal-rich (red) GCs resemble the stellar
field population of NGC 1399 in the region of overlap. Both subpopulations are
kinematically distinct and do not show a smooth transition. It is not possible
to find a common dark halo which reproduces simultaneously the properties of
both subpopulations. Some velocities of blue GCs are only to be explained by
orbits with very large apogalactic distances, thus indicating a contamination
with GCs which belong to the entire Fornax cluster rather than to NGC 1399.
Stripped GCs from nearby elliptical galaxies, particularly NGC 1404, may also
contaminate the metal-poor sample. We argue in favour of a scenario in which
the majority of the blue cluster population has been accreted during the
assembly of the Fornax cluster. The red cluster population shares the dynamical
history of the galaxy itself. Therefore we recommend to use a dark halo based
on the red GCs alone. The dark halo which fits best is marginally less massive
than the halo quoted by Richtler et al. (2004). The comparison with X-ray
analyses is satisfactory in the inner regions, but without showing evidence for
a transition from a galaxy to a cluster halo, as suggested by X-ray work.
The QCD axion is the leading solution to the strong-CP problem, a dark matter candidate, and a possible result of string theory compactifications. However, for axions produced before inflation, symmetry-breaking scales of $f_a \gtrsim 10^{12}$ GeV (which are favored in string-theoretic axion models) are ruled out by cosmological constraints unless both the axion misalignment angle $\theta_0$ and the inflationary Hubble scale $H_I$ are extremely fine-tuned. We show that attempting to accommodate a high-$f_a$ axion in inflationary cosmology leads to a fine-tuning problem that is worse than the strong-CP problem the axion was originally invented to solve. We also show that this problem remains unresolved by anthropic selection arguments commonly applied to the high-$f_a$ axion scenario.
We present a sample of 723 optically selected BL Lac candidates from the SDSS DR7 spectroscopic database encompassing 8250 deg^2 of sky; our sample constitutes one of the largest uniform BL Lac samples yet derived. Each BL Lac candidate has a high-quality SDSS spectrum from which we determine spectroscopic redshifts for ~60% of the objects. Redshift lower limits are estimated for the remaining objects utilizing the lack of host galaxy flux contamination in their optical spectra; we find that objects lacking spectroscopic redshifts are likely at systematically higher redshifts. Approximately 80% of our BL Lac candidates match to a radio source in FIRST/NVSS, and ~40% match to a ROSAT X-ray source. The homogeneous multiwavelength coverage allows subdivision of the sample into 637 radio-loud BL Lac candidates and 86 weak-featured radio-quiet objects. The radio-loud objects broadly support the standard paradigm unifying BL Lac objects with beamed radio galaxies. We propose that the majority of the radio-quiet objects may be lower-redshift (z<2.2) analogs to high-redshift weak line quasars (i.e., AGN with unusually anemic broad emission line regions). These would constitute the largest sample of such objects, being of similar size and complementary in redshift to the samples of high-redshift weak line quasars previously discovered by the SDSS. However, some fraction of the weak-featured radio-quiet objects may instead populate a rare and extreme radio-weak tail of the much larger radio-loud BL Lac population. Serendipitous discoveries of unusual white dwarfs, high-redshift weak line quasars, and broad absorption line quasars with extreme continuum dropoffs blueward of rest-frame 2800 Angstroms are also briefly described.
We report the results of the analysis of high resolution photospheric line spectra obtained with the UVES instrument on the VLT for a sample of 15 solar-type stars selected from a recent survey of the distribution of H and K chromospheric line strengths in the solar-age open cluster M67. We find upper limits to the projected rotation velocities that are consistent with solar-like rotation (i.e., v sini ~< 2-3 km/s) for objects with Ca II chromospheric activity within the range of the contemporary solar cycle. Two solar-type stars in our sample exhibit chromospheric emission well in excess of even solar maximum values. In one case, Sanders 1452, we measure a minimum rotational velocity of vsini = 4 +/- 0.5 km/s, or over twice the solar equatorial rotational velocity. The other star with enhanced activity, Sanders 747, is a spectroscopic binary. We conclude that high activity in solar-type stars in M67 that exceeds solar levels is likely due to more rapid rotation rather than an excursion in solar-like activity cycles to unusually high levels. We estimate an upper limit of 0.2% for the range of brightness changes occurring as a result of chromospheric activity in solar-type stars and, by inference, in the Sun itself. We discuss possible implications for our understanding of angular momentum evolution in solar-type stars, and we tentatively attribute the rapid rotation in Sanders 1452 to a reduced braking efficiency.
No terrestrial planet formation simulation completed to date has considered the detailed chemical composition of the planets produced. While many have considered possible water contents and late veneer compositions, none have examined the bulk elemental abundances of the planets produced as an important check of formation models. Here we report on the first study of this type. Bulk elemental abundances based on disk equilibrium studies have been determined for the simulated terrestrial planets of O'Brien et al. (2006). These abundances are in excellent agreement with observed planetary values, indicating that the models of O'Brien et al. (2006) are successfully producing planets comparable to those of the Solar System in terms of both their dynamical and chemical properties. Significant amounts of water are accreted in the present simulations, implying that the terrestrial planets form "wet" and do not need significant water delivery from other sources. Under the assumption of equilibrium controlled chemistry, the biogenic species N and C still need to be delivered to the Earth as they are not accreted in significant proportions during the formation process. Negligible solar photospheric pollution is produced by the planetary formation process. Assuming similar levels of pollution in other planetary systems, this in turn implies that the high metallicity trend observed in extrasolar planetary systems is in fact primordial.
We report the discovery of the second accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP) in the globular cluster NGC 6440. Pulsations with a frequency of 205.89 Hz were detected with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer on August 30th and October 1st, 2009, during the decay of ~4 days outburst of a newly X-ray transient source in NGC 6440. By studying the Doppler shift of the pulsation frequency we find that the system is an ultra-compact binary with an orbital period of 57.3 minutes and a projected semi-major axis of 6.22 light-milliseconds. Based on the mass function, we estimate a lower limit to the mass of the companion to be 0.0067 M_sun (assuming a 1.4 M_sun neutron star). This new pulsar shows the shortest outburst recurrence time among AMXPs (~1 month). If this behaviour does not cease, this AMXP has the potential to be one of the best sources in which to study how the binary system and the neutron star spin evolve. Furthermore, the characteristics of this new source indicates that there might exist a population of AMXPs undergoing weak outbursts which are undetected by current all-sky X-ray monitors. NGC 6440 is the only globular cluster to host two known AMXPs, while no AMXPs have been detected in any other globular cluster.
We present a new algorithm for identifying the substructure within simulated dark matter haloes. The method is an extension of that proposed by Tormen et al. (2004) and Giocoli et al. (2008a), which identifies a subhalo as a group of self-bound particles that prior to being accreted by the main progenitor of the host halo belonged to one and the same progenitor halo (hereafter satellite). However, this definition does not account for the fact that these satellite haloes themselves may also have substructure, which thus gives rise to sub-subhaloes, etc. Our new algorithm identifies substructures at all levels of this hierarchy, and we use it to determine the mass function of all substructure (counting sub-haloes, sub-subhaloes, etc.). On average, haloes which formed more recently tend to have a larger mass fraction in substructure and to be less concentrated than average haloes of the same mass. We provide quantitative fits to these correlations. Even though our algorithm is very different from that of Gao et al. (2004), we too find that the subhalo mass function per unit mass at redshift z = 0 is universal. This universality extends to any redshift only if one accounts for the fact that host haloes of a given mass are less concentrated at higher redshifts, and concentration and substructure abundance are anti-correlated. This universality allows a simple parametrization of the subhalo mass function integrated over all host halo masses, at any given time. We provide analytic fits to this function which should be useful in halo model analyses which equate galaxies with halo substructure when interpreting clustering in large sky surveys. Finally, we discuss systematic differences in the subhalo mass function that arise from different definitions of (host) halo mass.
We have identified a new transient luminous low-mass X-ray binary, NGC 6440
X-2, with Chandra/ACIS, RXTE/PCA, and Swift/XRT observations of the globular
cluster NGC 6440. The discovery outburst (July 28-31, 2009) peaked at
L_X~1.5*10^36 ergs/s, and lasted for <4 days above L_X=10^35 ergs/s. Three
other outbursts (May 29-June 4, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, and Oct. 1-3, 2009) have been
observed with RXTE/PCA (identifying millisecond pulsations, Altamirano et al.
2009a) and Swift/XRT (confirming a positional association with NGC 6440 X-2).
Optical and infrared imaging did not detect a clear counterpart, with best
limits of V>21, B>22 in quiescence from archival HST imaging, g'>22 during the
third outburst from Gemini-South GMOS imaging, and J>~18.5$ and K>~17 during
the second outburst from CTIO 4-m ISPI imaging.
Archival Chandra X-ray images of the core do not detect the quiescent
counterpart, and place a bolometric luminosity limit of L_{NS}< 5.6*10^31
ergs/s (one of the lowest measured) for a hydrogen atmosphere neutron star. A
followup Chandra observation finds marginal evidence of enhanced quiescent
emission at L_X (0.5-10 keV)~6*10^31 ergs/s 10 days into quiescence.
NGC 6440 X-2 currently shows the shortest recurrence time (32 days) of any
known X-ray transient, although regular outbursts were not visible in the bulge
scans before early 2009. Fast, low-luminosity transients like NGC 6440 X-2 may
be easily missed by current X-ray monitoring.
In this spectroscopic study of infant massive star clusters, we find that continuum emission from ionized gas rivals the stellar luminosity at optical wavelengths. In addition, we find that nebular line emission is significant in many commonly used broad-band HST filters including the F814W I-band, the F555W V-band and the F435W B-band. Two young massive clusters (YMCs) in NGC 4449 were targeted for spectroscopic observations after Reines et al. (2008a) discovered an F814W I-band excess in their photometric study of radio-detected clusters in the galaxy. The spectra were obtained with the Dual Imaging Spectrograph on the 3.5 m APO telescope. We supplement these data with HST and SDSS photometry. By comparing our data to the Starburst99 and GALEV models, we find that nebular continuum emission competes with the stellar light in our observations and that the relative contribution is largest in the U- and I-bands, where the Balmer and Paschen jumps are located. The spectra also exhibit strong line emission including the [SIII] 9069,9532 lines in the HST F814W I-band. We find that the combination of nebular continuum and line emission can account for the F814W I-band excess found by Reines et al. (2008a). In an effort to provide a benchmark for estimating the impact of ionized gas emission on photometric observations of YMCs, we compute the relative contributions of the stellar continuum, nebular continuum, and emission lines to the total flux of a 3 Myr-old cluster through various HST filter/instrument combinations, including filters in the WFC3. We urge caution when comparing observations of YMCs to evolutionary synthesis models since nebular emission can have a large impact on magnitudes and colors of young (< 5 Myr) clusters, significantly affecting inferred properties such as ages, masses and extinctions. (Abridged)
We develop a new approach to the well-studied anti-correlation between the optical-to-X-ray spectral index, alpha_ox, and the monochromatic optical luminosity, l_opt. By cross-correlating the SDSS DR5 quasar catalog with the XMM-Newton archive, we create a sample of 327 quasars with X-ray S/N > 6, where both optical and X-ray spectra are available. This allows alpha_ox to be defined at arbitrary frequencies, rather than the standard 2500 Angstroms and 2 keV. We find that while the choice of optical wavelength does not strongly influence the alpha_ox-l_opt relation, the slope of the relation does depend on the choice of X-ray energy. The slope of the relation becomes steeper when alpha_ox is defined at low (~ 1 keV) X-ray energies. This change is significant when compared to the slope predicted by a decrease in the baseline over which alpha_ox is defined. The slopes are also marginally flatter than predicted at high (~ 10 keV) X-ray energies. Partial correlation tests show that while the primary driver of alpha_ox is l_opt, the Eddington ratio correlates strongly with alpha_ox when l_opt is taken into account, so accretion rate may help explain these results. We combine the alpha_ox-l_opt and Gamma -L_bol/L_Edd relations to naturally explain two results: 1) the existence of the Gamma-l_x relation as reported in Young et al. (2009) and 2) the lack of a Gamma-l_opt relation. The consistency of the optical/X-ray correlations establishes a more complete framework for understanding the relation between quasar emission mechanisms.
Using pulsewidth data for 872 isolated radio pulsars we test the hypothesis that pulsars evolve through a progressive narrowing of the emission cone combined with progressive alignment of the spin and magnetic axes. The new data provide strong evidence for the alignment over a time-scale of about 1 Myr with a log standard deviation of around 0.8 across the observed population. This time-scale is shorter than the time-scale of about 10 Myr found by previous authors, but the log standard deviation is larger. The results are inconsistent with models based on magnetic field decay alone or monotonic counter-alignment to orthogonal rotation. The best fits are obtained for a braking index parameter n_gamma approximately equal to 2.3, consistent the mean of the six measured values, but based on a much larger sample of young pulsars. The least-squares fitted models are used to predict the mean inclination angle between the spin and magnetic axes as a function of log characteristic age. Comparing these predictions to existing estimates it is found that the model in which pulsars are born with a random angle of inclination gives the best fit to the data. Plots of the mean beaming fraction as a function of characteristic age are presented using the best-fitting model parameters.
We describe the application of data mining algorithms to research problems in astronomy. We posit that data mining has always been fundamental to astronomical research, since data mining is the basis of evidence-based discovery, including classification, clustering, and novelty discovery. These algorithms represent a major set of computational tools for discovery in large databases, which will be increasingly essential in the era of data-intensive astronomy. Historical examples of data mining in astronomy are reviewed, followed by a discussion of one of the largest data-producing projects anticipated for the coming decade: the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). To facilitate data-driven discoveries in astronomy, we envision a new data-oriented research paradigm for astronomy and astrophysics -- astroinformatics. Astroinformatics is described as both a research approach and an educational imperative for modern data-intensive astronomy. An important application area for large time-domain sky surveys (such as LSST) is the rapid identification, characterization, and classification of real-time sky events (including moving objects, photometrically variable objects, and the appearance of transients). We describe one possible implementation of a classification broker for such events, which incorporates several astroinformatics techniques: user annotation, semantic tagging, metadata markup, heterogeneous data integration, and distributed data mining. Examples of these types of collaborative classification and discovery approaches within other science disciplines are presented.
Using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope, we study the quantitative morphological evolution of spectroscopically confirmed bright galaxies in the core regions of nine clusters ranging in redshift from $z = 0.31$ to $z = 0.84$. We use morphological parameters derived from two dimensional bulge-disk decomposition to study the evolution. We find an increase in the mean bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $B/T$ as the Universe evolves. We also find a corresponding increase in the fraction of early type galaxies and in the mean S\'ersic index. We discuss these results and their implications to physical mechanisms for evolution of galaxy morphology.
We study, within an effective field theory framework, $O(E^{2}/\Mpl^{2})$ Planck-scale suppressed Lorentz invariance violation (LV) effects in the neutrino sector, whose size we parameterize by a dimensionless parameter $\eta_{\nu}$. We find deviations from predictions of Lorentz invariant physics in the cosmogenic neutrino spectrum. For positive O(1) coefficients no neutrino will survive above $10^{19} \eV$. The existence of this cutoff generates a bump in the neutrino spectrum at energies of $10^{17} \eV$. Although at present no constraint can be cast, as current experiments do not have enough sensitivity to detect ultra-high-energy neutrinos, we show that experiments in construction or being planned have the potential to cast limits as strong as $\eta_{\nu} \lesssim 10^{-4}$ on the neutrino LV parameter, depending on how LV is distributed among neutrino mass states. Constraints on $\eta_{\nu} < 0$ can in principle be obtained with this strategy, but they require a more detailed modeling of how LV affects the neutrino sector.
We investigate the properties and the environment of radio sources with
optical counterpart from the combined VLA-COSMOS and zCOSMOS samples. The
advantage of this sample is the availability of optical spectroscopic
information, high quality redshifts, and accurate density determination.
By comparing the star formation rates estimated from the optical spectral
energy distribution with those based on the radio luminosity, we divide the
radio sources in three families, passive AGN, non-passive AGN and star forming
galaxies. These families occupy specific regions of the 8.0-4.5 $\mu$m infrared
color--specific star formation plane, from which we extract the corresponding
control samples.
Only the passive AGN have a significantly different environment distribution
from their control sample. The fraction of radio-loud passive AGN increases
from ~2% in underdense regions to ~15% for overdensities (1+delta) greater than
10. This trend is also present as a function of richness of the groups hosting
the radio sources. Passive AGN in overdensities tend to have higher radio
luminosities than those in lower density environments. Since the black hole
mass distribution is similar in both environments, we speculate that, for low
radio luminosities, the radio emission is controlled (through fuel
disponibility or confinement of radio jet by local gas pressure) by the
interstellar medium of the host galaxy, while in other cases it is determined
by the structure (group or cluster) in which the galaxy resides.
