We fit every emission line in the high-resolution Chandra grating spectrum of zeta Pup with an empirical line profile model that accounts for the effects of Doppler broadening and attenuation by the bulk wind. For each of sixteen lines or line complexes that can be reliably measured, we determine a best-fitting fiducial optical depth, tau_* = kappa*Mdot/4{pi}R_{\ast}v_{\infty}, and place confidence limits on this parameter. These sixteen lines include seven that have not previously been reported on in the literature. The extended wavelength range of these lines allows us to infer, for the first time, a clear increase in tau_* with line wavelength, as expected from the wavelength increase of bound-free absorption opacity. The small overall values of tau_*, reflected in the rather modest asymmetry in the line profiles, can moreover all be fit simultaneously by simply assuming a moderate mass-loss rate of 3.5 \pm 0.3 \times 10^{-6} Msun/yr, without any need to invoke porosity effects in the wind. The quoted uncertainty is statistical, but the largest source of uncertainty in the derived mass-loss rate is due to the uncertainty in the elemental abundances of zeta Pup, which affects the continuum opacity of the wind, and which we estimate to be a factor of two. Even so, the mass-loss rate we find is significantly below the most recent smooth-wind H-alpha mass-loss rate determinations for zeta Pup, but is in line with newer determinations that account for small-scale wind clumping. If zeta Pup is representative of other massive stars, these results will have important implications for stellar and galactic evolution.
This is the first of a series of papers aimed at characterizing the populations detected in the high-latitude sky of the {\it Fermi}-LAT survey. In this work we focus on the intrinsic spectral and flux properties of the source sample. We show that when selection effects are properly taken into account, {\it Fermi} sources are on average steeper than previously found (e.g. in the bright source list) with an average photon index of 2.40$\pm0.02$ over the entire 0.1--100 GeV energy band. We confirm that FSRQs have steeper spectra than BL Lac objects with an average index of 2.48$\pm0.02$ versus 2.18$\pm0.02$. Using several methods we build the deepest source count distribution at GeV energies deriving that the intrinsic source (i.e. blazar) surface density at F$_{100}\geq10^{-9}$ ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ is 0.12$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ deg$^{-2}$. The integration of the source count distribution yields that point sources contribute 16$(\pm1.8)$ % (with a systematic uncertainty of 10 %) of the GeV isotropic diffuse background. At the fluxes currently reached by LAT we can rule out the hypothesis that point-like sources (i.e. blazars) produce a larger fraction of the diffuse emission.
Although redshift-space distortions only affect inferred distances and not angles, they still distort the projected angular clustering of galaxy samples selected using redshift dependent quantities. From an Eulerian view-point, this effect is caused by the apparent movement of galaxies into or out of the sample. From a Lagrangian view-point, we find that projecting the redshift-space overdensity field over a finite radial distance does not remove all the anisotropic distortions. We investigate this effect, showing that it strongly boosts the amplitude of clustering for narrow samples and can also reduce the significance of baryonic features in the correlation function. We argue that the effect can be mitigated by binning in apparent galaxy pair-centre rather than galaxy position, and applying an upper limit to the radial galaxy separation. We demonstrate this approach, contrasting against standard top-hat binning in galaxy distance, using sub-samples taken from the Hubble Volume simulations. Using a simple model for the radial distribution expected for galaxies from a survey such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we show that this binning scheme will simplify analyses that will measure baryonic acoustic oscillations within such galaxy samples. This technique can also be used to measure the amplitude of the redshift-space distortions. Our analysis is relevant for other photometric redshift surveys, including those made by the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-Starrs) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
We examine the dust distribution around a sample of 70,000 low redshift galaxy groups and clusters derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By correlating spectroscopically identified background quasars with the galaxy groups we obtain the relative colour excess due to dust reddening. We present a significant detection of dust out to a clustercentric distance of 30 Mpc/h in all four independent SDSS colours, consistent with the expectations of weak lensing masses of similar mass halos and excess galaxy counts. The wavelength dependence of this colour excess is consistent with the expectations of a Milky Way dust law with R_V=3.1. Further, we find that the halo mass dependence of the dust content is much smaller than would be expected by a simple scaling, implying that the dust-to-gas ratio of the most massive clusters (~10E14 Msun/h) is ~3% of the local ISM value, while in small groups (~10E12.7 Msun/h) it is ~55% of the local ISM value. We also find that the dust must have a covering fraction on the order of 10% to explain the observed color differences, which means the dust is not just confined to the most massive galaxies. Comparing the dust profile with the excess galaxy profile, we find that the implied dust-to-galaxy ratio falls significantly towards the group or cluster center. This has a significant halo mass dependence, such that the more massive groups and clusters show a stronger reduction. This suggests that either dust is destroyed by thermal sputtering of the dust grains by the hot, dense gas or the intrinsic dust production is reduced in these galaxies.
Angular momentum transport owing to hydrodynamic turbulent convection is studied using local three dimensional numerical simulations employing the shearing box approximation. We determine the turbulent viscosity from non-rotating runs over a range of values of the shear parameter and use a simple analytical model in order to extract the non-diffusive contribution (\Lambda-effect) to the stress in runs where rotation is included. Our results suggest that the turbulent viscosity is of the order of the mixing length estimate and weakly affected by rotation. The \Lambda-effect is non-zero and a factor of 2--4 smaller than the turbulent viscosity in the slow rotation regime. We demonstrate that for Keplerian shear, the angular momentum transport can change sign and be outward when the rotation period is greater than the turnover time, i.e. when the Coriolis number is below unity. This result seems to be relatively independent of the value of the Rayleigh number.
The identity of dark matter is a question of central importance in both astrophysics and particle physics. In the past, the leading particle candidates were cold and collisionless, and typically predicted missing energy signals at particle colliders. However, recent progress has greatly expanded the list of well-motivated candidates and the possible signatures of dark matter. This review begins with a brief summary of the standard model of particle physics and its outstanding problems. We then discuss several dark matter candidates motivated by these problems, including WIMPs, superWIMPs, light gravitinos, hidden dark matter, sterile neutrinos, and axions. For each of these, we critically examine the particle physics motivations and present their expected production mechanisms, basic properties, and implications for direct and indirect detection, particle colliders, and astrophysical observations. Upcoming experiments will discover or exclude many of these candidates, and progress may open up an era of unprecedented synergy between studies of the largest and smallest observable length scales.
We calculate a signature of cosmic strings in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We find that ionization in the wakes behind moving strings gives rise to extra polarization in a set of rectangular patches in the sky whose length distribution is scale-invariant. The length of an individual patch is set by the co-moving Hubble radius at the time the string is perturbing the CMB. The polarization signal is largest for string wakes produced at the earliest post-recombination time, and for an alignment in which the photons cross the wake close to the time the wake is created. The maximal amplitude of the polarization relative to the temperature quadrupole is set by the overdensity of free electrons inside a wake which depends on the ionization fraction $f$ inside the wake. The signal can be as high as $0.06 {\rm \mu K}$ in degree scale polarization for a string at high redshift (near recombination) and a string tension $\mu$ given by $G \mu = 10^{-7}$.
In the last decade or so, there have been numerous searches for hot subdwarfs in close binaries. There has been little to no attention paid to wide binaries however. The advantages of understanding these systems can be many. The stars can be assumed to be coeval, which means they have common properties. The distance and metallicity, for example, are both unknown for the subdwarf component, but may be determinable for the secondary, allowing other properties of the subdwarf to be estimated. With this in mind, we have started a search for common proper motion pairs containing a hot subdwarf component. We have uncovered several promising candidate systems, which are presented here.
We present 8-13 micron imaging and spectroscopy of 9 type 1 and 10 type 2 AGN obtained with the VLT/VISIR instrument at spatial resolution <100 pc. The emission from the host galaxy sources is resolved out in most cases. The silicate absorption features are moderately deep and emission features are shallow. We compare the mid-IR luminosities to AGN luminosity tracers and found that the mid-IR radiation is emitted quite isotropically. In two cases, IC5063 and MCG-3-34-64, we find evidence for extended dust emission in the narrow-line region. We confirm the correlation between observed silicate feature strength and Hydrogen column density recently found in Spitzer data. In a further step, our 3D clumpy torus model has been used to interpret the data. We show that the strength of the silicate feature and the mid-IR spectral index can be used to get reasonable constraints on the dust distribution in the torus. The mid-IR spectral index, alpha, is almost exclusively determined by the radial dust distribution power-law index, a, and the silicate feature depth is mostly depending on the average number of clouds, N0, along an equatorial line-of-sight and the torus inclination. A comparison of model predictions to our type 1 and type 2 AGN reveals typical average parameters a=-1.0+/-0.5 and N0=5-8, which means that the radial dust distribution is rather shallow. As a proof-of-concept of this method, we compared the model parameters derived from alpha and the silicate feature to more detailed studies of IR SEDs and interferometry and found that the constraints on a and N0 are consistent. Finally, we might have found evidence that the radial structure of the torus changes from low to high AGN luminosities towards steeper dust distributions, and we discuss implications for the IR size-luminosity relation. (abridged)
Outward migration of low-mass planets has recently been shown to be a possibility in non-barotropic disks. We examine the consequences of this result in evolutionary models of protoplanetary disks. Planet migration occurs towards equilibrium radii with zero torque. These radii themselves migrate inwards because of viscous accretion and photoevaporation. We show that as the surface density and temperature fall, the planet orbital migration and disk depletion timescales eventually become comparable, with the precise timing depending on the mass of the planet. When this occurs, the planet decouples from the equilibrium radius. At this time, however, the gas surface density is already too low to drive substantial further migration. A higher mass planet, of 10 Earth masses, can open a gap during the late evolution of the disk, and stops migrating. Low mass planets, with 1 or 0.1 Earth masses, released beyond 1 AU in our models, avoid migrating into the star. Our results provide support for the reduced migration rates adopted in recent planet population synthesis models.
We suggest a novel discretisation of the momentum equation for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and show that it dramatically improves the accuracy of the obtained solutions. Our new formulation which we refer to as relative pressure SPH, rpSPH, evaluates the pressure force in respect to the local pressure. It respects Newtons first law of motion and applies forces to particles only when there is a net force acting upon them. This is in contrast to standard SPH which explicitly uses Newtons third law of motion continuously applying equal but opposite forces between particles. rpSPH does not show the unphysical particle noise, the clumping or banding instability, unphysical surface tension, non-Newtonian numerical viscosity and unphysical scattering of different mass particles found for standard SPH. At the same time it is just as robust, uses fewer computational operations, and extends the applicability of particle based codes to the study of mildly compressible flows. Furthermore, it only changes a single line in existing SPH codes. We demonstrate its superior performance on isobaric uniform density distributions, uniform density shearing flows, the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the Sod shock tube, the Sedov-Taylor blast wave and a cosmological integration of the Santa Barbara galaxy cluster formation test. rpSPH is an improvement in all cases. We furthermore discuss how this formulation allows to study viscous flows, is robust even with widely varying particles masses and successfully apply the same principles to discretising the magnetic forces in the ideal MHD limit.
The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been used to make the first extensive search for the class I methanol masers at 9.9 GHz. In total, 48 regions of high-mass star formation were observed. In addition to masers in W33-Met (G12.80-0.19) and G343.12-0.06 (IRAS 16547-4247) which have already been reported in the literature, two new 9.9-GHz masers have been found towards G331.13-0.24 and G19.61-0.23. We have determined absolute positions (accurate to roughly a second of arc) for all the detected masers and suggest that some class I masers may be associated with shocks driven into molecular clouds by expanding HII regions. Our observations also imply that the evolutionary stage of a high-mass star forming region when the class I masers are present can outlast the stage when the class II masers at 6.7 GHz are detectable, and overlaps significantly with the stage when OH masers are active.
To quantify how rare the bullet-cluster-like high-velocity merging systems are in the standard LCDM cosmology, we use a large-volume 27 (Gpc/h)^3 MICE simulation to calculate the distribution of infall velocities of subclusters around massive main clusters. The infall-velocity distribution is given at (1-3)R_{200} of the main cluster (where R_{200} is similar to the virial radius), and thus it gives the distribution of realistic initial velocities of subclusters just before collision. These velocities can be compared with the initial velocities used by the non-cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of 1E0657-56 in the literature. The latest parameter search carried out by Mastropietro & Burkert (2008) showed that the initial velocity of 3000 km/s at about 2R_{200} is required to explain the observed shock velocity, X-ray brightness ratio of the main and subcluster, and displacement of the X-ray peaks from the mass peaks. We show that such a high infall velocity at 2R_{200} is incompatible with the prediction of a LCDM model: the probability of finding 3000 km/s in (2-3)R_{200} is between 3.3X10^{-11} and 3.6X10^{-9}. It is concluded that the existence of 1E0657-56 is incompatible with the prediction of a LCDM model, unless a lower infall velocity solution for 1E0657-56 with < 1800 km/s at 2R_{200} is found.
We study the evolution of linear density fluctuations of free-streaming massive neutrinos at redshift of z<1000, with an explicit justification on the use of a fluid approximation. We solve the collisionless Boltzmann equation in an Einstein de-Sitter (EdS) universe, truncating the Boltzmann hierarchy at lmax=1 and 2, and compare the resulting density contrast of neutrinos, \delta_{\nu}^{fluid}, with that of the exact solutions of the Boltzmann equation that we derive in this paper. Roughly speaking, the fluid approximation is accurate if neutrinos were already non-relativistic when the neutrino density fluctuation of a given wavenumber entered the horizon. We find that the fluid approximation is accurate at sub-percent levels for massive neutrinos with m_{\nu}> 0.05eV at the scale of k<1.0hMpc^{-1} and redshift of z<100. This result validates the use of the fluid approximation, at least for the most massive species of neutrinos suggested by the neutrino oscillation experiments. We also find that the density contrast calculated from fluid equations (i.e., continuity and Euler equations) becomes a better approximation at a lower redshift, and the accuracy can be further improved by including an anisotropic stress term in the Euler equation. The anisotropic stress term effectively increases the pressure term by a factor of 9/5.
WZ Sge-type dwarf novae are characterized by long recurrence times of outbursts (~10 yr) and short orbital periods (<~ 85 min). A significant part of WZ Sge stars may remain undiscovered because of low outburst activity. Recently, the observed orbital period distribution of cataclysmic variables (CVs) has changed partly because outbursts of new WZ Sge stars have been discovered routinely. Hence, the estimation of the intrinsic population of WZ Sge stars is important for the study of the population and evolution of CVs. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach to estimate the intrinsic period distribution of dwarf novae from observed samples. In this Bayesian model, we assumed a simple relationship between the recurrence time and the orbital period which is consistent with observations of WZ Sge stars and other dwarf novae. As a result, the minimum orbital period was estimated to be ~70 min. The population of WZ Sge stars exhibited a spike-like feature at the shortest period regime in the orbital period distribution. These features are consistent with the orbital period distribution previously predicted by population synthesis studies. We propose that WZ Sge stars and CVs with a low mass-transfer rate are excellent candidates for the missing population predicted by the evolution theory of CVs.
(Abridged) Spitzer data at 24, 70, and 160 micron and ground-based H-alpha images are analyzed for a sample of 189 nearby star-forming and starburst galaxies to investigate whether reliable star formation rate (SFR) indicators can be defined using the monochromatic infrared dust emission centered at 70 and 160 micron. We compare recently published recipes for SFR measures using combinations of the 24 micron and observed H-alpha luminosities with those using 24 micron luminosity alone. From these comparisons, we derive a reference SFR indicator for use in our analysis. Linear correlations between SFR and the 70 and 160 micron luminosity are found for L(70)>=1.4x10^{42} erg/s and L(160)>=2x10^{42} erg/s, corresponding to SFR>=0.1-0.3 M_sun/yr. Below those two luminosity limits, the relation between SFR and 70 micron (160 micron) luminosity is non-linear and SFR calibrations become problematic. The dispersion of the data around the mean trend increases for increasing wavelength, becoming about 25% (factor ~2) larger at 70 (160) micron than at 24 micron. The increasing dispersion is likely an effect of the increasing contribution to the infrared emission of dust heated by stellar populations not associated with the current star formation. The non-linear relation between SFR and the 70 and 160 micron emission at faint galaxy luminosities suggests that the increasing transparency of the interstellar medium, decreasing effective dust temperature, and decreasing filling factor of star forming regions across the galaxy become important factors for decreasing luminosity. The SFR calibrations are provided for galaxies with oxygen abundance 12+Log(O/H)>8.1. At lower metallicity the infrared luminosity no longer reliably traces the SFR because galaxies are less dusty and more transparent.
One of the aims of the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project is to measure the power spectrum of variations in the intensity of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the EoR. The sensitivity with which this power spectrum can be estimated depends on the level of thermal noise and sample variance, and also on the systematic errors arising from the extraction process, in particular from the subtraction of foreground contamination. We model the extraction process using realistic simulations of the cosmological signal, the foregrounds and noise, and so estimate the sensitivity of the LOFAR EoR experiment to the redshifted 21-cm power spectrum. Detection of emission from the EoR should be possible within 360 hours of observation with a single station beam. Integrating for longer, and synthesizing multiple station beams within the primary (tile) beam, then enables us to extract progressively more accurate estimates of the power at a greater range of scales and redshifts. We discuss different observational strategies which compromise between depth of observation, sky coverage and frequency coverage. A plan in which lower frequencies receive a larger fraction of the time appears to be promising. We also study the nature of the bias which foreground fitting errors induce on the inferred power spectrum, and discuss how to reduce and correct for this bias. The angular and line-of-sight power spectra have different merits in this respect, and we suggest considering them separately in the analysis of LOFAR data.
The standard general relativistic model of a razor-thin accretion disk around a black hole, developed by Novikov & Thorne (NT) in 1973, assumes that the shear stress vanishes at the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and that, outside the ISCO, the shear stress is produced by an effective turbulent viscosity. However, astrophysical accretion disks are not razor-thin, it is uncertain whether the shear stress necessarily vanishes at the ISCO, and the magnetic field, which is thought to drive turbulence in disks, may contain large-scale structures that do not behave like a simple local scalar viscosity. We describe three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion disks around black holes with a range of spin parameters, and we use the simulations to assess the validity of the NT model. Our fiducial initial magnetic field consists of multiple (alternating polarity) poloidal field loops whose shape is roughly isotropic in the disk in order to match the isotropic turbulence expected in the poloidal plane. For a thin disk with an aspect ratio |h/r| ~ 0.07 around a non-spinning black hole, we find a decrease in the accreted specific angular momentum of 2.9% relative to the NT model and an excess luminosity from inside the ISCO of 3.5%. The deviations in the case of spinning black holes are also of the same order. In addition, the deviations decrease with decreasing |h/r|. We therefore conclude that magnetized thin accretion disks in x-ray binaries in the thermal/high-soft spectral state ought to be well-described by the NT model, especially at luminosities below 30% of Eddington where we expect a very small disk thickness |h/r| <~ 0.05. We also discuss how the stress and the luminosity inside the ISCO depend on the assumed initial magnetic field geometry. (abridged)
Using high resolution VLT spectra, we study the multi-component outflow systems of two quasars exhibiting intrinsic Fe II absorption (QSO 2359-1241 and SDSS J0318-0600). From the extracted ionic column densities and using photoionization modeling we determine the gas density, total column density, and ionization parameter for several of the components. For each object the largest column density component is also the densest, and all other components have densities of roughly 1/4 of that of the main component. We demonstrate that all the absorbers lie roughly at the same distance from the source. Further, we calculate the total kinetic luminosities and mass outflow rates of all components and show that these quantities are dominated by the main absorption component.
We present a new method for constructing maps of the secondary temperature fluctuations imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation by photons propagating through the evolving cosmic gravitational potential. Large cosmological N-body simulations are used to calculate the complete non-linear evolution of the peculiar gravitational potential. Tracing light rays back through the past lightcone of a chosen observer accurately captures the temperature perturbations generated by linear (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe or ISW effect) and non-linear (the Rees-Sciama or RS effect) evolution. These effects give rise to three kinds of non-linear features in the temperature maps. (a) In overdense regions, converging flows of matter induce cold spots of order 100 Mpc in extent which can dominate over the ISW effect at high redshift, and are surrounded by hot rings. (b) In underdense regions, the RS effect enhances ISW cold spots which can be surrounded by weak hot rings. (c) Transverse motions of large lumps of matter produce characteristic dipole features, consisting of adjacent hot and cold spots separated by a few tens of Megaparsecs. These non-linear features are not easily detectable; they modulate the ISW sky maps at about the 10 percent level. The RS effect causes the angular power spectrum to deviate from linear theory at l~50 and generates non-Gaussianity, skewing the one-point distribution function to negative values. Cold spots of similar angular size, but much smaller amplitude than the CMB cold spot reported by Cruz et al are produced. Joint analysis of our maps and the corresponding galaxy distribution may enable techniques to be developed to detect these non-linear, non-Gaussian features. Our maps are available at this http URL
The overall classification of X-ray jets has clung to that prevalent in the radio: FRI vs. FRII (including quasars). Indeed, the common perception is that X-ray emission from FRI's is synchrotron emission whereas that from FRII's may be IC/CMB and/or synchrotron. Now that we have a sizable collection of sources with detected X-ray emission from jets and hotspots, it seems that a more unbiased study of these objects could yield additional insights on jets and their X-ray emission. The current contribution is a first step in the process of analyzing all of the relevant parameters for each detected component for the sources collected in the XJET website. This initial effort involves measuring the ratio of X-ray to radio fluxes and evaluating correlations with other jet parameters. For single zone synchrotron X-ray emission, we anticipate that larger values of fx/fr should correlate inversely with the average magnetic field strength (if the acceleration process is limited by loss time equals acceleration time). Beamed IC/CMB X-rays should produce larger values of fx/fr for smaller values of the angle between the jet direction and the line of sight but will also be affected by the low frequency radio spectral index.
A faint new radio source has been detected in the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy M82 using MERLIN radio observations designed to monitor the flux density evolution of the recent bright supernova SN2008iz. This new source was initially identified in observations made between 1-5th May 2009 but had not been present in observations made one week earlier, or in any previous observations of M82. In this paper we report the discovery of this new source and monitoring of its evolution over its first 9 months of existence. The true nature of this new source remains unclear, and we discuss whether this source may be an unusual and faint supernova, a supermassive blackhole associated with the nucleus of M82, or intriguingly the first detection of radio emission from an extragalactic microquasar.
White dwarfs typically have masses in a narrow range centered at about 0.6 solar masses (Msun). Only a few ultra-massive white dwarfs (M>1.2 Msun) are known. Those in binary systems are of particular interest because a small amount of accreted mass could drive them above the Chandrasekhar limit, beyond which they become gravitationally unstable. Using data from the XMM-Newton satellite, we show that the X-ray pulsator RX J0648.0-4418 is a white dwarf with mass > 1.2 Msun, based only on dynamical measurements. This ultra-massive white dwarf in a post-common envelope binary with a hot subdwarf can reach the Chandrasekhar limit, and possibly explode as a Type Ia supernova, when its helium-rich companion will transfer mass at an increased rate through Roche lobe overflow.
Explaining the well established observation that the expansion rate of the universe is apparently accelerating is one of the defining scientific problems of our age. Within the standard model of cosmology, the repulsive `dark energy' supposedly responsible has no explanation at a fundamental level, despite many varied attempts. A further important dilemma in the standard model is the Lithium problem, which is the substantial mismatch between the theoretical prediction for 7-Li from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the value that we observe today. This observation is one of the very few we have from along our past worldline as opposed to our past lightcone. By releasing the untested assumption that the universe is homogeneous on very large scales, both apparent acceleration and the Lithium problem can be easily accounted for as different aspects of cosmic inhomogeneity, without causing problems for other cosmological phenomena such as the cosmic microwave background. We illustrate this in the context of a void model.
