We performed a spectroscopic galaxy survey, complete to $m_{F814W}\leq20.3$ ($L_B>0.15L_B^{\star}$ at z=0.3), within 100x100'' of the quasar Q1127-145 ($z_{em}=1.18$). The VLT/UVES quasar spectrum contains three $z_{abs}<0.33$ MgII absorption systems. We obtained eight new galaxy redshifts, adding to the four previously known, and galaxy star formation rates (SFRs) and metallicities were computed where possible. A strong MgII system [$W_r(2796)=1.8$A], which is a known damped Ly$\alpha$ absorber (DLA), had three previously identified galaxies; we found two additional galaxies associated with this system. These five galaxies form a group with diverse properties, such as a luminosity range of $0.04\leq L_B\leq0.63 L_B^{\star}$, an impact parameter range of $17\leq D \leq 241$ kpc and velocity dispersion of $\sigma$=115 km/s. The DLA group galaxy redshifts span beyond the 350 km/s velocity spread of the metallic absorption lines of the DLA itself. The two brightest group galaxies have SFRs of $\sim$few $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and should not have strong winds. We have sufficient spectroscopic information to directly compare three of the five group galaxies' (emission-line) metallicities with the DLA (absorption) metallicity: the DLA metallicity is 1/10th solar, substantially lower than the three galaxies' which range between less than 1/2 solar to solar metallicity. HST/WFPC-2 imaging shows perturbed morphologies for the three brightest group galaxies, with tidal tails extending $\sim$25 kpc. We favor a scenario where the DLA absorption originates from tidal debris in the group environment. Another absorber exhibits weak MgII absorption [$W_r(2796)$=0.03A] and had a previously identified galaxy at a similar redshift. We have identified a second galaxy associated with this system. Both galaxies have solar metallicities and unperturbed morphologies in the HST/WFPC-2 image. The SFR of one galaxy is much lower than expected for strong outflows. Finally, we have also identified five galaxies at large impact parameters with no associated MgII absorption [$W_r(2796) \lesssim 5.7$mA, 3$\sigma$] in the spectrum of Q1127-145.
Massive galaxies in the early Universe have been shown to be forming stars at surprisingly high rates. Prominent examples are dust-obscured galaxies which are luminous when observed at sub-millimeter (sub-mm) wavelengths and which may be forming stars at rates upto 1,000Mo/yr. These intense bursts of star formation are believed to be driven by mergers between gas rich galaxies. However, probing the properties of individual star-forming regions within these galaxies is beyond the spatial resolution and sensitivity of even the largest telescopes at present. Here, we report observations of the sub-mm galaxy SMMJ2135-0102 at redshift z=2.3259 which has been gravitationally magnified by a factor of 32 by a massive foreground galaxy cluster lens. This cosmic magnification, when combined with high-resolution sub-mm imaging, resolves the star-forming regions at a linear scale of just ~100 parsecs. We find that the luminosity densities of these star-forming regions are comparable to the dense cores of giant molecular clouds in the local Universe, but they are ~100x larger and 10^7 times more luminous. Although vigorously star-forming, the underlying physics of the star formation processes at z~2 appears to be similar to that seen in local galaxies even though the energetics are unlike anything found in the present-day Universe.
Context. The young active star BD +20 1790 is believed to host a substellar
companion, revealed by radial-velocity measurements that detected the reflex
motion induced on the parent star.
Aims. A complete characterisation of the radial-velocity signal is necessary
in order to assess its nature.
Methods. We used CORALIE spectrograph to obtain precise (~10 m/s) velocity
measurements on this active star, while characterizing the bisector span
variations. Particular attention was given to correctly sample both the
proposed planetary orbital period, of 7.8 days, and the stellar rotation
period, of 2.4 days.
Results. A smaller radial-velocity signal (with peak-to-peak variations <500
m/s) than had been reported previously was detected, with different amplitude
on two different campaigns. A periodicity similar to the rotational period is
found on the data, as well as a clear correlation between radial-velocities and
bisector span. This evidence points towards a stellar origin of the
radial-velocity variations of the star instead of a barycentric movement of the
star, and repudiates the reported detection of a hot-Jupiter.