Young stellar systems are known to undergo outbursts, where the star experiences an increased accretion rate, and the system's luminosity increases accordingly. The archetype is the FU Orionis (FU Ori) outburst, where the accretion rate can increase by three orders of magnitude (and the brightness of the system by five magnitudes). The cause appears to be instability in the circumstellar disc, but there is currently some debate as to the nature of this instability (e.g. thermal, gravitational, magneto-rotational). This paper details high resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations that were carried out to investigate the influence of stellar encounters on disc dynamics. Star-star encounters (where the primary has a self-gravitating, marginally stable protostellar disc) were simulated with various orbital parameters to investigate the resulting disc structure and dynamics. Crucially, the simulations include the effects of radiative transfer to realistically model the resulting thermodynamics. Our results show that the accretion history and luminosity of the system during the encounter displays many of the features of outburst phenomena. In particular, the magnitudes and decay times seen are comparable to those of FU Ori. There are two caveats to this assertion: the first is that these events are not expected to occur frequently enough to explain all FU Ori or EX Lupi; the second is that the inner discs of these simulations are subject to numerical viscosity, which will act to reduce the accretion rate (although it has less of an effect on the total mass accreted). In short, these results cannot rule out binary interactions as a potential source of some FU Ori-esque outbursts.
We present spectroscopic observations of a sample of 15 embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). These observations were obtained with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) as part of the SAGE-Spec Legacy program. We analyze the two prominent ice bands in the IRS spectral range: the bending mode of CO_2 ice at 15.2 micron and the ice band between 5 and 7 micron that includes contributions from the bending mode of water ice at 6 micron amongst other ice species. The 5-7 micron band is difficult to identify in our LMC sample due to the conspicuous presence of PAH emission superimposed onto the ice spectra. We identify water ice in the spectra of two sources; the spectrum of one of those sources also exhibits the 6.8 micron ice feature attributed to ammonium and methanol. We model the CO_2 band in detail, using the combination of laboratory ice profiles available in the literature. We find that a significant fraction (> 50%) of CO_2 ice is locked in a water-rich component, consistent with what is observed for Galactic sources. The majority of the sources in the LMC also require a pure-CO_2 contribution to the ice profile, evidence of thermal processing. There is a suggestion that CO_2 production might be enhanced in the LMC, but the size of the available sample precludes firmer conclusions. We place our results in the context of the star formation environment in the LMC.
We use the emission line measurements of 3CR radio sources with redshift < 0.3, to explore their spectroscopic properties. The 3CR sources show a bimodal distribution of Excitation Index, a new spectroscopic indicator that measures the relative intensity of low and high excitation lines. This unveils the presence of two main sub-populations of radio-loud AGN, High and Low Excitation Galaxies (HEG and LEG, respectively). All broad-line objects are HEG from the point of view of their narrow emission line ratios and all HEG are FRII radio-galaxies with log L(178) [erg/s] > 32.8. Conversely LEG cover the whole range of radio power encompassed by this 3CR subsample (30.7 < log L(178) < 35.4) and they are of both FRI and FRII type. The brightest LEG are all FRII. HEG and LEG obey to two (quasi) linear correlations between the optical line and extended radio luminosities, with HEG being brighter than LEG in the [OIII] line by a factor of ~10. HEG and LEG are offset also in a plane that compares the black hole mass and the ionizing nuclear luminosity. However, although HEG are associated with higher nuclear luminosities, we find LEG among the brightest radio sources of the sample and with a clear FRII morphology, indistinguishable from those seen in HEG. This suggests that LEG are not simply objects with a lower level of accretion. We speculate that the differences between LEG and HEG are related to a different mode of accretion: LEG are powered by hot gas, while HEG require the presence of cold accreting material. The high temperature of the accreting gas in LEG accounts for the lack of "cold" structures (i.e. molecular torus and Broad Line Region), for the reduced radiative output of the accretion disk, and for the lower gas excitation. [ABRIDGED]
First spectroscopic and new photometric observations of the eclipsing binary FM Leo are presented. The main aims were to determine orbital and stellar parameters of two components and their evolutionary stage. First spectroscopic observations of the system were obtained with DDO and PST spectrographs. The results of the orbital solution from radial velocity curves are combined with those derived from the light-curve analysis (ASAS-3 photometry and supplementary observations of eclipses with 1 m and 0.35 m telescopes) to derive orbital and stellar parameters. JKTEBOP, Wilson-Devinney binary modelling codes and a two-dimensional cross-correlation (TODCOR) method were applied for the analysis. We find the masses to be M_1 = 1.318 $\pm$ 0.007 and M_2 = 1.287 $\pm$ 0.007 M_sun, the radii to be R_1 = 1.648 $\pm$ 0.043 and R_2 = 1.511 $\pm$ 0.049 R_sun for primary and secondary stars, respectively. The evolutionary stage of the system is briefly discussed by comparing physical parameters with current stellar evolution models. We find the components are located at the main sequence, with an age of about 3 Gyr.
In this review, we present a brief description of observational efforts to understand the Galactic thick disk and its relation to the other Galactic components. This review primarily focused on elemental abundance patterns of the thick disk population to pin down the process or processes that were responsible for its existence and evolution. Kinematic and chemical properties of disk stars establish that the thick disk is a distinct component in the Milky Way. The chemical enrichment and star formation histories hold clues to the bigger picture of understanding the Galaxy formation.
Based on a set of cosmological N-body simulations we analyze properties of the dark matter haloes (DM) in a galaxy mass range ($10^{11} - 10^{13} h^{-1}M_{\odot}$) in modified $\lcdm$ cosmology with additional dynamically screened scalar interactions in DM sector. Our simulations show that scalar interactions support picture of the Island Universe. Rapid structure formation processes are shifted into higher redshifts resulting in a much smaller accretion and merging rates for galactic haloes at low redshifts. Finally, we present how this "fifth" force affects halo properties, like density profile, triaxiality, ellipticities and the spin parameter.
We examine the annihilation of positrons on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules in interstellar medium conditions. We estimate the annihilation rates of positrons on PAHs by a semi-empirical approach. We show that PAHs can play a significant role in the overall galactic positron annihilation picture and use the annihilation rates and INTEGRAL galactic emission measurements to constrain the amount of PAHs present in the ISM. We find an upper limit of 4.6 x 10^-7 for the PAH abundance.
The measurements of the linear polarisation of visible light from quasars give strong evidence for large-scale coherent orientations of their polarisation vectors in some regions of the sky. We show that these observations can be explained by the mixing of the photons with very light pseudoscalar (axion-like) particles in extragalactic magnetic fields during their propagation. We present a new treatment in terms of wave packets and discuss the circular polarisation.
We investigate the emission mechanism and evolution of pulsars that are
associated with supernova remnants.
We used imaging techniques in both the optical and near infrared, using
images with very good seeing (<0.6) to study the immediate surroundings of the
Crab pulsar. In the case of the infrared, we took two data sets with a time
window of 75 days, to check for variability in the inner part of the Crab
nebula. We also measure the spectral indices of all these wisps, the nearby
knot, and the interwisp medium, using our optical and infrared data. We then
compared the observational results with the existing theoretical models.
We report variability in the three nearby wisps located to the northwest of
the pulsar and also in a nearby anvil wisp in terms of their structure,
position, and emissivity within the time window of 75 days. All the wisps and
the inner knot display red spectra with similar spectral indices. Similarly,
the interwisp medium regions also show red spectra similar to those of the
wisps. Also, based on archival HST data and our IR data, we find that the inner
knot remains stationary for a time period of 13.5 years. The projected average
velocity relative to the pulsar for this period is < 8 km/s.
By comparing the spectral indices of the structures in the inner Crab with
the current theoretical models, we find that the Del Zanna et al. (2006) model
for the synchrotron emission fits our observations, although the spectral index
is at the flatter end of their modelled spectra.
The today's energy density of the induced (second order) gravitational wave background in the frequency region $\sim 10^{-3} - 10^3$ Hz is constrained using the existing limits on primordial black hole production in the early Universe. It is shown, in particular, that at frequencies near $\sim 40$ Hz (which is the region explored by LIGO detector), the value of the induced part of $\Omega_{GW}$ cannot exceed $(1-3)\times 10^{-7}$. The spread of values of the bound is caused by the uncertainty in parameters of the gravitational collapse of black holes.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) represents a unique source for the study of gravitational lensing. It is extended across the entire sky, partially polarized, located at the extreme distance of z=1100, and is thought to have the simple, underlying statistics of a Gaussian random field. Here we review the weak lensing of the CMB, highlighting the aspects which differentiate it from the weak lensing of other sources, such as galaxies. We discuss the statistics of the lensing deflection field which remaps the CMB, and the corresponding effect on the power spectra. We then focus on methods for reconstructing the lensing deflections, describing efficient quadratic maximum-likelihood estimators and delensing. We end by reviewing recent detections and observational prospects.
The problem of cosmological particle creation for a spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic Universes is discussed in the context of f(R) theories of gravity. Different from cosmological models based on general relativity theory, it is found that a conformal invariant metric does not forbid the creation of massless particles during the early stages (radiation era) of the Universe.
(Abridged) The main purpose of this paper is to consider the contribution of all three non-thermal components to total mass measurements of galaxy clusters: cosmic rays, turbulence and magnetic pressures. To estimate the thermal pressure we used public XMM-\textit{Newton} archival data of 5 Abell clusters. To describe the magnetic pressure, we assume a radial distribution for the magnetic field, $B(r) \propto \rho_{g}^{\alpha}$, to seek generality we assume $\alpha$ within the range of 0.5 to 0.9, as indicated by observations and numerical simulations. For the turbulent component, we assumed an isotropic pressure, $P_{\rm turb} = {1/3}\rho_{\rm g}(\sigma_{r}^{2}+\sigma_{t}^{2})$. We also consider the contribution of cosmic ray pressure, $P_{cr}\propto r^{-0.5}$. It follows that a consistent description for the non-thermal component could yield variation in mass estimates that vary from 10% up to $\sim$30%. We verified that in the inner parts of cool-core clusters the cosmic ray component is comparable to the magnetic pressure, while in non cool-core cluster the cosmic ray component is dominant. For cool-core clusters the magnetic pressure is the dominant component, contributing with more than 50% of total mass variation due to non-thermal pressure components. However, for non cool-core clusters, the major influence comes from the cosmic ray pressure that accounts with more than 80% of total mass variation due to non-thermal pressure effects. For our sample, the maximum influence of the turbulent component to total mass variation can be almost 20%. We show that this analysis can be regarded as a starting point for a more detailed and refined exploration of the influence of non-thermal pressure in the intra-cluster medium (ICM).
(abridged) Aims: We present new results exhibiting a subcritical baroclinic
instability (SBI) in local shearing box models. We describe the 2D and 3D
behaviour of this instability using numerical simulations and we present a
simple analytical model describing the underlying physical process.
Results: A subcritical baroclinic instability is observed in flows stable for
the Solberg-Hoiland criterion using local simulations. This instability is
found to be a nonlinear (or subcritical) instability, which cannot be described
by ordinary linear approaches. It requires a radial entropy gradient weakly
unstable for the Schwartzchild criterion and a strong thermal diffusivity (or
equivalently a short cooling time). In compressible simulations, the
instability produces density waves which transport angular momentum outward
with typically alpha<3e-3, the exact value depending on the background
temperature profile. Finally, the instability survives in 3D, vortex cores
becoming turbulent due to parametric instabilities.
Conclusions: The subcritical baroclinic instability is a robust phenomenon,
which can be captured using local simulations. The instability survives in 3D
thanks to a balance between the 2D SBI and 3D parametric instabilities.
Finally, this instability can lead to a weak outward transport of angular
momentum, due to the generation of density waves by the vortices.
We present high sensitivity H91$\alpha$ and 3.5 cm radio continuum observations toward the planetary nebula NGC 3242. The electron temperature determined assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium is consistent within $\sim$10% with that derived from optical lines and the Balmer discontinuity. The line emission and the continuum emission have very similar spatial distribution, suggesting that at this wavelength there is no other continuum process present in a significant manner. In particular, we conclude that emission from spinning dust is not important at this wavelength. In this radio recombination line the nebula presents a radial velocity structure consistent with that obtained from observations of optical lines.
The exploration of extragalactic objects with long-baseline interferometers in the near-infrared has been very limited. Here we report successful observations with the Keck interferometer at K-band (2.2 um) for four Type 1 AGNs, namely NGC4151, Mrk231, NGC4051, and the QSO IRAS13349+2438 at z=0.108. For the latter three objects, these are the first long-baseline interferometric measurements in the infrared. We detect high visibilities (V^2 ~ 0.8-0.9) for all the four objects, including NGC4151 for which we confirm the high V^2 level measured by Swain et al.(2003). We marginally detect a decrease of V^2 with increasing baseline lengths for NGC4151, although over a very limited range, where the decrease and absolute V^2 are well fitted with a ring model of radius 0.45+/-0.04 mas (0.039+/-0.003 pc). Strikingly, this matches independent radius measurements from optical--infrared reverberations that are thought to be probing the dust sublimation radius. We also show that the effective radius of the other objects, obtained from the same ring model, is either roughly equal to or slightly larger than the reverberation radius as a function of AGN luminosity. This suggests that we are indeed partially resolving the dust sublimation region. The ratio of the effective ring radius to the reverberation radius might also give us an approximate probe for the radial structure of the inner accreting material in each object. This should be scrutinized with further observations.
Future galaxy surveys will map the galaxy distribution in the redshift interval $0.5<z<2$ using near-infrared cameras and spectrographs. The primary science goal of such surveys is to constrain the nature of the dark energy by measuring the large-scale structure of the Universe. This requires a tracer of the underlying dark matter which maximizes the useful volume of the survey. We investigate two potential survey selection methods: an emission line sample based on the \ha line and a sample selected in the H-band. We present predictions for the abundance and clustering of such galaxies, using two published versions of the \galform galaxy formation model. Our models predict that \ha selected galaxies tend to avoid massive dark matter haloes and instead trace the surrounding filamentary structure; H-band selected galaxies, on the other hand, are found in the highest mass haloes. This has implications for the measurement of the rate at which fluctuations grow due to gravitational instability. We use mock catalogues to compare the effective volumes sampled by a range of survey configurations. To give just two examples: a redshift survey down to $H_{\rm AB}=22$ samples an effective volume that is $\sim 5-10$ times larger than that probed by an \ha survey with $\logfha > -15.4$; a flux limit of at least $\logfha = -16$ is required for an \ha sample to become competitive in effective volume.
This paper presents a numerical study over a wide parameter space of the likelihood of the dynamical bar-mode instability in differentially rotating magnetized neutron stars. The innovative aspect of this study is the incorporation of magnetic fields in such a context, which have thus far been neglected in the purely hydrodynamical simulations available in the literature. The investigation uses the Cosmos++ code which allows us to perform three dimensional simulations on a cylindrical grid at high resolution. A sample of Newtonian magneto-hydrodynamical simulations starting from a set of models previously analyzed by other authors without magnetic fields has been performed, providing estimates of the effects of magnetic fields on the dynamical bar-mode deformation of rotating neutron stars. Overall, our results suggest that the effect of magnetic fields are not likely to be very significant in realistic configurations. Only in the most extreme cases are the magnetic fields able to suppress growth of the bar mode.
The gravitational recoil or "kick" of a black hole formed from the merger of two orbiting black holes, and caused by the anisotropic emission of gravitational radiation, is an astrophysically important phenomenon. We combine (i) an earlier calculation, using post-Newtonian theory, of the kick velocity accumulated up to the merger of two non-spinning black holes, (ii) a "close-limit approximation" calculation of the radiation emitted during the ringdown phase, and based on a solution of the Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli equations using initial data accurate to second post-Newtonian order. We prove that ringdown radiation produces a significant "anti-kick". Adding the contributions due to inspiral, merger and ringdown phases, our results for the net kick velocity agree with those from numerical relativity to 10-15 percent over a wide range of mass ratios, with a maximum velocity of 180 km/s at a mass ratio of 0.38.
We discuss the thermalisation process of the neutron stars crust described by solving the heat transport equation with a microscopic input for the specific heat of baryonic matter. The heat equation is solved with initial conditions specific to a rapid cooling of the core. To calculate the specific heat of inner crust baryonic matter, i.e., nuclear clusters and unbound neutrons, we use the quasiparticle spectrum provided by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach at finite temperature. In this framework we analyse the dependence of the crust thermalisation on pairing properties and on cluster structure of inner crust matter. It is shown that the pairing correlations reduce the crust thermalisation time by a very large fraction. The calculations show also that the nuclear clusters have a non-negligible influence on the time evolution of the surface temperature of the neutron star.
We investigate spherically symmetric perfect fluid spacetimes and discuss the existence and stability of a dividing shell separating expanding and collapsing regions. We perform a 3+1 splitting and obtain gauge invariant conditions relating the intrinsic spatial curvature of the shells to the ADM mass and to a function of the pressure which we introduce and that generalises the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equilibrium condition. We analyse the particular cases of the Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi dust models with a cosmological constant as an example of a $\Lambda$-CDM model and its generalization to contain a central perfect fluid core. These models provide simple, but physically interesting illustrations of our results.
We propose here a robust scheme to infer physical parameters of compact stars from their f-mode gravitational wave signals. We first show that the frequency and the damping rate of f-mode oscillation of compact stars can be expressed in terms of universal functions of stellar mass and moment of inertia, whereas various previous proposals made use of mass and radius instead. By employing the new universality in the f-mode one can then infer accurate values of the mass, the moment of inertia and the radius of a compact star. In contrast to previous works, we demonstrate that our new scheme works well for both realistic neutron stars and quark stars, and hence provides a unifying way to infer the physical parameters of compact stars.