Cold fronts have been observed in a large number of galaxy clusters. Understanding their nature and origin is of primary importance for the investigation of the internal dynamics of clusters. To gain insight on the nature of these features, we carry out a statistical investigation of their occurrence in a sample of galaxy clusters observed with XMM-Newton and we correlate their presence with different cluster properties. We have selected a sample of 45 clusters starting from the B55 flux limited sample by Edge et al. (1990) and performed a systematic search of cold fronts. We find that a large fraction of clusters host at least one cold front. Cold fronts are easily detected in all systems that are manifestly undergoing a merger event in the plane of the sky while the presence of such features in the remaining clusters is related to the presence of a steep entropy gradient, in agreement with theoretical expectations. Assuming that cold fronts in cool core clusters are triggered by minor merger events, we estimate a minimum of 1/3 merging events per halo per Gyr.
The aim of this work is to provide the contributors to journals or toDiscussion is given of non-linear soliton behavior including coupling between electrostatic and electromagnetic potentials for non-relativistic, weakly relativistic, and fully relativistic plasmas. For plasma distribution functions that are independent of the canonical momenta perpendicular to the soliton spatial structure direction there are, in fact, no soliton behaviors allowed because transverse currents are zero. Dependence on the transverse canonical momenta is necessary. When such is the case, it is shown that the presence or absence of a soliton is intimately connected to the functional form assumed for the particle distribution functions. Except for simple situations, the coupled non-linear equations for the electrostatic and electromagnetic potentials would seem to require numerical solution procedures. Examples are given to illustrate all of these points for non-relativistic, weakly relativistic, and fully relativistic plasmas.
We have measured the sub-milli-arcsecond structure of 274 extragalactic sources at 24 and 43 GHz in order to assess their astrometric suitability for use in a high frequency celestial reference frame (CRF). Ten sessions of observations with the Very Long Baseline Array have been conducted over the course of $\sim$5 years, with a total of 1339 images produced for the 274 sources. There are several quantities that can be used to characterize the impact of intrinsic source structure on astrometric observations including the source flux density, the flux density variability, the source structure index, the source compactness, and the compactness variability. A detailed analysis of these imaging quantities shows that (1) our selection of compact sources from 8.4 GHz catalogs yielded sources with flux densities, averaged over the sessions in which each source was observed, of about 1 Jy at both 24 and 43 GHz, (2) on average the source flux densities at 24 GHz varied by 20%-25% relative to their mean values, with variations in the session-to-session flux density scale being less than 10%, (3) sources were found to be more compact with less intrinsic structure at higher frequencies, and (4) variations of the core radio emission relative to the total flux density of the source are less than 8% on average at 24 GHz. We conclude that the reduction in the effects due to source structure gained by observing at higher frequencies will result in an improved CRF and a pool of high-quality fiducial reference points for use in spacecraft navigation over the next decade.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) are of great importance for cosmology. After finding out significant systematics in official WMAP maps, we had developed our own map-making software independently of the WMAP team. The new maps produced from the WMAP raw data and our software are notably different to the official ones, and the power spectrum as well as the best-fit cosmological parameters are significantly different too. By revealing the inconsistency between the WMAP raw data and their official map, we pointed out that there must exist an unexpected problem in the WMAP map-making routine. Here we state that the trouble comes from the inaccuracy of antenna pointing direction caused by improper offset of the quaternion interpolation in the WMAP routine. The CMB quadrupole in the WMAP release can be generated from a differential dipole field which is completely determined by the spacecraft velocity and the antenna directions without using any CMB signal. After correcting the WMAP team's error, the CMB quadrupole component disappears. Therefore, the released WMAP CMB quadrupole is almost completely artificial and the real quadrupole of the CMB anisotropy should be near zero. Our finding is important for understanding the early universe.
We have computed seismic images of magnetic activity on the far surface of the Sun by using a seismic-holography technique. As in previous works, the method is based on the comparison of waves going in and out of a particular point in the Sun but we have computed here the Green's functions from a spherical polar expansion of the adiabatic wave equations in the Cowling approximation instead of using the ray-path approximation previously used in the far-side holography. A comparison between the results obtained using the ray theory and the spherical polar expansion is shown. We use the gravito-acoustic wave equation in the local plane-parallel limit in both cases and for the latter we take the asymptotic approximation for the radial dependencies of the Green's function. As a result, improved images of the far-side can be obtained from the polar-expansion approximation, especially when combining the Green's functions corresponding to two and three skips. We also show that the phase corrections in the Green's functions due to the incorrect modeling of the uppermost layers of the Sun can be estimated from the eigenfrequencies of the normal modes of oscillation.
We investigate how environmental effects by gas stripping alter the growth of a super massive black hole (SMBH) and its host galaxy evolution, by means of 1D hydrodynamical simulations that include both mechanical and radiative AGN feedback effects. By changing the truncation radius of the gas distribution (R_t), beyond which gas stripping is assumed to be effective, we simulate possible environments for satellite and central galaxies in galaxy clusters and groups. The continuous escape of gas outside the truncation radius strongly suppresses star formation, while the growth of the SMBH is less affected by gas stripping because the SMBH accretion is primarily ruled by the density of the central region. As we allow for increasing environmental effects - the truncation radius decreasing from about 410 to 50 kpc - we find that the final SMBH mass declines from about 10^9 to 8 x 10^8 Msol, but the outflowing mass is roughly constant at about 2 x 10^10 Msol. There are larger change in the mass of stars formed, which declines from about 2 x 10^10 to 2 x 10^9 Msol, and the final thermal X-ray gas, which declines from about 10^9 to 5 x 10^8 Msol, with increasing environmental stripping. Most dramatic is the decline in the total time that the objects would be seen as quasars, which declines from 52 Myr (for R_t = 377 kpc) to 7.9 Myr (for R_t = 51 kpc). The typical case might be interpreted as a red and dead galaxy having episodic cooling flows followed by AGN feedback effects resulting in temporary transitions of the overall galaxy color from red to green or to blue, with (cluster) central galaxies spending a much larger fraction of their time in the elevated state than do satellite galaxies.(Abridged)
Observations using X-ray telescopes can help understand the origin of the electron and positron signals reported by ATIC, PAMELA, PPB-BETS, and Fermi. It remains unclear whether the observed high-energy electrons and positrons are produced by the relic particles, or by some astrophysical sources. To distinguish between the two possibilities, one can compare the electron population in the local neighborhood with that in the dwarf spheroidal galaxies, which are not expected to host as many pulsars and other astrophysical sources. This can be accomplished using the X-ray observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Assuming the Fermi signal comes from dark matter and using the inferred dark matter profile of the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy, we calculate the spectrum of X-rays produced by electrons via inverse Compton scattering. The next generation of X-ray telescopes may be able to detect such a signal.
We present a detailed description of the blast-wave modeling technique for a very general class of explosions. Providing a simple method of evaluating the blast energy, we demonstrate that a common approximation of pressure balance for the blast wave violates the energy-conservation law significantly for adiabatic blast waves. We show that the energy-violation problem is successfully resolved by the "mechanical model".
We analyze the Fundamental Plane (FP) relation of $39,993$ early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the optical (griz) and $5,080$ ETGs in the Near-Infrared (YJHK) wavebands, forming an optical$ + $NIR sample of $4,589$ galaxies. We focus on the analysis of the FP as a function of the environment where galaxies reside. We characterize the environment using the largest group catalog, based on 3D data, generated from SDSS at low redshift ($z < 0.1$). We find that the intercept $"c"$ of the FP decreases smoothly from high to low density regions, implying that galaxies at low density have on average lower mass-to-light ratios than their high-density counterparts. The $"c"$ also decreases as a function of the mean characteristic mass of the parent galaxy group. However, this trend is weak and completely accounted for by the variation of $"c"$ with local density. The variation of the FP offset is the same in all wavebands, implying that ETGs at low density have younger luminosity-weighted ages than cluster galaxies, consistent with the expectations of semi-analytical models of galaxy formation. We measure an age variation of $\sim 0.048$ dex ($\sim 11%$) per decade of local galaxy density. This implies an age difference of about 32% ($\sim 3 Gyr$) between galaxies in the regions of highest density and the field. We find the metallicity decreasing, at $\sim 2$ $\sigma$, from low to high density. We also find $2.5 \sigma$ evidence that the variation in age per decade of local density augments, up to a factor of two, for galaxies residing in massive relative to poor groups. (abridged)
Scalar field theories with derivative interactions are known to possess solitonic excitations, but such solitons are generally unsatisfactory because the effective theory fails precisely where nonlinearities responsible for the solitons are important. A new class of theories possessing (internal) galilean invariance can in principle bypass this difficulty. Here, we show that these galileon theories do not possess stable solitonic solutions. As a by-product, we show that no stable solitons exist for a different class of derivatively coupled theories, describing for instance the infrared dynamics of superfluids, fluids, solids and some k-essence models.
We present a constructive numerical example of fast magnetic reconnection in a three dimensional periodic box. Reconnection is initiated by a strong, localized perturbation to the field lines. The solution is intrinsically three dimensional, and its gross properties do not depend on the details of the simulations. $\sim 50%$ of the magnetic energy is released in an event which lasts about one Alfven time, but only after a delay during which the field lines evolve into a critical configuration. We present a physical picture of the process. The reconnection regions are dynamical and mutually interacting. In the comoving frame of these regions, reconnection occurs through an X-like point, analogous to Petschek reconnection. The dynamics appear to be driven by global flows, not local processes.
An explicit model of $F(R)$ gravity with realizing a crossing of the phantom divide is reconstructed. In particular, it is shown that the Big Rip singularity may appear in the reconstructed model of $F(R)$ gravity. Such a Big Rip singularity could be avoided by adding $R^2$ term or non-singular viable $F(R)$ theory to the model because phantom behavior becomes transient.
The generation of a large recoil velocity from the inspiral and merger of binary black holes represents one of the most exciting results of numerical-relativity calculations. While many aspects of this process have been investigated and explained, the "anti-kick", namely the sudden deceleration after the merger, has not yet found a simple explanation. We show that the anti-kick can be easily understood in terms of the radiation from a deformed black hole where the intrinsically anisotropic curvature distribution on the horizon determines the direction and intensity of the recoil. Our analysis is focussed on the properties of Robinson-Trautman spacetimes and allows us to measure both the energies and momenta radiated in a gauge-invariant manner. At the same time, this simpler setup provides all the qualitative but also quantitative features of inspiralling black hole binaries, thus opening the way to a deeper understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of black-hole spacetimes.
We investigate the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics in a universe governed by Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We calculate separately the entropy time-variation for the matter fluid and, using the modified entropy relation, that of the apparent horizon itself. We find that under detailed balance the generalized second law is generally valid for flat and closed geometry and it is conditionally valid for an open universe, while beyond detailed balance it is only conditionally valid for all curvatures. Furthermore, we also follow the effective approach showing that it can lead to misleading results. The non-complete validity of the generalized second law could either provide a suggestion for its different application, or act as an additional problematic feature of Horava-Lifshitz gravity.
In the study of Planck-scale ("quantum-gravity induced") violations of Lorentz symmetry, an important role was played by the deformed-electrodynamics model introduced by Myers and Pospelov. Its reliance on conventional effective quantum field theory, and its description of symmetry-violation effects simply in terms of a four-vector with nonzero component only in the time-direction, rendered it an ideal target for experimentalists and a natural concept-testing ground for many theorists. At this point however the experimental limits on the single Myers-Pospelov parameter, after improving steadily over these past few years, are "super-Planckian", {\it i.e.} they take the model out of actual interest from a conventional quantum-gravity perspective. In light of this we here argue that it may be appropriate to move on to the next level of complexity, still with vectorial symmetry violation but adopting a generic four-vector. We also offer a preliminary characterization of the phenomenology of this more general framework, sufficient to expose a rather significant increase in complexity with respect to the original Myers-Pospelov setup. Most of these novel features are linked to the presence of spatial anisotropy, which is particularly pronounced when the symmetry-breaking vector is space-like, and they are such that they reduce the bound-setting power of certain types of observations in astrophysics.
Spin polarization of neutron matter at finite temperatures and strong magnetic fields up to $10^{18}$ G is studied in the model with the Skyrme effective interaction. It is shown that, together with the thermodynamically stable branch of solutions for the spin polarization parameter corresponding to the case when the majority of neutron spins are oriented opposite to the direction of the magnetic field (negative spin polarization), the self-consistent equations, beginning from some threshold density, have also two other branches of solutions corresponding to positive spin polarization. The influence of finite temperatures on spin polarization remains moderate in the Skyrme model up to temperatures relevant for protoneutron stars, and, in particular, the scenario with the metastable state characterized by positive spin polarization, considered at zero temperature in Phys. Rev. C {\bf 80}, 065801 (2009), is preserved at finite temperatures as well. It is shown that above certain density the entropy for various branches of spin polarization in neutron matter with the Skyrme interaction in a strong magnetic field demonstrates the unusual behavior being larger than that of the nonpolarized state. By providing the corresponding low-temperature analysis, it is clarified that this unexpected behavior should be addressed to the dependence of the entropy of a spin polarized state on the effective masses of neutrons with spin up and spin down, and to a certain constraint on them which is violated in the respective density range.
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We fit every emission line in the high-resolution Chandra grating spectrum of zeta Pup with an empirical line profile model that accounts for the effects of Doppler broadening and attenuation by the bulk wind. For each of sixteen lines or line complexes that can be reliably measured, we determine a best-fitting fiducial optical depth, tau_* = kappa*Mdot/4{pi}R_{\ast}v_{\infty}, and place confidence limits on this parameter. These sixteen lines include seven that have not previously been reported on in the literature. The extended wavelength range of these lines allows us to infer, for the first time, a clear increase in tau_* with line wavelength, as expected from the wavelength increase of bound-free absorption opacity. The small overall values of tau_*, reflected in the rather modest asymmetry in the line profiles, can moreover all be fit simultaneously by simply assuming a moderate mass-loss rate of 3.5 \pm 0.3 \times 10^{-6} Msun/yr, without any need to invoke porosity effects in the wind. The quoted uncertainty is statistical, but the largest source of uncertainty in the derived mass-loss rate is due to the uncertainty in the elemental abundances of zeta Pup, which affects the continuum opacity of the wind, and which we estimate to be a factor of two. Even so, the mass-loss rate we find is significantly below the most recent smooth-wind H-alpha mass-loss rate determinations for zeta Pup, but is in line with newer determinations that account for small-scale wind clumping. If zeta Pup is representative of other massive stars, these results will have important implications for stellar and galactic evolution.
This is the first of a series of papers aimed at characterizing the populations detected in the high-latitude sky of the {\it Fermi}-LAT survey. In this work we focus on the intrinsic spectral and flux properties of the source sample. We show that when selection effects are properly taken into account, {\it Fermi} sources are on average steeper than previously found (e.g. in the bright source list) with an average photon index of 2.40$\pm0.02$ over the entire 0.1--100 GeV energy band. We confirm that FSRQs have steeper spectra than BL Lac objects with an average index of 2.48$\pm0.02$ versus 2.18$\pm0.02$. Using several methods we build the deepest source count distribution at GeV energies deriving that the intrinsic source (i.e. blazar) surface density at F$_{100}\geq10^{-9}$ ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ is 0.12$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ deg$^{-2}$. The integration of the source count distribution yields that point sources contribute 16$(\pm1.8)$ % (with a systematic uncertainty of 10 %) of the GeV isotropic diffuse background. At the fluxes currently reached by LAT we can rule out the hypothesis that point-like sources (i.e. blazars) produce a larger fraction of the diffuse emission.
Although redshift-space distortions only affect inferred distances and not angles, they still distort the projected angular clustering of galaxy samples selected using redshift dependent quantities. From an Eulerian view-point, this effect is caused by the apparent movement of galaxies into or out of the sample. From a Lagrangian view-point, we find that projecting the redshift-space overdensity field over a finite radial distance does not remove all the anisotropic distortions. We investigate this effect, showing that it strongly boosts the amplitude of clustering for narrow samples and can also reduce the significance of baryonic features in the correlation function. We argue that the effect can be mitigated by binning in apparent galaxy pair-centre rather than galaxy position, and applying an upper limit to the radial galaxy separation. We demonstrate this approach, contrasting against standard top-hat binning in galaxy distance, using sub-samples taken from the Hubble Volume simulations. Using a simple model for the radial distribution expected for galaxies from a survey such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we show that this binning scheme will simplify analyses that will measure baryonic acoustic oscillations within such galaxy samples. This technique can also be used to measure the amplitude of the redshift-space distortions. Our analysis is relevant for other photometric redshift surveys, including those made by the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-Starrs) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
We examine the dust distribution around a sample of 70,000 low redshift galaxy groups and clusters derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By correlating spectroscopically identified background quasars with the galaxy groups we obtain the relative colour excess due to dust reddening. We present a significant detection of dust out to a clustercentric distance of 30 Mpc/h in all four independent SDSS colours, consistent with the expectations of weak lensing masses of similar mass halos and excess galaxy counts. The wavelength dependence of this colour excess is consistent with the expectations of a Milky Way dust law with R_V=3.1. Further, we find that the halo mass dependence of the dust content is much smaller than would be expected by a simple scaling, implying that the dust-to-gas ratio of the most massive clusters (~10E14 Msun/h) is ~3% of the local ISM value, while in small groups (~10E12.7 Msun/h) it is ~55% of the local ISM value. We also find that the dust must have a covering fraction on the order of 10% to explain the observed color differences, which means the dust is not just confined to the most massive galaxies. Comparing the dust profile with the excess galaxy profile, we find that the implied dust-to-galaxy ratio falls significantly towards the group or cluster center. This has a significant halo mass dependence, such that the more massive groups and clusters show a stronger reduction. This suggests that either dust is destroyed by thermal sputtering of the dust grains by the hot, dense gas or the intrinsic dust production is reduced in these galaxies.
Angular momentum transport owing to hydrodynamic turbulent convection is studied using local three dimensional numerical simulations employing the shearing box approximation. We determine the turbulent viscosity from non-rotating runs over a range of values of the shear parameter and use a simple analytical model in order to extract the non-diffusive contribution (\Lambda-effect) to the stress in runs where rotation is included. Our results suggest that the turbulent viscosity is of the order of the mixing length estimate and weakly affected by rotation. The \Lambda-effect is non-zero and a factor of 2--4 smaller than the turbulent viscosity in the slow rotation regime. We demonstrate that for Keplerian shear, the angular momentum transport can change sign and be outward when the rotation period is greater than the turnover time, i.e. when the Coriolis number is below unity. This result seems to be relatively independent of the value of the Rayleigh number.
The identity of dark matter is a question of central importance in both astrophysics and particle physics. In the past, the leading particle candidates were cold and collisionless, and typically predicted missing energy signals at particle colliders. However, recent progress has greatly expanded the list of well-motivated candidates and the possible signatures of dark matter. This review begins with a brief summary of the standard model of particle physics and its outstanding problems. We then discuss several dark matter candidates motivated by these problems, including WIMPs, superWIMPs, light gravitinos, hidden dark matter, sterile neutrinos, and axions. For each of these, we critically examine the particle physics motivations and present their expected production mechanisms, basic properties, and implications for direct and indirect detection, particle colliders, and astrophysical observations. Upcoming experiments will discover or exclude many of these candidates, and progress may open up an era of unprecedented synergy between studies of the largest and smallest observable length scales.
We calculate a signature of cosmic strings in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We find that ionization in the wakes behind moving strings gives rise to extra polarization in a set of rectangular patches in the sky whose length distribution is scale-invariant. The length of an individual patch is set by the co-moving Hubble radius at the time the string is perturbing the CMB. The polarization signal is largest for string wakes produced at the earliest post-recombination time, and for an alignment in which the photons cross the wake close to the time the wake is created. The maximal amplitude of the polarization relative to the temperature quadrupole is set by the overdensity of free electrons inside a wake which depends on the ionization fraction $f$ inside the wake. The signal can be as high as $0.06 {\rm \mu K}$ in degree scale polarization for a string at high redshift (near recombination) and a string tension $\mu$ given by $G \mu = 10^{-7}$.
In the last decade or so, there have been numerous searches for hot subdwarfs in close binaries. There has been little to no attention paid to wide binaries however. The advantages of understanding these systems can be many. The stars can be assumed to be coeval, which means they have common properties. The distance and metallicity, for example, are both unknown for the subdwarf component, but may be determinable for the secondary, allowing other properties of the subdwarf to be estimated. With this in mind, we have started a search for common proper motion pairs containing a hot subdwarf component. We have uncovered several promising candidate systems, which are presented here.
We present 8-13 micron imaging and spectroscopy of 9 type 1 and 10 type 2 AGN obtained with the VLT/VISIR instrument at spatial resolution <100 pc. The emission from the host galaxy sources is resolved out in most cases. The silicate absorption features are moderately deep and emission features are shallow. We compare the mid-IR luminosities to AGN luminosity tracers and found that the mid-IR radiation is emitted quite isotropically. In two cases, IC5063 and MCG-3-34-64, we find evidence for extended dust emission in the narrow-line region. We confirm the correlation between observed silicate feature strength and Hydrogen column density recently found in Spitzer data. In a further step, our 3D clumpy torus model has been used to interpret the data. We show that the strength of the silicate feature and the mid-IR spectral index can be used to get reasonable constraints on the dust distribution in the torus. The mid-IR spectral index, alpha, is almost exclusively determined by the radial dust distribution power-law index, a, and the silicate feature depth is mostly depending on the average number of clouds, N0, along an equatorial line-of-sight and the torus inclination. A comparison of model predictions to our type 1 and type 2 AGN reveals typical average parameters a=-1.0+/-0.5 and N0=5-8, which means that the radial dust distribution is rather shallow. As a proof-of-concept of this method, we compared the model parameters derived from alpha and the silicate feature to more detailed studies of IR SEDs and interferometry and found that the constraints on a and N0 are consistent. Finally, we might have found evidence that the radial structure of the torus changes from low to high AGN luminosities towards steeper dust distributions, and we discuss implications for the IR size-luminosity relation. (abridged)
Outward migration of low-mass planets has recently been shown to be a possibility in non-barotropic disks. We examine the consequences of this result in evolutionary models of protoplanetary disks. Planet migration occurs towards equilibrium radii with zero torque. These radii themselves migrate inwards because of viscous accretion and photoevaporation. We show that as the surface density and temperature fall, the planet orbital migration and disk depletion timescales eventually become comparable, with the precise timing depending on the mass of the planet. When this occurs, the planet decouples from the equilibrium radius. At this time, however, the gas surface density is already too low to drive substantial further migration. A higher mass planet, of 10 Earth masses, can open a gap during the late evolution of the disk, and stops migrating. Low mass planets, with 1 or 0.1 Earth masses, released beyond 1 AU in our models, avoid migrating into the star. Our results provide support for the reduced migration rates adopted in recent planet population synthesis models.
We suggest a novel discretisation of the momentum equation for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and show that it dramatically improves the accuracy of the obtained solutions. Our new formulation which we refer to as relative pressure SPH, rpSPH, evaluates the pressure force in respect to the local pressure. It respects Newtons first law of motion and applies forces to particles only when there is a net force acting upon them. This is in contrast to standard SPH which explicitly uses Newtons third law of motion continuously applying equal but opposite forces between particles. rpSPH does not show the unphysical particle noise, the clumping or banding instability, unphysical surface tension, non-Newtonian numerical viscosity and unphysical scattering of different mass particles found for standard SPH. At the same time it is just as robust, uses fewer computational operations, and extends the applicability of particle based codes to the study of mildly compressible flows. Furthermore, it only changes a single line in existing SPH codes. We demonstrate its superior performance on isobaric uniform density distributions, uniform density shearing flows, the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the Sod shock tube, the Sedov-Taylor blast wave and a cosmological integration of the Santa Barbara galaxy cluster formation test. rpSPH is an improvement in all cases. We furthermore discuss how this formulation allows to study viscous flows, is robust even with widely varying particles masses and successfully apply the same principles to discretising the magnetic forces in the ideal MHD limit.