Very recent analysis of the radio spectral index and high energy observations have shown that the two-peak accretion/ejection microquasar model applies for LSI+61303. The fast variations of the position angle observed with MERLIN and confirmed by consecutive VLBA images must therefore be explained in the context of the microquasar scenario. We calculate what could be the precessional period for the accretion disk in LSI+61303 under tidal forces of the Be star (P_{tidal-forces}) or under the effect of frame dragging produced by the rotation of the compact object (P_{Lense-Thirring}). P_{tidal-forces}$ is more than one year. P_{Lense-Thirring} depends on the truncated radius of the accretion disk, $R_{tr}$. We determined R_{tr}=300 r_g for observed QPO at 2 Hz. This value is much above the few $r_g$, where the Bardeen-Petterson effect should align the midplane of the disk. For this truncated radius of the accretion disk P_{Lense-Thirring} for a slow rotator results in a few days. Therefore, Lense-Thirring precession induced by a slowly rotating compact object could be compatible with the daily variations of the ejecta angle observed in LSI+61303.
We have assembled new Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera observations of the mysterious binary star Epsilon Aurigae, along with archival far-ultraviolet to mid-infrared data, to form an unprecedented spectral energy distribution spanning three orders of magnitude in wavelength from 0.1 microns to 100 microns. The observed spectral energy distribution can be reproduced using a three component model consisting of a 2.2+0.9/-0.8 Msun F type post-asymptotic giant branch star, and a 5.9+/-0.8 Msun B5+/-1 type main sequence star that is surrounded by a geometrically thick, but partially transparent, disk of gas and dust. At the nominal HIPPARCOS parallax distance of 625 pc, the model normalization yields a radius of 135+/-5 Rsun for the F star, consistent with published interferometric observations. The dusty disk is constrained to be viewed at an inclination of i > 87 deg, and has effective temperature of 550+/-50 K with an outer radius of 3.8 AU and a thickness of 0.95 AU. The dust content of the disk must be largely confined to grains larger than ~10 microns in order to produce the observed gray optical-infrared eclipses and the lack of broad dust emission features in the archival Spitzer mid-infrared spectra. The total mass of the disk, even considering a potential gaseous contribution in addition to the dust that produces the observed infrared excess, is << 1 Msun. We discuss evolutionary scenarios for this system that could lead to the current status of the stellar components and suggests possibilities for its future evolution, as well as potential observational tests of our model.
We study compressible MHD turbulence, which holds key to many astrophysical processes, including star formation and cosmic ray propagation. To account for the variations of the magnetic field in the strongly turbulent fluid we use wavelet decomposition of the turbulent velocity field into Alfven, slow and fast modes, which presents an extension of the Cho & Lazarian (2003) decomposition approach based on Fourier transforms. The wavelets allow to follow the variations of the local direction of magnetic field and therefore improve the quality of the decomposition compared to the Fourier transforms which are done in the mean field reference frame. For each resulting component we calculate spectra and two-point statistics such as longitudinal and transverse structure functions, as well as, higher order intermittency statistics. In addition, we perform the Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition of the velocity field into the incompressible and compressible parts and analyze these components. We find that the turbulence intermittency is different for different components and we show that the intermittency statistics depend on whether the phenomenon was studied in the global reference frame related to the mean magnetic field or it was studied in the frame defined by the local magnetic field. The dependencies of the measures we obtained are different for different components of velocity, for instance, we show that while the Alfven mode intermittency changes marginally with the Mach number the intermittency of the fast mode is substantially affected by the change.
We investigate the effect of the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by kinks on infinite cosmic strings, whose spectrum was derived in our previous work, on the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. We find that the B-mode polarization due to kinks is comparable to that induced by the motion of the string network and hence the contribution of GWs from kinks is important for estimating the B-mode power spectrum originating from cosmic strings. If the tension of cosmic strings \mu is large enough i.e., G\mu >~ 10^{-8}, B-mode polarization induced by cosmic strings can be detected by future CMB experiments.