We discuss the existence of a dividing shell separating expanding and collapsing regions in spherically symmetric solutions with pressure. We obtain gauge invariant conditions relating not only the intrinsic spatial curvature of the shells to the ADM mass, but also a function of the pressure which we introduce that generalises the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equilibrium condition, in the framework of a 3+1 spacetime splitting. We consider the particular case of a Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi dust models with a cosmological constant (a $\Lambda$-CDM model) as an example of our results.
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The surface of hot neutron stars is covered by a thin atmosphere. If there is accretion after neutron star formation, the atmosphere could be composed of light elements (H or He); if no accretion takes place or if thermonuclear reactions occur after accretion, heavy elements (for example, Fe) are expected. Despite detailed searches, observations have been unable to confirm the atmospheric composition of isolated neutron stars. Here we report an analysis of archival observations of the compact X-ray source in the centre of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. We show that a carbon atmosphere neutron star (with low magnetic field) produces a good fit to the spectrum. Our emission model, in contrast with others, implies an emission size consistent with theoretical predictions for the radius of neutron stars. This result suggests that there is nuclear burning in the surface layers and also identifies the compact source as a very young (~330-year-old) neutron star.
We present a study of the radial velocity offsets between narrow emission lines and host galaxy lines (stellar absorption and H I 21-cm emission) in Seyfert galaxies with observed redshifts less than 0.043. We find that 35% of the Seyferts in the sample show [O III] emission lines with blueshifts with respect to their host galaxies exceeding 50 km/s, whereas only 6% show redshifts this large, in qualitative agreement with most previous studies. We also find that a greater percentage of Seyfert 1 galaxies show blueshifts than Seyfert 2 galaxies. Using HST/STIS spatially-resolved spectra of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 and the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151, we generate geometric models of their narrow-line regions (NLRs) and inner galactic disks, and show how these models can explain the blueshifted [O III] emission lines in collapsed STIS spectra of these two Seyferts. We conclude that the combination of mass outflow of ionized gas in the NLR and extinction by dust in the inner disk (primarily in the form of dust spirals) is primarily responsible for the velocity offsets in Seyfert galaxies. More exotic explanations are not needed. We discuss the implications of this result for the velocity offsets found in higher redshift AGN.
We present a survey, using the Chandra X-ray observatory, of the central gravitating mass profiles in a sample of 10 galaxies, groups and clusters, spanning ~2 orders of magnitude in virial mass. We find the total mass distributions from ~0.2--10 Re, where Re is the optical effective radius of the central galaxy, are remarkably similar to powerlaw density profiles. The negative logarithmic slope of the mass density profiles, alpha, systematically varies with Re, from alpha=~2, for systems with Re=4kpc to alpha=~1.2 for systems with Re>30kpc. Departures from hydrostatic equilibrium are likely to be small and cannot easily explain this trend. We show that the conspiracy between the baryonic (Sersic) and dark matter (NFW/ Einasto) components required to maintain a powerlaw total mass distribution naturally predicts an anti-correlation between alpha and Re that is very close to what is observed. Furthermore, this conspiracy implies a dark matter fraction within Re that varies systematically with the properties of the galaxy in such a manner as to reproduce, without fine tuning, the observed tilt of the fundamental plane. We speculate that establishing a nearly powerlaw total mass distribution is therefore a fundamental feature of galaxy formation and the primary factor which determines the tilt of the fundamental plane.
We show that energy deposited into an expanding supernova remnant by a highly magnetic (B ~ 5 x 10^14 G) neutron star spinning at an initial period of P ~ 2-20 ms can substantially brighten the light curve. For magnetars with parameters in this range, the rotational energy is released on a timescale of days to weeks, which is comparable to the effective diffusion time through the supernova remnant. The late time energy injection can then be radiated without suffering overwhelming adiabatic expansion losses. The magnetar input also produces a central bubble which sweeps ejecta into an internal dense shell, resulting in a prolonged period of nearly constant photospheric velocity in the observed spectra. We derive analytic expressions for the light curve rise time and peak luminosity as a function of B, P and the properties of the supernova ejecta that allow for direct inferences about the underlying magnetar in bright supernovae. We perform numerical radiation hydrodynamical calculations of a few specific instances and compare the resulting light curves to observed events. Magnetar activity is likely to impact more than a few percent of all core collapse supernovae, and may naturally explain some of the brightest events ever seen (e.g., SN 2005ap and SN 2008es) at L > 10^44 ergs/s.
The Smith Cloud is a massive system of metal-poor neutral and ionized gas M_gas >= 2x10^6 M_sun) that is presently moving at high velocity (V_GSR ~300 km s^-1) with respect to the Galaxy at a distance of 12 kpc from the Sun. The kinematics of the cloud's cometary tail indicates that the gas is in the process of accretion onto the Galaxy, as first discussed by Lockman et al. (2008). Here, we re-investigate the cloud's orbit by considering the possibility that the cloud is confined by a dark matter halo. This is required for the cloud to survive its passage through the Galactic corona. We consider three possible models for the dark matter halo (NFW, Einasto, Burkert) including the effects of tidal disruption and ram-pressure stripping during the cloud's infall onto and passage through the Galactic disk. For the NFW and Einasto dark-matter models, we are able to determine reasonable initial conditions for the Smith Cloud, although this is only marginally possible with the Burkert model. For all three models, the progenitor had an initial (gas+dark matter) mass that was an order of magnitude higher than inferred today. In agreement with Lockman et al. (2008), the cloud appears to have punched through the disk ~70 Myr ago. For our most successful models, the baryon to dark matter ratio is fairly constant during an orbital period but drops by a factor of 2-5 after transiting the disk. The cloud appears to have only marginally survived its transit, and is unlikely to retain its integrity during the next transit ~30 Myr from now.
We re-examine claims of redshift evolution in black hole-bulge scaling relations based on lensed quasars. In particular, we refine the black hole mass estimates using measurements of Balmer lines from near-infrared spectroscopy obtained with Triplespec at Apache Point Observatory. In support of previous work, we find a large scatter between Balmer and UV line widths, both MgII 2796, 2803 and CIV 1548, 1550. There is tentative evidence that CIII] 1909, despite being a blend of multiple transitions, may correlate well with MgII, although a larger sample is needed for a real calibration. Most importantly, we find no systematic changes in the estimated BH masses for the lensed sample based on Balmer lines, providing additional support to the interpretation that black holes were overly massive compared to their host galaxies at high redshift.
Future galaxy redshift surveys aim to measure cosmological quantities from the galaxy power spectrum. A prime example is the detection of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAOs), providing a standard ruler to measure the dark energy equation of state, w(z), to high precision. The strongest practical limitation for these experiments is how quickly accurate redshifts can be measured for sufficient galaxies to map the large-scale structure. A promising strategy is to target emission-line (i.e. star-forming) galaxies at high-redshift (z~0.5-2); not only is the space density of this population increasing out to z~2, but also emission-lines provide an efficient method of redshift determination. Motivated by the prospect of future dark energy surveys targeting H-alpha emitters at near-infrared wavelengths (i.e. z>0.5), we use the latest empirical data to model the evolution of the H-alpha luminosity function out to z~2, and thus provide predictions for the abundance of H-alpha emitters for practical limiting fluxes. We caution that the estimates presented in this work must be tempered by an efficiency factor, epsilon, giving the redshift success rate from these potential targets. For a range of practical efficiencies and limiting fluxes, we provide an estimate of nP_{0.2}, where n is the 3D galaxy number density and P_{0.2} is the galaxy power spectrum evaluated at k=0.2h/Mpc. Ideal surveys must provide nP_{0.2}>1 in order to balance shot-noise and cosmic variance errors. We show that a realistic emission-line survey (epsilon=0.5) could achieve nP_{0.2}=1 out to z~1.5 with a limiting flux of 10^{-16} erg/s/cm^{-2}. If the limiting flux is a factor 5 brighter, then this goal can only be achieved out to z~0.5, highlighting the importance of survey depth and efficiency in cosmological redshift surveys.
We use multi-wavelength, matched aperture, integrated photometry from GALEX, SDSS and the RC3 to estimate the physical properties of 166 nearby galaxies hosting 168 well-observed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Our data corroborate well-known features that have been seen in other SN Ia samples. Specifically, hosts with active star formation produce brighter and slower SNe Ia on average, and hosts with luminosity-weighted ages older than 1 Gyr produce on average more faint, fast and fewer bright, slow SNe Ia than younger hosts. New results include that in our sample, the faintest and fastest SNe Ia occur only in galaxies exceeding a stellar mass threshhold of ~10^10 M_sun, indicating that their progenitors must arise in populations that are older and/or more metal rich than the general SN Ia population. A low host extinction sub-sample hints at a residual trend in peak luminosity with host age, after correcting for light-curve shape, giving the appearance that older hosts produce less-extincted SNe Ia on average. This has implications for cosmological fitting of SNe Ia and suggests that host age could be useful as a parameter in the fitting. Converting host mass to metallicity and computing 56Ni mass from the supernova light curves, we find that our local sample is consistent with a model that predicts a shallow trend between stellar metallicity and the 56Ni mass that powers the explosion, but we cannot rule out the absence of a trend. We measure a correlation between 56Ni mass and host age in the local universe that is shallower and not as significant as that seen at higher redshifts. The details of the age -- 56Ni mass correlations at low and higher redshift imply a luminosity-weighted age threshhold of ~3 Gyr for SN Ia hosts, above which they are less likely to produce SNe Ia with 56Ni masses above ~0.5 M_sun. (Abridged)
We give a brief report on spectroscopic properties of V 393 Scorpii. H alfa emission and shape and radial velocity of He I 5875 are modulated with the long cycle. The long cycle is explained as a relaxation cycle in the circumprimary disc, that cumulates the mass transferred from the donor until certain instability produces disc depletion.
Following an initial explosion that might be launched either by magnetic interactions or neutrinos, a rotating magnetar radiating according to the classic dipole formula could power a very luminous supernova. While some 56Ni might be produced in the initial explosion, the peak of the light curve in a Type I supernova would not be directly related to its mass. In fact, the peak luminosity would be most sensitive to the dipole field strength of the magnetar. The tail of the light curve could resemble radioactive decay for some time but, assuming complete trapping of the pulsar emission, would eventually be brighter. Depending on the initial explosion energy, both high and moderate velocities could accompany a very luminous light curve.
We analyse the evolution of the properties of the low-redshift Intergalactic Medium (IGM) using high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations that include a detailed chemical evolution model. We focus on the effects that two different forms of energy feedback, strong galactic winds driven by supernova explosion and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) powered by gas accretion onto super-massive black holes (BHs), have on the thermo- and chemo-dynamical properties of of the low redshift IGM. We find that feedback associated to winds (W) and BHs leave distinct signatures in both the chemical and thermal history of the baryons, especially at redshift z<3 [..] We present results for the enrichment in terms of mass and metallicity distributions for the WHIM phase, both as a function of density and temperature. Finally, we compute the evolution of the relative abundances between different heavy elements, namely Oxygen, Carbon and Iron. While both C/O and O/Fe evolve differently at high redshifts for different feedback models, their values are similar at z=0 [..]. The sensitivity of WHIM properties on the implemented feedback scheme could be important both for discriminating between different feedback physics and for detecting the WHIM with future far-UV and X-ray telescopes.
We report on recent XMM-Newton observations, archival radio continuum and CO data, and SED modeling of the unidentified Galactic plane source HESS J1708-410. No significant extended X-ray emission is observed, and we place an upper limit of 3.2 x 10{-13} erg cm{-2} s{-1} in the 2-4 keV range for the region of TeV emission. Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey data is used to place an upper limit of 0.27 Jy at 843 MHz for the source, with a 2.4 GHz limit of 0.4 Jy from the Parkes survey of the southern Galactic plane. 12CO (J 1->0) data of this region indicates a plausible distance of 3 kpc for HESS J1708-410. SED modeling of both the H.E.S.S. detection and flux upper limits offer useful constraints on the emission mechanisms, magnetic field, injection spectrum, and ambient medium surrounding this source.
Globular cluster systems in most large galaxies display bimodal color and metallicity distributions, which are frequently interpreted as indicating two distinct modes of cluster formation. The metal-rich (red) and metal-poor (blue) clusters have systematically different locations and kinematics in their host galaxies. However, the red and blue clusters have similar internal properties, such as the masses, sizes, and ages. It is therefore interesting to explore whether both metal-rich and metal-poor clusters could form by a common mechanism and still be consistent with the bimodal distribution. We show that if all globular clusters form only during mergers of massive gas-rich protogalactic disks, their metallicity distribution could be statistically consistent with that of the Galactic globulars. We take galaxy assembly history from cosmological dark matter simulations and couple it with the observed scaling relations for the amount of cold gas available for star formation. In the best-fit model, early mergers of smaller hosts create exclusively blue clusters, whereas subsequent mergers of progenitor galaxies with a range of masses create both red and blue clusters. Thus bimodality arises naturally as the result of a small number of late massive merger events. We calculate the cluster mass loss, including the effects of two-body scattering and stellar evolution, and find that more blue clusters than red clusters are disrupted by the present time, because of their smaller initial masses and larger ages. The present-day mass function in the best-fit model is consistent with the Galactic distribution. However, the spatial distribution of model clusters is much more extended than observed and is independent of the parameters of our model.
The combination of high spatial and spectral resolution in optical astronomy enables new observational approaches to many open problems in stellar and circumstellar astrophysics. However, constructing a high-resolution spectrograph for an interferometer is a costly and time-intensive undertaking. Our aim is to show that, by coupling existing high-resolution spectrographs to existing interferometers, one could observe in the domain of high spectral and spatial resolution, and avoid the construction of a new complex and expensive instrument. We investigate in this article the different challenges which arise from combining an interferometer with a high-resolution spectrograph. The requirements for the different sub-systems are determined, with special attention given to the problems of fringe tracking and dispersion. A concept study for the combination of the VLTI (Very Large Telescope Interferometer) with UVES (UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph) is carried out, and several other specific instrument pairings are discussed. We show that the proposed combination of an interferometer with a high-resolution spectrograph is indeed feasible with current technology, for a fraction of the cost of building a whole new spectrograph. The impact on the existing instruments and their ongoing programs would be minimal.
We present a study of the population of bright early-type dwarf galaxies in the multiple-cluster system Abell 901/902. We use data from the STAGES survey and COMBO-17 to investigate the relation between the color and structural properties of the dwarfs and their location in the cluster. The definition of the dwarf sample is based on the central surface brightness and includes galaxies in the luminosity range -16 >= M_B <~-19 mag. Using a fit to the color magnitude relation of the dwarfs, our sample is divided into a red and blue subsample. We find a color-density relation in the projected radial distribution of the dwarf sample: at the same luminosity dwarfs with redder colors are located closer to the cluster centers than their bluer counterparts. Furthermore, the redder dwarfs are on average more compact and rounder than the bluer dwarfs. These findings are consistent with theoretical expectations assuming that bright early-type dwarfs are the remnants of transformed late-type disk galaxies involving processes such as ram pressure stripping and galaxy harassment. This indicates that a considerable fraction of dwarf elliptical galaxies in clusters are the results of transformation processes related to interactions with their host cluster.
X-ray afterglow light curves have been collected for over 400 Swift gamma-ray bursts with nearly half of them having X-ray flares superimposed on the regular afterglow decay. Evidence suggests that gamma-ray prompt emission and X-ray flares share a common origin and that at least some flares can only be explained by long-lasting central engine activity. We have developed a shell model code to address the question of how X-ray flares are produced within the framework of the internal shock model. The shell model creates randomized GRB explosions from a central engine with multiple shells and follows those shells as they collide, merge and spread, producing prompt emission and X-ray flares. We pay special attention to the time history of central engine activity, internal shocks, and observed flares, but do not calculate the shock dynamics and radiation processes in detail. Using the empirical E_p - E_iso (Amati) relation with an assumed Band function spectrum for each collision and an empirical flare temporal profile, we calculate the gamma-ray (Swift/BAT band) and X-ray (Swift/XRT band) lightcurves for arbitrary central engine activity and compare the model results with the observational data. We show that the observed X-ray flare phenomenology can be explained within the internal shock model. The number, width and occurring time of flares are then used to diagnose the central engine activity, putting constraints on the energy, ejection time, width and number of ejected shells. We find that the observed X-ray flare time history generally reflects the time history of the central engine, which reactivates multiple times after the prompt emission phase with progressively reduced energy...
We investigate how the divergence-free property of magnetic fields can be exploited to resolve the azimuthal ambiguity present in solar vector magnetogram data, by using line-of-sight and horizontal heliographic derivative information as approximated from discrete measurements. Using synthetic data we test several methods that each make different assumptions about how the divergence-free property can be used to resolve the ambiguity. We find that the most robust algorithm involves the minimisation of the absolute value of the divergence summed over the entire field of view. Away from disk centre this method requires the sign and magnitude of the line-of-sight derivatives of all three components of the magnetic field vector.