The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been used to make the first extensive search for the class I methanol masers at 9.9 GHz. In total, 48 regions of high-mass star formation were observed. In addition to masers in W33-Met (G12.80-0.19) and G343.12-0.06 (IRAS 16547-4247) which have already been reported in the literature, two new 9.9-GHz masers have been found towards G331.13-0.24 and G19.61-0.23. We have determined absolute positions (accurate to roughly a second of arc) for all the detected masers and suggest that some class I masers may be associated with shocks driven into molecular clouds by expanding HII regions. Our observations also imply that the evolutionary stage of a high-mass star forming region when the class I masers are present can outlast the stage when the class II masers at 6.7 GHz are detectable, and overlaps significantly with the stage when OH masers are active.
To quantify how rare the bullet-cluster-like high-velocity merging systems are in the standard LCDM cosmology, we use a large-volume 27 (Gpc/h)^3 MICE simulation to calculate the distribution of infall velocities of subclusters around massive main clusters. The infall-velocity distribution is given at (1-3)R_{200} of the main cluster (where R_{200} is similar to the virial radius), and thus it gives the distribution of realistic initial velocities of subclusters just before collision. These velocities can be compared with the initial velocities used by the non-cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of 1E0657-56 in the literature. The latest parameter search carried out by Mastropietro & Burkert (2008) showed that the initial velocity of 3000 km/s at about 2R_{200} is required to explain the observed shock velocity, X-ray brightness ratio of the main and subcluster, and displacement of the X-ray peaks from the mass peaks. We show that such a high infall velocity at 2R_{200} is incompatible with the prediction of a LCDM model: the probability of finding 3000 km/s in (2-3)R_{200} is between 3.3X10^{-11} and 3.6X10^{-9}. It is concluded that the existence of 1E0657-56 is incompatible with the prediction of a LCDM model, unless a lower infall velocity solution for 1E0657-56 with < 1800 km/s at 2R_{200} is found.
We study the evolution of linear density fluctuations of free-streaming massive neutrinos at redshift of z<1000, with an explicit justification on the use of a fluid approximation. We solve the collisionless Boltzmann equation in an Einstein de-Sitter (EdS) universe, truncating the Boltzmann hierarchy at lmax=1 and 2, and compare the resulting density contrast of neutrinos, \delta_{\nu}^{fluid}, with that of the exact solutions of the Boltzmann equation that we derive in this paper. Roughly speaking, the fluid approximation is accurate if neutrinos were already non-relativistic when the neutrino density fluctuation of a given wavenumber entered the horizon. We find that the fluid approximation is accurate at sub-percent levels for massive neutrinos with m_{\nu}> 0.05eV at the scale of k<1.0hMpc^{-1} and redshift of z<100. This result validates the use of the fluid approximation, at least for the most massive species of neutrinos suggested by the neutrino oscillation experiments. We also find that the density contrast calculated from fluid equations (i.e., continuity and Euler equations) becomes a better approximation at a lower redshift, and the accuracy can be further improved by including an anisotropic stress term in the Euler equation. The anisotropic stress term effectively increases the pressure term by a factor of 9/5.
WZ Sge-type dwarf novae are characterized by long recurrence times of outbursts (~10 yr) and short orbital periods (<~ 85 min). A significant part of WZ Sge stars may remain undiscovered because of low outburst activity. Recently, the observed orbital period distribution of cataclysmic variables (CVs) has changed partly because outbursts of new WZ Sge stars have been discovered routinely. Hence, the estimation of the intrinsic population of WZ Sge stars is important for the study of the population and evolution of CVs. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach to estimate the intrinsic period distribution of dwarf novae from observed samples. In this Bayesian model, we assumed a simple relationship between the recurrence time and the orbital period which is consistent with observations of WZ Sge stars and other dwarf novae. As a result, the minimum orbital period was estimated to be ~70 min. The population of WZ Sge stars exhibited a spike-like feature at the shortest period regime in the orbital period distribution. These features are consistent with the orbital period distribution previously predicted by population synthesis studies. We propose that WZ Sge stars and CVs with a low mass-transfer rate are excellent candidates for the missing population predicted by the evolution theory of CVs.
(Abridged) Spitzer data at 24, 70, and 160 micron and ground-based H-alpha images are analyzed for a sample of 189 nearby star-forming and starburst galaxies to investigate whether reliable star formation rate (SFR) indicators can be defined using the monochromatic infrared dust emission centered at 70 and 160 micron. We compare recently published recipes for SFR measures using combinations of the 24 micron and observed H-alpha luminosities with those using 24 micron luminosity alone. From these comparisons, we derive a reference SFR indicator for use in our analysis. Linear correlations between SFR and the 70 and 160 micron luminosity are found for L(70)>=1.4x10^{42} erg/s and L(160)>=2x10^{42} erg/s, corresponding to SFR>=0.1-0.3 M_sun/yr. Below those two luminosity limits, the relation between SFR and 70 micron (160 micron) luminosity is non-linear and SFR calibrations become problematic. The dispersion of the data around the mean trend increases for increasing wavelength, becoming about 25% (factor ~2) larger at 70 (160) micron than at 24 micron. The increasing dispersion is likely an effect of the increasing contribution to the infrared emission of dust heated by stellar populations not associated with the current star formation. The non-linear relation between SFR and the 70 and 160 micron emission at faint galaxy luminosities suggests that the increasing transparency of the interstellar medium, decreasing effective dust temperature, and decreasing filling factor of star forming regions across the galaxy become important factors for decreasing luminosity. The SFR calibrations are provided for galaxies with oxygen abundance 12+Log(O/H)>8.1. At lower metallicity the infrared luminosity no longer reliably traces the SFR because galaxies are less dusty and more transparent.
One of the aims of the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project is to measure the power spectrum of variations in the intensity of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the EoR. The sensitivity with which this power spectrum can be estimated depends on the level of thermal noise and sample variance, and also on the systematic errors arising from the extraction process, in particular from the subtraction of foreground contamination. We model the extraction process using realistic simulations of the cosmological signal, the foregrounds and noise, and so estimate the sensitivity of the LOFAR EoR experiment to the redshifted 21-cm power spectrum. Detection of emission from the EoR should be possible within 360 hours of observation with a single station beam. Integrating for longer, and synthesizing multiple station beams within the primary (tile) beam, then enables us to extract progressively more accurate estimates of the power at a greater range of scales and redshifts. We discuss different observational strategies which compromise between depth of observation, sky coverage and frequency coverage. A plan in which lower frequencies receive a larger fraction of the time appears to be promising. We also study the nature of the bias which foreground fitting errors induce on the inferred power spectrum, and discuss how to reduce and correct for this bias. The angular and line-of-sight power spectra have different merits in this respect, and we suggest considering them separately in the analysis of LOFAR data.
The standard general relativistic model of a razor-thin accretion disk around a black hole, developed by Novikov & Thorne (NT) in 1973, assumes that the shear stress vanishes at the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and that, outside the ISCO, the shear stress is produced by an effective turbulent viscosity. However, astrophysical accretion disks are not razor-thin, it is uncertain whether the shear stress necessarily vanishes at the ISCO, and the magnetic field, which is thought to drive turbulence in disks, may contain large-scale structures that do not behave like a simple local scalar viscosity. We describe three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion disks around black holes with a range of spin parameters, and we use the simulations to assess the validity of the NT model. Our fiducial initial magnetic field consists of multiple (alternating polarity) poloidal field loops whose shape is roughly isotropic in the disk in order to match the isotropic turbulence expected in the poloidal plane. For a thin disk with an aspect ratio |h/r| ~ 0.07 around a non-spinning black hole, we find a decrease in the accreted specific angular momentum of 2.9% relative to the NT model and an excess luminosity from inside the ISCO of 3.5%. The deviations in the case of spinning black holes are also of the same order. In addition, the deviations decrease with decreasing |h/r|. We therefore conclude that magnetized thin accretion disks in x-ray binaries in the thermal/high-soft spectral state ought to be well-described by the NT model, especially at luminosities below 30% of Eddington where we expect a very small disk thickness |h/r| <~ 0.05. We also discuss how the stress and the luminosity inside the ISCO depend on the assumed initial magnetic field geometry. (abridged)
Using high resolution VLT spectra, we study the multi-component outflow systems of two quasars exhibiting intrinsic Fe II absorption (QSO 2359-1241 and SDSS J0318-0600). From the extracted ionic column densities and using photoionization modeling we determine the gas density, total column density, and ionization parameter for several of the components. For each object the largest column density component is also the densest, and all other components have densities of roughly 1/4 of that of the main component. We demonstrate that all the absorbers lie roughly at the same distance from the source. Further, we calculate the total kinetic luminosities and mass outflow rates of all components and show that these quantities are dominated by the main absorption component.
We present a new method for constructing maps of the secondary temperature fluctuations imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation by photons propagating through the evolving cosmic gravitational potential. Large cosmological N-body simulations are used to calculate the complete non-linear evolution of the peculiar gravitational potential. Tracing light rays back through the past lightcone of a chosen observer accurately captures the temperature perturbations generated by linear (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe or ISW effect) and non-linear (the Rees-Sciama or RS effect) evolution. These effects give rise to three kinds of non-linear features in the temperature maps. (a) In overdense regions, converging flows of matter induce cold spots of order 100 Mpc in extent which can dominate over the ISW effect at high redshift, and are surrounded by hot rings. (b) In underdense regions, the RS effect enhances ISW cold spots which can be surrounded by weak hot rings. (c) Transverse motions of large lumps of matter produce characteristic dipole features, consisting of adjacent hot and cold spots separated by a few tens of Megaparsecs. These non-linear features are not easily detectable; they modulate the ISW sky maps at about the 10 percent level. The RS effect causes the angular power spectrum to deviate from linear theory at l~50 and generates non-Gaussianity, skewing the one-point distribution function to negative values. Cold spots of similar angular size, but much smaller amplitude than the CMB cold spot reported by Cruz et al are produced. Joint analysis of our maps and the corresponding galaxy distribution may enable techniques to be developed to detect these non-linear, non-Gaussian features. Our maps are available at this http URL
The overall classification of X-ray jets has clung to that prevalent in the radio: FRI vs. FRII (including quasars). Indeed, the common perception is that X-ray emission from FRI's is synchrotron emission whereas that from FRII's may be IC/CMB and/or synchrotron. Now that we have a sizable collection of sources with detected X-ray emission from jets and hotspots, it seems that a more unbiased study of these objects could yield additional insights on jets and their X-ray emission. The current contribution is a first step in the process of analyzing all of the relevant parameters for each detected component for the sources collected in the XJET website. This initial effort involves measuring the ratio of X-ray to radio fluxes and evaluating correlations with other jet parameters. For single zone synchrotron X-ray emission, we anticipate that larger values of fx/fr should correlate inversely with the average magnetic field strength (if the acceleration process is limited by loss time equals acceleration time). Beamed IC/CMB X-rays should produce larger values of fx/fr for smaller values of the angle between the jet direction and the line of sight but will also be affected by the low frequency radio spectral index.
A faint new radio source has been detected in the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy M82 using MERLIN radio observations designed to monitor the flux density evolution of the recent bright supernova SN2008iz. This new source was initially identified in observations made between 1-5th May 2009 but had not been present in observations made one week earlier, or in any previous observations of M82. In this paper we report the discovery of this new source and monitoring of its evolution over its first 9 months of existence. The true nature of this new source remains unclear, and we discuss whether this source may be an unusual and faint supernova, a supermassive blackhole associated with the nucleus of M82, or intriguingly the first detection of radio emission from an extragalactic microquasar.
White dwarfs typically have masses in a narrow range centered at about 0.6 solar masses (Msun). Only a few ultra-massive white dwarfs (M>1.2 Msun) are known. Those in binary systems are of particular interest because a small amount of accreted mass could drive them above the Chandrasekhar limit, beyond which they become gravitationally unstable. Using data from the XMM-Newton satellite, we show that the X-ray pulsator RX J0648.0-4418 is a white dwarf with mass > 1.2 Msun, based only on dynamical measurements. This ultra-massive white dwarf in a post-common envelope binary with a hot subdwarf can reach the Chandrasekhar limit, and possibly explode as a Type Ia supernova, when its helium-rich companion will transfer mass at an increased rate through Roche lobe overflow.
Explaining the well established observation that the expansion rate of the universe is apparently accelerating is one of the defining scientific problems of our age. Within the standard model of cosmology, the repulsive `dark energy' supposedly responsible has no explanation at a fundamental level, despite many varied attempts. A further important dilemma in the standard model is the Lithium problem, which is the substantial mismatch between the theoretical prediction for 7-Li from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the value that we observe today. This observation is one of the very few we have from along our past worldline as opposed to our past lightcone. By releasing the untested assumption that the universe is homogeneous on very large scales, both apparent acceleration and the Lithium problem can be easily accounted for as different aspects of cosmic inhomogeneity, without causing problems for other cosmological phenomena such as the cosmic microwave background. We illustrate this in the context of a void model.
Cold fronts have been observed in a large number of galaxy clusters. Understanding their nature and origin is of primary importance for the investigation of the internal dynamics of clusters. To gain insight on the nature of these features, we carry out a statistical investigation of their occurrence in a sample of galaxy clusters observed with XMM-Newton and we correlate their presence with different cluster properties. We have selected a sample of 45 clusters starting from the B55 flux limited sample by Edge et al. (1990) and performed a systematic search of cold fronts. We find that a large fraction of clusters host at least one cold front. Cold fronts are easily detected in all systems that are manifestly undergoing a merger event in the plane of the sky while the presence of such features in the remaining clusters is related to the presence of a steep entropy gradient, in agreement with theoretical expectations. Assuming that cold fronts in cool core clusters are triggered by minor merger events, we estimate a minimum of 1/3 merging events per halo per Gyr.
The aim of this work is to provide the contributors to journals or toDiscussion is given of non-linear soliton behavior including coupling between electrostatic and electromagnetic potentials for non-relativistic, weakly relativistic, and fully relativistic plasmas. For plasma distribution functions that are independent of the canonical momenta perpendicular to the soliton spatial structure direction there are, in fact, no soliton behaviors allowed because transverse currents are zero. Dependence on the transverse canonical momenta is necessary. When such is the case, it is shown that the presence or absence of a soliton is intimately connected to the functional form assumed for the particle distribution functions. Except for simple situations, the coupled non-linear equations for the electrostatic and electromagnetic potentials would seem to require numerical solution procedures. Examples are given to illustrate all of these points for non-relativistic, weakly relativistic, and fully relativistic plasmas.
We have measured the sub-milli-arcsecond structure of 274 extragalactic sources at 24 and 43 GHz in order to assess their astrometric suitability for use in a high frequency celestial reference frame (CRF). Ten sessions of observations with the Very Long Baseline Array have been conducted over the course of $\sim$5 years, with a total of 1339 images produced for the 274 sources. There are several quantities that can be used to characterize the impact of intrinsic source structure on astrometric observations including the source flux density, the flux density variability, the source structure index, the source compactness, and the compactness variability. A detailed analysis of these imaging quantities shows that (1) our selection of compact sources from 8.4 GHz catalogs yielded sources with flux densities, averaged over the sessions in which each source was observed, of about 1 Jy at both 24 and 43 GHz, (2) on average the source flux densities at 24 GHz varied by 20%-25% relative to their mean values, with variations in the session-to-session flux density scale being less than 10%, (3) sources were found to be more compact with less intrinsic structure at higher frequencies, and (4) variations of the core radio emission relative to the total flux density of the source are less than 8% on average at 24 GHz. We conclude that the reduction in the effects due to source structure gained by observing at higher frequencies will result in an improved CRF and a pool of high-quality fiducial reference points for use in spacecraft navigation over the next decade.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) are of great importance for cosmology. After finding out significant systematics in official WMAP maps, we had developed our own map-making software independently of the WMAP team. The new maps produced from the WMAP raw data and our software are notably different to the official ones, and the power spectrum as well as the best-fit cosmological parameters are significantly different too. By revealing the inconsistency between the WMAP raw data and their official map, we pointed out that there must exist an unexpected problem in the WMAP map-making routine. Here we state that the trouble comes from the inaccuracy of antenna pointing direction caused by improper offset of the quaternion interpolation in the WMAP routine. The CMB quadrupole in the WMAP release can be generated from a differential dipole field which is completely determined by the spacecraft velocity and the antenna directions without using any CMB signal. After correcting the WMAP team's error, the CMB quadrupole component disappears. Therefore, the released WMAP CMB quadrupole is almost completely artificial and the real quadrupole of the CMB anisotropy should be near zero. Our finding is important for understanding the early universe.
We have computed seismic images of magnetic activity on the far surface of the Sun by using a seismic-holography technique. As in previous works, the method is based on the comparison of waves going in and out of a particular point in the Sun but we have computed here the Green's functions from a spherical polar expansion of the adiabatic wave equations in the Cowling approximation instead of using the ray-path approximation previously used in the far-side holography. A comparison between the results obtained using the ray theory and the spherical polar expansion is shown. We use the gravito-acoustic wave equation in the local plane-parallel limit in both cases and for the latter we take the asymptotic approximation for the radial dependencies of the Green's function. As a result, improved images of the far-side can be obtained from the polar-expansion approximation, especially when combining the Green's functions corresponding to two and three skips. We also show that the phase corrections in the Green's functions due to the incorrect modeling of the uppermost layers of the Sun can be estimated from the eigenfrequencies of the normal modes of oscillation.
We investigate how environmental effects by gas stripping alter the growth of a super massive black hole (SMBH) and its host galaxy evolution, by means of 1D hydrodynamical simulations that include both mechanical and radiative AGN feedback effects. By changing the truncation radius of the gas distribution (R_t), beyond which gas stripping is assumed to be effective, we simulate possible environments for satellite and central galaxies in galaxy clusters and groups. The continuous escape of gas outside the truncation radius strongly suppresses star formation, while the growth of the SMBH is less affected by gas stripping because the SMBH accretion is primarily ruled by the density of the central region. As we allow for increasing environmental effects - the truncation radius decreasing from about 410 to 50 kpc - we find that the final SMBH mass declines from about 10^9 to 8 x 10^8 Msol, but the outflowing mass is roughly constant at about 2 x 10^10 Msol. There are larger change in the mass of stars formed, which declines from about 2 x 10^10 to 2 x 10^9 Msol, and the final thermal X-ray gas, which declines from about 10^9 to 5 x 10^8 Msol, with increasing environmental stripping. Most dramatic is the decline in the total time that the objects would be seen as quasars, which declines from 52 Myr (for R_t = 377 kpc) to 7.9 Myr (for R_t = 51 kpc). The typical case might be interpreted as a red and dead galaxy having episodic cooling flows followed by AGN feedback effects resulting in temporary transitions of the overall galaxy color from red to green or to blue, with (cluster) central galaxies spending a much larger fraction of their time in the elevated state than do satellite galaxies.(Abridged)
Observations using X-ray telescopes can help understand the origin of the electron and positron signals reported by ATIC, PAMELA, PPB-BETS, and Fermi. It remains unclear whether the observed high-energy electrons and positrons are produced by the relic particles, or by some astrophysical sources. To distinguish between the two possibilities, one can compare the electron population in the local neighborhood with that in the dwarf spheroidal galaxies, which are not expected to host as many pulsars and other astrophysical sources. This can be accomplished using the X-ray observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Assuming the Fermi signal comes from dark matter and using the inferred dark matter profile of the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy, we calculate the spectrum of X-rays produced by electrons via inverse Compton scattering. The next generation of X-ray telescopes may be able to detect such a signal.
We present a detailed description of the blast-wave modeling technique for a very general class of explosions. Providing a simple method of evaluating the blast energy, we demonstrate that a common approximation of pressure balance for the blast wave violates the energy-conservation law significantly for adiabatic blast waves. We show that the energy-violation problem is successfully resolved by the "mechanical model".
We analyze the Fundamental Plane (FP) relation of $39,993$ early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the optical (griz) and $5,080$ ETGs in the Near-Infrared (YJHK) wavebands, forming an optical$ + $NIR sample of $4,589$ galaxies. We focus on the analysis of the FP as a function of the environment where galaxies reside. We characterize the environment using the largest group catalog, based on 3D data, generated from SDSS at low redshift ($z < 0.1$). We find that the intercept $"c"$ of the FP decreases smoothly from high to low density regions, implying that galaxies at low density have on average lower mass-to-light ratios than their high-density counterparts. The $"c"$ also decreases as a function of the mean characteristic mass of the parent galaxy group. However, this trend is weak and completely accounted for by the variation of $"c"$ with local density. The variation of the FP offset is the same in all wavebands, implying that ETGs at low density have younger luminosity-weighted ages than cluster galaxies, consistent with the expectations of semi-analytical models of galaxy formation. We measure an age variation of $\sim 0.048$ dex ($\sim 11%$) per decade of local galaxy density. This implies an age difference of about 32% ($\sim 3 Gyr$) between galaxies in the regions of highest density and the field. We find the metallicity decreasing, at $\sim 2$ $\sigma$, from low to high density. We also find $2.5 \sigma$ evidence that the variation in age per decade of local density augments, up to a factor of two, for galaxies residing in massive relative to poor groups. (abridged)
Scalar field theories with derivative interactions are known to possess solitonic excitations, but such solitons are generally unsatisfactory because the effective theory fails precisely where nonlinearities responsible for the solitons are important. A new class of theories possessing (internal) galilean invariance can in principle bypass this difficulty. Here, we show that these galileon theories do not possess stable solitonic solutions. As a by-product, we show that no stable solitons exist for a different class of derivatively coupled theories, describing for instance the infrared dynamics of superfluids, fluids, solids and some k-essence models.
We present a constructive numerical example of fast magnetic reconnection in a three dimensional periodic box. Reconnection is initiated by a strong, localized perturbation to the field lines. The solution is intrinsically three dimensional, and its gross properties do not depend on the details of the simulations. $\sim 50%$ of the magnetic energy is released in an event which lasts about one Alfven time, but only after a delay during which the field lines evolve into a critical configuration. We present a physical picture of the process. The reconnection regions are dynamical and mutually interacting. In the comoving frame of these regions, reconnection occurs through an X-like point, analogous to Petschek reconnection. The dynamics appear to be driven by global flows, not local processes.
An explicit model of $F(R)$ gravity with realizing a crossing of the phantom divide is reconstructed. In particular, it is shown that the Big Rip singularity may appear in the reconstructed model of $F(R)$ gravity. Such a Big Rip singularity could be avoided by adding $R^2$ term or non-singular viable $F(R)$ theory to the model because phantom behavior becomes transient.
The generation of a large recoil velocity from the inspiral and merger of binary black holes represents one of the most exciting results of numerical-relativity calculations. While many aspects of this process have been investigated and explained, the "anti-kick", namely the sudden deceleration after the merger, has not yet found a simple explanation. We show that the anti-kick can be easily understood in terms of the radiation from a deformed black hole where the intrinsically anisotropic curvature distribution on the horizon determines the direction and intensity of the recoil. Our analysis is focussed on the properties of Robinson-Trautman spacetimes and allows us to measure both the energies and momenta radiated in a gauge-invariant manner. At the same time, this simpler setup provides all the qualitative but also quantitative features of inspiralling black hole binaries, thus opening the way to a deeper understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of black-hole spacetimes.