We present optical and near infrared observations of GRB 080325 putatively classified as a "Dark GRB". Near-infrared observations with Subaru/MOIRCS provided a clear detection of afterglow in Ks band, although no optical counterpart was reported. The flux ratio of rest-wavelength optical to X-ray bands of the afterglow indicates that the dust extinction along the line of sight to the afterglow is Av = 2.5 - 10 mag. This large extinction is probably the major reason for optical faintness of GRB 080325. The J - Ks color of the host galaxy, (J - Ks = 1.3 in AB magnitude), is significantly redder than those for typical GRB hosts previously identified. In addition to J and Ks bands, optical images in B, Rc, i', and z' bands with Subaru/Suprime-Cam were obtained at about one year after the burst, and a photometric redshift of the host is estimated to be z_{photo} = 1.9. The host luminosity is comparable to L^{*} at z \sim 2 in contrast to the sub-L^{*} property of typical GRB hosts at lower redshifts. The best-fit stellar population synthesis model for the host shows that a large dust extinction (Av = 0.8 mag) attributes to the red nature of the host and that the host galaxy is massive (M_{*} = 7.0 \times 10^{10} Msun) which is one of the most massive GRB hosts previously identified. By assuming that the mass-metallicity relation for star-forming galaxies at z \sim 2 is applicable for the GRB host, this large stellar mass suggests the high metallicity environment around GRB 080325, consistent with inferred large extinction.
In this work we study the contribution of magnetic fields to the Sunyaev Zeldovich (SZ) effect in the intracluster medium. In particular we calculate the SZ angular power spectrum and the central temperature decrement. The effect of magnetic fields is included in the hydrostatic equilibrium equation by splitting the Lorentz force into two terms one being the force due to magnetic pressure which acts outwards and the other being magnetic tension which acts inwards. A perturbative approach is adopted to solve for the gas density profile for weak magnetic fields (< 4 micro G}). This leads to an enhancement of the gas density in the central regions for nearly radial magnetic field configurations. Previous works had considered the force due to magnetic pressure alone which is the case only for a special set of field configurations. However, we see that there exists possible sets of configurations of ICM magnetic fields where the force due to magnetic tension will dominate. Subsequently, this effect is extrapolated for typical field strengths (~ 10 micro G) and scaling arguments are used to estimate the angular power due to secondary anisotropies at cluster scales. In particular we find that it is possible to explain the excess power reported by CMB experiments like CBI, BIMA, ACBAR at l > 2000 with sigma_8 ~ 0.8 (WMAP 5 year data) for typical cluster magnetic fields. In addition we also see that the magnetic field effect on the SZ temperature decrement is more pronounced for low mass clusters (<T> ~ 2 keV). Future SZ detections of low mass clusters at few arc second resolution will be able to probe this effect more precisely. Thus, it will be instructive to explore the implications of this model in greater detail in future works.
Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) likely represent very early stages of high-mass star/star cluster formation. In this study, we aim to determine the physical properties and spatial distribution of dense clumps in the IRDC MSXDC G304.74+01.32 (G304.74), and bring these characteristics into relation to theories concerning the origin of IRDCs and their fragmentation into clumps and star-forming cores. G304.74 was mapped in the 870 $\mu$m dust continuum with the LABOCA bolometer on APEX. Archival MSX and IRAS infrared data were used to study the nature and properties of the submillimetre clumps within the cloud. There are 8 clumps within G304.74 which are not associated with mid-infrared (MIR) emission. Some of them are candidates for being/harbouring high-mass starless cores (HMSCs). We compared the clump masses and their spatial distribution in G304.74 with those in several other recently studied IRDCs. There is a high likelihood that the clump mass distributions in G304.74 and in several other IRDCs represent the samples of the same parent distribution. In most cases the spatial distributions of clumps in IRDCs do not deviate significantly from random distributions. This is consistent with the idea that the origin of IRDCs, and their further sub-fragmentation down to scales of clumps is caused by supersonic turbulence in accordance with results from giant molecular clouds.