We describe the infrared properties of a large sample of early type galaxies, comparing data from the Spitzer archive with Ks-band emission from 2MASS. While most representations of this data result in correlations with large scatter, we find a remarkably tight relation among colors formed by ratios of luminosities in Spitzer-MIPS (24, 70 and 160 um) bands and the Ks-band. Remarkably, this correlation among E and S0 galaxies follows that of nearby normal galaxies of all morphological types. In particular, the tight infrared color-color correlation for S0 galaxies alone follows that of the entire Hubble sequence of normal galaxies, roughly in order of galaxy type from ellipticals to spirals to irregulars. The specific star formation rate of S0 galaxies estimated from the 24um luminosity increases with decreasing Ks-band luminosity (or stellar mass) from essentially zero, as with most massive ellipticals, to rates typical of irregular galaxies. Moreover, the luminosities of the many infrared-luminous S0 galaxies can significantly exceed those of the most luminous (presumably post-merger) E galaxies. Star formation rates in the most infrared-luminous S0 galaxies approach 1-10 solar masses per year. Consistently with this picture we find that while most early-type galaxies populate an infrared red sequence, about 24% of the objects (mostly S0s) are in an infrared blue cloud together with late type galaxies. For those early-type galaxies also observed at radio frequencies we find that the far-infrared luminosities correlate with the mass of neutral and molecular hydrogen, but the scatter is large. This scatter suggests that the star formation may be intermittent or that similar S0 galaxies with cold gaseous disks of nearly equal mass can have varying radial column density distributions that alter the local and global SF rates.
The Extreme ultraviolet SpectroPhotometer (ESP) is one of five channels of the Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The ESP channel design is based on a highly stable diffraction transmission grating and is an advanced version of the Solar Extreme ultraviolet Monitor (SEM), which has been successfully observing solar irradiance onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) since December 1995. ESP is designed to measure solar Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) irradiance in four first order bands of the diffraction grating centered around 19 nm, 25 nm, 30 nm, and 36 nm, and in a soft X-ray band from 0.1 to 7.0 nm in the zeroth order of the grating. Each band's detector system converts the photo-current into a count rate (frequency). The count rates are integrated over 0.25 sec increments and transmitted to the EVE Science and Operations Center for data processing. An algorithm for converting the measured count rates into solar irradiance and the ESP calibration parameters are described. The ESP pre-flight calibration was performed at the Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Calibration parameters were used to calculate absolute solar irradiance from the Sounding Rocket flight measurements on 14 April 2008. These irradiances for the ESP bands closely match the irradiance determined for two other EUV channels flown simultaneously, EVE's Multiple Euv Grating Spectrograph (MEGS) and SOHO's Charge, Element and Isotope Analysis System / Solar EUV Monitor (CELIAS/SEM).
Phobos, a moon of Mars, is below the Clarke synchronous orbit and due to tidal interaction is losing altitude. With this altitude loss it is doomed to the fate of total destruction by direct collision with Mars. On the other hand Deimos, the second moon of Mars is in extra-synchronous orbit and almost stay put in the present orbit. The reported altitude loss of Phobos is two meter per century by wikipedia and sixty ft per century according to ozgate url . The reported time in which the destruction will take place is fiftyMy and fortyMy respectively. The authors had proposed a planetary-satellite dynamics based on detailed study of Earth-Moon. Based on this planetary satellite dynamics, two meter/century approach velocity leads to the age of Phobos to be twenty three Gyrs which is physically untenable since our Solar System age is four and a half Gyrs. Hence the present altitude loss is assumed to be twenty meter per century. This leads to the age of Phobos to be two decimal three Gyrs and age of Deimos to be two decimal two six Gyrs which is an acceptable result and from this analysis it is predicted that the travel time from the present orbital radius of nine thousand three hundred and eighty km to the Martian surface at three thousand, three hundred and ninety seven km is ten decimal and four Myrs. Hence doomsday of Phobos is at ten decimal and fourMyrs from now. Mars Express studies have confirmed that Phobos is indeed trapped in a death spiral.
We use a 1D thermochemical and photochemical kinetics model to predict that the stratospheric chemistry of hot Jupiters should change dramatically as temperature drops from 1200 to 1000 K. At 1200 K methane is too unstable to reach the stratosphere in significant quantities, while thermal decomposition of water is a strong source of OH radicals that oxidize any hydrocarbons that do form to CO and CO$_2$. At 1000 K methane, although very reactive, survives long enough to reach the lower stratosphere, and the greater stability of water coupled with efficient scavenging of OH by H$_2$ raise the effective C/O ratio in the reacting gases above unity. Reduced products such as ethylene, acetylene, and hydrogen cyanide become abundant; such conditions favor polymerization and possible formation of PAHs and soots. Although low temperature is the most important factor favoring hydrocarbons in hot Jupiters, higher rates of vertical mixing and generally lower metallicities also favor organic synthesis. The peculiar properties of HD 189733b compared to other hot Jupiters--a broadband blue haze, no sign of Na or K, and hints that CO might be underabundant--can be explained by an organic haze if the planet is cool enough. Whether this interpretation applies to HD 189733b itself, many organic-rich warm Jupiters are sure to be discovered in the near future.
One of the main science goal of the future European Extremely Large Telescope will be to understand the mass assembly process in galaxies as a function of cosmic time. To this aim, a multi-object, AO-assisted integral field spectrograph will be required to map the physical and chemical properties of very distant galaxies. In this paper, we examine the ability of such an instrument to obtain spatially resolved spectroscopy of a large sample of massive (0.1<Mstellar<5e11Mo) galaxies at 2<z<6, selected from future large area optical-near IR surveys. We produced a set of about one thousand numerical simulations of 3D observations using reasonable assumptions about the site, telescope, and instrument, and about the physics of distant galaxies. These data-cubes were analysed as real data to produce realistic kinematic measurements of very distant galaxies. We then studied how sensible the scientific goals are to the observational (i.e., site-, telescope-, and instrument-related) and physical (i.e., galaxy-related) parameters. We specifically investigated the impact of AO performance on the science goal. We did not identify any breaking points with respect to the parameters (e.g., the telescope diameter), with the exception of the telescope thermal background, which strongly limits the performance in the highest (z>5) redshift bin. We find that a survey of Ngal galaxies that fulfil the range of science goals can be achieved with a ~90 nights program on the E-ELT, provided a multiplex capability M Ngal/8.
On the basis of the Lunar Laser Ranging Data released by NASA on the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Man Landing on Moon on 21st July 1969-1994, theoretical formulation of Earth-Moon tidal interaction was carried out and Planetary Satellite Dynamics was established. It was found that this mathematical analysis could as well be applied to Star and Planets system and since every star could potentially contain an extra-solar system, hence we have a large ensemble of exoplanets to test our new perspective on the birth and evolution of solar systems. Till date 403 exoplanets have been discovered in 390 extra-solar systems. I have taken 12 single planet systems, 4 Brown Dwarf - Star systems and 2 Brown Dwarf pairs. Following architectural design rules are corroborated through this study of exoplanets. All planets are born at inner Clarke Orbit what we refer to as inner geo-synchronous orbit in case of Earth-Moon System. By any perturbative force such as cosmic particles or radiation pressure, the planet gets tipped long of aG1 or short of aG1. Here aG1 is inner Clarke Orbit. The exoplanet can either be launched on death spiral as CLOSE HOT JUPITERS or can be launched on an expanding spiral path as the planets in our Solar System are. It was also found that if the exo-planet are significant fraction of the host star then those exo-planets rapidly migrate from aG1 to aG2 and have very short Time Constant of Evolution as Brown Dwarfs have. This vindicates our basic premise that planets are always born at inner Clarke Orbit. This study vindicates the design rules which had been postulated at 35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly in 2004 at Paris, France, under the title ,New Perspective on the Birth & Evolution of Solar Systems.
We present prospects of two experiments using the Tokyo Axion Helioscope. One is a search for solar axions. In the past measurements, axion mass from 0 to 0.27 eV and from 0.84 to 1.00 eV have been scanned and no positive evidence was seen. We are now actively preparing a new phase of the experiment aiming at axion mass over 1 eV. The other is a search for hidden sector photons from the Sun. We have been designing and testing some additional equipments, which have to be installed on the helioscope to search for hidden photons with mass of over $10^{-3}$ eV.
The source of emission from Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center, is still unknown. Flares and data from multiwavelength campaigns provide important clues about the nature of Sgr A* itself. Here we attempt to constrain the physical origin of the broadband emission and the radio flares from Sgr A*. We developed a time-dependent jet model, which for the first time allows one to compare the model predictions with flare data from Sgr A*. Taking into account relevant cooling mechanisms, we calculate the frequency-dependent time lags and photosphere size expected in the jet model. The predicted lags and sizes are then compared with recent observations. Both the observed time lags and size-frequency relationships are reproduced well by the model. The combined timing and structural information strongly constrain the speed of the outflow to be mildly relativistic, and the radio flares are likely to be caused by a transient increase in the matter channelled into the jets. The model also predicts light curves and structural information at other wavelengths which could be tested by observations in the near future. We show that a time-dependent relativistic jet model can successfully reproduce: (1) the quiescent broadband spectral energy distribution of Sgr A*, (2) the observed 22 and 43 GHz light curve morphologies and time lags, and (3) the frequency-size relationship. The results suggest that the observed emission at radio frequencies from Sgr A* is most easily explained by a stratified, optically thick, mildly relativistic jet outflow. Frequency-dependent measurements of time-lags and intrinsic source size provide strong constraints on the bulk motion of the jet plasma.
The recent detection by the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope of high-energy gamma-rays from the radio galaxy NGC 1275 makes the observation of the very high energy (VHE: E > 100 GeV) part of its broadband spectrum particularly interesting, especially for the understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with misaligned multi-structured jets. The radio galaxy NGC 1275 was recently observed by VERITAS at energies above 100 GeV for about 8 hours. No VHE gamma-ray emission was detected by VERITAS from NGC 1275. A 99% confidence level upper limit of 2.1% of the Crab Nebula flux level is obtained at the decorrelation energy of approximately 340 GeV, corresponding to 19% of the power-law extrapolation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) result.
Krasinsky and Brumberg (2004 Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron., 90, 267) reported a secular increase of the astronomical unit (AU) of 15 meters per century. Recently, Miura et al. (2009, PASJ, 61) proposed that a possible angular momentum transfer from the rotation of the Sun to the orbital motion of the solar system planets may explain the observed increase of the AU. They assumed that the tidal effect between the planets and the Sun is the cause of this transfer. Here we claim that tidal effect cannot be a cause of this type of the transfer to explain the increase of the AU.
{It is well established that the atomic interstellar hydrogen is filling the galaxies and constitutes the building blocks of molecular clouds.} {To understand the formation and the evolution of molecular clouds, it is necessary to investigate the dynamics of turbulent and thermally bistable as well as barotropic flows.} {We perform high resolution 3-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of 2-phase, isothermal and polytropic flows.} {We compare the density PDF and Mach number density relation in the various simulations and conclude that 2-phase flows behave rather differently than polytropic flows. We also extract the clumps and study their statistical properties such as mass spectrum, mass-size relation and internal velocity dispersion. In each case, it is found that the behaviour is well represented by a simple powerlaw. While the various exponents inferred are very similar for the 2-phase, isothermal and polytropic flows, we nevertheless find significant differences, such as for example the internal velocity dispersion which is smaller for 2-phase flows.} {The structures statistics are very similar to what has been inferred from observations, in particular the mass spectrum, the mass-size relation and the velocity dispersion-size relation are all powerlaws whose indices well agree with the observed values. Our results suggest that in spite of various statistics being similar for 2-phase and polytropic flows, they nevertheless present significant differences, stressing the necessity to consider the proper thermal structure of the interstellar atomic hydrogen for computing its dynamics as well as the formation of molecular clouds.}
Using the Yale stellar evolution code, models of mu Her based on asteroseismic measurements are constructed. A $\chi^{2}$ minimization is performed to approach the best modeling parameters which reproduce the observations within their errors. By combining all non-asteroseismic constraints with asteroseismic measurements, we find that the observational constraints favour a model with a mass of 1.00$^{+ 0.01}_{- 0.02}$ $M_{\odot}$, an age t = 6.433 $\pm$ 0.04 Gyr, a mixing-length parameter $\alpha$ = 1.75 $\pm$ 0.25, an initial hydrogen abundance $X_{i}$ = 0.605$^{+ 0.01}_{- 0.005}$ and metal abundance $Z_{i}$ = 0.0275$^{+ 0.002}_{- 0.001}$. mu Her is in post-main sequence phase of evolution. The modes of $l$ = 1 show up the characteristics of avoided crossings, which may be applied to test the internal structure of this type stars. Asteroseismic measurements can be used as a complementary constraint on the modeling parameters. The models with mass 1.00 - 1.10 $M_{\odot}$ can reproduce the observational constraints. Existing observed data of mu Her do not rule out these models.
We performed an intensive photometric monitoring of the PMS stars falling in a field of about 10x10 arc-minutes in the vicinity of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). Photometric data were collected between November 2006 and January 2007 with the REM telescope in the VRIJHK' bands. The largest number of observations is in the I band (about 2700 images) and in J and H bands (about 500 images in each filter). From the observed rotational modulation, induced by the presence of surface inhomogeneities, we derived the rotation periods for 16 stars and improved previous determinations for the other 13. The analysis of the spectral energy distributions and, for some stars, of high-resolution spectra provided us with the main stellar parameters (luminosity, effective temperature, mass, age, and vsini). We also report the serendipitous detection of two strong flares in two of these objects. In most cases, the light-curve amplitudes decrease progressively from the R to H band as expected for cool starspots, while in a few cases, they can only be modelled by the presence of hot spots, presumably ascribable to magnetospheric accretion. The application of our own spot model to the simultaneous light curves in different bands allowed us to deduce the spot parameters and particularly to disentangle the spot temperature and size effects on the observed light curves.
We examine deep XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) observations of the X-ray luminous galaxy cluster A1835. For the first time in a galaxy cluster we place direct limits on turbulent broadening of the emission lines. This is possible because the coolest X-ray emitting gas in the cluster, which is responsible for the lines, occupies a small region within the core. The most conservative determination of the 90 per cent upper limit on line-of-sight, non-thermal, velocity broadening is 274 km/s, measured from the emission lines originating within 30 kpc radius. The ratio of turbulent to thermal energy density in the core is therefore less than 13 per cent. There are no emission lines in the spectrum showing evidence for gas below ~3.5 keV. We examine the quantity of gas as a function of temperature and place a limit of 140 Msun/yr (90 per cent) for gas cooling radiatively below 3.85 keV.
Gamma Doradus are F-type stars pulsating with high order g-modes. Their instability strip (IS) overlaps the red edge of the delta Scuti one. This observation has led to search for objects in this region of the HR diagram showing p and g-modes simultaneously. The existence of such hybrid pulsators has recently been confirmed (Handler 2009) and the number of candidates is increasing (Matthews 2007). From a theoretical point of view, non-adiabatic computations including a time-dependent treatment of convection (TDC) predict the existence of gamma Dor/delta Sct hybrid pulsators (Dupret et al. 2004; Grigahcene et al. 2006). Our aim is to confront the properties of the observed hybrid candidates with the theoretical predictions from non-adiabatic computations of non-radial pulsations including the convection-pulsation interaction.
Star clusters and their stellar populations play a significant role in the context of galaxy evolution, across space (from local to high redshift) and time (from currently forming to fossil remnants). We are now within reach of answering a number of fundamental questions that will have a significant impact on our understanding of key open issues in contemporary astrophysics, ranging from the formation, assembly and evolution of galaxies to the details of the star-formation process. Our improved understanding of the physics driving star cluster formation and evolution has led to the emergence of crucial new open questions that will most likely be tackled in a systematic way in the next decade.
Stellar clusters are born in cold and dusty molecular clouds and the youngest clusters are embedded to various degrees in dusty dark molecular material. Such embedded clusters can be considered protocluster systems. The most deeply buried examples are so heavily obscured by dust that they are only visible at infrared wavelengths. These embedded protoclusters constitute the nearest laboratories for direct astronomical investigation of the physical processes of cluster formation and early evolution. I review the present state of empirical knowledge concerning embedded cluster systems and discuss the implications for understanding their formation and subsequent evolution to produce bound stellar clusters.
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The resulting clusters are predicted to be mildly aspherical and highly mass-segregated, except in the immediate aftermath of mergers. The upper initial mass function within individual clusters is generally somewhat flatter than for the aggregate population. Recent work has begun to clarify the factors that control the mean stellar mass in a star-forming cloud and also the efficiency of star formation. The former is sensitive to the thermal properties of the gas while the latter depends both on the magnetic field and the initial degree of gravitational boundedness of the natal cloud. Unmagnetized clouds that are initially bound undergo rapid collapse, which is difficult to reverse by ionization feedback or stellar winds.
Teutsch145 and Teutsch146 are shown to be open clusters (OCs) orbiting well inside the Solar circle, a region where several dynamical processes combine to disrupt most OCs on a time-scale of a few 10^8yrs. BVI photometry from the GALILEO telescope is used to investigate the nature and derive the fundamental and structural parameters of the optically faint and poorly-known OCs Teutsch145 and 146. These parameters are computed by means of field-star decontaminated colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and stellar radial density profiles (RDPs). Cluster mass estimates are made based on the intrinsic mass functions (MFs). We derive the ages 200+100-50Myr and 400+/-100Myr, and the distances from the Sun 2.7+/-0.3kpc and 3.8+/-0.2kpc, respectively for Teutsch145 and 146. Their integrated apparent and absolute magnitudes are m_V ~ 12.4, m_V ~ 13.3, M_V ~- 5.6 and M_V ~- 5.3. The MFs (detected for stars with m>1Msun) have slopes similar to Salpeter's IMF. Extrapolated to the H-burning limit, the MFs would produce total stellar masses of ~1400Msun, typical of relatively massive OCs. Both OCs are located deep into the inner Galaxy and close to the Crux-Scutum arm. Since cluster-disruption processes are important, their primordial masses must have been higher than the present-day values. The conspicuous stellar density excess observed in the innermost bin of both RDPs might reflect the dynamical effects induced by a few 10^8yrs of external tidal stress.