We investigate the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics in a universe governed by Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We calculate separately the entropy time-variation for the matter fluid and, using the modified entropy relation, that of the apparent horizon itself. We find that under detailed balance the generalized second law is generally valid for flat and closed geometry and it is conditionally valid for an open universe, while beyond detailed balance it is only conditionally valid for all curvatures. Furthermore, we also follow the effective approach showing that it can lead to misleading results. The non-complete validity of the generalized second law could either provide a suggestion for its different application, or act as an additional problematic feature of Horava-Lifshitz gravity.
In the study of Planck-scale ("quantum-gravity induced") violations of Lorentz symmetry, an important role was played by the deformed-electrodynamics model introduced by Myers and Pospelov. Its reliance on conventional effective quantum field theory, and its description of symmetry-violation effects simply in terms of a four-vector with nonzero component only in the time-direction, rendered it an ideal target for experimentalists and a natural concept-testing ground for many theorists. At this point however the experimental limits on the single Myers-Pospelov parameter, after improving steadily over these past few years, are "super-Planckian", {\it i.e.} they take the model out of actual interest from a conventional quantum-gravity perspective. In light of this we here argue that it may be appropriate to move on to the next level of complexity, still with vectorial symmetry violation but adopting a generic four-vector. We also offer a preliminary characterization of the phenomenology of this more general framework, sufficient to expose a rather significant increase in complexity with respect to the original Myers-Pospelov setup. Most of these novel features are linked to the presence of spatial anisotropy, which is particularly pronounced when the symmetry-breaking vector is space-like, and they are such that they reduce the bound-setting power of certain types of observations in astrophysics.
Spin polarization of neutron matter at finite temperatures and strong magnetic fields up to $10^{18}$ G is studied in the model with the Skyrme effective interaction. It is shown that, together with the thermodynamically stable branch of solutions for the spin polarization parameter corresponding to the case when the majority of neutron spins are oriented opposite to the direction of the magnetic field (negative spin polarization), the self-consistent equations, beginning from some threshold density, have also two other branches of solutions corresponding to positive spin polarization. The influence of finite temperatures on spin polarization remains moderate in the Skyrme model up to temperatures relevant for protoneutron stars, and, in particular, the scenario with the metastable state characterized by positive spin polarization, considered at zero temperature in Phys. Rev. C {\bf 80}, 065801 (2009), is preserved at finite temperatures as well. It is shown that above certain density the entropy for various branches of spin polarization in neutron matter with the Skyrme interaction in a strong magnetic field demonstrates the unusual behavior being larger than that of the nonpolarized state. By providing the corresponding low-temperature analysis, it is clarified that this unexpected behavior should be addressed to the dependence of the entropy of a spin polarized state on the effective masses of neutrons with spin up and spin down, and to a certain constraint on them which is violated in the respective density range.
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In near-infrared NaCo observations of the young brown dwarf 2MASS J0041353-562112, we discovered a companion a little less than a magnitude fainter than the primary. The binary candidate has a separation of 143 mas, the spectral types are M6.5 and M9.0 for the two components. Colors and flux ratios are consistent with the components being located at the same distance minimizing the probability of the secondary being a background object. The brown dwarf is known to show Li absorption constraining the age to less than ~200 Myr, and it was suspected to show ongoing accretion, indicating an age as low as ~10 Myr. We estimate distance and orbital parameters of the binary as a function of age. For an age of 10 Myr, the distance to the system is 50 pc, the orbital period is 126 yr, and the masses of the components are ~30 and ~15 MJup. The binary brown dwarf fills a so far unoccupied region in the parameters mass and age; it is a valuable new benchmark object for brown dwarf atmospheric and evolutionary models.
We examine correlations between the masses, sizes, and star formation histories for a large sample of low-redshift early-type galaxies, using a simple suite of dynamical and stellar populations models. We confirm an anti-correlation between size and stellar age, and survey for trends with the central content of dark matter (DM). An average relation between central DM density and galaxy size of <rho_DM> ~ Reff^-2 provides the first clear indication of cuspy DM haloes in these galaxies -- akin to standard LCDM haloes that have undergone adiabatic contraction. The DM density scales with galaxy mass as expected, deviating from suggestions of a universal halo profile for dwarf and late-type galaxies. We introduce a new fundamental constraint on galaxy formation by finding that the central DM fraction decreases with stellar age. This result is only partially explained by the size-age dependencies, and the residual trend is in the opposite direction to basic DM halo expectations. Therefore we suggest that there may be a connection between age and halo contraction, and that galaxies forming earlier had stronger baryonic feedback which expanded their haloes, or else lumpier baryonic accretion that avoided halo contraction. An alternative explanation is a lighter initial mass function for older stellar populations.
We present a detailed analysis of high resolution near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy of the potential star cluster IRS13E very close to the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. We detect 19 objects in IRS13E from Ks-band images, 15 of which are also detected reliably in H-band. We derive consistent proper motions for these objects from the two bands. Most objects share a similar westward proper motion. We characterize the objects using spectroscopy (1.45 to 2.45 micrometer) and (narrow-band) imaging from H- (1.66 mircrometer) to L'-band (3.80 micrometer).Nine of the objects detected in both Ks- and H-band are very red, and we find that they are all consistent with being warm dust clumps. The dust emission may be caused by the colliding winds of the two Wolf-Rayet stars in the cluster. Three of the six detected stars do not share the motion or spectral properties of the three bright stars. This leaves only the three bright, early-type stars as potential cluster members. It is unlikely that these stars are a chance configuration. Assuming the presence of an IMBH, a mass of about 14000 solar masses follows from the velocities and positions of these three stars. However, our acceleration limits make such an IMBH nearly as unlikely as a chance occurrence of such a star association. Furthermore, there is no variable X-ray source in IRS13E despite the high density of dust and gas. Therefore, we conclude that is unlikely that IRS13E hosts a black hole massive enough to bind the three stars.
I present results from the modeling of stellar bars in nearly 300 barred galaxies in the local universe through parametric multi-component multi-band image fitting. The surface brightness radial profile of bars is described using a S\'ersic function, and parameters such as bar effective radius, ellipticity, boxiness, length and mass, and bar-to-total luminosity and mass ratios, are determined, which is unprecedented for a sample of this size. The properties of bars in galaxies with classical bulges and pseudo-bulges are compared. For a fixed bar-to-total mass ratio, pseudo-bulges are on average significantly less massive than classical bulges, indicating that, if pseudo-bulges are formed through bars, further processes are necessary to build a classical bulge. I find a correlation between bar ellipticity and boxiness, and define bar strength as the product of these two quantities. I also find correlations between bar strength and normalised bar size, between the sizes of bars and bulges, and between normalised bar size and bulge-to-total ratio. Bars with different ellipticities follow parallel lines in the latter two correlations. These correlations can arise if, starting off with different normalised sizes and ellipticities, bars grow longer and stronger with dynamical age, as a result of angular momentum exchange from the inner to the outer parts of galaxies, in agreement with previous theoretical predictions. As a consequence, bar pattern speeds should become lower with bar dynamical age, and towards galaxies with more prominent bulges.
We present photometric and spectroscopic follow-up of a sample of extragalactic novae discovered by the Palomar 60-inch telescope during a search for "Fast Transients In Nearest Galaxies" (P60-FasTING). Designed as a fast cadence (1-day) and deep (g < 21 mag) survey, P60-FasTING was particularly sensitive to short-lived and faint optical transients. The P60-FasTING nova sample includes 10 novae in M31, 6 in M81, 3 in M82, 1 in NGC2403 and 1 in NGC891. This significantly expands the known sample of extragalactic novae beyond the Local Group, including the first discoveries in a starburst environment. Surprisingly, our photometry shows that this sample is quite inconsistent with the canonical Maximum Magnitude Rate of Decline (MMRD) relation for classical novae. Furthermore, the spectra of the P60-FasTING sample are indistinguishable from classical novae. We suggest that we have uncovered a sub-class of faint and fast classical novae in a new phase space in luminosity-timescale of optical transients. Thus, novae span two orders of magnitude in both luminosity and time. Perhaps, the MMRD, which is characterized only by the white dwarf mass, was an over-simplification. Nova physics appears to be characterized by quite a rich four-dimensional parameter space in white dwarf mass, temperature, composition and accretion rate.
The aim of the present study is to test whether the cold accretion of gas through a "cosmic filament" Macci\`o et al. 2006 is a possible formation scenario for the polar disk galaxy NGC 4650A. If polar disks form from cold accretion of gas, the abundances of the HII regions may be similar to those of very late-type spiral galaxies, regardless of the presence of a bright central stellar spheroid, with total luminosity of few 10^9 Lsun. We use deep long slit spectra obtained with the FORS2 spectrograph at the VLT in the optical and near-infrared wavelength ranges for the brightest HII regions in the disk polar disk of NGC 4650A. The strongest emission lines ([OII] Hbeta, [OIII], Halpha) were used to derived oxygen abundances, metallicities and the global star formation rates for the disk. The deep spectra available allowed us to measure the Oxygen abundances (12 + log (O/H)) using the "Empirical method" based on intensities of the strongest emission lines, and the "Direct method", based on the determination of the electron temperature from the detection of weak auroral lines, as the [OIII] at 4363 Angstrom. The Oxygen abundance measured for the polar disk is then compared with those measured for different galaxy types of similar total luminosities, and then compared against the predictions of different polar ring formation scenarios. The average metallicity values for the polar disk in NGC 4650A is Z=0.2 Zsun, and it is lower that the values measured for ordinary spirals of similar luminosity. Moreover the gradient of the metallicity is flat along the polar disk major axis, which implies none or negligible metal enrichment from the stars in the older central spheroid. The low metallicity value in the polar disk NGC 4650A and the flat metallicity gradient are both consistent with a later infall of metal-poor gas, as expected in the cold accretion processes.
ABRIDGED) We revise the formation of Galactic GCs by adding the detailed chemical composition of their different stellar generations (from 1200 giants in 19 GCs) to their global parameters. We propose to identify as GCs those showing the Na-O anticorrelation, and we classify the GCs according to kinematics and location in the Galaxy in disk/bulge, inner, and outer halo. We find that the LF of GCs is fairly independent of their population, suggesting that it is imprinted by the formation mechanism, and only marginally affected by the ensuing evolution. We show that a large fraction of the primordial population should have been lost by the proto-GCs. The extremely low Al abundances found for the primordial population of massive GCs indicate a very fast enrichment process before the formation of the primordial population. We suggest a scenario for the formation of GCs including at least 3 main phases: i) the formation of a precursor population (likely due to the interaction of cosmological structures similar to those leading to dwarf spheroidals, but residing at smaller Rgc, with the early Galaxy or with other structures), ii) which triggers a large episode of star formation (the primordial population), and iii) the formation of the current GC, mainly within a cooling flow formed by the slow winds of a fraction of the primordial population. The precursor population is very effective in raising the metal content in massive and/or metal poor (mainly halo) clusters, while its role is minor in small and/or metal rich (mainly disk) ones. Finally, we use PCA and multivariate relations to study the phase of metal-enrichment from 1st to 2nd generation. Most of the chemical signatures of GCs may be ascribed to a few parameters, the most important being [Fe/H], mass, and age of the cluster, with the location within the Galaxy also playing some role.
We present an X-ray morphological and spectroscopic study of the pulsar B2224+65 and its apparent jet-like X-ray features based on two epoch Chandra observations. The main X-ray feature, which shows a large directional offset from the ram-pressure confined pulsar wind nebula (Guitar Nebula), is broader in apparent width and more luminous in the second epoch than the first. Furthermore, the sharp leading edge is found to have a proper motion consistent with that of the pulsar (~180 mas/yr). The combined data set also provides evidence for the presence of a counter feature, albeit substantially fainter and shorter than the main one. These results are consistent with a simple model of relativistic jet outflow originating from the pulsar and ram-pressure confined by the unusually rapid motion of the pulsar.
A stalled spherical accretion shock, such as that arising in core-collapse supernovae, is unstable to non-spherical perturbations. In three dimensions, this Standing Accretion Shock Instability (SASI) has been observed to develop spiral modes that can impart a sizable torque to the protoneutron star. Previous studies have arrived at diverging conclusions regarding the need for rotation in the collapsing progenitor to trigger these modes. Here we combine linear stability analysis and three-dimensional, time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations with Zeus-MP to study these non-axisymmetric modes in the linear regime. We do not impose any rotation on the accretion flow, and use simplified microphysics with no neutrino heating or nuclear dissociation. The three-dimensional structure of the linear eigenmodes is constructed, and their evolution is compared with time-dependent simulations. We show that spiral modes are most easily understood as a superposition of sloshing modes out of phase. In the absence of rotation, there is no preferred direction in the system, hence multiple sloshing modes with different relative phases can be combined, resulting in a larger class of spiral-like modes that require less specific conditions for their excitation than the standard cases.
We provide measurements of the integrated galaxy light at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron using deep far-infrared and submillimeter data from space (Spitzer) and balloon platform (BLAST) extragalactic surveys. We use the technique of stacking at the positions of 24 micron sources, to supplement the fraction of the integrated galaxy light that is directly resolved through direct detections. We demonstrate that the integrated galaxy light even through stacking, falls short by factors of 2-3 in resolving the extragalactic far-infrared background. We also show that previous estimates of the integrated galaxy light (IGL) through stacking, have been biased towards high values. This is primarily due to multiple counting of the far-infrared/submillimeter flux from 24 micron sources which are clustered within the large point spread function of a brighter far-infrared source. Using models for the evolution of the luminosity function at z<1.2 which are constrained by observations at 24 micron and 70 micron, and which are consistent with the results from the stacking analysis, we find that galaxies at z<1.2, account for ~95-55% of the extragalactic far-infrared background in the ~70-500 micron range respectively. This places strong upper limits on the fraction of dust obscured star-formation at z>1, which are remarkably, below the values derived from the extinction corrected ultraviolet luminosities of galaxies. We use the results to make predictions for the nature of galaxies that extragalactic surveys with Herschel Space Observatory will reveal. Finally, from our constraints on the far-infrared IGL, we provide evidence for the existence of ice mantle dust, orbiting the sun at a distance of ~40 AU, which is contributing intensity to both the near- and far-infrared background. [ABRIDGED]
We report on the discovery of a molecular cavity in the Norma near arm in the general direction of Westerlund 1 (Wd1), but not associated with it. The cavity has a mean radial velocity of -91.5 kms^{-1}, which differs by as much as ~40 kms^{-1} from the mean radial velocity of the Wd1 stars. The cavity is surrounded by a fragmented molecular shell of an outer diameter of about 100 pc and 10^{6} M_odot, which is expanding at velocities of 6 to 8 kms^{-1}. The amount of kinetic energy involved in the expanding shell is ~10^{51} erg. Inside this cavity the atomic HI gas surface density is also the lowest. Structure of the extended Very High Energetic (VHE) gamma-ray emission, recently reported by the H.E.S.S. collaboration Ohm et al. 2009, coincides with the cavity. The observed morphology suggests that the inner wall of the molecular shell is the zone of the gamma-ray emission, and not the dense gas surrounding massive stars of Wd1 as had been speculated by the H.E.S.S. collaboration. A likely candidate responsible for creating the observed cavity and the gamma-ray emission is the pulsar PSR J1648-4611.
We present a new signature by which to one could potentially discriminate between a spectrum of gravitational radiation generated by a self-ordering scalar field vs that of inflation, specifically a comparison of the magnitude of a flat spectrum at frequencies probed by future direct detection experiments to the magnitude of a possible polarization signal in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. In the process we clarify several issues related to the proper calculation of such modes, focusing on the effect of post-horizon-crossing evolution.
We discuss the potential of using the HeI 584 A forest to detect and study HeII reionization. Significant 584 A absorption is expected from intergalactic HeII regions, whereas there should be no detectable absorption from low density gas in HeIII regions. Unlike HeII Ly-alpha absorption (the subject of much recent study), the difficulty with using this transition to study HeII reionization is not saturation but rather that the absorption is weak. The Gunn-Peterson optical depth for this transition is tau ~ 0.1 x_{HeII} Delta^2 [(1+z)/5]^{9/2}, where x_{HeII} is the fraction of helium in HeII and Delta is the density in units of the cosmic mean. In addition, HeI 584 A absorption is contaminated by lower redshift HI Ly-alpha absorption with a comparable flux decrement. We estimate the requirements for a definitive detection of redshifted HeI absorption from low density gas (Delta ~ 1), which would indicate that HeII reionization was occurring. We find that this objective can be accomplished (using coeval HI Ly-alpha absorption to mask dense regions and in cross correlation) with a spectral resolution of 10^4 and a signal-to-noise ratio per resolution element of ~ 10. Such specifications may be achievable on a few known z ~ 3.5 quasar sightlines with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We also discuss how HeI absorption can be used to measure the hardness of the ionizing background above 13.6 eV.
It has been several years since the first detection of Gunn-Peterson troughs in the z > 6 Ly-alpha forest and since the first measurement of the Thomson scattering optical depth through reionization from the large-scale polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Present day CMB measurements provide a significant constraint on the mean redshift of reionization, and the Ly-alpha forest provides a lower bound on the redshift at which reionization ended. However, no observation has provided definitive information on the duration and morphology of this process. This article is intended as a short review on the most promising observational methods that aim to detect and study this cosmic phase transition, focusing on CMB anisotropies, gamma ray burst afterglows, Ly-alpha emitting galaxies, and redshifted 21cm emission.
We present the results of large-area CO J=3-2 emission mapping of three nearby field galaxies, NGC 628, NGC 3521, and NGC 3627, completed at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey. These galaxies all have moderate to strong CO J=3-2 detections over large areas of the fields observed by the survey, showing resolved structure and dynamics in their warm/dense molecular gas disks. All three galaxies were part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey sample, and as such have excellent published multi-wavelength ancillary data. These data sets allow us to examine the star formation properties, gas content, and dynamics of these galaxies on sub-kiloparsec scales. We find that the global gas depletion times for dense/warm molecular gas in these galaxies is consistent with other results for nearby spiral galaxies, indicating this may be independent of galaxy properties such as structures, gas compositions, and environments. Similar to the results from the THINGS HI survey, we do not see a correlation of the star formation efficiency with the gas surface density consistent with the Schmidt-Kennicutt law. Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency of the dense molecular gas traced by CO J=3-2 is potentially flat or slightly declining as a function of molecular gas density, the CO J=3-2/J=1-0 ratio (in contrast to the correlation found in a previous study into the starburst galaxy M83), and the fraction of total gas in molecular form.
We report observations of the linear polarization of a sample of 49 nearby bright stars measured to sensitivities of between ~1 and 4 x 10^-6. The majority of stars in the sample show measurable polarization, but most polarizations are small with 75% of the stars having P < 2 x 10^-5. Correlations of the polarization with distance and position, indicate that most of the polarization is of interstellar origin. Polarizations are small near the galactic pole and larger at low galactic latitudes, and the polarization increases with distance. However, the interstellar polarization is very much less than would be expected based on polarization-distance relations for distant stars showing that the solar neighbourhood has little interstellar dust. BS 3982 (Regulus) has a polarization of ~ 37 x 10^-6, which is most likely due to electron scattering in its rotationally flattened atmosphere. BS 7001 (Vega) has polarization at a level of ~ 17 x 10^-6 which could be due to scattering in its dust disk, but is also consistent with interstellar polarization in this direction. The highest polarization observed is that of BS 7405 (alpha Vul) with a polarization of 0.13%
We use one-dimensional two-zone time-dependent accretion disk models to study the long-term evolution of protostellar disks subject to mass addition from the collapse of a rotating cloud core. Our model consists of a constant surface density magnetically coupled active layer, with transport and dissipation in inactive regions only via gravitational instability. We start our simulations after a central protostar has formed, containing ~ 10% of the mass of the protostellar cloud. Subsequent evolution depends on the angular momentum of the accreting envelope. We find that disk accretion matches the infall rate early in the disk evolution because much of the inner disk is hot enough to couple to the magnetic field. Later infall reaches the disk beyond ~10 AU, and the disk undergoes outbursts of accretion in FU Ori-like events as described in Zhu et al. 2009c. If the initial cloud core is moderately rotating most of the central star's mass is built up by these outburst events. Our results suggest that the protostellar "luminosity problem" is eased by accretion during these FU Ori-like outbursts. After infall stops the disk enters the T Tauri phase. An outer, viscously evolving disk has structure that is in reasonable agreement with recent submillimeter studies and its surface density evolves from $\Sigma \propto R^{-1}$ to $R^{-1.5}$. An inner, massive belt of material-- the "dead zone" -- would not have been observed yet but should be seen in future high angular resolution observations by EVLA and ALMA. This high surface density belt is a generic consequence of low angular momentum transport efficiency at radii where the disk is magnetically decoupled, and would strongly affect planet formation and migration.
As an initial investigation into the long-term evolution of protostellar disks, we explore the conditions required to explain the large outbursts of disk accretion seen in some young stellar objects. We use one-dimensional time-dependent disk models with a phenomenological treatment of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and gravitational torques to follow disk evolution over long timescales. Comparison with our previous two-dimensional disk model calculations (Zhu et al. 2009b, Z2009b) indicates that the neglect of radial effects and two-dimensional disk structure in the one-dimensional case makes only modest differences in the results; this allows us to use the simpler models to explore parameter space efficiently. We find that the mass infall rates typically estimated for low-mass protostars generally result in AU-scale disk accretion outbursts, as predicted by our previous analysis (Zhu et al. 2009a,Z2009a). We also confirm quasi-steady accretion behavior for high mass infall rates if the values of $\alpha$-parameter for the magnetorotational instability is small, while at this high accretion rate convection from the thermal instability may lead to some variations. We further constrain the combinations of the $\alpha$-parameter and the MRI critical temperature, which can reproduce observed outburst behavior. Our results suggest that dust sublimation may be connected with full activation of the MRI. This is consistent with the idea that small dust captures ions and electrons to suppress the MRI. In a later paper we will explore both long-term outburst and disk evolution with this model, allowing for infall from protostellar envelopes with differing angular momenta.
We present here observations of the transit of WASP-10b on 14 October 2009 UT taken from the University of Arizona's 1.55 meter Kuiper telescope on Mt. Bigelow. Conditions were photometric and accuracies of 2.0 mmag RMS were obtained throughout the transit. We have found that the ratio of the planet to host star radii is in agreement with the measurements of Christian et al. (2008) instead of the refinements of Johnson et al. (2009), suggesting that WASP-10b is indeed inflated beyond what is expected from theoretical modeling. We find no evidence for large (> 20 s) transit timing variations in WASP-10b's orbit from the ephemeris of Christian et al. (2008) and Johnson et al. (2009).
Elliptical galaxies comprise primarily old stars, which collectively generate a long-lasting feedback via stellar mass-loss and Type Ia SNe. This feedback can be traced by X-ray-emitting hot gas in and around such galaxies, in which little cool gas is typically present. However, the X-ray-inferred mass, energy, and metal abundance of the hot gas are often found to be far less than what are expected from the feedback, particularly in so-called low L_X/L_B ellipticals. This "missing" stellar feedback is presumably lost in galaxy-wide outflows, which can play an essential role in galaxy evolution (e.g., explaining the observed color bi-modality of galaxies). We are developing a model that can be used to properly interpret the X-ray data and to extract key information about the dynamics of the feedback and its interplay with galactic environment.