The various IBIS/ISGRI catalogs contain a large population of hard X-ray sources whose nature is still unknown. Even if >20 keV positional uncertainty provided by ISGRI is unprecedented, it is still to large to pinpoint the counterpart at other wavelengths, which is the only secure way to obtain a source identification. We, here, continue the work of trying to reveal the nature of these hard X-ray sources, starting with the analysis of X-ray data collected via focusing X-ray telescopes, in order to obtain arcsec accurate X-ray positions. We can then identify counterparts at infrared and optical wavelengths and try to unveil the nature of the sources. We analysed data from observations of 13 INTEGRAL sources made with the Swift satellite. The X-ray images obtained by the X-Ray Telescope instrument allowed us to find possible counterparts to the IGR sources with positional accuracy of a few arcsec. We then browsed the online catalogs (e.g., NED, SIMBAD, 2MASS, 2MASX, USNO B1.0) to search for counterparts at other wavelengths. We also made use of the X-ray spectral parameters in trying to identify the nature of those objects. For the 13 objects, we found possible counterparts at X-ray energies and identified the IR/optical and/or UV counterparts as seen with Swift/UVOT. In each case, we also discuss the likelihood of association of the X-ray and INTEGRAL source. We confirm the previously proposed classification of IGR J02524-0829 (Sey 2 AGN), J08023-6954 (RS CVn star), and J11457-1827 (Sey 1 AGN). For 7 of these sources we give the first identification of their nature: IGR J02086-1742, J12060+3818, J12070+2535, J13042-1020, and J13412+3022 are AGN, and J14488-5942 is a probable X-ray Binary, and for J03184-0014, although we question the association of the IGR and Swift sources, we classify the latter as an AGN. We suggest that IGR J15283-4443 is a Galactic source, and we cannot further classify the source. Finally, we question the association of IGR J11457-1827 and J23130+8608 with the X-ray sources we have found, and further question the genuineness of the former IGR source.
The FU Orionis candidate V733 Cep was discovered by Roger Persson in 2004. The star is located in the dark cloud L1216 close to the Cepheus OB3 association. Because only a small number of FU Orionis stars have been detected to date, photometric and spectral studies of V733 Cep are of great interest. The studies of the photometrical variability of PMS stars are very important to the understanding of stellar evolution. The main purpose of our study is to construct a long-time light curve of V733 Cep. On the basis of BVRI monitoring we also study the photometric behavior of the star. We gather data from CCD photometry and archival photographic plates. The photometric BVRI data (Johnson-Cousins system) that we present were collected from June 2008 to October 2009. To facilitate transformation from instrumental measurements to the standard system, fifteen comparison stars in the field of V733 Cep were calibrated in BVRI bands. To construct a historical light curve of V733 Cep, a search for archival photographic observations in the Wide-Field Plate Database was performed. As a result, 192 photographic plates containing the field of V733 Cep were found. Some plates were analyzed at our request to estimate the magnitude of V733 Cep.
We present an analysis of a deep archival Chandra observation of Willman 1, an object suspected to straddle the line of what constitutes a dwarf galaxy and an extreme globular cluster. Our main goal is to examine potential observational signatures in X-rays that might distinguish its true identity either through an unusual point source population or based on the existence of prominent diffuse emission in its core. We identify a total of 26 sources within the central 5 arcminutes to a limiting 0.5-2.0 keV X-ray flux of 6 x 10^{-16} ergs/cm^{2}/s. While some of these sources could be formal members of Willman 1, we find no outstanding evidence for either an unusual population of bright X-ray sources or a densely populated clustercore. In fact, the entire X-ray population could be explained by background active galactic nuclei and/or foreground stars unrelated to Willman 1. As a result, there is no substantial evidence in X-rays to argue against a dwarf galaxy classification for Willman 1 down to current observational limits. This result enhances the qualifications of Willman 1 as an ideal target for indirect dark matter searches. Accordingly, we derive upper limits for a possible sterile neutrino signature with a mass of 1.6-16.0 keV and finish with a discussion of previous measurements.