We study the impact of a fossil magnetic field on the physical quantities which describe the structure of a young Sun of 500 Myr. We consider for the first time a non force-free field composed of a mixture of poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields and we propose a specific configuration to illustrate our purpose. In the present paper, we estimate the relative role of the different terms which appear in the modified stellar structure equations. We note that the Lorentz tension plays a non negligible role in addition to the magnetic pressure. This is interesting because most of the previous stellar evolution codes ignored that term and the geometry of the field. The solar structure perturbations are, as already known, small and consequently we have been able to estimate each term semi-analytically. We develop a general treatment to calculate the global modification of the structure and of the energetic balance. We estimate also the gravitational multipolar moments associated with the presence of a fossil large-scale magnetic field in radiative zone. The values given for the young Sun help the future implementation in stellar evolution codes. This work can be repeated for any other field configuration and prepares the achievement of a solar MHD model where we will follow the transport of such field on secular timescales and the associated transport of momentum and chemicals. The described method will be applied at the present Sun and the results will be compared with the coming balloon or space measurements.
Open and globular star clusters have served as benchmarks for the study of stellar evolution due to their supposed nature as simple stellar populations of the same age and metallicity. After a brief review of some of the pioneering work that established the importance of imaging stars in these systems, we focus on several recent studies that have challenged our fundamental picture of star clusters. These new studies indicate that star clusters can very well harbour multiple stellar populations, possibly formed through self-enrichment processes from the first-generation stars that evolved through post-main-sequence evolutionary phases. Correctly interpreting stellar evolution in such systems is tied to our understanding of both chemical-enrichment mechanisms, including stellar mass loss along the giant branches, and the dynamical state of the cluster. We illustrate recent imaging, spectroscopic and theoretical studies that have begun to shed new light on the evolutionary processes that occur within star clusters.
In this paper, I review to what extent we can understand the photometric properties of star clusters, and of low-mass, unresolved galaxies, in terms of population synthesis models designed to describe `simple stellar populations' (SSPs), i.e., groups of stars born at the same time, in the same volume of space, and from a gas cloud of homogeneous chemical composition. The photometric properties predicted by these models do not readily match the observations of most star clusters, unless we properly take into account the expected variation in the number of stars occupying sparsely populated evolutionary stages, due to stochastic fluctuations in the stellar initial mass function. In this case, population synthesis models reproduce remarkably well the full ranges of observed integrated colours and absolute magnitudes of star clusters of various ages and metallicities. The disagreement between the model predictions and observations of cluster colours and magnitudes may indicate problems with or deficiencies in the modelling, and dioes not necessarily tell us that star clusters do not behave like SSPs. Matching the photometric properties of star clusters using SSP models is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for clusters to be considered simple stellar populations. Composite models, characterized by complex star-formation histories, also match the observed cluster colours.
I discuss the chemical evolution of star clusters, with emphasis on old globular clusters, in relation to their formation histories. Globular clusters clearly formed in a complex fashion, under markedly different conditions from any younger clusters presently known. Those special conditions must be linked to the early formation epoch of the Galaxy and must not have occurred since. While a link to the formation of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies has been suggested, present-day dwarf galaxies are not representative of the gravitational potential wells within which the globular clusters formed. Instead, a formation deep within the proto-Galaxy or within dark-matter minihaloes might be favoured. Not all globular clusters may have formed and evolved similarly. In particular, we may need to distinguish Galactic halo from Galactic bulge clusters.
Dynamical evolution plays a key role in shaping the current properties of star clusters and star cluster systems. A detailed understanding of the effects of evolutionary processes is essential to be able to disentangle the properties which result from dynamical evolution from those imprinted at the time of cluster formation. In this review, we focus our attention on globular clusters and review the main physical ingredients driving their early and long-term evolution, describe the possible evolutionary routes and show how cluster structure and stellar content are affected by dynamical evolution.
Many, possibly most, stars form in binary and higher-order multiple systems. Therefore, the properties and frequency of binary systems provide strong clues to the star-formation process, and constraints on star-formation models. However, the majority of stars also form in star clusters in which the birth binary properties and frequency can be altered rapidly by dynamical processing. Thus, we almost never see the birth population, which makes it very difficult to know if star formation (as traced by binaries, at least) is universal, or if it depends on environment. In addition, the field population consists of a mixture of systems from different clusters which have all been processed in different ways.
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within a few million years and, depending on the efficiency of star formation, the clusters may disperse almost immediately or remain gravitationally bound. Current evidence suggests that a few percent of star formation occurs in clusters that remain bound, although it is not yet clear if this fraction is truly universal. Internal two-body relaxation and external shocks will lead to further, gradual dissolution on timescales of up to a few hundred million years for low-mass open clusters in the Milky Way, while the most massive clusters (> 10^5 Msun) have lifetimes comparable to or exceeding the age of the Universe. The low-mass end of the initial cluster mass function is well approximated by a power-law distribution, dN/dM ~ M^{-2}, but there is mounting evidence that quiescent spiral discs form relatively few clusters with masses M > 2 x 10^5 Msun. In starburst galaxies and old globular cluster systems, this limit appears to be higher, at least several x 10^6 Msun. The difference is likely related to the higher gas densities and pressures in starburst galaxies, which allow denser, more massive giant molecular clouds to form. Low-mass clusters may thus trace star formation quite universally, while the more long-lived, massive clusters appear to form preferentially in the context of violent star formation.
The ensemble of all star clusters in a galaxy constitutes its star cluster system. In this review, the focus of the discussion is on the ability of star clusters, particularly the systems of old massive globular clusters (GCSs), to mark the early evolutionary history of galaxies. I review current themes and key findings in GCS research, and highlight some of the outstanding questions that are emerging from recent work.
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase is the penultimate stage of evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars. AGB star outflows inject a significant amount of material into the interstellar medium (ISM), seeding new star formation. AGB mass loss is thus a crucial component of galactic chemical evolution. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is an excellent site for AGB studies. Over 40,000 AGB candidates have been identified using photometric data from the Spitzer Space Telescope Surveying The Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) mid-infrared (MIR) survey, including about 35,000 oxygen-rich, 7000 carbon-rich and 1400 "extreme" sources. For the first time, SAGE photometry reveals two distinct populations of O-rich sources in the LMC: a faint population that gradually evolves into C-rich stars and a bright, massive population that circumvents this evolution, remaining O-rich. This work aims to quantify the mass-loss return from AGB stars to the LMC, a rough estimate for which is derived from the amount of MIR dust emission in excess of that from starlight. I show that this excess flux is a good proxy for the mass-loss rate, and I calculate the total AGB injection rate to be (5.9-13) x 10{-3} Msun/yr. A more accurate determination requires detailed dust radiative transfer (RT) modeling. For this purpose, I present a grid of C-rich AGB models generated by the RT code 2DUST, spanning a range of effective temperatures, gravities, dust shell radii and optical depths as well as a baseline set of dust properties obtained by modeling a carbon star, data for which was acquired as part of the spectroscopic follow-up to SAGE. AGB stars are the best laboratories for dust studies, and the development of a model grid will reinforce future research in this field.
The accuracy of wavefront reconstruction from discrete slope measurements depends on the sampling geometry, coherence length of the incoming wavefronts, wavefront sensor specifications and the accuracy of the reconstruction algorithm. Monte Carlo simulations were performed and a comparison of Fourier and Vector Matrix Multiply reconstruction methods was made with respect to these experimental and computational parameters. It was observed that although Fourier reconstruction gave consistent accuracy when coherence length of wavefronts is larger than the corresponding pitch on the wavefront sensor, VMM method gives even better accuracy when the coherence length closely matches with the wavefront sensor pitch.
In adaptive optics, the measurement of spatial coherence length helps in deciding the optimum design parameters of a Shack Hartmann Sensor (SHS). Two methods of estimating the spatial coherence length of optical wavefronts are presented. The first method is based on counting the number of Hough peaks in the wavefront. The second method is based on a simple data mining technique applied on the wavefronts. Optical wavefronts with different properties are simulated and used for statistical analysis. A comparison of the performance of the two methods is presented using Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that both these methods can become efficient tools in estimating the effective coherence length of optical wavefronts.
Whether binaries can harbor potentially habitable planets depends on several factors including the physical properties and the orbital characteristics of the binary system. While the former determines the location of the habitable zone (HZ), the latter affects the dynamics of the material from which terrestrial planets are formed (i.e., planetesimals and planetary embryos), and drives the final architecture of the planets assembly. In order for a habitable planet to form in a binary star system, these two factors have to work in harmony. That is, the orbital dynamics of the two stars and their interactions with the planet-forming material have to allow terrestrial planet formation in the habitable zone, and ensure that the orbit of a potentially habitable planet will be stable for long times. We have organized this chapter with the same order in mind. We begin by presenting a general discussion on the motion of planets in binary stars and their stability. We then discuss the stability of terrestrial planets, and the formation of potentially habitable planets in a binary-planetary system.
Under a thin lens and paraxial approximation, the phase transformation function of a lens was simulated on a Liquid Crystal (LC) based Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). The properties of an array of such lenses simulated on transmitting type and reflecting type SLMs were investigated and the limits of its operation in wavefront sensing applications are discussed.
Servo lag errors in adaptive optics lead to inaccurate compensation of wavefront distortions. An attempt has been made to predict future wavefronts using data mining on wavefronts of the immediate past to reduce these errors. Monte Carlo simulations were performed on experimentally obtained data that closely follows Kolmogorov phase characteristics. An improvement of 6% in wavefront correction is reported after data mining is performed. Data mining is performed in three steps (a) Data cube Segmentation (b) Polynomial Interpolation and (c) Wavefront Estimation. It is important to optimize the segment size that gives best prediction results. Optimization of the best predictable future helps in selecting a suitable exposure time.
Shell-type supernova remnants (SNRs) exhibit correlations between radio surface brightness, SNR diameter, and ambient medium density. We investigate these correlations, to extract useful information about the typical evolutionary stage of radio SNRs, and to obtain insight into the origin of the relativistic electrons and magnetic fields responsible for the radio emission. We propose a scenario, according to which the observed correlations are the combined effect of SNRs evolving in a wide range of ambient conditions, rather than the evolutionary track of a "typical" SNR. We then develop a parametric approach to interpret the statistical data, and apply it to the data sample previously published by Berkhuijsen, as well as to a sample of SNRs in the galaxy M33. We find that SNRs cease to emit effectively in radio at a stage near the end of their Sedov evolution, and that models of synchrotron emission with constant efficiencies in particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification do not provide a close match to the data. We discuss the problem of the cumulative distribution in size, showing that the slope of this distribution does not relate to the expansion law of SNRs, as usually assumed, but only to the ambient density distribution. This solves a long-standing paradox: the almost linear cumulative distribution of SNRs led several authors to conclude that these SNRs are still in free expansion, which also implies very low ambient densities. Within this framework, we discuss the case of the starburst galaxy M82. Statistical properties of SNR samples may be used to shed light on both the physics of electron acceleration and the evolution of SNRs. More precise results could be obtained by combining data of several surveys of SNRs in nearby galaxies.
The post-main sequence evolution of stars of intermediate or large masses is notoriously complex. In the recent past, a number of workshops and meetings have focused on either the Asymptotic Giant Branch of intermediate mass stars, or the evolution of massive stars. But how well defined is the boundary between these categories of objects defined? How would an observer proceed to classify stars into one or the other category? How do objects near the boundary evolve, die, and contribute to the chemical evolution of their environment? During this 3-day international workshop, 26 high quality presentations were given by specialists in the relevant fields of astrophysics, and stimulating discussions followed. It is technically impossible to provide an exhaustive census of the results and ideas that emerged. In this brief article, we choose to point to key elements of the workshop, some of which are now the topic of new collaborations and will lead to publications elsewhere. For the sake of brevity, we deliberately cite only the contributors to the workshop and no external references. Many bibliographic references can be found in the original presentations, which can be retrieved through: this http URL The programme workshop, which includes the titles of the individual contributions, is provided as an appendix.
We present archival high spatial resolution VLA and VLBA data of the nuclei of seven of the nearest and brightest Seyfert galaxies in the Southern Hemisphere. At VLA resolution (~0.1 arcsec), the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxies is unresolved, with the exception of MCG-5-23-16 and NGC 7469 showing a core-jet structure. Three Seyfert nuclei are surrounded by diffuse radio emission related to star-forming regions. VLBA observations with parsec-scale resolution pointed out that in MRK 1239 the nucleus is clearly resolved into two components separated by ~30 pc, while the nucleus of NGC 3783 is unresolved. Further comparison between VLA and VLBA data of these two sources shows that the flux density at parsec scales is only 20% of that measured by the VLA. This suggests that the radio emission is not concentrated in a single central component, as in elliptical radio galaxies, and an additional low-surface brightness component must be present. A comparison of Seyfert nuclei with different radio spectra points out that the ``presence'' of undetected flux on milli-arcsecond scale is common in steep-spectrum objects, while in flat-spectrum objects essentially all the radio emission is recovered. In the steep-spectrum objects, the nature of this ``missing'' flux is likely due to non-thermal AGN-related radiation, perhaps from a jet that gets disrupted in Seyfert galaxies because of the denser environment of their spiral hosts.
The most accepted model for jet production is based on the magneto-centrifugal acceleration out off an accretion disk that surrounds the central source (Blandford & Payne, 1982). This scenario, however, does not explain, e.g., the quasi-periodic ejection phenomena often observed in different astrophysical jet classes. de Gouveia Dal Pino & Lazarian (2005) (hereafter GDPL) have proposed that the large scale superluminal ejections observed in microquasars during radio flare events could be produced by violent magnetic reconnection (MR) episodes. Here, we extend this model to other accretion disk systems, namely: active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and young stellar objects (YSOs), and also discuss its hole on jet heating and particle acceleration.
Verified and updated calibrated absolute solar flux in the He II 30.4 nm spectral band-pass as measured by the Solar EUV Monitor (SEM) allows us to study variations of the solar EUV irradiance near the minima of Solar Cycles 22/23 and 23/24. Based on eight (1996 to 2007) NASA sounding rocket flights, a comparison of SEM data with the measurements from three independent EUV instruments was performed to verify and confirm the accuracy of the published SEM data. SEM calibrated data were analyzed to determine and compare minima for solar cycles 22/23 and 23/24. The minima points were calculated using SEM first order daily averaged flux smoothed by a running mean (RM) filter with the window of averaging equal to 365 days. These minima occurred on June 2, 1996 (22/23) and November 28, 2008 (23/24). The 23/24 minimum showed about 15% lower EUV flux in the 30.4 nm band-pass than the 22/23 minimum. The 365-day RM curve around the 23/24 minimum has significant asymmetry (fast decrease of the EUV flux to the minimum and a long, near-horizontal profile after the minimum). This profile is quite different from the much faster and symmetrical change of the flux around the 22/23 minimum. SEM flux was compared with both high spectral resolution (0.1 nm) Mg II index calculated from the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) using the Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) data and with the NOAA composite Mg II index spectrum.
An interesting new high-energy pulsar sub-population is emerging following early discoveries of gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs) by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). We present results from 3D emission modeling, including the Special Relativistic effects of aberration and time-of-flight delays and also rotational sweepback of B-field lines, in the geometric context of polar cap (PC), outer gap (OG), and two-pole caustic (TPC) pulsar models. In contrast to the general belief that these very old, rapidly-rotating neutron stars (NSs) should have largely pair-starved magnetospheres due to the absence of significant pair production, we find that most of the light curves are best fit by TPC and OG models, which indicates the presence of narrow accelerating gaps limited by robust pair production -- even in these pulsars with very low spin-down luminosities. The gamma-ray pulse shapes and relative phase lags with respect to the radio pulses point to high-altitude emission being dominant for all geometries. We also find exclusive differentiation of the current gamma-ray MSP population into two MSP sub-classes: light curve shapes and lags across wavebands impose either pair-starved PC (PSPC) or TPC / OG-type geometries. In the first case, the radio pulse has a small lag with respect to the single gamma-ray pulse, while the (first) gamma-ray peak usually trails the radio by a large phase offset in the latter case. Finally, we find that the flux correction factor as a function of magnetic inclination and observer angles is typically of order unity for all models. Our calculation of light curves and flux correction factor for the case of MSPs is therefore complementary to the "ATLAS paper" of Watters et al. for younger pulsars.