[Abridged] We present the first results from a 1.1 mm confusion-limited map of the GOODS-S field taken with AzTEC on the ASTE telescope. We imaged a 270 sq. arcmin field to a 1\sigma depth of 0.48 - 0.73 mJy/beam, making this one of the deepest blank-field surveys at mm-wavelengths ever achieved. Although our GOODS-S map is extremely confused, we demonstrate that our source identification and number counts analyses are robust, and the techniques discussed in this paper are relevant for other deeply confused surveys. We find a total of 41 dusty starburst galaxies with S/N >= 3.5 within this uniformly covered region, where only two are expected to be false detections. We derive the 1.1mm number counts from this field using both a "P(d)" analysis and a semi-Bayesian technique, and find that both methods give consistent results. Our data are well-fit by a Schechter function model with (S', N(3mJy), \alpha) = (1.30+0.19 mJy, 160+27 (mJy/deg^2)^(-1), -2.0). Given the depth of this survey, we put the first tight constraints on the 1.1 mm number counts at S(1.1mm) = 0.5 mJy, and we find evidence that the faint-end of the number counts at S(850\mu m) < 2.0 mJy from various SCUBA surveys towards lensing clusters are biased high. In contrast to the 870 \mu m survey of this field with the LABOCA camera, we find no apparent under-density of sources compared to previous surveys at 1.1 mm. Additionally, we find a significant number of SMGs not identified in the LABOCA catalogue. We find that in contrast to observations at wavelengths < 500 \mu m, MIPS 24 \mu m sources do not resolve the total energy density in the cosmic infrared background at 1.1 mm, demonstrating that a population of z > 3 dust-obscured galaxies that are unaccounted for at these shorter wavelengths potentially contribute to a large fraction (~2/3) of the infrared background at 1.1 mm.
We use publicly available XMM-Newton data to systematically compare the hard X-ray photon indices, $\Gamma_{\rm 2-10\ keV}$ and the iron K$\alpha$ emission lines of narrow-line (NL) and broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1) galaxies. We compile a flux-limited ($f_{\rm 2-10\ keV} \geq 1 \times 10^{-12}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$) sample including 114 radio-quiet objects, with the 2-10 keV luminosity ranging from 10$^{41}$ to 10$^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Our main results are: 1) NLS1s and BLS1s show similar luminosity distributions; 2) The weighted mean of $\Gamma_{\rm 2-10\ keV}$ of NLS1s, BLS1s and the total sample is $2.04\pm0.04$, $1.74\pm0.02$, $1.84\pm0.02$, respectively; a significant anti-correlation between \ga and FWHMH$\beta$ suggests that $\Gamma_{\rm 2-10\ keV} > 2.0$ may be taken to indicate X-ray luminous NLS1 type; 3) The 6.4 keV narrow iron K$\alpha$ lines from NLS1s are generally weaker than that from BLS1s; this would indicate a smaller covering factor of the dusty tori in NLS1s, if the line emission originates from the inner boundary region of the dusty torus in an AGN; 4) all the broadened iron K$\alpha$ lines with intrinsic width $\sigma>0.5$ keV correspond to FWHM\hb $\leq 4000 ~\kms$.
We present the first results from a near-IR spectroscopic campaign of the Cl1604 supercluster at z~0.9 and the cluster RX J1821.6+6827 at z~0.82 to investigate the nature of [OII] 3727A emission in cluster galaxies at high redshift. Of the 401 members in the two systems, 131 galaxies have detectable [OII] emission with no other signs of current star-formation, as well as strong absorption features indicative of a well-established older stellar population. The combination of these features suggests that the primary source of [OII] emission in these galaxies is not the result of star-formation, but rather due to the presence of a LINER or Seyfert component. Using the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck II 10-m telescope, 19 such galaxies were targeted, as well as six additional [OII]-emitting cluster members that exhibited other signs of ongoing star-formation. Nearly half (~47%) of the 19 [OII]-emitting, absorption-line dominated galaxies exhibit [OII] to Ha equivalent width ratios higher than unity, the typical value for star-forming galaxies. A majority (~68%) of these 19 galaxies are classified as LINER/Seyfert based on the emission-line ratio of [NII] and Ha, increasing to ~85% for red [OII]-emitting, absorption-line dominated galaxies. The LINER/Seyfert galaxies exhibit L([OII])/L(Ha) ratios significantly higher than that observed in populations of star-forming galaxies, suggesting that [OII] is a poor indicator of star-formation in a large fraction of high-redshift cluster members. We estimate that at least ~20% of galaxies in high-redshift clusters contain a LINER/Seyfert component that can be revealed with line ratios. We also investigate the effect this population has on the star formation rate of cluster galaxies and the post-starburst fraction, concluding that LINER/Seyferts must be accounted for if these quantities are to be meaningful.
We present the analysis of an XMM observation of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 2992. The source was found in its highest level of X-ray activity yet detected, a factor $\sim 23.5$ higher in 2--10 keV flux than the historical minimum. NGC 2992 is known to exhibit X-ray flaring activity on timescales of days to weeks, and the XMM data provide at least factor of $\sim 3$ better spectral resolution in the Fe K band than any previously measured flaring X-ray state. We find that there is a broad feature in the \sim 5-7 keV band which could be interpreted as a relativistic Fe K$\alpha$ emission line. Its flux appears to have increased in tandem with the 2--10 keV continuum when compared to a previous Suzaku observation when the continuum was a factor of $\sim 8$ lower than that during the XMM observation. The XMM data are consistent with the general picture that increased X-ray activity and corresponding changes in the Fe K$\alpha$ line emission occur in the innermost regions of the putative accretion disk. This behavior contrasts with the behavior of other AGN in which the Fe K$\alpha$ line does not respond to variability in the X-ray.
We extend the study of the core of the Fe K$\alpha$ emission line at \sim 6.4 keV in Seyfert galaxies reported in Yaqoob & Padmanabhan (2004) using a larger sample observed by the Chandra High Energy Grating (HEG). Whilst heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are excluded from the sample, these data offer some of the highest precision measurements of the peak energy of the Fe K$\alpha$ line, and the highest spectral resolution measurements of the width of the core of the line in unobscured and moderately obscured ($N_{H}<10^{23} \ \rm cm^{-2}$) Seyfert galaxies to date. The Fe K$\alpha$ line is detected in 33 sources, and its centroid energy is constrained in 32 sources. In 27 sources the statistical quality of the data is good enough to yield measurements of the FWHM. We find that the distribution in the line centroid energy is strongly peaked around the value for neutral Fe, with over 80% of the observations giving values in the range 6.38--6.43 keV. Including statistical errors, 30 out of 32 sources ($\sim 94%$) have a line centroid energy in the range 6.35--6.47 keV. The mean equivalent width, amongst the observations in which a non-zero lower limit could be measured, was $53 \pm 3eV. The mean FWHM from the subsample of 27 sources was $2060 \pm 230 \ \rm km \ s^{-1}$. The mean EW and FWHM are somewhat higher when multiple observations for a given source are averaged. From a comparison with the H$\beta$ optical emission-line widths (or, for one source, Br$\alpha$), we find that there is no universal location of the Fe K$\alpha$ line-emitting region relative to the optical BLR. We confirm the presence of the X-ray Baldwin effect, an anti-correlation between the Fe K$\alpha$ line EW and X-ray continuum luminosity. The HEG data have enabled isolation of this effect to the narrow core of the Fe K$\alpha$ line.
Non-gaussianity and B-mode polarization are particularly interesting features of the cosmic microwave background, as -- at least in the standard model of cosmology -- their only sources to first order in cosmological perturbation theory are primordial, possibly generated during inflation. If the primordial sources are small, the question arises how large is the non-gaussianity and B-mode background induced in second-order from the initially gaussian and scalar perturbations. In this paper we derive the Boltzmann hierarchy for the microwave background photon phase-space distributions at second order in cosmological perturbation theory including the complete polarization information, providing the basis for further numerical studies. As an aside we note that the second-order collision term contains new sources of B-mode polarization and that no polarization persists in the tight-coupling limit.
A wide observational campaign was carried out in 2004-2009 aimed to complete the ground-based investigation of Lutetia prior to the Rosetta fly-by in July 2010. We have obtained BVRI photometric and V-band polarimetric measurements over a wide range of phase angles, and visible and infrared spectra in the 0.4-2.4 micron range. We analyzed them together with previously published data to retrieve information on Lutetia's surface properties. Values of lightcurve amplitudes, absolute magnitude, opposition effect, phase coefficient and BVRI colors of Lutetia surface seen at near pole-on aspect have been determined. We defined more precisely parameters of polarization phase curve and showed their distinct deviation from any other moderate-albedo asteroid. An indication of possible variations both in polarization and spectral data across the asteroid surface was found. To explain features found by different techniques we propose that (i) Lutetia has a non-convex shape, probably due to the presence of a large crater, and heterogeneous surface properties probably related to surface morphology; (ii) at least part of the surface is covered by a fine-grained regolith with particle size less than 20 microns; (iii) the closest meteorite analogues of Lutetia's surface composition are particular types of carbonaceous chondrites or Lutetia has specific surface composition not representative among studied meteorites.
In this work the phenomenology of models possessing a non-minimal coupling between matter and geometry is discussed, with a particular focus on the possibility of describing the flattening of the galactic rotation curves as a dynamically generated effect derived from this modification to General Relativity. Two possibilities are discussed: firstly, that the observed discrepancy between the measured rotation velocity and the classical prediction is due to a deviation from geodesic motion, due to a non-(covariant) conservation of the energy-momentum tensor; secondly, that even if the principle of energy conservation holds, the dynamical effects arising due to the non-trivial terms in the Einstein equations of motion can give rise to an extra density contribution that may be interpreted as dark matter. The mechanism of the latter alternative is detailed, and a numerical session ascertaining the order of magnitude of the relevant parameters is undertaken, with possible cosmological implications discussed.
Calibration of a sensor array is more involved if the antennas have direction dependent gains and multiple calibrator sources are simultaneously present. We study this case for a sensor array with arbitrary geometry but identical elements, i.e. elements with the same direction dependent gain pattern. A weighted alternating least squares (WALS) algorithm is derived that iteratively solves for the direction independent complex gains of the array elements, their noise powers and their gains in the direction of the calibrator sources. An extension of the problem is the case where the apparent calibrator source locations are unknown, e.g., due to refractive propagation paths. For this case, the WALS method is supplemented with weighted subspace fitting (WSF) direction finding techniques. Using Monte Carlo simulations we demonstrate that both methods are asymptotically statistically efficient and converge within two iterations even in cases of low SNR.
The atmospheric water vapor content above the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) obtained from Global Positioning Systems (GPS) is presented. GPS measurements have been evaluated by comparison with 940nm-radiometer observations. Statistical analysis of GPS measurements points to ORM as an observing site with suitable conditions for infrared (IR) observations, with a median column of precipitable water vapor (PWV) of 3.8 mm. PWV presents a clear seasonal behavior, being Winter and Spring the best seasons for IR observations. The percentage of nighttime showing PWV values smaller than 3 mm is over 60% in February, March and April. We have also estimated the temporal variability of water vapor content at the ORM. A summary of PWV statistical results at different astronomical sites is presented, recalling that these values are not directly comparable as a result of the differences in the techniques used to recorded the data.
We study the velocity field of umbral dots at a resolution of 0.14". Our analysis is based on full Stokes spectropolarimetric measurements of a pore taken with the CRISP instrument at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. We determine the flow velocity at different heights in the photosphere from a bisector analysis of the Fe I 630 nm lines. In addtion, we use the observed Stokes Q, U, and V profiles to characterize the magnetic properties of these structures. We find that most umbral dots are associated with strong upflows in deep photospheric layers. Some of them also show concentrated patches of downflows at their edges, with sizes of about 0.25", velocities of up to 1000 m/s, and enhanced net circular polarization signals. The downflows evolve rapidly and have lifetimes of only a few minutes. These results appear to validate numerical models of magnetoconvection in the presence of strong magnetic fields.
Aims. We gathered about 100 high-resolution spectra of three typical HgMn (mercury-manganese) stars, HD 11753, HD 53244, and HD 221507, to search for slowly pulsating B-like pulsations and surface inhomogeneous distribution of various chemical elements. Methods. Classical frequency analysis methods were used to detect line profile variability and to determine the variation period. Doppler imaging reconstruction was performed to obtain abundance maps of chemical elements on the stellar surface. Results. For HD 11753, which is the star with the most pronounced variability, distinct spectral line profile changes were detected for Ti, Sr, Y, Zr, and Hg, whereas for HD 53244 and HD 221507 the most variable line profiles belong to the elements Hg and Y, respectively. We derived rotation periods for all three stars from the variations of radial velocities and equivalent widths of spectral lines belonging to inhomogeneously distributed elements: P_rot (HD 11753)=9.54 d, P_rot (HD 53244)=6.16 d, and P_rot (HD 221507)=1.93 d. For HD 11753 the Doppler imaging technique was applied to derive the distribution of the most variable elements Ti, Sr, and Y using two datasets separated by ~65 days. Results of Doppler imaging reconstruction revealed noticeable changes in the surface distributions of TiII, SrII, and YII between the datasets, indicating the hitherto not well understood physical processes in stars with radiative envelopes that cause a rather fast dynamical chemical spot evolution.
Motivated by a paper (Kirsch et al. 2005) on possible use of the Crab Nebula as a standard candle for calibrating X-ray response functions, we examine consequences of intrinsic departures from a single (absorbed) power law upon such calibrations. We limit our analyses to three more modern X-ray instruments-the ROSAT/PSPC, the RXTE/PCA, and the XMM-Newton/EPIC-pn (burst mode). The results indicate a need to refine two of the three response functions studied. We are also able to distinguish between two current theoretical models for the system spectrum.
CONTEXT: In July 2010 the ESA spacecraft Rosetta will fly-by the main belt asteroid 21 Lutetia. Several observations of this asteroid have been so far performed, but its surface composition and nature are still a matter of debate. For long time Lutetia was supposed to have a metallic nature due to its high IRAS albedo. Later on it has been suggested to have a surface composition similar to primitive carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, while further observations proposed a possible genetic link with more evolved enstatite chondrite meteorites. AIMS: In order to give an important contribution in solving the conundrum of the nature of Lutetia, in November 2008 we performed visible spectroscopic observations of this asteroid at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG, La Palma, Spain). METHODS: Thirteen visible spectra have been acquired at different rotational phases. RESULTS: We confirm the presence of a narrow spectral feature at about 0.47-0.48 micron already found by Lazzarin et al. (2009) on the spectra of Lutetia. We also find a spectral feature at about 0.6 micron, detected by Lazzarin et al. (2004) on one of their Lutetia's spectra. More importantly, our spectra exhibit different spectral slopes between 0.6 and 0.75 micron and, in particular, we found that up to 20% of the Lutetia surface could have flatter spectra. CONCLUSIONS: We detected a variation of the spectral slopes at different rotational phases that could be interpreted as possibly due to differences in the chemical/mineralogical composition, as well as to inhomogeneities of the structure of the Lutetia's surface (e.g., the presence of craters or albedo spots) in the northern hemisphere.
When a rotating neutron star loses angular momentum, the reduction of the centrifugal force makes it contract. This perturbs each fluid element, raising the local pressure and originating deviations from beta equilibrium, inducing reactions that release heat (rotochemical heating). This effect has previously been studied by Fern\'andez and Reisenegger for neutron stars of non-superfluid matter and by Petrovich and Reisenegger for superfluid matter, finding that the system in both cases reaches a quasi-steady state, corresponding to a partial equilibration between compression, due to the loss of angular momentum, and reactions that try to restore the equilibrium. However, Petrovich and Reisenegger assumes a constant value of the superfluid energy gap, whereas theoretical models predict density-dependent gap amplitudes, and therefore gaps that depend on the location in the star. In this work, we try to discriminate between several proposed gap models, comparing predicted surface temperatures to the value measured for the nearest millisecond pulsar, J0437-4715.
To separate stars and galaxies in the far infrared AKARI All-Sky Survey data, we have selected a sample with the complete color information available in the low extinction regions of the sky and constructed color-color plots for these data. We looked for the method to separate stars and galaxies using the color information. We performed an extensive search for the counterparts of these selected All-Sky Survey sources in the NED and SIMBAD databases. Among 5176 objects, we found 4272 galaxies, 382 other extragalactic objects, 349 Milky Way stars, 50 other Galactic objects, and 101 sources detected before in various wavelengths but of an unknown origin. 22 sources were left unidentified. Then, we checked colors of stars and galaxies in the far-infrared flux-color and color-color plots. In the resulting diagrams, stars form two clearly separated clouds. One of them is easy to be distinguished from galaxies and allows for a simple method of excluding a large part of stars using the far-infrared data. The other smaller branch, overplotting galaxies, consists of stars known to have an infrared excess, like Vega and some fainter stars discovered by IRAS or 2MASS. The color properties of these objects in any case make them very difficult to distinguish from galaxies. We conclude that the FIR color-color diagrams allow for a high-quality star-galaxy separation. With the proposed simple method we can select more that 95 % of galaxies rejecting at least 80 % of stars.
We present deep K-band adaptive-optics observations of eight very massive (M* ~ 4 x 10^11 Msun) galaxies at 1 < z < 2 utilizing the Gemini NIRI/Altair Laser Guide System. These systems are selected from the Palomar Observatory Wide-Field Infrared (POWIR) survey, and are amongst the most massive field galaxies at these epochs. The depth and high spatial resolution of our images allow us to explore for the first time the stellar mass surface density distribution of massive distant galaxies from 1 to 15 kpc on an individual galaxy basis, rather than on stacked images. We confirm that some of these massive objects are extremely compact with measured effective radii between 0."1 - 0."2, giving sizes which are < 2 kpc, a factor of ~ 7 smaller in effective radii than similar mass galaxies today. Examining stellar mass surface densities as a function of fixed physical aperture, we find an over-density of material within the inner profiles, and an under-density in the outer profile, within these high-z galaxies compared with similar mass galaxies in the local universe. Consequently, massive galaxies should evolve in a way to decrease the stellar mass density in their inner region, and at the same time creating more extensive outer light envelopes. We furthermore show that ~ 38% +- 20% of our sample contains evidence for a disturbed outer stellar matter distribution suggesting that these galaxies are undergoing a recent dynamical episode, such as a merger or accretion event. We calculate that massive galaxies at z < 2 will undergo on the order of five of these events, a much higher rate than observed for major mergers, suggesting that these galaxies are growing in size and stellar mass in part through minor mergers during this epoch.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton made their first observations one decade ago. The unprecedented and complementary capabilities of these observatories to detect, image, and measure the energy of cosmic X-rays, achieved less than 50 years after the first detection of an extra-solar X-ray source, represent an increase in sensitivity comparable in going from naked-eye observations to the most powerful optical telescopes over the past 400 years! In this review, we highlight some of the many discoveries made by Chandra and XMM-Newton that have transformed 21st century astronomy and briefly discuss prospects for future research.
We report on the results of two epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the 22 GHz water masers toward IRAS 19190+1102. The water maser emission from this object shows two main arc-shaped formations perpendicular to their NE-SW separation axis. The arcs are separated by ~280 mas in position, and are expanding outwards at an angular rate of 2.35 mas/yr. We detect maser emission at velocities between -53.3 km/s to +78.0 km/s and there is a distinct velocity pattern where the NE masers are blueshifted and the SW masers are redshifted. The outflow has a three-dimensional outflow velocity of 99.8 km/s and a dynamical age of about 59 yr. A group of blueshifted masers not located along the arcs shows a change in velocity of more than 35 km/s between epochs, and may be indicative of the formation of a new lobe. These observations show that IRAS 19190+1102 is a member of the class of "water fountain"' pre-planetary nebulae displaying bipolar structure
Motivated by a recent astrophysical measurement of the pressure of cold matter above nuclear-matter saturation density, we compute the equation of state of neutron star matter using accurately calibrated relativistic models. The uniform stellar core is assumed to consist of nucleons and leptons in beta equilibrium; no exotic degrees of freedom are included. We found the predictions of these models to be in fairly good agreement with the measured equation of state. Yet the Mass-vs-Radius relations predicted by these same models display radii that are consistently larger than the observations.
In these lectures I focus on early universe models which can explain the currently observed structure on large scales. I begin with a survey of inflationary cosmology, the current paradigm for understanding the origin of the universe as we observe it today. I will discuss some progress and problems in inflationary cosmology before moving on to a description of two alternative scenarios - the Matter Bounce and String Gas Cosmology. All early universe models connect to observations via the evolution of cosmological perturbations - a topic which will be discussed in detail in these lectures.
We study Q-ball formation in the expanding universe on 1D, 2D and 3D lattice simulations. We obtain detailed Q-ball charge distributions, and find that the distribution is peaked at Q^{3D}_{peak} \simeq 1.9\times 10^{-2} (|\Phi_{in}|/m)^2, which is greater than the existing result by about 60%. Based on the numerical simulations, we discuss how the Q-ball formation proceeds. Also we make a comment on possible deviation of the charge distributions from what was conjectured in the past.
We introduce and discuss an effective model of a self-gravitating system whose equilibrium thermodynamics can be solved in both the microcanonical and the canonical ensemble, up to a maximization with respect to a single variable. Such a model can be derived from a model of self-gravitating particles confined on a ring, referred to as the self-gravitating ring (SGR) model, allowing a quantitative comparison between the thermodynamics of the two models. Despite the rather crude approximations involved in its derivation, the effective model compares quite well with the SGR model. Moreover, we discuss the relation between the effective model presented here and another model introduced by Thirring forty years ago. The two models are very similar and can be considered as examples of a class of minimal models of self-gravitating systems.
We present a calculation of the scalar field self-force (SSF) acting on a scalar-charge particle in a strong-field orbit around a Kerr black hole. Our calculation specializes to circular and equatorial geodesic orbits. The analysis is an implementation of the standard mode-sum regularization scheme: We first calculate the multipole modes of the scalar-field perturbation using numerical integration in the frequency domain, and then apply a certain regularization procedure to each of the modes. The dissipative piece of the SSF is found to be consistent with the flux of energy and angular momentum carried by the scalar waves through the event horizon and out to infinity. The conservative (radial) component of the SSF is found to be attractive (inward pointing) for $r_0>r_{\rm c}(a)$ and repulsive (outward pointing) for $r_0<r_{\rm c}(a)$, where $a$ is the Kerr spin parameter, $r_0$ is the Boyer-Lindquist orbital radius, and $r_{\rm c}$ is a critical $a$-dependent radius at which the conservative SSF vanishes. When the motion is retrograde the conservative SSF is repulsive for all $r_0$ (as in the Schwarzschild case). The dominant conservative effect of the SSF in Schwarzschild spacetime is known to be of 3rd post-Newtonian (PN) order (with a logarithmic running). Our numerical results suggest that the leading-order PN correction due to the black hole's spin arises from spin-orbit coupling at 3PN, which dominates the overall SSF effect at large $r_0$. In PN language, the change-of-sign of the radial SSF is attributed to an interplay between the spin-orbit term ($\propto -ar_0^{-4.5}$) and the "Schwarzschild" term ($\propto r_0^{-5}\log r_0$).
A rigorous QED theory of the multiphoton decay of excited states in hydrogen atom is presented. The "two-photon" approximation is formulated which is limited by the one-photon and two-photon transitions including cascades transitions with two-photon links. This may be helpful for the strict description of the recombination process in hydrogen atom and, in principle, for the history of the hydrogen recombination in the early Universe.
The dynamics of a tachyon field plus a barotropic fluid is investigated in spatially curved FRW universe. We perform a phase-plane analysis and obtain scaling solutions accompanying with a discussion on their stability. Furthermore, we construct the form of scalar potential which may give rise to stable solutions for spatially open and closed universe separately.