The QSO HE0450-2958 and the companion galaxy with which it is interacting, both ultra luminous in the infrared, have been the subject of much attention in recent years, as the quasar host galaxy remained undetected. This led to various interpretations on QSO and galaxy formation and co-evolution, such as black hole ejection, jet induced star formation, dust obscured galaxy, or normal host below the detection limit. We carried out deep observations in the near-IR in order to solve the puzzle concerning the existence of any host. The object was observed with the ESO VLT and HAWK-I in the near-IR J-band for 8 hours. The images have been processed with the MCS deconvolution method (Magain, Courbin & Sohy, 1998), permitting accurate subtraction of the QSO light from the observations. The compact emission region situated close to the QSO, called the blob, which previously showed only gas emission lines in the optical spectra, is now detected in our near-IR images. Its high brightness implies that stars likely contribute to the near-IR emission. The blob might thus be interpreted as an off-centre, bright and very compact host galaxy, involved in a violent collision with its companion.
In a recent paper (Straus et al. 2008) we determined the energy flux of internal gravity waves in the lower solar atmosphere using a combination of 3D numerical simulations and observations obtained with the IBIS instrument operated at the Dunn Solar Telescope and the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on SOHO. In this paper we extend these studies using coordinated observations from SOT/NFI and SOT/SP on Hinode and MDI. The new measurements confirm that gravity waves are the dominant phenomenon in the quiet middle/upper photosphere and that they transport more mechanical energy than the high-frequency (> 5mHz) acoustic waves, even though we find an acoustic flux 3-5 times larger than the upper limit estimate of Fossum & Carlsson (2005). It therefore appears justified to reconsider the significance of (non-M)HD waves for the energy balance of the solar chromosphere.
The AKARI FU-HYU mission program carried out mid-infrared imaging of several well studied Spitzer fields preferentially selecting fields already rich in multi-wavelength data from radio to X-ray wavelengths filling in the wavelength desert between the Spitzer IRAC and MIPS bands.We present the initial results for the FU-HYU survey in the GOODS-N field.We utilize the supreme multiwavelength coverage in the GOODS-N field to produce a multiwavelength catalogue from infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths, containing more than 4393 sources, including photometric redshifts. Using the FU-HYU catalogue we present colour-colour diagrams that map the passage of PAH features through our observation bands. We find that the longer mid-infrared bands from AKARI (IRC-L18W 18 micron band) and Spitzer (MIPS24 24 micron band) provide an accurate measure of the total MIR emission of the sources and therefore their probable total mid-infrared luminosity. We also find that colours incorporating the AKARI IRC-S11 11 micron band produce a bimodal distribution where an excess at 11 microns preferentially selects moderate redshift star-forming galaxies. These powerful colour-colour diagnostics are further used as tools to extract anomalous colour populations, in particular a population of Silicate Break galaxies from the GOODS-N field showing that dusty starbursts can be selected of specific redshift ranges (z=1.2 - 1.6) by mid-infrared drop-out techniques. The FU-HYU catalogue will be made publically available to the astronomical community.