Although Galactic cosmic rays (protons and nuclei) are widely believed to be dominantly accelerated by the winds and supernovae of massive stars, definitive evidence of this origin remains elusive nearly a century after their discovery [1]. The active regions of starburst galaxies have exceptionally high rates of star formation, and their large size, more than 50 times the diameter of similar Galactic regions, uniquely enables reliable calorimetric measurements of their potentially high cosmic-ray density [2]. The cosmic rays produced in the formation, life, and death of their massive stars are expected to eventually produce diffuse gamma-ray emission via their interactions with interstellar gas and radiation. M 82, the prototype small starburst galaxy, is predicted to be the brightest starburst galaxy in gamma rays [3, 4]. Here we report the detection of >700 GeV gamma rays from M 82. From these data we determine a cosmic-ray density of 250 eV cm-3 in the starburst core of M 82, or about 500 times the average Galactic density. This result strongly supports that cosmic-ray acceleration is tied to star formation activity, and that supernovae and massive-star winds are the dominant accelerators.
The pulse shapes detected during multiple outbursts of SAX J1808 are analyzed in order to constrain the neutron star's mass and radius. We use a hot-spot model with a small disk-scattering component to jointly fit data from two different epochs, under the restriction that the star's mass and radius and the binary's inclination do not change from epoch to epoch. All other parameters describing the spot location, emissivity, and relative fractions of blackbody to Comptonized radiation are allowed to vary with time. The joint fit of data from the 1998 "slow decay" and the 2002 "end of outburst maximum" epochs using the constraint i<90 degrees leads to the 3 sigma confidence constraint on the neutron star mass 0.8 M_sun < M < 1.7 M_sun and equatorial radius 5 km < R < 13 km. Inclinations as low as 41 degrees are allowed. The best-fit models with M > 1.0 M_sun from joint fits of the 1998 data with data from other epochs of the 2002 and 2005 outbursts also fall within the same 3 sigma confidence region. This 3 sigma confidence region allows a wide variety of hadronic equations of state, in contrast with an earlier analysis (Leahy et al 2008) of only the 1998 outburst data that only allowed for extremely small stars.
Spiral galaxies have most of their stellar mass in a large rotating disk, and only a modest fraction in a central spheroidal bulge. This poses a major challenge for cosmological models of galaxy formation. Galaxies form at the centre of dark matter halos through a combination of hierarchical merging and gas accretion along cold streams, and should rapidly grow their bulge through mergers and instabilities. Cosmological simulations predict galaxies to have most of their mass in the central bulge, and therefore an angular momentum much below the observed level, except in dwarf galaxies. We propose that the continuous return of fresh gas by stellar populations over cosmic times could solve this issue. A population of stars formed at a given instant typically returns half of its initial mass in the form of gas over 10 billion years, and the process is not dominated by rapid supernovae explosions but by the long-term mass-loss from low- and intermediate-mass stars. Using simulations of galaxy formation, we show that this recycling of gas can strongly affect the structural evolution of massive galaxies, potentially solving the bulge fraction issue: we find that the bulge-to-disk ratio of a massive galaxy can be divided by a factor of 3. The continuous recycling of baryons through star formation and stellar mass loss helps the growth of disks and their survival to interactions and mergers. Instead of forming only early-type, spheroid-dominated galaxies (S0 and ellipticals), the standard cosmological model can then successfully account for massive late-type, disk-dominated spiral galaxies (Sb-Sc).
In this paper we present a dust emission map of the starless core TMC-1C taken at 2100 microns. Along with maps at 160, 450, 850 and 1200 microns, we study the dust emissivity spectral index from the (sub)millimeter spectral energy distribution, and find that it is close to the typically assumed value of beta = 2. We also map the dust temperature and column density in TMC-1C, and find that at the position of the dust peak (A_V ~ 50), the line-of-sight-averaged temperature is ~7 K. Employing simple Monte Carlo modeling, we show that the data are consistent with a constant value for the emissivity spectral index over the whole map of TMC-1C.
The magnetogenesis scenarios triggered by the early variation of the gauge coupling are critically analyzed. In the absence of sources, it is shown that the electric and magnetic power spectra can be explicitly computed by means of electric-magnetic duality transformations. The remnants of a pre-inflationary expansion and the reheating process break explicitly electric-magnetic duality by inducing Ohmic currents. The generation of large-scale magnetic field and the physical distinction between electric and magnetic observables stems, in this class of models, from the final value reached by the conductivity of the plasma right after inflation. Specific numerical examples are given. The physical requirements of viable magnetogenesis scenarios are spelled out.
We present the analysis of an observation by XMM-Newton that exhibits strongly variable, low-energy diffuse X-ray line emission. We reason that this emission is due to localised solar wind charge exchange (SWCX), originating from a passing cloud of plasma associated with a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacting with neutrals in the Earth's exosphere. This case of SWCX exhibits a much richer emission line spectrum in comparison with previous examples of geocoronal SWCX or in interplanetary space. We show that emission from OVIII is very prominent in the SWCX spectrum. The observed flux from oxygen ions of 18.9 keV cm-2 s-1 sr-1 is consistent with SWCX resulting from a passing CME. Highly ionised silicon is also observed in the spectrum, and the presence of highly charged iron is an additional spectral indicator that we are observing emission from a CME. We argue that this is the same event detected by the solar wind monitors ACE and Wind which measured an intense increase in the solar wind flux due to a CME that had been released from the Sun two days previous to the XMM-Newton observation.
Motivated by the recent detection of stochastically excited modes in the massive star V1449 Aql (Belkacem et al., 2009b), already known to be a $\beta$ Cephei, we theoretically investigate the driving by turbulent convection. By using a full non-adiabatic computation of the damping rates, together with a computation of the energy injection rates, we provide an estimate of the amplitudes of modes excited by both the convective region induced by the iron opacity bump and the convective core. Despite uncertainties in the dynamical properties of such convective regions, we demonstrate that both are able to efficiently excite $p$ modes above the CoRoT observational threshold and the solar amplitudes. In addition, we emphasise the potential asteroseismic diagnostics provided by each convective region, which we hope will help to identify the one responsible for solar-like oscillations, and to give constraints on this convective zone. A forthcoming work will be dedicated to an extended investigation of the likelihood of solar-like oscillations across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
We present a Markov-chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) technique to study the source parameters of gravitational-wave signals from the inspirals of stellar-mass compact binaries detected with ground-based gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo, for the case where spin is present in the more massive compact object in the binary. We discuss aspects of the MCMC algorithm that allow us to sample the parameter space in an efficient way. We show sample runs that illustrate the possibilities of our MCMC code and the difficulties that we encounter.
Gravitational-wave signals from inspirals of binary compact objects (black holes and neutron stars) are primary targets of the ongoing searches by ground-based gravitational-wave interferometers (LIGO, Virgo, and GEO-600). We present parameter-estimation simulations for inspirals of black-hole--neutron-star binaries using Markov-chain Monte-Carlo methods. As a specific example of the power of these methods, we consider source localisation in the sky and analyse the degeneracy in it when data from only two detectors are used. We focus on the effect that the black-hole spin has on the localisation estimation. We also report on a comparative Markov-chain Monte-Carlo analysis with two different waveform families, at 1.5 and 3.5 post-Newtonian order.
During the fifth science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), signals modelling the gravitational waves emitted by coalescing non-spinning compact-object binaries were injected into the LIGO data stream. We analysed the data segments into which such injections were made using a Bayesian approach, implemented as a Markov-chain Monte-Carlo technique in our code SPINspiral. This technique enables us to determine the physical parameters of such a binary inspiral, including masses and spin, following a possible detection trigger. For the first time, we publish the results of a realistic parameter-estimation analysis of waveforms embedded in real detector noise. We used both spinning and non-spinning waveform templates for the data analysis and demonstrate that the intrinsic source parameters can be estimated with an accuracy of better than 1-3% in the chirp mass and 0.02-0.05 (8-20%) in the symmetric mass ratio if non-spinning waveforms are used. We also find a bias between the injected and recovered parameters, and attribute it to the difference in the post-Newtonian orders of the waveforms used for injection and analysis.
Effects of the Landau diamagnetism and the Pauli paramagnetism on the longitudinal electric wave characteristics in a quantum plasma are studied. It is shown that a dispersion relation of the longitudinal wave propagating along a magnetic field strongly depends on the magnetic field, in radical contrast to the classical case. New modes of quantum plasma waves due to the magnetic field are found.
We investigate the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on electromagnetic radiation in the presence of correlated extragalactic magnetic fields. We model the universe as a collection of magnetic domains and study the propagation of radiation through them. This leads to correlations between Stokes parameters over large scales and consistently explains the observed large-scale alignment of quasar polarizations at different redshifts within the framework of the Big Bang model. We also report that the linear polarization develops quadratically with the number of domains, for optical frequencies.
A new scheme for numerical integration of the 1D2V relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system is proposed. Assuming that all particles in a cell of the phase space move with the same velocity as that of the particle located at the center of the cell at the beginning of each time step, we successfully integrate the system with no artificial loss of particles. Furthermore, splitting the equations into advection and interaction parts, the method conserves the sum of the kinetic energy of particles and the electromagnetic energy. Three test problems, the gyration of particles, the Weibel instability, and the wakefield acceleration, are solved by using our scheme. We confirm that our scheme can reproduce analytical results of the problems. Though we deal with the 1D2V relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system, our method can be applied to the 2D3V and 3D3V cases.
We consider variation of energy of the light-like particle in non-covariant form in Riemann space-time, find lagrangian, canonical momenta and forces. Equations of the critical curve are obtained by the nonzero energy integral variation in accordance with principles of the calculus of variations in mechanics. Their solutions are found for metrics of Schwarzschild, Friedman-Robertson-Walker for the flat space and G$\ddot{o}$del. For these spaces effective mass of light-like particle is established. Relativistic analog of inertial mass for photon is determined in central gravity field in empty space.
We derive a compact, semi-algebraic expression for the cold quark matter equation of state (EoS) in a covariant model that exhibits coincident deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoring transitions in-medium. Along the way we obtain algebraic expressions for: the number- and scalar-density distributions in both the confining Nambu and deconfined Wigner phases; and the vacuum-pressure difference between these phases, which defines a bag constant. The confining interaction materially alters the distribution functions from those of a Fermi gas and consequently has a significant impact on the model's thermodynamic properties, which is apparent in the EoS.
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We evaluate the achievable maximum energy of nuclei diffusively accelerated by shock wave in the jet of Cen A, based on an updated model involving the stochastic magnetic fields that are responsible for recent synchrotron X-ray measurements. For the maximum energy analysis, conceivable energy constraints from spatiotemporal scales are systematically considered for the jet-wide including discrete X-ray knots. We find that in the inner region within ~1 arcmin from galactic core, which includes knots AX and BX, proton and iron nucleus can be accelerated to 10^{19}-10^{20} and 10^{21} eV (10-100 EeV and ZeV) ranges, respectively. The upper cutoff energy of the very energetic neutrinos produced via photopion interaction is also provided. These are essential for identifying the acceleration site of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray detected in the Pierre Auger Observatory, which signifies the arrival from nearby galaxies including Cen A.
The first study of migration-induced resonances in a pair of Earth-like planets has been performed by Papaloizou and Szuszkiewicz (2005). They concluded that in the case of disparate masses embedded in a disc with the surface density expected for a minimum mass solar nebula at 5.2 au, the most likely resonances are ratios of large integers, such as 8:7. For equal masses, planets tend to enter into the 2:1 or 3:2 resonance. In Papaloizou and Szuszkiewicz (2005) the two low-mass planets have masses equal to 4 Earth masses, chosen to mimic the very well known example of two pulsar planets which are close to the 3:2 resonance. That study has stimulated quite a few interesting questions. One of them is considered here, namely how the behaviour of the plan- ets close to the mean-motion resonance depends on the actual values of the masses of the planets. We have chosen a 3:2 commensurability and investigated the outcome of an orbital migration in the vicinity of this resonance in the case of a pair of equal mass super-Earths, whose mass is either 5 or 8 Earth masses.
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are thought to result from thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarf stars. Existing models generally explain the observed properties, with the exception of the sub-luminous 1991-bg-like supernovae. It has long been suspected that the merger of two white dwarfs could give rise to a type Ia event, but hitherto simulations have failed to produce an explosion. Here we report a simulation of the merger of two equal-mass white dwarfs that leads to an underluminous explosion, though at the expense of requiring a single common-envelope phase, and component masses of ~0.9 M_sun. The light curve is too broad, but the synthesized spectra, red colour and low expansion velocities are all close to what is observed for sub-luminous 1991bg-like events. While mass ratios can be slightly less than one and still produce an underluminous event, the masses have to be in the range 0.83-0.9 M_sun.
We demonstrate that stars beyond the virial radii of galaxies may be generated by the gravitational impulse received by a satellite as it passes through the pericenter of its orbit around its parent. These stars may become energetically unbound (escaped stars), or may travel to further than a few virial radii for longer than a few Gyr, but still remain energetically bound to the system (wandering stars). Larger satellites (10-100% the mass of the parent), and satellites on more radial orbits are responsible for the majority of this ejected population. Wandering stars could be observable on Mpc scales via classical novae, and on 100 Mpc scales via SNIa. The existence of such stars would imply a corresponding population of barely-bound, old, high velocity stars orbiting the Milky Way, generated by the same physical mechanism during the Galaxy's formation epoch. Sizes and properties of these combined populations should place some constraints on the orbits and masses of the progenitor objects from which they came, providing insight into the merging histories of galaxies in general and the Milky Way in particular.
Most experiments that search for direct interactions of WIMP dark matter with a target can distinguish the dominant electronrecoil background from the nuclear recoil signal, based on some discrimination parameter. An acceptance region is defined inthe parameter space spanned by the recoil energy and this discrimination parameter. In the absence of a clear signal in thisregion, a limit is calculated on the dark matter scattering cross section. Here, an algorithm is presented that allows to define the acceptance region a priori such that the experiment has the best sensitivity. This is achieved through optimized acceptance regions for each WIMP model and WIMP mass that is to be probed. Using recent data from the CRESST-II experiment as anexample, it is shown that resulting limits can be substantially stronger than those from a conventional acceptance region. In an experiment with a segmented target, the algorithm developed here can yield different acceptance regions for the individual subdetectors. Hence, it is shown how to combine the data consistently within the usual Maximum Gap or Optimum Interval framework.
The energy and momentum deposited by the radiation from accretion onto the supermassive black holes (BHs) that reside at the centres of virtually all galaxies can halt or even reverse gas inflow, providing a natural mechanism for supermassive BHs to regulate their growth and to couple their properties to those of their host galaxies. However, it remains unclear whether this self-regulation occurs on the scale at which the BH is gravitationally dominant, on that of the stellar bulge, the galaxy, or that of the entire dark matter halo. To answer this question, we use self-consistent simulations of the co-evolution of the BH and galaxy populations that reproduce the observed correlations between the masses of the BHs and the properties of their host galaxies. We first confirm unambiguously that the BHs regulate their growth: the amount of energy that the BHs inject into their surroundings remains unchanged when the fraction of the accreted rest mass energy that is injected, is varied by four orders of magnitude. The BHs simply adjust their masses so as to inject the same amount of energy. We then use simulations with artificially reduced star formation rates to demonstrate explicitly that BH mass is not set by the stellar mass. Instead, we find that it is determined by the mass of the dark matter halo with a secondary dependence on the halo concentration, of the form that would be expected if the halo binding energy were the fundamental property that controls the mass of the BH. We predict that the logarithmic slope of the relation between dark matter halo mass and black hole mass is 1.55+/-0.05 and that the scatter around the mean relation in part reflects the scatter in the halo concentration-mass relation.
The formation scenarios for single low-mass (M < 0.45 Msol) white dwarfs include enhanced mass loss from a metal-rich progenitor star or a common envelope phase of a solar-like star with a close-in massive planet or a brown dwarf. Both scenarios suggest that low-mass white dwarfs may have planets. Here, we present a Spitzer IRAC search for substellar and planetary mass companions to 14 low-mass white dwarfs. One of our targets, HS 1653+7753, displays near- and mid-infrared flux excess. However, follow-up MMT observations show that this excess is due to a nearby resolved source, which is mostly likely a background object. Another target, PG 2257+162, shows flux excess compatible with a late-type stellar companion. We do not detect substellar companions to any of the remaining targets. In addition, eight of these stars do not show any radial velocity variations, ruling out stellar mass companions including other white dwarfs. We conclude that a significant fraction of the low-mass white dwarfs in our sample do not have stellar or massive brown dwarf companions.
Pulsars are amongst the most stable rotators known in the Universe. Over many years some millisecond pulsars rival the stability of atomic clocks. Comparing observations of many such stable pulsars may allow the first direct detection of gravitational waves, improve the Solar System planetary ephemeris and provide a means to study irregularities in terrestrial time scales. Here we review the goals and status of current and future pulsar timing array projects.
This study presents a tomographic survey of a subset of the outer halo (10-40
kpc) drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6. Halo substructure
on spatial scales of $>3$ degrees is revealed as an excess in the local density
of sub-giant stars. With an appropriate assumption of a model stellar isochrone
it is possible for us to then derive distances to the sub-giant population. We
describe three new candidate halo substructures; the 160- and 180-degree
over-densities (at distances of 17 and 19 kpc respectively and radii of 1.3 and
1.5 kpc respectively) and an extended feature at 28 kpc that covers at least
162 square degrees, the Virgo Equatorial Stream. In addition, we recover the
Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr) leading arm material and the Virgo Over-density.