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We explore the shape of the galaxy luminosity function (LF) in groups of different mass by creating composite LFs over large numbers of groups. Following previous work using total group luminosity as the mass indicator, here we split our groups by multiplicity and by estimated virial (group halo) mass, and consider red (passive) and blue (star forming) galaxies separately. In addition we utilise two different group catalogues (2PIGG and Yang et al.) in order to ascertain the impact of the specific grouping algorithm and further investigate the environmental effects via variations in the LF with position in groups. Our main results are that LFs show a steepening faint end for early type galaxies as a function of group mass/ multiplicity, with a much suppressed trend (evident only in high mass groups) for late type galaxies. Variations between LFs as a function of group mass are robust irrespective of which grouping catalogue is used, and broadly speaking what method for determining group `mass' is used. We find in particular that there is a significant deficit of low-mass passive galaxies in low multiplicity groups, as seen in high redshift clusters. Further to this, the variation in the LF appears to only occur in the central regions of systems, and in fact seems to be most strongly dependent on the position in the group relative to the virial radius. Finally, distance-rank magnitude relations were considered. Only the Yang groups demonstrated any evidence of a correlation between a galaxy's position relative to the brightest group member and its luminosity. 2PIGG possessed no such gradient, the conclusion being the FOF algorithm suppresses the signal for weak luminosity--position trends and the Yang grouping algorithm naturally enhances it.
A 321.5 s modulation was discovered in 1999 in the X-ray light curve of HM Cnc. In 2001 and 2002, optical photometric and spectroscopic observations revealed that HM Cnc is a very blue object with no intrinsic absorptions but broad (FWHM 1500 km s^-1) low equivalent width emission lines (EW 1-6A), which were first identified with the HeII Pickering series. The combination of X-ray and optical observations pictures HM Cnc as a double degenerate binary hosting two white dwarfs, and possibly being the shortest orbital period binary discovered so far. The present work is aimed at studying the orbital motion of the two components by following the variations of the shape, centroid and intensity of the emission lines through the orbit. In February 2007, we carried out the first phase resolved optical spectroscopic study with the VLT/FORS2 in the High Time Resolution (HIT) mode, yielding five phase bins in the 321 s modulation. Despite the low SNR, the data show that the intensity of the three most prominent emission lines, already detected in 2001, varies with the phase. These lines are detected at phases 0.2-0.6 where the optical emission peaks, and marginally detected or not detected at all elsewhere. Moreover, the FWHM of the emission lines in the phase resolved spectra is smaller, by almost a factor 2, than that in the the phase-averaged 2001 spectrum. Our results are consistent with both the pulsed optical component and emission lines originating in the same region which we identify with the irradiated surface of the secondary. Moreover, regardless of the origin of the un-pulsed optical continuum, we note that the EWs of the emission lines might be up to -15 / -25A, larger than thought before; these values are more similar to those detected in cataclysmic variables. All the findings further confirm that the 321s modulation observed in HM Cnc is the orbital period of the system, the shortest known to date.
Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) are now established to exhibit significant X-ray variability and be prolific glitchers, with some glitches being accompanied by large radiative changes. An open issue is whether AXP glitches are generically accompanied by radiative changes, relevant for understanding magnetar physical properties. Here we report on an analysis of archival X-ray data from the AXP 1E~1841$-$045, obtained between 1993 and 2007. This AXP, located in the center of SNR Kes~73, has exhibited three glitches between 2002 and 2007, as determined by {\it RXTE} monitoring since 1999. We have searched for evidence of phase-averaged flux variability that could be present if glitches in AXPs are usually accompanied by radiative changes. We find no evidence for glitch-correlated flux changes from this source, arguing that such behavior is not generic to AXPs.
We review the history of the development of the Chandra X-ray Observatory from our personal perspective. This review is necessarily biased and limited by space since it attempts to cover a time span approaching 5 decades.
We present the result of a study of the X-ray emission from the Galactic Centre (GC) Molecular Clouds (MC) within 15 arcmin from Sgr A*. We use XMM-Newton data (about 1.2 Ms of observation time) spanning about 8 years. The MC spectra show all the features characteristic of reflection: i) intense Fe Kalpha, with EW of about 0.7-1 keV, and the associated Kbeta line; ii) flat power law continuum and iii) a significant Fe K edge (tau~0.1-0.3). The diffuse low ionisation Fe K emission follows the MC distribution, nevertheless not all MC are Fe K emitters. The long baseline monitoring allows the characterisation of the temporal evolution of the MC emission. A complex pattern of variations is shown by the different MC, with some having constant Fe K emission, some increasing and some decreasing. In particular, we observe an apparent super-luminal motion of a light front illuminating a Molecular nebula. This might be due to a source outside the MC (such as Sgr A* or a bright and long outburst of a X-ray binary), while it cannot be due to low energy cosmic rays or a source located inside the cloud. We also observe a decrease of the X-ray emission from G0.11-0.11, behaviour similar to the one of Sgr B2. The line intensities, clouds dimensions, columns densities and positions with respect to Sgr A*, are consistent with being produced by the same Sgr A* flare. The required high luminosity (about 1.5~10^39 erg/s) can hardly be produced by a binary system, while it is in agreement with a flare of Sgr A* fading about 100 years ago. The low intensity of the Fe K emission coming from the 50 and the 20 km/s MC places an upper limit of 10^36 erg/s to the mean luminosity of Sgr A* in the last 60-90 years. The Fe K emission and variations from these MC might have been produced by a single flare of Sgr A*.
We present a flexible interactive 3D morpho-kinematical modeling application for astrophysics. Compared to other systems, our application reduces the restrictions on the physical assumptions, data type and amount that is required for a reconstruction of an object's morphology. It is one of the first publicly available tools to apply interactive graphics to astrophysical modeling. The tool allows astrophysicists to provide a-priori knowledge about the object by interactively defining 3D structural elements. By direct comparison of model prediction with observational data, model parameters can then be automatically optimized to fit the observation. The tool has already been successfully used in a number of astrophysical research projects.
We report on optical-near-infrared photopolarimetric observations of a blazar 3C 454.3 over 200 d. The object experienced an optical outburst in July 2007. This outburst was followed by a short state fainter than $V=15.2$ mag lasting $\sim 25$ d. The object, then, entered an active state during which we observed short flares having a timescale of 3-10 d. The object showed two types of features in the color-magnitude relationship. One is a "bluer-when-brighter" trend in the outburst state, and the other is a "redder-when-brighter" trend in the faint state. These two types of features suggest a contribution of a thermal emission to the observed flux, as suspected in previous studies. Our polarimetric observation detected two episodes of the rotation of the polarization vector. The first one was a counterclockwise rotation in the $QU$ plane during the outburst state. After this rotation event of the polarization vector, the object entered a rapidly fading stage. The second one was seen in a series of flares during the active state. Each flare had a specific position angle of polarization, and it apparently rotated clockwise from the first to the last flares. Thus, the object exhibited rotations of the polarization vector in opposite directions. We estimated a decay timescale of the short flares during the active state, and then calculated an upper limit of the strength of the magnetic field, $B$=0.2 G, assuming a typical beaming factor of blazars, $\delta=20$. This upper limit of $B$ is smaller than those previously estimated from spectral analysis.
Core helium burning is the dominant source of energy of extreme horizontal branch stars, as the hydrogen envelope is too small to contribute to the nuclear energy output. The evolution of each mass in the HR diagram occurs along vertical tracks that, when the core helium is consumed, evolve to higher Teff and then to the white dwarf stage. The larger is the mass, the smaller is the Teff of the models, so that the zero age horizontal branch (ZAHB) is "horizontal". In this paper we show that, if the helium mass fraction (Y) of the envelope is larger than Y~0.5, the shape of the tracks changes completely: the hydrogen burning becomes efficient again also for very small envelope masses, thanks to the higher molecular weight and to the higher temperatures of the hydrogen shell. The larger is Y, the smaller is the envelope mass that provides strong H-shell burning. These tracks have a curled shape, are located at a Teff following the approximate relation Teff=8090+ 32900xY, and become more luminous for larger envelope masses. Consequently, the ZAHB of the very high helium models is "vertical" in the HR diagram. Synthetic models based on these tracks nicely reproduce the location and shape of the "blue hook" in the globular cluster wCen, best fit by a very high Teff (bluer) sequence with Y=0.80 and a cooler (redder) one with Y=0.65. Although these precise values of Y may depend on the color-Teff conversions, we know that the helium content of the progenitors of the blue hook stars can not be larger than Y~0.38-0.40, if they are descendants of the cluster blue main sequence. Consequently, this interpretation implies that all these objects must in fact be progeny of the blue main sequence, but they have all suffered further deep mixing, that has largely and uniformly increased their surface helium abundance, during the red giant branch evolution. A late helium flash can not be the cause of this deep mixing, as the models we propose have hydrogen rich envelopes much more massive than those required for a late flash. We discuss different models of deep mixing proposed in the literature, and conclude that our interpretation of the blue hook can not be ruled out, but requires a much deeper investigation before it can be accepted.
On the basis of general relativity and quantum statistics, it was shown
(Neslu\v{s}an L.: 2009, Phys. Rev. D 80, 024015, arxiv:0808.3484) that the
equation of state (ES) of extremely hot Fermi-Dirac gas in the surface layer of
an ultra-relativistic compact object converges to the same form as the
relativistic equation of thermodynamical equilibrium (RETE), which is the
condition of stability of the object. The description of energy state of a gas
particle was completed with the term corresponding with the potential-type
energy. The necessity of such the term is set by the demand of convergence of
the relativistic particle-impulse distribution law to its Maxwell-Boltzmann
form in the classical limit.
The identity of the ES and RETE, both applied to the gas in the object's
surface layer, becomes perfect, yielding the stable object, when the object's
physical radius is identical to its gravitational radius. In this state, the
internal energy of gas particles in a volume of the object's surface layer
increases over all limits in the frame of the volume and this opens the
question if the horizon of events actually is an insuperable barrier. It seems
to be possible that some matter can be temporarily lifted above the surface or,
so far, be ejected from the object and can emit a radiation detectable by a
distant observer.
In our contribution, we demonstrate a general validity of the functional form
of the potential-type energy found in our previous work. The consistency of the
RETE with its non-relativistic approximation can occur only for this functional
form. We also point out some observational consequences of the approximate
identity of ES and RETE before the object collapses, in the proper time, to its
gravitational radius as well as the possible observational consequences of the
infinitely high internal energy in the surface layer of already collapsed
object. In general, we propagate the idea that a lot of phenomena observed at
the stellar-sized or supermassive black holes (or not-yet black holes) can be
not necessarily related to the structures in a vicinity of the black hole, e.g.
to an accretion disk, but they can be linked directly to the behaviour of the
central, ultra-compact object.
We report on the first near-infrared observations obtained to date for Rotating RAdio Transients (RRATs). Using adaptive optics devices mounted on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), we observed two objects of this class: RRAT J1819-1458, and RRAT J1317-5759. These observations have been performed in 2006 and 2008, in the J, H and Ks bands. We found no candidate infrared counterpart to RRAT J1317-5759, down to a limiting magnitude of Ks ~ 21. On the other hand, we found a possible candidate counterpart for RRAT J1819-1458, having a magnitude of Ks=20.96+/-0.10 . In particular, this is the only source within a 1 sigma error circle around the source's accurate X-ray position, although given the crowded field we cannot exclude that this is due to a chance coincidence. The infrared flux of the putative counterpart to the highly magnetic RRAT J1819-1458, is higher than expected from a normal radio pulsar, but consistent with that seen from magnetars. We also searched for the near-infrared counterpart to the X-ray diffuse emission recently discovered around RRAT J1819-1458, but we did not detect this component in the near-infrared band. We discuss the luminosity of the putative counterpart to RRAT J1819-1458, in comparison with the near-infrared emission of all isolated neutron stars detected to date in this band (5 pulsars and 7 magnetars).
We present a complete set of formulae for calculating the bispectra of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies generated from non-Gaussianity in the vector and tensor mode perturbations. In the all sky analysis it is found that the bispectrum formulae for the tensor and vector mode non-Gaussianity formally take complicated forms compared to the scalar mode one because the photon transfer functions in the tensor and vector modes depend on the azimuthal angle between the direction of wavenumber vector of photon's perturbation and that of the line of sight. We demonstrate that flat sky approximations remove this difficulty because this kind of azimuthal angle dependence apparently vanishes in the flat sky limit.
Here we present the results of the long-term (1995-2007) spectral monitoring
of the broad line radio galaxy \object{3C~390.3}, a well known AGN with the
double peaked broad emission lines, usually assumed to be emitted from an
accretion disk. To explore dimensions and structure of the BLR, we analyze the
light curves of the broad H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ line fluxes and the continuum
flux. In order to find changes in the BLR, we analyze the H$\alpha$ and
H$\beta$ line profiles, as well as the change in the line profiles during the
monitoring period. First we try to find a periodicity in the continuum and
H$\beta$ light curves, finding that there is a good chance for quasi-periodical
oscillations. Using the line shapes and their characteristics (as e.g. peaks
separation and their intensity ratio, or FWHM) of broad H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$
lines, we discuss the structure of the BLR. Also, we cross-correlate the
continuum flux with H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$ lines to find dimensions of the BLR.
We found that during the monitoring period the broad emission component of
the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ lines, and the continuum flux varied by a factor of
$\approx $4-5. Also, we detected different structure in the line profiles of
H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$. It seems that an additional central component is
present and superposed to the disk emission. In the period of high activity
(after 2002), H$\beta$ became broader than H$\alpha$ and red wing of H$\beta$
was higher than the one of H$\alpha$. We found time lags of $\sim$95 days
between the continuum and H$\beta$ flux, and about 120 days between the
continuum and H$\alpha$ flux. Variation in the line profiles, as well as
correlation between the line and continuum flux during the monitoring period is
in the favor of the disk origin of the broad lines with the possible
contribution of some additional region and/or some kind of perturbation in the
disk.
Though there is increasing evidence linking the moat flow and the Evershed flow along the penumbral filaments, there is not a clear consensus regarding the existence of a moat flow around umbral cores and pores, and the debate is still open. Solar pores appear to be a suitable scenario to test the moat-penumbra relation as evidencing the direct interaction between the umbra and the convective plasma in the surrounding photosphere, without any intermediate structure in between. The present work studies solar pores based on high resolution ground-based and satellite observations. Local correlation tracking techniques have been applied to different-duration time series to analyze the horizontal flows around several solar pores. Our results establish that the flows calculated from different solar pore observations are coherent among each other and show the determinant and overall influence of exploding events in the granulation around the pores. We do not find any sign of moat-like flows surrounding solar pores but a clearly defined region of inflows surrounding them. The connection between moat flows and flows associated to penumbral filaments is hereby reinforced by this work.
The third US Naval Observatory (USNO) CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC3 was released at the IAU General Assembly on 2009 August 10. It is the first all-sky release in this series and contains just over 100 million objects, about 95 million of them with proper motions, covering about R = 8 to 16 magnitudes. Current epoch positions are obtained from the observations with the 20 cm aperture USNO Astrograph's "red lens", equipped with a 4k by 4k CCD. Proper motions are derived by combining these observations with over 140 ground- and space-based catalogs, including Hipparcos/Tycho and the AC2000.2, as well as unpublished measures of over 5000 plates from other astrographs. For most of the faint stars in the Southern Hemisphere the Yale/San Juan first epoch plates from the SPM program (YSJ1) form the basis for proper motions. These data are supplemented by all-sky Schmidt plate survey astrometry and photometry obtained from the SuperCOSMOS project, as well as 2MASS near-IR photometry. Major differences of UCAC3 data as compared to UCAC2 include a completely new raw data reduction with improved control over systematic errors in positions, significantly improved photometry, slightly deeper limiting magnitude, coverage of the north pole region, greater completeness by inclusion of double stars and weak detections. This of course leads to a catalog which is not as "clean" as UCAC2 and problem areas are outlined for the user in this paper. The positional accuracy of stars in UCAC3 is about 15 to 100 mas per coordinate, depending on magnitude, while the errors in proper motions range from 1 to 10 mas/yr depending on magnitude and observing history, with a significant improvement over UCAC2 achieved due to the re-reduced SPM data and inclusion of more astrograph plate data unavailable at the time of UCAC2.
Of the four giant planets in the Solar system, only Jupiter and Neptune are currently known to possess swarms of Trojan asteroids - small objects that experience a 1:1 mean motion resonance with their host planet. In Lykawka et al. (2009), we performed extensive dynamical simulations, including planetary migration, to investigate the origin of the Neptunian Trojan population. Utilising the vast amount of simulation data obtained for that work, together with fresh results from new simulations, we here investigate the dynamical capture of Trojans by all four giant planets from a primordial trans-Neptunian disk. We find the likelihood of a given planetesimal from this region being captured onto an orbit within Jupiter's Trojan cloud lies between several times 10^-6 and 10^-5. For Saturn, the probability is found to be in the range <10^-6 to 10^-5, whilst for Uranus the probabilities range between 10^-5 and 10^-4. Finally, Neptune displays the greatest probability of Trojan capture, with values ranging between 10^-4 and 10^-3. Our results suggest that all four giant planets are able to capture and retain a significant population of Trojan objects from the disk by the end of planetary migration. As a result of encounters with the giant planets prior to Trojan capture, these objects tend to be captured on orbits that are spread over a wide range of orbital eccentricities and inclinations. The bulk of captured objects are to some extent dynamically unstable, and therefore the populations of these objects tend to decay over the age of the Solar System, providing an important ongoing source of new objects moving on dynamically unstable orbits among the giant planets. Given that a huge population of objects would be displaced by Neptune's outward migration (with a potential cumulative mass a number of times that of the Earth), we conclude that the surviving remnant of the Trojans captured during the migration of the outer planets might be sufficient to explain the currently known Trojan populations in the outer Solar system.
The Horava - Lifshitz (HL) theory has recently attracted a lot of interest as a viable solution to some quantum gravity related problems and the presence of an effective cosmological constant able to drive the cosmic speed up. We show here that, in the weak field limit, the HL proposal leads to a modification of the gravitational potential because of two additive terms (scaling respectively as $r^2$ and $r^{-4}$) to the Newtonian $1/r$ potential. We then derive a general expression to compute the rotation curve of an extended system under the assumption that the mass density only depends on the cylindrical coordinates $(R, z)$ showing that the HL modification induces a dependence of the circular velocity on the mass function which is a new feature of the theory. As a first exploratory analysis, we then try fitting the Milky Way rotation curve using its visible components only in order to see whether the HL modified potential can be an alternative to the dark matter framework. This turns out not to be the case so that we argue that dark matter is still needed, but the amount of dark matter and the dark halo density profile have to be revised according to the new HL potential.
We construct general relativistic models of stationary, strongly magnetized neutron stars. The magnetic field configuration, obtained by solving the relativistic Grad-Shafranov equation, is a generalization of the twisted torus model recently proposed in the literature; the stellar deformations induced by the magnetic field are computed by solving the perturbed Einstein's equations; stellar matter is modeled using realistic equations of state. We find that in these configurations the poloidal field dominates over the toroidal field and that, if the magnetic field is sufficiently strong during the first phases of the stellar life, it can produce large deformations.
Based on a new version of the Hipparcos catalog and currently available radial velocity data, we have searched for stars that either have encountered or will encounter the solar neighborhood within less than 3 pc in the time interval from -2 Myr to +2 Myr. Nine new candidates within 30 pc of the Sun have been found. To construct the stellar orbits relative to the solar orbit, we have used the epicyclic approximation. We show that, given the errors in the observational data, the probability that the well-known star HIP 89 825 (GL 710) encountering with the Sun most closely falls into the Oort cloud is 0.86 in the time interval 1.45-+0.06 Myr. This star also has a nonzero probability, 0.0001, of falling into the region d<1000 AU, where its influence on Kuiper Belt objects becomes possible.
We present submillimetre and mid-infrared imaging observations of five fields centred on quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) at 1.7<z<2.8. All 5 QSOs were detected previously at submillimetre wavelengths. At 850 (450) um we detect 17 (11) submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) in addition to the QSOs. The total area mapped at 850 um is ~28 arcmin^2 down to RMS noise levels of 1-2 mJy/beam, depending on the field. Integral number counts are computed from the 850 um data using the same analytical techniques adopted by `blank-field' submillimetre surveys. We find that the `QSO-field' counts show a clear excess over the blank-field counts at deboosted flux densities of 2-4 mJy; at higher flux densities the counts are consistent with the blank-field counts. Robust mid-infrared counterparts are identified for all four submillimetre detected QSOs and ~60 per cent of the SMGs. The mid-infrared colours of the QSOs are similar to those of the local ULIRG/AGN Mrk 231 if placed at 1<z<3 whilst most of the SMGs have colours very similar to those of the local ULIRG Arp 220 at 1<z<3. Mid-infrared diagnostics therefore find no strong evidence that the SMGs host buried AGN although we cannot rule out such a possibility. Taken together our results suggest that the QSOs sit in regions of the early universe which are undergoing an enhanced level of major star-formation activity, and should evolve to become similarly dense regions containing massive galaxies at the present epoch. Finally, we find evidence that the level of star-formation activity in individual galaxies appears to be lower around the QSOs than it is around more powerful radio-loud AGN at higher redshifts.
SDSS 1257+5428 is a white dwarf in a close orbit with a companion that has been suggested to be a neutron star. If so, it hosts the closest known neutron star, and its existence implies a great abundance of similar systems and a rate of white-dwarf neutron-star mergers similar to that of the type Ia supernova rate. Here, we present high signal-to-noise spectra of SDSS 1257+5428, which confirm an independent finding that the system is in fact composed of two white dwarfs, one relatively cool and with low mass, and the other hotter and more massive. With this, the demographics and merger rate are no longer puzzling (various factors combine to lower the latter by more than two orders of magnitude). We show that the spectra are fit well with a combination of two hydrogen model atmospheres, as long as the lines of the higher-gravity component are broadened significantly relative to what is expected from just pressure broadening. Interpreting this additional broadening as due to rotation, the inferred spin period is short, about 1 minute. Similarly rapid rotation is only seen in accreting white dwarfs that are magnetic; empirically, it appears that in non-magnetized white dwarfs, accreted angular momentum is lost by nova explosions before it can be transferred to the white dwarf. This suggests that the massive white dwarf in SDSS 1257+5428 is magnetic as well, with B~10^5 G. Alternatively, the broadening seen in the spectral lines could be due to a stronger magnetic field, of ~10^6 G. The two models could be distinguished by further observations.
We report the detection of 158 micron [CII] fine-structure line emission from MIPS J142824.0+352619, a hyperluminous (L_IR ~ 10^13 L_sun) starburst galaxy at z=1.3. The line is bright, and corresponds to a fraction L_[CII]/L_FIR = 2 x 10^-3 of the far-IR (FIR) continuum. The [CII], CO, and FIR continuum emission may be modeled as arising from photodissociation regions (PDRs) that have a characteristic gas density of n ~ 10^4.2 cm^-3, and that are illuminated by a far-UV radiation field ~10^3.2 times more intense than the local interstellar radiation field. The mass in these PDRs accounts for approximately half of the molecular gas mass in this galaxy. The L_[CII]/L_FIR ratio is higher than observed in local ULIRGs or in the few high-redshift QSOs detected in [CII], but the L_[CII]/L_FIR and L_CO/L_FIR ratios are similar to the values seen in nearby starburst galaxies. This suggests that MIPS J142824.0+352619 is a scaled-up version of a starburst nucleus, with the burst extended over several kiloparsecs.