We present Spitzer IRS mid-infrared (5-35 micron) spectra of a complete flux-limited sample (> 3 mJy at 8 micron) of young stellar object (YSO) candidates selected on the basis of their infrared colors in the Serpens Molecular Cloud. Spectra of 147 sources are presented and classified. Background stars (with slope consistent with a reddened stellar spectrum and silicate features in absorption), galaxies (with redshifted PAH features) and a planetary nebula (with high ionization lines) amount to 22% of contamination in this sample, leaving 115 true YSOs. Sources with rising spectra and ice absorption features, classified as embedded Stage I protostars, amount to 18% of the sample. The remaining 82% (94) of the disk sources are analyzed in terms of spectral energy distribution shapes, PAHs and silicate features. The presence, strength and shape of these silicate features are used to infer disk properties for these systems. About 8% of the disks have 30/13 micron flux ratios consistent with cold disks with inner holes or gaps, and 3% of the disks show PAH emission. Comparison with models indicates that dust grains in the surface of these disks have sizes of at least a few \mu\m. The 20 micron silicate feature is sometimes seen in absence of the 10 micron feature, which may be indicative of very small holes in these disks. No significant difference is found in the distribution of silicate feature shapes and strengths between sources in clusters and in the field. Moreover, the results in Serpens are compared with other well-studied samples: the c2d IRS sample distributed over 5 clouds and a large sample of disks in the Taurus star-forming region. The remarkably similar distributions of silicate feature characteristics in samples with different environment and median ages - if significant - imply that the dust population in the disk surface results from an equilibrium between dust growth and destructive collision processes that are maintained over a few million years for any YSO population irrespective of environment.
With the aim of quantifying the contribution of the environment on the evolution of galaxies at z=0 we have used the DR7 catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to reconstruct the 3-D distribution of 4132 galaxies in 420 square degrees of the Coma supercluster, containing two rich clusters (Coma and A1367), several groups, and many filamentary structures belonging to the "Great Wall", at the approximate distance of 100 Mpc. At this distance the galaxy census is complete to Mi=-17.5 mag, i.e. approx 4 mag fainter than M*. The morphological classification of galaxies into early- (ellipticals) and late-types (spirals) was carried out by inspection of individual SDSS images and spectra. The density around each galaxies was determined in cylinders of 1 Mpc radius and 1000 km s^-1 half length. The color-luminosity relation was derived for galaxies in bins morphological type and in four thresholds of galaxy density-contrast, ranging from delta{1,1000} <= 0 (UL = the cosmic web); 0 < delta{1,1000} <= 4 (L = the loose groups); 4 < delta{1,1000} <= 20 (H = the large groups and the cluster's outskirts) and delta{1,1000} > 20 (UH = the cluster's cores). The fraction of early-type galaxies increases with the log of the over-density. A well defined "red sequence" composed of early-type galaxies exists in all environments at high luminosity, but it lacks of low luminosity (dwarf) galaxies in the lowest density environment. Conversely low luminosity isolated galaxies are predominantly of late-type. In other words the low luminosity end of the distribution is dominated by red dE galaxies in clusters and groups and by dwarf blue amorphous systems in the lowest density regions. At z=0 we find evidence for strong evolution induced by the environment (Nurture). Transformations take place mostly at low luminosity when star forming dwarf galaxies inhabiting low density environments migrate into amorphous passive dwarf ellipticals in their infall into denser regions. The mechanism involves suppression of the star formation due to gas stripping, without significant mass growth, as proposed by Boselli et al. (2008a). This process is more efficient and fast in ambients of increasing density. In the highest density environments (around clusters) the truncation of the star formation happens fast enough (few 100 Myr) to produce the signature of post-star-burst in galaxy spectra. PSB galaxies, that are in fact found significantly clustered around the largest dynamical units, represent the remnants of star forming isolated galaxies that had their star formation violently suppressed during their infall in clusters in the last 0.5-1.5 Gyrs, and the progenitors of future dEs.
We present new KPNO 0.9-m optical and VLA HI spectral line observations of the Orion dwarf galaxy. This nearby (D ~ 5.4 Mpc), intermediate-mass (M_dyn = 1.1x10^10 Solar masses) dwarf displays a wealth of structure in its neutral ISM, including three prominent "hole/depression" features in the inner HI disk. We explore the rich gas kinematics, where solid-body rotation dominates and the rotation curve is flat out to the observed edge of the HI disk (~6.8 kpc). The Orion dwarf contains a substantial fraction of dark matter throughout its disk: comparing the 4.7x10^8 Solar masses of detected neutral gas with estimates of the stellar mass from optical and near-infrared imaging (3.7x10^8 Solar masses) implies a mass-to-light ratio of ~13. New H alpha observations show only modest-strength current star formation (~0.04 Solar masses per year); this star formation rate is consistent with our 1.4 GHz radio continuum non-detection.