The derived distances, together with the number of sub-giant stars associated
with each substructure, enables us to derive the integrated luminosity for the
features. The tenuous, low surface brightness of the features strongly suggests
an origin from the tidal disruption of an accreted galaxy or galaxies. Given
the dominance of the tidal debris of Sgr in this region of the sky we
investigate if our observations can be accommodated by tidal disruption models
for Sgr. The clear discordance between observations and model predictions for
known Sgr features means it is difficult to tell unambiguously if the new
substructures are related to Sgr or not. Radial velocities in the stellar
over-densities will be critical in establishing their origins.
We present new integrated light spectroscopy of globular clusters (GCs) in NGC 5128 in order to measure radial velocities and derive ages, metallicities, and alpha-element abundance ratios. Using Gemini-S 8-m/GMOS, we obtained spectroscopy in the range of ~3400-5700 AA for 72 GCs with S/N > 30 /AA and we have also discovered 35 new GCs within NGC 5128 from our radial velocity measurements. We measured and compared the Lick indices from HdeltaA through Fe5406 with the single stellar population (SSP) models of Thomas et al.(2003,2004). We also measure Lick indices for 41 Milky Way GCs from Puzia et al. (2002) and Schiavon et al. (2005) with the same methodology for direct comparison. Our results show that 68% of the NGC 5128 GCs have old ages (> 8 Gyr), 14% have intermediate ages (5-8 Gyr), and 18% have young ages (< 5 Gyr). However, when we look at the metallicity of the GCs as a function of age, we find 92% of metal-poor GCs and 56% of metal-rich GCs in NGC 5128 have ages > 8 Gyr, indicating that the majority of both metallicity subpopulations of GCs formed early, with a significant population of young and metal-rich GCs forming later. Our metallicity distribution function generated directly from spectroscopic Lick indices is clearly bimodal, as is the color distribution of the same set of GCs. Thus the metallicity bimodality is real and not an artifact of the color to metallicity conversion. The [alpha/Fe] values are supersolar with a mean value of 0.14pm0.04, indicating a fast formation timescale. However, the GCs in NGC 5128 are not as [alpha/Fe] enhanced as the Milky Way GCs also examined in this study. Our results support a rapid, early formation of the GC system in NGC 5128, with subsequent major accretion and/or GC and star forming events in more recent times (abridged).
We present a study of the acceleration phase of line-driven winds in AGNs, in order to examine the physical conditions for the existence of such winds for a wide variety of initial conditions. We built a simple and fast non-hydrodynamic model, QWIND, where we assume that a wind is launched from the accretion disc at supersonic velocities of the order of a few 10^2 km/s and we concentrate on the subsequent supersonic phase. We show that this model can produce a wind with terminal velocities of the order of 10^4 km/s. There are three zones in the wind, only the middle one of which can launch a wind: in the inner zone the wind is too ionized and so experiences only the Compton radiation force which is not effective in accelerating gas. This inner failed wind however plays an important role in shielding the next zone, lowering the ionization parameter there. In the middle zone the lower ionization of the gas leads to a much larger radiation force and the gas achieves escape velocity This middle zone is quite thin (about 100 gravitational radii). The outer, third, zone is shielded from the UV radiation by the central wind zone and so does not achieve a high enough acceleration to reach escape velocity. We also describe a simple analytic approximation of our model, based on neglecting the effects of gravity during the acceleration phase. This analytic approach is in agreement with the results of the numerical code, and is a powerful way to check whether a radiation driven wind can be accelerated with a given set of initial parameters. Our analytical analysis and the fast QWIND model are in agreement with more complex hydrodynamical models, and allow an exploration of the dependence of the wind properties for a wide set of initial parameters: black hole mass, Eddington ratio, initial density profile, X-ray to UV ratio.
Aims: Our primary goal is to search for planets around intermediate mass
stars. We are also interested in studying the nature of radial velocity (RV)
variations of K giant stars.
Methods: We selected about 55 early K giant (K0 - K4) stars brighter than
fifth magnitude that were observed using BOES, a high resolution spectrograph
attached to the 1.8 m telescope at BOAO (Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy
Observatory). BOES is equipped with $I_2$ absorption cell for high precision RV
measurements.
Results: We detected a periodic radial velocity variations in the K0 III star
\gam1leo with a period of P = 429 days. An orbital fit of the observed RVs
yields a period of P = 429 days, a semi-amplitude of K = 208 \mps, and an
eccentricity of e = 0.14. To investigate the nature of the RV variations, we
analyzed the photometric, CaII $\lambda$ 8662 equivalent width, and
line-bisector variations of \gam1leo. We conclude that the detected RV
variations can be best explained by a planetary companion with an estimated
mass of m $\sin i = 8.78 M_{Jupiter}$ and a semi-major axis of $a = 1.19$ AU,
assuming a stellar mass of 1.23 \Msun.
We use direct numerical simulations of forced MHD turbulence with a forcing function that produces two different signs of kinetic helicity in the upper and lower parts of the domain. We show that the mean flux of magnetic helicity from the small-scale field between the two parts of the domain can be described by a Fickian diffusion law with a diffusion coefficient that is approximately independent of the magnetic Reynolds number and about one third of the estimated turbulent magnetic diffusivity. The data suggest that the turbulent diffusive magnetic helicity flux can only be expected to alleviate catastrophic quenching at Reynolds numbers of more than several thousands. We further calculate the magnetic helicity density and its flux in the domain for three different gauges. We consider the Weyl gauge, in which the electrostatic potential vanishes, the pseudo-Lorenz gauge, where the speed of light is replaced by the sound speed, and the `resistive gauge' in which the Laplacian of the magnetic vector potential acts as resistive term. We find that, in the statistically steady state, the time-averaged magnetic helicity density and the magnetic helicity flux are the same in all three gauges.
Non-zero neutrino mass would affect the evolution of the Universe in observable ways, and a strong constraint on the mass can be achieved using combinations of cosmological data sets. We focus on the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, the Hubble constant H_0, and the length scale for baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) to investigate the constraint on the neutrino mass, m_nu. We analyze data from multiple existing CMB studies (WMAP5, ACBAR, CBI, BOOMERANG, and QUAD), recent measurement of H_0 (SHOES), with about two times lower uncertainty (5%) than previous estimates, and recent treatments of BAO from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We obtained an upper limit of m_nu < 0.2eV (95% C.L.), for a flat LambdaCDM model. This is a 40% reduction in the limit derived from previous H_0 estimates and one-third lower than can be achieved with extant CMB and BAO data. We also analyze the impact of smaller uncertainty on measurements of H_0 as may be anticipated in the near term, in combination with CMB data from the Planck mission, and BAO data from the SDSS/BOSS program. We demonstrate the possibility of a 5 sigma detection for a fiducial neutrino mass of 0.1eV or a 95% upper limit of 0.04eV for a fiducial of m_nu = 0eV. These constraints are about 50% better than those achieved without external constraint. We further investigate the impact on modeling where the dark-energy equation of state is constant but not necessarily -1, or where a non-flat universe is allowed. In these cases, the next-generation accuracies of Planck, BOSS, and 1% measurement of H_0 would all be required to obtain the limit m_nu < 0.05 - 0.06eV (95% C.L.) for the fiducial of m_nu = 0eV. The independence of systematics argues for pursuit of both BAO and H_0 measurements.
We simulate the formation and evolution of galaxies with a self-consistent 3D hydrodynamical model including star formation, supernova feedback, and chemical enrichment. Hypernova feedback plays an essential role not only in solving the [Zn/Fe] problem, but also reproducing the cosmic star formation rate history and the mass-metallicity relations. In a Milky-Way type galaxy, kinematics and chemical abundances are different in bulge, disk, and thick disk because of different star formation histories and the contribution of Type Ia Supernovae.
Formation-flying studies to date have required continuous and minute corrections of the orbital elements and attitudes of the spacecraft.This increases the complexity, and associated risk, of controlling the formation, which often makes formation-flying studies infeasible for technological and economic reasons. Passive formation-flying is a novel space-flight concept, which offers a remedy to those problems. Spacecraft in a passive formation are allowed to drift and rotate slowly, but by using advanced metrology and statistical modelling methods, their relative positions, velocities, and orientations are determined with very high accuracy. The metrology data is used directly by the payloads to compensate for spacecraft motions in software. The normally very stringent spacecraft control requirements are thereby relaxed, which significantly reduces mission complexity and cost. Space-borne low-frequency radio astronomy has been identified as a key science application for a conceptual pathfinder mission using this novel approach. The mission, called FIRST (Formation-flying sub-Ionospheric Radio astronomy Science and Technology) Explorer, is currently under study by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its objective is to demonstrate passive formation-flying and at the same time perform unique world class science with a very high serendipity factor, by opening a new frequency window to astronomy.
We used archieval RXTE PCA data to investigate the timing and spectral character istics of the transient XTE J1817-330. The data pertains to observations made during 27th January 2006 to 2nd August 2006 with 160 PCA pointings. A detailed analysis of Quasi Periodic Oscillation (QPOs) in the transient black hole X-ray binary XTE J 1817-330 was carried out. Power density spectra were obtained using lightcurves of the source. QPOs have been detected in 12 of the observations. In 8 of these observations, QPOs are also present in 8-14 keV energy band and in 5 observation in 15-25 keV band. XTE J1817-330 is the third black hole source from which low frequency QPOs are clearly detected in hard X-rays. The QPO frequency lies in ~ 5 to 9 Hz band and rms amplitude in 3 to 19% range, amplitude being higher at higher energy. We have fitted the PDS of the observations with lorentzian and powerlaw models. The energy spectra of the source are derived for those observations in which QPOs are detected to investigate any dependence of QPO characteristic on the spectral parameters. These spectra are well fitted with two component model that includes disk black body component and a thermal compton powerlaw component. QPO characteristics and their variations are discussed and its implication on the origin of the QPOs are examined.
A self-consistent global fitting method based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique to study the dark matter (DM) property associated with the cosmic ray electron/positron excesses was developed in our previous work. In this work we further improve the previous study to include the hadronic branching ratio of DM annihilation/decay. The PAMELA $\bar{p}/p$ data are employed to constrain the hadronic branching ratio. We find that the 95% ($2\sigma$) upper limits of the quark branching ratio allowed by the PAMELA $\bar{p}/p$ data is $\sim 0.032$ for DM annihilation and $\sim 0.044$ for DM decay respectively. This result shows that the DM coupling to pure leptons is indeed favored by the current data. Based on the global fitting results, we further study the neutrino emission from DM in the Galactic center. Our predicted neutrino flux is some smaller than previous works since the constraint from $\gamma$-rays is involved. However, it is still capable to be detected by the forth-coming neutrino detector such as IceCube. The improved points of the present study compared with previous works include: 1) the DM parameters, both the particle physical ones and astrophysical ones, are derived in a global fitting way, 2) constraints from various species of data sets, including $\gamma$-rays and antiprotons are included, and 3) the expectation of neutrino emission is fully self-consistent.
We present a spectral variability study of the XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations of one of the most extreme Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies, IRAS13224-3809. The X-ray spectrum is characterized by two main peculiar features, i) a strong soft excess with a steep rise below about 1.3 keV and ii) a deep drop in flux above 8.2 keV. These two sharp and peculiar features can be reproduced by two relativistic emission lines due to Fe K and Fe L. The lines are produced in the inner accretion disc and independently yield consistent disc parameters. Moreover, their intensity ratio is broadly consistent with atomic physics models at all source flux levels, indicating that they belong to a single ionized reflection component. The spectral shape, X-ray flux, and variability properties are very similar in the XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations, performed about 5 years apart. The overall X-ray spectrum and variability can be described by a simple two-component model comprising a steep power law continuum plus its ionised reflection off the inner accretion disc. A rapidly rotating Kerr black hole and a steep emissivity profile are required to describe the data. The simultaneous detection of relativistic Fe L and K lines in IRAS13224-3809 follows that in another extreme NLS1 galaxy, 1H0707-495. The remarkable consistency between the Fe L and K line profiles, together with their agreement with atomic physics predictions, suggests to rule out competing models in which broad lines are an artifact of poorly modelled X-ray continua. The particularly high Fe abundance and reflection strength in these two objects is what make it possible to detect both relativistic lines so clearly. These results, together with those based on pure broad Fe K detections, are starting to unveil the processes occurring in the immediate vicinity of black holes.
We discuss the different dust components of a protoplanetary disk with a special emphasis on grain composition, size and structure. The paper will highlight the role dust grains play in protoplanetary disks, as well as observational results supporting this knowledge. First, the path dust travels from the interstellar medium into the CS disk is described. Then dust condensation sequences from the gas are introduced, to determine the most likely species that occur in a disk. The characteristics of silicates are handled in detail: composition, lattice structure, magnesium to iron ratio and spectral features. The other main dust-forming component of the interstellar medium, carbon, is presented in its many forms, from molecules to more complex grains. Observational evidence for PAHs is given for both young stars and solar system material. We show how light scattering theory and laboratory data can be used to provide the optical properties of dust grains. From the observer's point of view, we discuss how infrared spectra can be used to derive dust properties, and present the main spectral analysis methods currently used and their limitations. Observational results, determining the dust properties in protoplanetary disks, are given: first for the bright intermediate-mass Herbig Ae/Be stars, and then for the lower-mass Tauri stars and brown dwarfs. Here we present results from the space observatories ISO and Spitzer, as well as from the mid-infrared interferometer VLTI, and summarise the main findings. We discuss observational evidence for grain growth in both Herbig Ae/Be and T Tauri stars, and its relation with spectral type and dust settling. We conclude with an outlook on future space missions that will open new windows, towards longer wavelengths and even fainter objects.
We present our optical observations of {\em Swift} GRB 070518 afterglow obtained at the 0.8-m Tsinghua University-National Astronomical Observatory of China telescope (TNT) at Xinglong Observatory. Our follow-up observations were performed from 512 sec after the burst trigger. With the upper limit of redshift $\sim$0.7, GRB 070518 is found to be an optically dim burst. The spectra indices $\beta_{ox}$ of optical to X-ray are slightly larger than 0.5, which implies the burst might be a dark burst. The extinction $A_{V}$ of the host galaxy is 3.2 mag inferred from the X-ray hydrogen column density with Galactic extinction law, and 0.3 mag with SMC extinction law. Also, it is similar to three other low-redshift optically dim bursts, which belong to XRR or XRF, and mid-term duration($T_{90}<10$, except for GRB 070419A, $T_{90}$=116s). Moreover, its $R$ band afterglow flux is well fitted by a single power-law with an index of 0.87. The optical afterglow and the X-ray afterglow in the normal segment might have the same mechanism, as they are consistent with the prediction of the classical external shock model. Besides, GRB 070518 agrees with Amati relation under reasonable assumptions. The Ghirlanda relation is also tested with the burst.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) found at the centers of clusters of galaxies are a possible source for weak cluster-wide magnetic fields. To evaluate this scenario, we present 3D adaptive mesh refinement MHD simulations of a cool-core cluster that include injection of kinetic, thermal, and magnetic energy via an AGN-powered jet. Using the MHD solver in FLASH 2, we compare several sub-resolution approaches that link the estimated accretion rate as measured on the simulation mesh to the accretion rate onto the central black hole and the resulting feedback. We examine the effects of magnetized outflows on the accretion history of the black hole and discuss the ability of these models to magnetize the cluster medium.
The recent detection of blazar 3C279 by MAGIC has confirmed previous indications by H.E.S.S. that the Universe is more transparent to very-high-energy gamma rays than previously thought. We show that this fact can be reconciled with standard blazar emission models provided photon oscillations into a veri light Axion-Like Particle occur in extragalactic magnetic fields. A quantitative estimate of this effect explains the observed spectrum of 3C279. Our prediction can be tested in the near future by the satellite-borne GLAST detector as well as by the ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescpoes H.E.S.S., MAGIC, CANGAROO III, VERITAS and by the Extensive Air Shower arrays ARGO-YBJ and MILAGRO.
Identification of Abell 3120 as a galaxy cluster has recently been questioned with alternative suggestions including: a fossil remnant of a group merger, non-thermal emission from a radio galaxy, and projected emission from of a filamentary string of galaxies. We report on our analysis of the Chandra observation and evaluate these hypotheses based on our results. Abell 3120 shows X-ray emission extending 158 kpc, well beyond the central galaxy. The spatial distribution of X-rays in the core more closely follows the radio emission showing a jet-like structure extending to the north that is misaligned with the stellar light distribution of the central galaxy. At larger radii the X-ray emission is aligned with the SE-NW running axis of the galaxy distribution in the cluster core. Modeling the X-ray spectrum excludes purely non-thermal emission. The emission weighted temperature is 1.93 - 2.19 keV and the 0.3 - 10 keV luminosity is 1.23$\times10^{43}$ ergs s$^{-1}$. Abell 3120 appears to be a poor cluster with Virgo and MKW 4 as peers. The best fitting model consists of a thermal component and a second component that may be either thermal or non-thermal, with luminosity 25% of the total X-ray luminosity. While, a more detailed spatial-spectral search failed to detect a central AGN, there is some evidence for an extended hard X-ray component. Cooler gas, 1.28 - 1.80 was detected in the central 20 kpc. The second thermal component marginally requires a higher redshift, >0.12, which may be due to a second cluster in the rich surrounding environment consisting of nearly a thousand catalogued galaxies.