We present an analytic formulation for the equilibrium gas density profile of early-type galaxies that explicitly includes the contribution of stars in the gravitational potential. We build a realistic model for an isolated elliptical galaxy and explore the equilibrium gas configurations as a function of multiple parameters. For an assumed central gas temperature k_B*T_0 = 0.6 keV, we find that neglecting the gravitational effects of stars, which can contribute substantially in the innermost regions, leads to an underestimate of the enclosed baryonic gas mass by up to ~65% at the effective radius, and by up to ~15% at the NFW scale radius, depending on the stellar baryon fraction. This formula is relevant when interpreting X-ray data, in particular for estimating the baryon fraction in an unbiased fashion. These new hydrostatic equilibrium solutions, derived for the isothermal and polytropic cases, can also be used to generate more realistic initial conditions for simulations of elliptical galaxies. We compare our composite isothermal model to the standard beta-model used to fit X-ray observations of early-type galaxies, to determine the value of the NFW scale radius r_s. Assuming a 10% stellar baryon fraction, we find that the exclusion of stars from the gravitational potential leads to (i) an underestimate of r_s by ~80%, and (ii) to an overestimate of the enclosed dark matter at r_s by a factor of ~2, compared to the equivalent beta-model fit results when stars are not taken into account. For higher stellar mass fractions, a beta-model is unable to accurately reproduce our solution, indicating that when the observed surface brightness profile of an isolated elliptical galaxy is found to be well fit by a beta-model, the stellar mass fraction cannot be much greater than ~10%.
The spectral shape of solar X-rays is a power law. The more active the Sun is, the less steep the distribution. This behaviour can be explained by axion regeneration to X-rays occurring ~400km deep into the photosphere. Their down-comptonization reproduces the measured spectral shape, pointing at axions with rest mass m_a~17 meV/c2, without contradicting astrophysical-laboratory limits. Directly measured soft X-ray spectra from the extremely quiet Sun during 2009 (SphinX mission), though hitherto overlooked, fitt the axion scenario.
Although general relativity underlies modern cosmology, its applicability on cosmological length scales has yet to be stringently tested. Such a test has recently been proposed, using a quantity, EG, that combines measures of large-scale gravitational lensing, galaxy clustering and structure growth rate. The combination is insensitive to 'galaxy bias' (the difference between the clustering of visible galaxies and invisible dark matter) and is thus robust to the uncertainty in this parameter. Modified theories of gravity generally predict values of EG different from the general relativistic prediction because, in these theories, the 'gravitational slip' (the difference between the two potentials that describe perturbations in the gravitational metric) is non-zero, which leads to changes in the growth of structure and the strength of the gravitational lensing effect3. Here we report that EG = 0.39 +/- 0.06 on length scales of tens of megaparsecs, in agreement with the general relativistic prediction of EG $\approx$ 0.4. The measured value excludes a model within the tensor-vector-scalar gravity theory, which modifies both Newtonian and Einstein gravity. However, the relatively large uncertainty still permits models within f(R) theory, which is an extension of general relativity. A fivefold decrease in uncertainty is needed to rule out these models.
We present a numerical code for calculating the local gravitational self-force acting on a pointlike particle in a generic (bound) geodesic orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole. The calculation is carried out in the Lorenz gauge: For a given geodesic orbit, we decompose the Lorenz-gauge metric perturbation equations (sourced by the delta-function particle) into tensorial harmonics, and solve for each harmonic using numerical evolution in the time domain (in 1+1 dimensions). The physical self-force along the orbit is then obtained via mode-sum regularization. The total self-force contains a dissipative piece as well as a conservative piece, and we describe a simple method for disentangling these two pieces in a time-domain framework. The dissipative component is responsible for the loss of orbital energy and angular momentum through gravitational radiation; as a test of our code we demonstrate that the work done by the dissipative component of the computed force is precisely balanced by the asymptotic fluxes of energy and angular momentum, which we extract independently from the wave-zone numerical solutions. The conservative piece of the self force does not affect the time-averaged rate of energy and angular-momentum loss, but it influences the evolution of the orbital phases; this piece is calculated here for the first time in eccentric strong-field orbits. As a first concrete application of our code we recently reported the value of the shift in the location and frequency of the innermost stable circular orbit due to the conservative self-force [Phys. Rev. Lett.\ {\bf 102}, 191101 (2009)]. Here we provide full details of this analysis, and discuss future applications.
We describe possible trans- and superluminal phenomena which can take place in the physical vacuum, such as the "luminal boom" and Cherenkov-type shock waves. Their macroscopical characteristics, cone angle, flash duration, radiation yield and spectral distribution, are computed. In particular, it turns out that the radiation energy is proportional to the square of the proper energy of the vacuum (which serves also as a natural ultraviolet cut-off energy). We briefly discuss also some ideas which go beyond the Frank-Tamm approximation such as the Cherenkov radiation of accelerating and decelerating particles. While the analysis is mainly based on the logarithmic nonlinear quantum theory, some of the obtained results must be valid for any Lorentz-invariance violating theory with the ultraviolet cut-off determined by the vacuum energy.
We discuss energy-momentum tensor and the second law of thermodynamics for a system of relativistic diffusing particles. We calculate the energy and entropy flow in this system. We obtain an exact time dependence of energy, entropy and free energy of a beam of photons in a reservoir of a fixed temperature.
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The attenuation of starlight by interstellar dust is investigated in a sample of low redshift, disk-dominated star-forming galaxies using photometry from GALEX and SDSS. By considering broadband colors as a function of galaxy inclination we are able to confidently separate trends arising from increasing dust opacity from possible differences in stellar populations, since stellar populations do not correlate with inclination. We are thus able to make firm statements regarding the wavelength-dependent attenuation of starlight for disk-dominated galaxies as a function of gas-phase metallicity and stellar mass. All commonly employed dust attenuation curves (such as the Calzetti curve for starbursts, or a power-law curve) provide poor fits to the ultraviolet colors for moderately and highly inclined galaxies. This conclusion rests on the fact that the average FUV-NUV color varies little from face-on to edge-on galaxies, while other colors such as NUV-u and u-r vary strongly with inclination. After considering a number of model variations, we are led to speculate that the presence of the strong dust extinction feature at 2175A seen in the Milky Way (MW) extinction curve is responsible for the observed trends. If the 2175A feature is responsible, these results would constitute the first detection of the feature in the attenuation curves of galaxies at low redshift. Independent of our interpretation, these results imply that the modeling of dust attenuation in the ultraviolet is significantly more complicated than traditionally assumed. These results also imply a very weak dependence of the FUV-NUV color on total FUV attenuation, and we conclude from this that it is extremely difficult to use only the observed UV spectral slope to infer the total UV dust attenuation, as is commonly done. We propose several simple tests that might finally identify the grain population responsible for the 2175A feature.
Star formation theories are currently divergent regarding the fundamental physical processes that dominate the substellar regime. Observations of nearby young open clusters allow the brown dwarf (BD) population to be characterised down to the planetary mass regime, which ultimately must be accommodated by a successful theory. We hope to uncover the low-mass population of the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud and investigate the properties of the newly found brown dwarfs. We use near-IR deep images (reaching completeness limits of approximately 20.5 mag in J, and 18.9 mag in H and Ks) taken with the Wide Field IR Camera (WIRCam) at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to identify candidate members of Rho Oph in the substellar regime. A spectroscopic follow-up of a small sample of the candidates allows us to assess their spectral type, and subsequently their temperature and membership. We select 110 candidate members of the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud, from which 80 have not previously been associated with the cloud. We observed a small sample of these and spectroscopically confirm six new brown dwarfs with spectral types ranging from M6.5 to M8.25.
We observed three transits of the extrasolar planet HD189733b in HI Lyman-alpha and in a few other lines in the ultraviolet with HST/ACS, in the search for atmospheric signatures. We detect a transit signature in the Lyman-alpha light curve with a transit depth of 5.05 +/- 0.75 %. This depth exceeds the occultation depth produced by the planetary disk alone at the 3.5-sigma level (statistical). Other stellar emission lines are less bright, and, taken individually, they do not show the transit signature, while the whole spectra redward of the Lyman-alpha line has enough photons to show a transit signature consistent with the absorption by the planetary disk alone. The transit depth's upper limits in the emission lines are 11.1% for OI at 1305A and 5.5% for CII at 1335A. The presence of an extended exosphere of atomic hydrogen around HD189733b producing 5% absorption of the full unresolved Lyman-alpha line flux shows that the planet is losing gas. The Lyman-alpha light curve is well-fitted by a numerical simulation of escaping hydrogen in which the planetary atoms are pushed by the stellar radiation pressure. We constrain the escape rate of atomic hydrogen to be between 10^9 and 10^{11} g/s and the ionizing extreme UV flux between 2 and 40 times the solar value (1-sigma), with larger escape rates corresponding to larger EUV flux. The best fit is obtained for dM/dt=10^{10} g/s and an EUV flux F_{EUV}=20 times the solar value. HD189733b is the second extrasolar planet for which atmospheric evaporation has been detected.
We present adaptive optics (AO) near-infrared observations of the core of the Tr 14 cluster in the Carina region obtained with the ESO multi-conjugate AO demonstrator, MAD. Our campaign yields AO-corrected observations with an image quality of about 0.2 arcsec across the 2 arcmin field of view, which is the widest AO mosaic ever obtained. We detected almost 2000 sources spanning a dynamic range of 10 mag. The pre-main sequence (PMS) locus in the colour-magnitude diagram is well reproduced by Palla & Stahler isochrones with an age of 3 to 5 1E+05 yr, confirming the very young age of the cluster. We derive a very high (deprojected) central density n0~4.5(+/-0.5) \times 10^4 pc^-3 and estimate the total mass of the cluster to be about ~4.3^{+3.3}_{-1.5} \times 10^3 Msun, although contamination of the field of view might have a significant impact on the derived mass. We show that the pairing process is largely dominated by chance alignment so that physical pairs are difficult to disentangle from spurious ones based on our single epoch observation. Yet, we identify 150 likely bound pairs, 30% of these with a separation smaller than 0.5 arcsec (~1300AU). We further show that at the 2-sigma level massive stars have more companions than lower-mass stars and that those companions are respectively brighter on average, thus more massive. Finally, we find some hints of mass segregation for stars heavier than about 10 Msun. If confirmed, the observed degree of mass segregation could be explained by dynamical evolution, despite the young age of the cluster.
We report the discovery of HAT-P-14b, a fairly massive transiting extrasolar planet orbiting the moderately bright star GSC 3086-00152 (V = 9.98), with a period of P = 4.627669 +/- 0.000005 days. The transit is close to grazing (impact parameter 0.891 +0.007/-0.008) and has a duration of 0.0912 +/- 0.0017 days, with a reference epoch of mid transit of Tc = 2454875.28938 +/- 0.00047 (BJD). The orbit is slightly eccentric (e = 0.107 +/- 0.013), and the orientation is such that occultations are unlikely to occur. The host star is a slightly evolved mid-F dwarf with a mass of 1.386 +/- 0.045 M(Sun), a radius of 1.468 +/- 0.054 R(Sun) effective temperature 6600 +/- 90 K, and a slightly metal-rich composition corresponding to [Fe/H] = +0.11 +/- 0.08. The planet has a mass of 2.232 +/- 0.059 M(Jup) and a radius of 1.150 +/- 0.052 R(Jup), implying a mean density of 1.82 +/- 0.24 g/cm3. Its radius is well reproduced by theoretical models for the 1.3 Gyr age of the system if the planet has a heavy-element fraction of about 50 M(Earth) (7% of its total mass). The near-grazing orientation and other properties of HAT-P-14 make it a favorable transiting system to look for changes in the orbital elements induced by a possible second planet, and also to place meaningful constraints on the presence of sub-Earth mass or Earth mass exomoons, by monitoring it for transit duration variations.
The observation of redshift-dependent coherent orientations of quasar polarisation vectors over cosmological distances in some regions of the sky is reviewed. Based on a good-quality sample of 355 measured quasars, this observation seems to infer the existence of a new effect acting on light propagation on such huge distances. A solution in terms of nearly massless axion-like particles has been proposed in the literature and its current status is discussed.
Neutral hydrogen is ubiquitous, absorbing and emitting 21 cm radiation throughout much of the Universe's history. Active sources of perturbations, such as cosmic strings, would generate simultaneous perturbations in the distribution of neutral hydrogen and in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation from recombination. Moving strings would create wakes leading to 21 cm brightness fluctuations, while also perturbing CMB light via the Gott-Kaiser-Stebbins effect. This would lead to spatial correlations between the 21 cm and CMB anisotropies. Passive sources, like inflationary perturbations, predict no cross correlations prior to the onset of reionization. Thus, observation of any cross correlation between CMB and 21 cm radiation from dark ages would constitute evidence for new physics. We calculate the cosmic string induced correlations between CMB and 21 cm and evaluate their observability.
We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2007if, an overluminous (M_V = -20.4), red (B-V = 0.16 at B-band maximum), slow-rising (t_rise = 24 days) type Ia supernova in a very faint (M_g = -14.10) host galaxy. A spectrum at 5 days past B-band maximum light is a direct match to the super-Chandrasekhar-mass candidate SN Ia 2003fg, showing Si II and C II at ~9000 km/s. A high signal-to-noise co-addition of the SN spectral time series reveals no Na I D absorption, suggesting negligible reddening in the host galaxy, and the late-time color evolution has the same slope as the Lira relation for normal SNe Ia. The ejecta appear to be well mixed, with no strong maximum in I-band and a diversity of iron-peak lines appearing in near-maximum-light spectra. SN2007 if also displays a plateau in the Si II velocity extending as late as +10 days, which we interpret as evidence for an overdense shell in the SN ejecta. We calculate the bolometric light curve of the SN and use it and the \ion{Si}{2} velocity evolution to constrain the mass of the shell and the underlying SN ejecta, and demonstrate that SN2007 if is strongly inconsistent with a Chandrasekhar-mass scenario. Within the context of a "tamped detonation" model appropriate for double-degenerate mergers, and assuming no host extinction, we estimate the total mass of the system to be 2.4 +/- 0.2 solar masses, with 1.6 +/- 0.1 solar masses of nickel-56 and with 0.3-0.5 solar masses in the form of an envelope of unburned carbon/oxygen. Our modeling demonstrates that the kinematics of shell entrainment provide a more efficient mechanism than incomplete nuclear burning for producing the low velocities typical of super-Chandrasekhar-mass SNeIa.
Based on the drift-kinetic theory, we develop a model for particle acceleration and transport in solar flares. The model describes the evolution of the particle distribution function by means of a numerical simulation of the drift-kinetic Vlasov equation, which allows us to directly compare simulation results with observations within an actual parameter range of the solar corona. Using this model, we investigate the time evolution of the electron distribution in a flaring region. The simulation identifies two dominant mechanisms of electron acceleration. One is the betatron acceleration at the top of closed loops, which enhances the electron velocity perpendicular to the magnetic field line. The other is the inertia drift acceleration in open magnetic field lines, which produces antisunward electrons. The resulting velocity space distribution significantly deviates from an isotropic distribution. The former acceleration can be a generation mechanism of electrons that radiate loop-top nonthermal emissions, and the latter be of escaping electrons from the Sun that should be observed by in-situ measurements in interplanetary space and resulting radio bursts through plasma instabilities.
The study of low-degree high-frequency waves in the Sun can provide new insight into the dynamics of the deeper layers of the Sun. Here, we present the analysis of the velocity observations of the Sun obtained from the Michelson and Doppler Imager (MDI) and Global Oscillations at Low Frequency (GOLF) instruments on board Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft for the major flare event of 2003 October 28 during the solar cycle 23. We have applied wavelet transform to the time series of disk-integrated velocity signals from the solar surface using the full-disk Dopplergrams obtained from MDI. The wavelet power spectrum computed from MDI velocity series clearly shows that there is enhancement of high-frequency global waves in the Sun during the flare. We do observe this signature of flare in the Fourier Power Spectrum of these velocity oscillations. However, the analysis of disk-integrated velocity observations obtained from GOLF shows only feeble effect of flare on high-frequency oscillations.
We report new radial velocities of the TrES-4 transiting planetary system, including observations of a full transit, with the High Dispersion Spectrograph of the Subaru 8.2m telescope. Modeling of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect indicates that TrES-4b has closely aligned orbital and stellar spin axes, with $\lambda = 6.3^{\circ} \pm 4.7^{\circ}$. The close spin-orbit alignment angle of TrES-4b seems to argue against a migration history involving planet-planet scattering or Kozai cycles, although there are two nearby faint stars that could be binary companion candidates. Comparison of our out-of-transit data from 4 different runs suggest that the star exhibits radial velocity variability of $\sim$20 ms^-1 in excess of a single Keplerian orbit. Although the cause of the excess radial velocity variability is unknown, we discuss various possibilities including systematic measurement errors, starspots or other intrinsic motions, and additional companions besides the transiting planet.
We present analysis of the three-dimensional shape of intracluster gas in clusters formed in cosmological simulations of the Lambda-CDM cosmology and compare it to the shape of dark matter distribution and the shape of the overall iso-potential surfaces. We find that in simulations with radiative cooling, star formation and stellar feedback (CSF), intracluster gas outside the cluster core is more spherical compared to non-radiative (NR) simulations, while in the core the gas in the CSF runs is more triaxial and has a distinctly oblate shape. The latter reflects the ongoing cooling of gas, which settles into a thick oblate ellipsoid as it loses thermal energy. The shape of the gas in the inner regions of clusters can therefore be a useful diagnostic of gas cooling. We find that gas traces the shape of the underlying potential rather well outside the core, as expected in hydrostatic equilibrium. At smaller radii, however, the gas and potential shapes differ significantly. In the CSF runs, the difference reflects the fact that gas is partly rotationally supported. Interestingly, we find that in non-radiative simulations the difference between gas and potential shape at small radii is due to random gas motions, which make the gas distribution more spherical than the equi-potential surfaces. Finally, we use mock Chandra X-ray maps to show that the differences in shapes observed in three-dimensional distribution of gas are discernible in the ellipticity of X-ray isophotes. Contrasting the ellipticities measured in simulated clusters against observations can therefore constrain the amount of cooling of the intracluster medium and the presence of random gas motions in cluster cores.
Efficiency of electron heating through microinstabilities generated in the transition region of a quasi-perpendicular shock for wide ange of Mach numbers is investigated by utilizing PIC (Particle-In-Cell) simulation and model analyses. In the model analyses saturation levels of effective electron temperature as a result of microinstabilities are estimated from an extended quasilinear (trapping) analysis for relatively low (high) Mach number shocks. Here, MTSI (modified two-stream instability) is assumed to become dominant in low Mach number regime, while BI (Buneman instability) to become dominant in high Mach number regime, respectively. It is revealed that Mach number dependence of the effective electron temperature in the MTSI dominant case is essentially different from that in the BI dominant case. The effective electron temperature through the MTSI does not depend much on the Mach number, although that through the BI increases with the Mach number as in the past studies. The results are confirmed to be consistent with the PIC simulations both in qualitative and quantitative levels. The model analyses predict that a critical Mach number above which steep rise of electron heating rate occurs may arise at the Mach number of a few tens.
Shock modelling predicts an electron density enhancement within the magnetic
precursor of C-shocks. Previous observations of SiO, H13CO+, HN13C and H13CN
toward the young L1448-mm outflow showed an over-excitation of the ion fluid
that was attributed to an electron density enhancement in the precursor. We
re-visit this interpretation and test if it still holds when we consider
different source morphologies and kinetic temperatures for the observed
molecules, and also give some insight on the spatial extent of the electron
density enhancement around L1448-mm.
We estimate the opacities of H13CO+ and HN13C by observing the J=3\to2 lines
of rarer isotopologues to confirm that the emission is optically thin. To model
the excitation of the molecules, we use the large velocity gradient (LVG)
approximation with updated collisional coefficients to i) re- analyse the
observations toward the positions where the over-excitation of H13CO+ has
previously been observed [i.e. toward L1448- mm at offsets (0,0) and (0,-10)],
and ii) to investigate if the electron density enhancement is still required
for the cases of extended and compact emission, and for kinetic temperatures of
up to 400 K. We also report several lines of SiO, HN13C and H13CO+ toward new
positions around this outflow, to investigate the spatial extent of the
over-excitation of the ions in L1448-mm. From the isotopologue observations, we
find that the emission of H13CO+ and HN13C from the precursor is optically thin
if this emission is extended. Using the new collisional coefficients, an
electron density enhancement is still needed to explain the excitation of
H13CO+ for extended emission and for gas temperatures of\le 400 K toward
L1448-mm (0,-10), and possibly also toward L1448-mm (0,0). For compact emission
the data cannot be fitted. We do not find any evidence for the over-excitation
of the ion fluid toward the newly observed positions around L1448-mm.
The observed line emission of SiO, H13CO+ and HN13C toward L1448-mm (0,0) and
(0,-10) is consistent with an electron density enhancement in the precursor
component, if this emission is spatially extended. This is also true for the
case of high gas temperatures (\le400 K) toward the (0,-10) offset. The
electron density enhancement seems to be restricted to the southern, redshifted
lobe of the L1448-mm outflow. Interferometric images of the line emission of
these molecules are needed to confirm the spatial extent of the over-excitation
of the ions and thus, of the electron density enhancement in the magnetic
precursor of L1448-mm.
Correlations are studied between the power density of Alfv\'en-cyclotron waves (having frequencies between 0.02 and 2 Hz) and the ratio of the perpendicular and parallel temperature of the protons. The wave power spectrum is evaluated from high-resolution 3D magnetic field vector components, and the ion temperatures are derived from the velocity distribution functions as measured in fast solar wind during the Helios-2 primary mission at radial distances from the Sun between 0.3 AU and 0.9 AU. From our statistical analysis, we obtain a striking correlation between the increases in the proton temperature ratio and enhancements in the wave power spectrum. Near the Sun the transverse part of the wave power is often found to be by more than an order of magnitude higher than its longitudinal counterpart. Also the measured ion temperature anisotropy appears to be limited by the theoretical threshold value for the ion-cyclotron instability. This suggests that high-frequency Alfv\'{e}n waves regulate the proton temperature anisotropy.
The IceCube observatory is the first cubic kilometre scale instrument in the field of high-energy neutrino astronomy and cosmic rays. In 2009, following five successful deployment seasons, IceCube consisted of 59 strings of optical modules in the South Pole ice, together with 118 air shower detectors in the IceTop surface array. The range of physics topics includes neutrino signals from astrophysical sources, dark matter, exotic particle physics, cosmic rays, and atmospheric neutrinos. The current IceCube status and selected results are described. Anticipated future developments are also discussed, in particular the Deep Core low energy subarray which was recently deployed.
We investigate cosmological constraints on an energy density contribution of elastic dark matter self-interactions characterized by the mass of the exchange particle and coupling constant. Because of the expansion behaviour in a Robertson-Walker metric we investigate self-interacting dark matter which is warm in the case of thermal relics. The scaling behaviour of dark matter self-interaction energy density shows that it can be the dominant contribution (only) in the very early universe. Thus its impact on primordial nucleosynthesis is used to restrict the interaction strength, which we find to be at least as strong as the strong interaction. Furthermore we explore dark matter decoupling in a self-interaction dominated universe, which is done for the self-interacting warm dark matter as well as for collisionless cold dark matter in a two component scenario. We find that strong dark matter self-interactions do not contradict super-weak inelastic interactions between self-interacting dark matter and baryonic matter and that the natural scale of collisionless cold dark matter decoupling exceeds the weak scale and depends linearly on the particle mass. Finally structure formation analysis reveals a linear growing solution during self-interaction domination; however, only non-cosmological scales are enhanced.
The fidelity of radio astronomical images is generally assessed by practical experience, i.e. using rules of thumb, although some aspects and cases have been treated rigorously. In this paper we present a mathematical framework capable of describing the fundamental limits of radio astronomical imaging problems. Although the data model assumes a single snapshot observation, i.e. variations in time and frequency are not considered, this framework is sufficiently general to allow extension to synthesis observations. Using tools from statistical signal processing and linear algebra, we discuss the tractability of the imaging and deconvolution problem, the redistribution of noise in the map by the imaging and deconvolution process, the covariance of the image values due to propagation of calibration errors and thermal noise and the upper limit on the number of sources tractable by self calibration. The combination of covariance of the image values and the number of tractable sources determines the effective noise floor achievable in the imaging process. The effective noise provides a better figure of merit than dynamic range since it includes the spatial variations of the noise. Our results provide handles for improving the imaging performance by design of the array.