The transition from the L to the T spectral type of brown dwarfs is marked by a very rapid transition phase, remarkable brightening in the J-band and a higher binary frequency. Despite being an active area of inquiry, this transition regime still remains one of the most poorly understood phases of brown dwarf evolution. We resolved the L dwarf 2MASS J03105986+1648155 for the first time into two almost equally bright components straddling the L/T transition. Since such a co-eval system with common age and composition provides crucial information of this special transition phase, we monitored the system over 3 years to derive first orbital parameters and dynamical mass estimates, as well as a spectral type determination. We obtained resolved high angular resolution, near-IR images with HST and the adaptive optics instrument NACO at the VLT including the laser guide star system PARSEC. Based on two epochs of astrometric data we derive a minimum semi-major axis of 5.2 +- 0.8 AU. The assumption of a face-on circular orbit yields an orbital period of 72 +- 4 years and a total system mass of 30-60 Mjup. This places the masses of the individual components of the system at the lower end of the mass regime of brown dwarfs. The achieved photometry allowed a first spectral type determination of L9 +- 1 for each component. In addition, this seems to be only the fifth resolved L/T transition binary with a flux reversal. While ultimate explanations for this effect are still owing, the 2MASS J03105986+1648155 system adds an important benchmark object for improving our understanding of this remarkable evolutionary phase of brown dwarfs. Additionally, the observational results of 2MASS J03105986+1648155 AB derived with the new PARSEC AO system at the VLT show the importance of this technical capability. The updated AO system allows us to significantly extend the sample of brown dwarfs observable with high-resolution from the ground and hence to reveal more of their physical properties.
Lynds dark cloud LDN1622 represents one of the best examples of anomalous dust emission, possibly originating from small spinning dust grains. We present Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) 31 GHz data of LDN1621, a diffuse dark cloud to the north of LDN1622 in a region known as Orion East. A broken ring with diameter g\approx 20 arcmin of diffuse emission is detected at 31 GHz, at \approx 20-30 mJy beam$^{-1}$ with an angular resolution of \approx 5 arcmin. The ring-like structure is highly correlated with Far Infra-Red emission at $12-100 \mu$m with correlation coefficients of r \approx 0.7-0.8, significant at $\sim10\sigma$. Multi-frequency data are used to place constraints on other components of emission that could be contributing to the 31 GHz flux. An analysis of the GB6 survey maps at 4.85 GHz yields a $3\sigma$ upper limit on free-free emission of 7.2 mJy beam$^{-1}$ ($\la 30 per cent of the observed flux) at the CBI resolution. The bulk of the 31 GHz flux therefore appears to be mostly due to dust radiation. Aperture photometry, at an angular resolution of 13 arcmin and with an aperture of diameter 30 arcmin, allowed the use of IRAS maps and the {\it WMAP} 5-year W-band map at 93.5 GHz. A single modified blackbody model was fitted to the data to estimate the contribution from thermal dust, which amounts to $\sim$ 10 per cent at 31 GHz. In this model, an excess of 1.52\pm 0.66 Jy (2.3\sigma) is seen at 31 GHz. Future high frequency $\sim$ 100-1000 GHz data, such as those from the {\it Planck} satellite, are required to accurately determine the thermal dust contribution at 31 GHz. Correlations with the IRAS $100 \mu$m gave a coupling coefficient of $18.1\pm4.4 \mu$K (MJy/sr)$^{-1}$, consistent with the values found for LDN1622.