We study the propagation, reflection, and turbulent dissipation of Alfven waves in coronal holes and the solar wind. We start with the Heinemann-Olbert equations, which describe non-compressive magnetohydrodynamic fluctuations in an inhomogeneous medium with a background flow parallel to the background magnetic field. Following the approach of Dmitruk et al, we model the nonlinear terms in these equations using a simple phenomenology for the cascade and dissipation of wave energy, and assume that there is much more energy in waves propagating away from the Sun than waves propagating towards the Sun. We then solve the equations analytically for waves with periods of hours and longer to obtain expressions for the wave amplitudes and turbulent heating rate as a function of heliocentric distance. We also develop a second approximate model that includes waves with periods of roughly one minute to one hour, which undergo less reflection than the longer-period waves, and compare our models to observations. Our models generalize the phenomenological model of Dmitruk et al by accounting for the solar wind velocity, so that the turbulent heating rate can be evaluated from the coronal base out past the Alfven critical point - that is, throughout the region in which most of the heating and acceleration occurs. The simple analytical expressions that we obtain can be used to incorporate Alfven-wave reflection and turbulent heating into fluid models of the solar wind.
The kinematic properties of the ionized gas of local Luminous Compact Blue Galaxy (LCBG) NGC 7673 are presented using three dimensional data taken with the PPAK integral field unit at the 3.5-m telescope in the Centro Astron\'omico Hispano Alem\'an. Our data reveal an asymmetric rotating velocity field with a peak to peak difference of 60 km s$^{-1}$. The kinematic centre is found to be at the position of a central velocity width maximum ($\sigma=54\pm1$ km s$^{-1}$), which is consistent with the position of the luminosity-weighted centroid of the entire galaxy. The position angle of the minor rotation axis is 168$^{\circ}$ as measured from the orientation of the velocity field contours. At least two decoupled kinematic components are found. The first one is compact and coincides with the position of the second most active star formation region (clump B). The second one is extended and does not have a clear optical counterpart. No evidence of active galactic nuclei activity or supernovae galactic winds powering any of these two components has been found. Our data, however, show evidence in support of a previously proposed minor merger scenario in which a dwarf galaxy, tentatively identified with clump B, is falling into NGC 7673. and triggers the starburst. Finally, it is shown that the dynamical mass of this galaxy may be severely underestimated when using the derived rotation curve or the integrated velocity width, under the assumption of virialization.
We investigate to what extent the spin axes of stars in young open clusters are aligned. Assuming that the spin vectors lie uniformly within a conical section, with an opening half-angle between lambda=0 (perfectly aligned) and lambda=90 degrees(completely random), we describe a Monte-Carlo modelling technique that returns a probability density for this opening angle given a set of measured sin i values, where i is the unknown inclination angle between a stellar spin vector and the line of sight. Using simulations we demonstrate that although azimuthal information is lost, it is easily possible to discriminate between strongly aligned spin axes and a random distribution, providing that the mean spin-axis inclination lies outside the range 45--75 degrees. We apply the technique to G- and K-type stars in the young Pleiades and Alpha Per clusters. The sin i values are derived using rotation periods and projected equatorial velocities, combined with radii estimated from the cluster distances and a surface brightness/colour relationship. For both clusters we find no evidence for spin-axis alignment: lambda=90 degrees is the most probable model and lambda>40 degrees with 90 per cent confidence. Assuming a random spin-axis alignment, we re-determine the distances to both clusters, obtaining 133+/-7pc for the Pleiades and 182+/-11 pc for Alpha Per. If the assumption of random spin-axis alignment is discarded however, whilst the distance estimate remains unchanged, it has an additional +18/-32 percent uncertainty.
We report the discovery with XMM-Newton of correlated spectral and timing behavior in the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5408 X-1. An ~100 ksec pointing with XMM/Newton obtained in January, 2008 reveals a strong 10 mHz QPO in the > 1 keV flux, as well as flat-topped, band limited noise breaking to a power law. The energy spectrum is again dominated by two components, a 0.16 keV thermal disk and a power-law with an index of ~2.5. These new measurements, combined with results from our previous January 2006 pointing in which we first detected QPOs, show for the first time in a ULX a pattern of spectral and temporal correlations strongly analogous to that seen in Galactic black hole sources, but at much higher X-ray luminosity and longer characteristic time-scales. We find that the QPO frequency is proportional to the inferred disk flux, while the QPO and broad-band noise amplitude (root mean squared, rms) are inversely proportional to the disk flux. Assuming that QPO frequency scales inversely with black hole mass at a given power-law spectral index we derive mass estimates using the observed QPO frequency - spectral index relations from five stellar-mass black hole systems with dynamical mass constraints. The results from all sources are consistent with a mass range for NGC 5408 X-1 from 1000 - 9000 solar masses. Moreover, the recent relation from Gierlinski et al. that relates black hole mass to the strength of variability at high frequencies (above the break in the power spectrum) is also indicative of such a high mass for NGC 5408 X-1. We argue that these new findings strongly support the conclusion that NGC 5408 X-1 harbors an intermediate mass black hole.
We discuss the use of SPICA to study the cosmic history of star formation and accretion by supermassive black holes. The cooling lines, in particular the high-J rotational lines of CO, provide a clear-cut and unique diagnostic for separating the contributions of star formation and AGN accretion to the total infrared luminosity of active, gas-rich galaxies. We briefly review existing efforts for studying high-J CO emission from galaxies at low and high redshift. We finally comment on the detectability of cooling radiation from primordial (very low metallicity) galaxies containing an accreting supermassive black hole with SPICA/SAFARI.
From observations collected with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we report the detection of Zeeman signatures on
the low-mass classical TTauri star (cTTS) V2247Oph. Profile distortions and
circular polarisation signatures detected in photospheric lines can be
interpreted as caused by cool spots and magnetic regions at the surface of the
star. The large-scale field is of moderate strength and highly complex;
moreover, both the spot distribution and the magnetic field show significant
variability on a timescale of only one week, as a likely result of strong
differential rotation. Both properties make V2247Oph very different from the
(more massive) prototypical cTTS BPTau; we speculate that this difference
reflects the lower mass of V2247Oph.
During our observations, V2247Oph was in a low-accretion state, with emission
lines showing only weak levels of circular polarisation; we nevertheless find
that excess emission apparently concentrates in a mid-latitude region of strong
radial field, suggesting that it is the footpoint of an accretion funnel.
The weaker and more complex field that we report on V2247Oph may share
similarities with those of very-low-mass late-M dwarfs and potentially explain
why low-mass cTTSs rotate on average faster than intermediate mass ones. These
surprising results need confirmation from new independent data sets on V2247Oph
and other similar low-mass cTTSs.
We explore cosmological consequences of two quintessence models in which the current cosmic acceleration is a transient phenomenon. We argue that one of them (in which the EoS parameter switches from freezing to thawing regimes) may reconcile the slight preference of observational data for freezing potentials with the impossibility of defining observables in String/M-theory due to the existence of a cosmological event horizon in asymptotically de Sitter universes.
The blazar PG 1553+113 is a well known TeV gamma-ray emitter. In this paper, we determine its spectral energy distribution using simultaneous multi-frequency data in order to study its emission processes. An extensive campaign was carried out between March and April 2008, where optical, X-ray, high-energy (HE) gamma-ray, and very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray data were obtained with the KVA, Abastumani, REM, RossiXTE/ASM, AGILE and MAGIC telescopes, respectively. This is the first simultaneous broad-band (i.e., HE+VHE) gamma-ray observation, though AGILE did not detect the source. We combine data to derive source's spectral energy distribution and interpret its double peaked shape within the framework of a synchrotron self compton model
Recent measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos are briefly reviewed. With several new large scale observatories nearing completion or becoming fully operational only very recently, a large body of high quality and high statistics data is growing up now. Already these first data have started to open up a new window to the high energy Universe giving us first direct clues about the origin of the most energetic particles with energies of about 10^{20} eV as well as about their interactions from extragalactic sources to Earth. Also, for the first time full sky views of high energy neutrinos have become available with neutrino telescopes operating on either Hemisphere. While a "smoking gun" is still missing on galactic sources of cosmic rays, constraining upper limits to neutrino fluxes from various source candidates are reported. Thus, future neutrino telescopes, such as KM3NeT in the Mediterranean should aim at volumes significantly larger than one cubic kilometer. Besides seeking the sources of galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays, the new generation of cosmic ray and neutrino observatories touches a wide range of scientific issues and they have already provided important results on tests of fundamental physics.
The generation of primordial magnetic seed fields during inflation is studied in a theory derived from the one-loop vacuum polarization effective action of the photon in a curved background. This includes terms which couple the curvature to the Maxwell tensor. The resulting magnetic field strength is estimated in a model where the inflationary phase is directly matched to the standard radiation dominated era. The allowed parameter region is analyzed and compared with the bounds necessary to seed the galactic magnetic field. It is found that magnetic fields of cosmologically interesting field strengths can be generated.
We present a new insight on NGC 6034 and UGC 842, two groups of galaxies previously reported in the literature as being fossil groups. The study is based on optical photometry and spectroscopy obtained with the CTIO Blanco telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey archival data. We find that NGC 6034 is embedded in a large structure, dominated by three rich clusters and other small groups. Its first and next four ranked galaxies have magnitude differences in the $r$-band and projected distances which violate the optical criteria to classify it as a fossil group. We confirm that the UGC 842 group is a fossil group, but with about half the velocity dispersion that is reported in previous works. The velocity distribution of its galaxies reveals the existence of two structures in its line of sight, one with $\sigma_v$ $\sim$ 223 km s$^{-1}$ and another with $\sigma_v$ $\sim$ 235 km s$^{-1}$, with a difference in velocity of $\sim$ 820 km s$^{-1}$. The main structure is dominated by passive galaxies, while these represent $\sim$ 60% of the second structure. The expected X-ray temperature for the intragroup medium of a group with such a velocity dispersion is expected to be $k$T $\sim$ 0.5--1 keV, against the observed value of $k$T $\sim$ 1.9 keV reported in the literature. This result makes UGC 842 a special case amongst fossil groups because (i) it represents more likely the interaction between two small groups, which warms the intragroup medium and/or (ii) it could constitute evidence that member galaxies lost energy in the process of spiraling towards the group center, and decreased the velocity dispersion of the system. As far as we know, UGC 842 is the first low mass fossil group studied in detail.
Integrated-optic, astronomical, two-beam and three-beam, interferometric combiners have been designed and fabricated for operation in the L band (3 - 4 microns) for the first time. The devices have been realized in titanium-indiffused, x-cut lithium niobate substrates, and on-chip electro-optic fringe scanning has been demonstrated. White light fringes were produced in the laboratory using the two-beam combiner integrated with an on-chip Y-splitter.
It has been claimed recently that Swift has captured for the first time a smoothly rising X-ray re-brightening of clear nonflaring origin after the steep decay of the prompt emission in a long gamma-ray burst (GRB), which may have been produced by a narrow jet viewed off-axis. However, this interpretation of the observed re-brightening of the X-ray afterglow (AG) of GRB081028 is unlikely in view of its large equivalent isotropic gamma-ray energy. Moreover, we show that the late-time re-brightening of the AG of GRB081028 is well explained by the cannonball (CB) model of GRBs as a synchrotron flare emitted when the jet that produced the GRB in a star formation region (SFR) in the host galaxy crossed the SFR boundary into the interstellar medium or the halo of the host galaxy. We also show that all the other observed properties of GRB081028 and its afterglow are well reproduced by the CB model.
We critically examine the constraints on internal angular momentum transport which can be inferred from the spin down of open cluster stars. The rotation distribution inferred from rotation velocities and periods are consistent for larger and more recent samples, but smaller samples of rotation periods appear biased relative to vsini studies. We therefore focus on whether the rotation period distributions observed in star forming regions can be evolved into the observed ones in the Pleiades, NGC2516, M34, M35, M37, and M50 with plausible assumptions about star-disk coupling and angular momentum loss from magnetized solar-like winds. Solid body models are consistent with the data for low mass fully convective stars but highly inconsistent for higher mass stars where the surface convection zone can decouple for angular momentum purposes from the radiative interior. The Tayler-Spruit magnetic angular momentum transport mechanism, commonly employed in models of high mass stars, predicts solid-body rotation on extremely short timescales and is therefore unlikely to operate in solar-type pre-MS and MS stars at the predicted rate. Models with core-envelope decoupling can explain the spin down of 1.0 and 0.8 solar mass slow rotators with characteristic coupling timescales of 55+-25 Myr and 175+-25 Myr respectively. The upper envelope of the rotation distribution is more strongly coupled than the lower envelope of the rotation distribution, in accord with theoretical predictions that the angular momentum transport timescale should be shorter for more rapidly rotating stars. Constraints imposed by the solar rotation curve are also discussed (Abridged)
A didactic sequence of activities on some topics of Astronomy, related mainly with the length and orientation of shadows cast by a gnomon, the movement of shadows during daytime in different seasons of the year, and finding the true astronomical North, is fully developed. It also includes a discussion of observations from different frames of reference and of some topics in the history of science to enrich a debate among students, as well as the construction of a simplified model for the apparent displacement of the Sun, and of a sundial, and their use as resources to discuss some common misconceptions found in students. Multiple suggestions and clear guides are given for teachers of secondary education to implement theses activities in their classes.
Astronomical and cosmological knowledge up to the dawn of modern science was profoundly embedded in myth, religion and superstition. Many of these inventions of the human mind remain today stored in different supports: medieval engravings, illuminated manuscripts, and of course also in old and rare books.
Dark matter with Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation has been proposed to explain observed cosmic ray positron excesses in the 10 GeV to TeV energy range. We show that the required enhancement implies thermal relic densities that are too small to be all of dark matter. In addition, we derive upper bounds on possible Sommerfeld enhancements from the observation of elliptical galactic dark matter halos and show that these bounds also generically exclude these explanations. Interestingly, viable models with moderate Sommerfeld enhancements predict that small galactic halos should have observable spherical cores with constant density.
We investigate the recovery chances of highly spinning waveforms immersed in LIGO S5-like noise by performing a matched filtering with one million randomly chosen spinning waveforms generated with the LAL package. While the masses of the compact binary are reasonably well recovered (slightly overestimated), the same does not hold true for the spins. We show the best fit matches both in the time-domain and the frequency-domain. These encompass some of the spinning characteristics of the signal, but far less, that would be required to identify the astrophysical parameters of the system. An improvement of the matching method is necessary, though may be difficult due to the noisy signal.
We give a closed system of coupled first order differential equations governing the secular linear momentum loss of a compact binary due to emitted gravitational waves, with the leading order relativistic and spin-orbit perturbations included. In order to close the system, the secular evolution equations of the linear momentum derived from the dissipative dynamics are supplemented with the secular evolutions of the coupled angular variables, as derived from the conservative dynamics.
We calculate the properties of neutron matter and highlight the physics of chiral three-nucleon forces. For neutrons, only the long-range 2 pi-exchange interactions of the leading chiral three-nucleon forces contribute, and we derive density-dependent two-body interactions by summing the third particle over occupied states in the Fermi sea. Our results for the energy suggest that neutron matter is perturbative at nuclear densities. We study in detail the theoretical uncertainties of the neutron matter energy, provide constraints for the symmetry energy and its density dependence, and explore the impact of chiral three-nucleon forces on the S-wave superfluid pairing gap.
A solenoid oscillating in vacuum will pair produce charged particles due to the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interaction. We calculate the radiation pattern and power emitted for charged scalar particles. We extend the solenoid analysis to cosmic strings, and find enhanced radiation from cusps and kinks on loops. We argue by analogy with the electromagnetic AB interaction that cosmic strings should emit photons due to the gravitational AB interaction of fields in the conical spacetime of a cosmic string. We calculate the emission from a kink and find that it is of similar order as emission from a cusp, but kinks are vastly more numerous than cusps and may provide a more interesting observational signature.
Upcoming gravitational wave (GW) detectors might detect a stochastic background of GWs potentially arising from many possible sources, including bubble collisions and turbulence from a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition. We investigate whether it is possible to connect, via a semi-analytical approximation to the tunneling rate of scalar fields with quartic potentials, the GW signal with the parameters entering the potential that drives the electroweak phase transition. To this end, we consider a finite temperature effective potential similar in form to the Higgs potential in the Standard Model (SM). In the context of a semi-analytic approximation to the three dimensional Euclidean action, we derive a general approximate form for the tunneling temperature and the relevant GW parameters. We explore the GW signal across the parameter space describing the potential which drives the phase transition. We comment on the potential detectability of a GW signal with future experiments, and physical relevance of the associated potential parameters in the context of theories which have effective potentials similar in form to that of the SM. In particular we consider singlet, triplet, higher dimensional operators, and top-flavor extensions to the Higgs sector of the SM. We find that the addition of a temperature independent cubic term in the potential, arising from a gauge singlet for instance, can greatly enhance the GW power. The other parameters have milder, but potentially noticeable, effects.
The phase characteristics of reflecting and transmitting type twisted nematic liquid crystal based Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) were measured using interferometry. Device parameters like contrast, brightness, input and output polarizer angles have been optimized and SLM phase nonlinearity was reduced by higher order polynomial interpolation. Higher order aberration production ability of SLMs was tested by measuring the shift in the spots of a Shack Hartmann Sensor.
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