A short overview is presented of current issues concerning the production and evolution of Li, Be and B in the Milky Way. In particular, the observed "primary-like" evolution of Be is re-assessed in the light of a novel idea: it is argued that Galactic Cosmic Rays are accelerated from the wind material of rotating massive stars, hit by the forward shock of the subsequent supernova explosions. The pre-galactic levels of both Li isotopes remain controversial at present, making it difficult to predict their Galactic evolution. A quantitative estimate is provided of the contributions of various candidate sources to the solar abundance of Li.
Explosive astrophysical systems, such as supernovae or compact star binary mergers, provide conditions where strange quark matter can appear. The high degree of isospin asymmetry and temperatures of several MeV in such systems may cause a transition to the quark phase already around saturation density. Observable signals from the appearance of quark matter can be predicted and studied in astrophysical simulations. As input in such simulations, an equation of state with an integrated quark matter phase transition for a large temperature, density and proton fraction range is required. Additionally, restrictions from heavy ion data and pulsar observation must be considered. In this work we present such an approach. We implement a quark matter phase transition in a hadronic equation of state widely used for astrophysical simulations and discuss its compatibility with heavy ion collisions and pulsar data. Furthermore, we review the recently studied implications of the QCD phase transition during the early post-bounce evolution of core-collapse supernovae and introduce the effects from strong interactions to increase the maximum mass of hybrid stars. In the MIT bag model, together with the strange quark mass and the bag constant, the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ provides a parameter to set the beginning and extension of the quark phase and with this the mass and radius of hybrid stars.
We have combined the thermo-chemical disc code ProDiMo with the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code MCFOST to calculate a grid of ~300000 circumstellar disc models, systematically varying 11 stellar, disc and dust parameters including the total disc mass, several disc shape parameters and the dust-to-gas ratio. For each model, dust continuum and line radiative transfer calculations are carried out for 29 far IR, sub-mm and mm lines of [OI], [CII], 12CO and o/p-H2O under 5 inclinations. The grid allows to study the influence of the input parameters on the observables, to make statistical predictions for different types of circumstellar discs, and to find systematic trends and correlations between the parameters, the continuum fluxes, and the line fluxes. The model grid, comprising the calculated disc temperatures and chemical structures, the computed SEDs, line fluxes and profiles, will be used in particular for the data interpretation of the Herschel open time key programme GASPS. The calculated line fluxes show a strong dependence on the assumed UV excess of the central star, and on the disc flaring. The fraction of models predicting [OI] and [CII] fine-structure lines fluxes above Herschel/PACS and Spica/SAFARI detection limits are calculated as function of disc mass. The possibility of deriving the disc gas mass from line observations is discussed.
Our aim is to study the photospheric flux distribution of a twisted flux tube that emerges from the solar interior. We also report on the eruption of a new flux rope when the emerging tube rises into a pre-existing magnetic field in the corona. To study the evolution, we use 3D numerical simulations by solving the time-dependent and resistive MHD equations. We qualitatively compare our numerical results with MDI magnetograms of emerging flux at the solar surface. We find that the photospheric magnetic flux distribution consists of two regions of opposite polarities and elongated magnetic tails on the two sides of the polarity inversion line (PIL), depending on the azimuthal nature of the emerging field lines and the initial field strength of the rising tube. Their shape is progressively deformed due to plasma motions towards the PIL. Our results are in qualitative agreement with observational studies of magnetic flux emergence in active regions (ARs). Moreover, if the initial twist of the emerging tube is small, the photospheric magnetic field develops an undulating shape and does not possess tails. In all cases, we find that a new flux rope is formed above the original axis of the emerging tube that may erupt into the corona, depending on the strength of the ambient field.
Star clusters are studied widely both as benchmarks for stellar evolution models and in their own right. Cluster age distributions and mass distributions within galaxies are probes of star formation histories, and of cluster formation and disruption processes. The vast majority of clusters in the Universe is small, and it is well known that the integrated fluxes and colours of all but the most massive ones have broad probability distributions, due to small numbers of bright stars. This paper goes beyond the description of predicted probability distributions, and presents results of the analysis of cluster energy distributions in an explicitly stochastic context. The method developed is Bayesian. It provides posterior probability distributions in the age-mass-extinction space, using multi-wavelength photometric observations and a large collection of Monte-Carlo simulations of clusters of finite stellar masses. The main priors are the assumed intrinsic distributions of current mass and current age for clusters in a galaxy. Both UBVI and UBVIK data sets are considered, and the study conducted in this paper is restricted to the solar metallicity. We first use the collection of simulations to reassess and explain errors arising from the use of standard analysis methods, which are based on continuous population synthesis models: systematic errors on ages and random errors on masses are large, while systematic errors on masses tend to be smaller. The age-mass distributions obtained after analysis of a synthetic sample are very similar to those found for real galaxies in the literature. The Bayesian approach on the other hand, is very successful in recovering the input ages and masses over ages ranging between 20 Myr and 1.5 Gyr, with only limited systematics that we explain. Taking stochastic effects into account is important, more important for instance than the choice of adding or removing near-IR data in many cases. We found no immediately obvious reason to reject priors inspired by previous (standard) analyses of cluster populations in galaxies, i.e. cluster distributions that scale with mass as $M^{-2}$ and are uniform on a logarithmic age scale.
Massive stars are of interest as progenitors of super novae, i.e. neutron stars and black holes, which can be sources of gravitational waves. Recent population synthesis models can predict neutron star and gravitational wave observations but deal with a fixed super nova rate or an assumed initial mass function for the population of massive stars. Here we investigate those massive stars, which are supernova progenitors, i.e. with O and early B type stars, and also all super giants within 3kpc. We restrict our sample to those massive stars detected both in 2MASS and observed by Hipparcos, i.e. only those stars with parallax and precise photometry. To determine the luminosities we calculated the extinctions from published multi-colour photometry, spectral types, luminosity class, all corrected for multiplicity and recently revised Hipparcos distances. We use luminosities and temperatures to estimate the masses and ages of these stars using different models from different authors. Having estimated the luminosities of all our stars within 3kpc, in particular for all O- and early B-type stars, we have determined the median and mean luminosities for all spectral types for luminosity classes I, III, and V. Our luminosity values for super giants deviate from earlier results: Previous work generally overestimates distances and luminosities compared to our data, this is likely due to Hipparcos parallaxes (generally more accurate and larger than previous ground-based data) and the fact that many massive stars have recently been resolved into multiples of lower masses and luminosities. From luminosities and effective temperatures we derived masses and ages using mass tracks and isochrones from different authors. From masses and ages we estimated lifetimes and derived a lower limit for the supernova rate of ~20 events/Myr averaged over the next 10 Myrs within 600 pc from the sun. These data are then used to search for areas in the sky with higher likelihood for a supernova or gravitational wave event (like OB associations).
We present timing analyses of eight X-ray light curves and one optical/UV light curve of the nova V4743 Sgr (2002) taken by CHANDRA and XMM on days after outburst: 50 (early hard emission phase), 180, 196, 302, 371, 526 (super soft source, SSS, phase), and 742 and 1286 (quiescent emission phase). We have studied the multifrequency nature and time evolution of the dominant peak at ~0.75 mHz using the standard Lomb-Scargle method and a 2-D sine fitting method. We found a double structure of the peak and its overtone for days 180 and 196. The two frequencies were closer together on day 196, suggesting that the difference between the two peaks is gradually decreasing. For the later observations, only a single frequency can be detected, which is likely due to the exposure times being shorter than the beat period between the two peaks, especially if they are moving closer together. The observations on days 742 and 1286 are long enough to detect two frequencies with the difference found for day 196, but we confidently find only a single frequency. We found significant changes in the oscillation frequency and amplitude. We have derived blackbody temperatures from the SSS spectra, and the evolution of changes in frequency and blackbody temperature suggests that the 0.75-mHz peak was modulated by pulsations. Later, after nuclear burning had ceased, the signal stabilised at a single frequency, although the X-ray frequency differs from the optical/UV frequency obtained consistently from the OM onboard XMM and from ground-based observations. We believe that the late frequency is the white dwarf rotation and that the ratio of spin/orbit period strongly supports that the system is an intermediate polar.
Theoretical and observational studies on the turbulence of the interstellar medium developed fast in the past decades. The theory of supersonic magnetized turbulence, as well as the understanding of projection effects of observed quantities, are still in progress. In this work we explore the characterization of the turbulent cascade and its damping from observational spectral line profiles. We address the difference of ion and neutral velocities by clarifying the nature of the turbulence damping in the partially ionized. We provide theoretical arguments in favor of the explanation of the larger Doppler broadening of lines arising from neutral species compared to ions as arising from the turbulence damping of ions at larger scales. Also, we compute a number of MHD numerical simulations for different turbulent regimes and explicit turbulent damping, and compare both the 3-dimensional distributions of velocity and the synthetic line profile distributions. From the numerical simulations, we place constraints on the precision with which one can measure the 3D dispersion depending on the turbulence sonic Mach number. We show that no universal correspondence between the 3D velocity dispersions measured in the turbulent volume and minima of the 2D velocity dispersions available through observations exist. For instance, for subsonic turbulence the correspondence is poor at scales much smaller than the turbulence injection scale, while for supersonic turbulence the correspondence is poor for the scales comparable with the injection scale. We provide a physical explanation of the existence of such a 2D-3D correspondence and discuss the uncertainties in evaluating the damping scale of ions that can be obtained from observations. However, we show that the statistics of velocity dispersion from observed line profiles can provide the spectral index and the energy transfer rate of turbulence. Also, comparing two similar simulations with different viscous coefficients it was possible to constrain the turbulent cut-off scale. This may especially prove useful since it is believed that ambipolar diffusion may be one of the dominant dissipative mechanism in star-forming regions. In this case, the determination of the ambipolar diffusion scale may be used as a complementary method for the determination of magnetic field intensity in collapsing cores. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of a new approach to magnetic field measurement proposed by Li & Houde (2008).
We study the emergence of a toroidal flux tube into the solar atmosphere and its interaction with a pre-existing field of an active region. We investigate the emission of jets as a result of repeated reconnection events between colliding magnetic fields. We perform 3D simulations by solving the time-dependent, resistive MHD equations in a highly stratified atmosphere. A small active region field is constructed by the emergence of a toroidal magnetic flux tube. A current structure is build up and reconnection sets in when new emerging flux comes into contact with the ambient field of the active region. The topology of the magnetic field around the current structure is drastically modified during reconnection. The modification results in a formation of new magnetic systems that eventually collide and reconnect. We find that reconnection jets are taking place in successive recurrent phases in directions perpendicular to each other, while in each phase they release magnetic energy and hot plasma into the solar atmosphere. After a series of recurrent appearance of jets, the system approaches an equilibrium where the efficiency of the reconnection is substantially reduced. We deduce that the emergence of new magnetic flux introduces a perturbation to the active region field, which in turn causes reconnection between neighboring magnetic fields and the release of the trapped energy in the form of jet-like emissions. This is the first time that self-consistent recurrency of jets in active regions is shown in a three-dimensional experiment of magnetic flux emergence.
This paper is devoted to Radial Orbit Instability in the context of self-gravitating dynamical systems. We present this instability in the new frame of Dissipation-Induced Instability theory. This allows us to obtain a rather simple proof based on energetics arguments and to clarify the associated physical mechanism.
Context: Phase referencing is a standard calibration technique in radio
interferometry, particularly suited for the detection of weak sources close to
the sensitivity limits of the interferometers. However, effects from a changing
atmosphere and inaccuracies in the correlator model may affect the
phase-referenced images, leading to wrong estimates of source flux densities
and positions. A systematic observational study of signal decoherence in phase
referencing, and its effects in the image plane, has not been performed yet.
Aims: We have systematically studied how the signal coherence in
Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry (VLBI) observations is affected by a
phase-reference calibration at different frequencies and for different
calibrator-to-target separations. The results obtained should be of interest
for a correct interpretation of many phase-referenced observations with VLBI.
Methods: We have observed a set of 13 strong sources (the S5 polar cap
sample) at 8.4 and 15 GHz in phase-reference mode, with 32 different
calibrator/target combinations spanning angular separations between 1.5 and
20.5 degrees. We have obtained phase-referenced images and studied how the
dynamic range and peak flux density depend on observing frequency and source
separation.
Results: We have obtained dynamic ranges and peak flux densities of the
phase-referenced images as a function of frequency and separation from the
calibrator. We have compared our results with models and phenomenological
equations previously reported.
Conclusions: The dynamic range of the phase-referenced images is strongly
limited by the atmosphere at all frequencies and for all source separations.
The limiting dynamic range is inversely proportional to the sine of the
calibrator-to-target separation. Not surpriseingly, we also find that the peak
flux densities, relative to those obtained with the self-calibrated images,
decrease with source separation.
We present CO observations of 9 ULIRGs at z~2 with S(24\mu m)>1mJy, previously confirmed with the mid-IR spectra in the Spitzer First Look Survey. All targets are required to have accurate redshifts from Keck/GEMINI near-IR spectra. Using the Plateau de Bure millimeter-wave Interferometer (PdBI) at IRAM, we detect CO J(3-2) [7 objects] or J(2-1) [1 object] line emission from 8 sources with integrated intensities Ic ~(5-9)sigma. The CO detected sources have a variety of mid-IR spectra, including strong PAH, deep silicate absorption and power-law continuum, implying that these molecular gas rich objects at z~2 could be either starbursts or dust obscured AGNs. The measured line luminosity L'[CO] is (1.28-3.77)e+10[K km/s pc^2]. The averaged molecular gas mass M(H2) is 1.7e+10Msun, assuming CO-to-H2 conversion factor of 0.8Msun/[K km/s pc^2]. Three sources (33%) -- MIPS506, MIPS16144 & MIPS8342 -- have double peak velocity profiles. The CO double peaks in MIPS506 and MIPS16144 show spatial separations of 45kpc and 10.9kpc, allowing the estimates of the dynamical masses of 3.2e+11*sin^(-2)(i)Msun and 5.4e+11*sin^{-2}(i)Msun respectively. The implied gas fraction, M(gas)/M(dyn), is 3% and 4%, assuming an average inclination angle. Finally, the analysis of the HST/NIC2 images, mid-IR spectra and IR SED revealed that most of our sources are mergers, containing dust obscured AGNs dominating the luminosities at (3-6)um. Together, these results provide some evidence suggesting SMGs, bright 24um z~2 ULIRGs and QSOs could represent three different stages of a single evolutionary sequence, however, a complete physical model would require much more data, especially high spatial resolution spectroscopy.
Despite all the studies, the geometry of the wind at the origin of the blueshifted broad absorption lines (BAL) observed in nearly 20% of quasars still remains a matter of debate. We want to see if a two-component polar+equatorial wind geometry can reproduce the typical BAL profiles observed in these objects. We built a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code (called MCRT) to simulate the line profiles formed in a polar+equatorial wind in which the photons, emitted from a spherically symmetric core are resonantly scattered. Our goal is to reproduce typical C IV line profiles observed in BAL quasars and to identify the parameters governing the line profiles. The two-component wind model appears to be efficient in reproducing the BAL profiles from the P Cygni-type profiles to the more complex ones. Some profiles can also be reproduced with a pole-on view. Our simulations provide evidence of a high-velocity rotation of the wind around the polar axis in BAL quasars with non P Cygni-type line profiles.
As members of the instrument team for the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer
(ACIS) on NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and as Chandra General Observers, we
have developed a wide variety of data analysis methods that we believe are
useful to the Chandra community, and have constructed a significant body of
publicly-available software (the ACIS Extract package) addressing important
ACIS data and science analysis tasks. This paper seeks to describe these data
analysis methods for two purposes: to document the data analysis work performed
in our own science projects, and to help other ACIS observers judge whether
these methods may be useful in their own projects (regardless of what tools and
procedures they choose to implement those methods).
The ACIS data analysis recommendations we offer here address much of the
workflow in a typical ACIS project, including data preparation, point source
detection via both wavelet decomposition and image reconstruction, masking
point sources, identification of diffuse structures, event extraction for both
point and diffuse sources, merging extractions from multiple observations,
nonparametric broad-band photometry, analysis of low-count spectra, and
automation of these tasks. Many of the innovations presented here arise from
several, often interwoven, complications that are found in many Chandra
projects: large numbers of point sources (hundreds to several thousand), faint
point sources, misaligned multiple observations of an astronomical field, point
source crowding, and scientifically relevant diffuse emission.
We present optical spectroscopy of the microquasar SS433 covering a significant fraction of a precessional cycle of its jet axis. The components of the prominent stationary H-alpha and H-beta lines are mainly identified as arising from three emitting regions: (i) a super-Eddington accretion disc wind, in the form of a broad component accounting for most of the mass loss from the system, (ii) a circumbinary disc of material that we presume is being excreted through the binary's L2 point, and (iii) the accretion disc itself as two remarkably persistent components. The accretion disc components move with a Keplerian velocity of ~600 km/s in the outer region of the disc. A direct result of this decomposition is the determination of the accretion disc size, whose outer radius attains ~8 R_sun in the case of Keplerian orbits around a black hole mass of 10 M_sun. We determine an upper limit for the accretion disc inner to outer radius ratio in SS433, R_in/R_out ~ 0.2, independent of the mass of the compact object. The Balmer decrements, H-alpha/H-beta, are extracted from the appropriate stationary emission lines for each component of the system. The physical parameters of the gaseous components are derived. The circumbinary ring decrement seems to be quite constant throughout precessional phase, implying a constant electron density of log N_e(cm^-3) ~ 11.5 for the circumbinary disc. The accretion disc wind shows a larger change in its decrements exhibiting a clear dependence on precessional phase, implying a sinusoid variation in its electron density log N_e(cm^-3) along our line-of-sight between 10 and 13. This dependence of density on direction suggests that the accretion disc wind is polloidal in nature.
The Perseus galaxy cluster is known to present multiple and misaligned pairs of cavities seen in X-rays, as well as twisted kiloparsec-scale jets at radio wavelengths; both morphologies suggest that the AGN jet is subject to precession. In this work we performed 3D hydrodynamical simulations of the interaction between a precessing AGN jet and the warm intracluster medium plasma, which dynamics is coupled to a NFW dark matter gravitational potential. The AGN jet inflates cavities that become buoyantly unstable and rise up out of the cluster core. We found that under certain circumstances precession can originate multiple pairs of bubbles. For the physical conditions in the Perseus cluster, multiple pairs of bubbles are obtained for a jet precession opening angle > 40 degrees acting for at least three precession periods, reproducing well both radio and X-ray maps. Based on such conditions, assuming that the Bardeen-Peterson effect is dominant, we studied the evolution of the precession opening angle of this system. We were able to constrain the ratio between the accretion disc and black hole angular momenta as 0.7 - 1.4. We were also able to constrain the present precession angle to 30 - 40 degrees, as well as the approximate age of the inflated bubbles to 100 - 150 Myrs.
We investigate the observational signatures of the holographic dark energy model in this paper, including both the original model and a model with an interaction term between the dark energy and dark matter. We first delineate the dynamical behavior of such models, especially whether they would have a "Big Rip" for different parameters, then we use several recent observational data to give more reliable and tighter constraints on the models. The results favor the equation of state of dark energy crossing -1, and the universe ends in the "Big Rip" phase. By using the Bayesian evidence as a model selection criterion to make the model comparison, we find that the holographic dark energy models are mildly favored by the observations compared with the $% \mathrm{\Lambda CDM}$ model.
It has recently been proposed that the large-scale bias of dark matter halos depends sensitively on primordial non-Gaussianity of the local form. In this paper we point out that the strong scale dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias imprints a distinct signature on the covariance of cluster counts. We find that using the full covariance of cluster counts results in improvements on constraints on the non-Gaussian parameter f_NL of three (one) orders of magnitude relative to cluster counts (counts + clustering variance) constraints alone. We forecast f_NL constraints for the upcoming Dark Energy Survey in the presence of uncertainties in the mass-observable relation, halo bias, and photometric redshifts. We find that the DES can yield constraints on non-Gaussianity of sigma(f_NL) ~ 1-5 even for relatively conservative assumptions regarding systematics. Excess of correlations of cluster counts on scales of hundreds of megaparsecs would represent a smoking gun signature of primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type.
We present a unified framework for the study of late time cosmic acceleration. Using methods of effective field theory, we show that existing proposals for late time acceleration can be subsumed in a single framework, rather than many compartmentalized theories. We construct the most general action consistent with symmetry principles, derive the back- ground and perturbation evolution equations, and demonstrate that for special choices of our parameters we can reproduce results already existing in the literature. Lastly, we lay the foundation for future work placing phenomenological constraints on the parameters of the effective theory. Although in this paper we focus on late time acceleration, our construction also generalizes the effective field theory of inflation to the scalar-tensor and multi-field case.
The stability of de Sitter spacetime in Horava-Lifshitz theory of gravity with projectability but without detailed balance condition is studied. It is found that, in contrast to the case of the Minkowski background, the spin-0 graviton now is stable for any given $\xi$, and free of ghost for $\xi \le 0$ in the infrared limit, where $\xi$ is the dynamical coupling constant.
The Higgs portal of the Standard Model provides the opportunity for coupling to a very light scalar field $\phi$ via the super-renormalizable operator $\phi(H^\dagger H)$. This allows for the existence of a very light scalar dark matter that has coherent interaction with the Standard Model particles and yet has its mass protected against radiative corrections. We analyze ensuing constraints from the fifth-force measurements, along with the cosmological requirements. We find that the detectable level of the fifth-force can be achieved in models with low inflationary scales, and certain amount of fine-tuning in the initial deviation of $\phi$ from its minimum.
Photon regeneration experiments searching for signatures of oscillations of photons into hypothetical very weakly interacting ultra-light particles, such as axions, axion-like and hidden-sector particles, have improved their sensitivity considerably in recent years. Important progress in laser and detector technology as well as recycling of available magnets from accelerators may allow a big further step in sensitivity such that, for the first time, laser light shining through a wall experiments will explore territory in parameter space that has not been excluded yet by astrophysics and cosmology. We review these challenges and opportunities for the next generation experiments.
These notes cover some of the topics associated with direct detection of dark matter at an introductory level. The general principles of dark matter search are summarized. The current status of some experiments is described, with an emphasis on bolometric and noble liquid techniques. Plots and illustrations associated to these notes may be found on transparencies presented during the lecture, on the web site of Gif school 2009.
We consider the coherent state approach to non-commutativity, and we derive from it an effective quantum scalar field theory. We show how the non-commutativity can be taken in account by a suitable modification of the Klein-Gordon product, and of the equal-time commutation relations. We prove that, in curved space, the Bogolubov coefficients are unchanged, so the number density of the produced particle is the same as for the commutative case. What changes though is the associated energy density, and this offers a simple solution to the transplanckian problem.
In this paper we present a path integral formulation of stochastic inflation, in which volume weighting can easily be implemented. With an in-depth study of inflation in a quartic potential, we investigate how the inflaton evolves and how inflation typically ends both with and without volume weighting. Perhaps unexpectedly, complex histories sometimes emerge with volume weighting. The reward for this excursion into the complex plane is an insight into how volume-weighted inflation both loses memory of initial conditions and ends via slow-roll. The slow-roll end of inflation mitigates certain "Youngness Paradox"-type criticisms of the volume-weighted paradigm. Thus it is perhaps time to rehabilitate proper time volume weighting as a viable measure for answering at least some interesting cosmological questions.
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