We present a novel method to significantly speed up cosmological parameter sampling. The method relies on constructing an interpolation of the CMB-log-likelihood based on sparse grids, which is used as a shortcut for the likelihood-evaluation. We obtain excellent results over a large region in parameter space, comprising about 25 log-likelihoods around the peak, and we reproduce the one-dimensional projections of the likelihood almost perfectly. In speed and accuracy, our technique is competitive to existing approaches to accelerate parameter estimation based on polynomial interpolation or neural networks, while having some advantages over them. In our method, there is no danger of creating unphysical wiggles as it can be the case for polynomial fits of a high degree. Furthermore, we do not require a long training time as for neural networks, but the construction of the interpolation is determined by the time it takes to evaluate the likelihood at the sampling points, which can be parallelised to an arbitrary degree. Our approach is completely general, and it can adaptively exploit the properties of the underlying function. We can thus apply it to any problem where an accurate interpolation of a function is needed.
We report the detection of high energy gamma-ray emission from the young and energetic pulsar PSR B1509$-$58 and its pulsar wind nebula (PWN) in the composite supernova remnant SNR G320.4-1.2 (aka MSH 15-52). Using 1 year of survey data with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT), we detected pulsations from PSR B1509-58 up to 1 GeV and extended gamma-ray emission above 1 GeV spatially coincident with the PWN. The pulsar light curve presents two peaks offset from the radio peak by phases 0.96 $\pm$ 0.01 and 0.33 $\pm$ 0.02. New constraining upper limits on the pulsar emission are derived below 1 GeV and confirm a severe spectral break at a few tens of MeV. The nebular spectrum in the 1 - 100 GeV energy range is well described by a power-law with a spectral index of (1.57 $\pm$ 0.17 $\pm$ 0.13) and a flux above 1 GeV of (2.91 $\pm$ 0.79 $\pm$ 1.35) 10^{-9} cm^{-2} s^{-1}. The first errors represent the statistical errors on the fit parameters, while the second ones are the systematic uncertainties. The LAT spectrum of the nebula connects nicely with Cherenkov observations, and indicates a spectral break between GeV and TeV energies.
Tycho Brahe completed his catalogue with the positions and magnitudes of 1004 fixed stars in 1598. This catalogue circulated in manuscript form. Brahe edited a shorter version with 777 stars, printed in 1602, and Kepler edited the full catalogue of 1004 stars, printed in 1627. We provide machine-readable versions of the three versions of the catalogue, describe the differences between them and briefly discuss their accuracy on the basis of comparison with modern data from the Hipparcos Catalogue. We also compare our results with earlier analyses by Dreyer (1916) and Rawlins (1993), finding good overall agreement. The magnitudes given by Brahe correlate well with modern values, his longitudes and latitudes have error distributions with widths of about 2 arcmin, with excess numbers of stars with larger errors (as compared to Gaussian distributions), in particular for the faintest stars. Errors in positions larger than 10 arcmin, which comprise about 15 per cent of the entries, are likely due to computing or copying errors.
Hot Jupiters, with atmospheric temperatures T ~ 1000 K, have residual thermal ionization levels sufficient for the interaction of the ions with the planetary magnetic field to result in a sizable magnetic drag on the (neutral) atmospheric winds. We evaluate the magnitude of magnetic drag in a representative three-dimensional atmospheric model of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b and find that it is a plausible mechanism to limit wind speeds in this class of atmospheres. Magnetic drag has a strong geometrical dependence, both meridionally and from the day to the night side (in the upper atmosphere), which could have interesting consequences for the atmospheric flow pattern. By extension, close-in eccentric planets with transiently heated atmospheres will experience time-variable levels of magnetic drag. A robust treatment of magnetic drag in circulation models for hot atmospheres may require iterated solutions to the magnetic induction and Saha equations as the hydrodynamical flow is evolved.
The properties of a massive star prior to its final explosion are imprinted in the circumstellar medium (CSM) created by its wind and termination shock. We perform a detailed, comprehensive calculation of the time-variable and angle-dependent transmission spectra of an average-luminosity Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) which explodes in the CSM structure produced by the collapse of a 20 Msun, rapidly rotating, Z=0.001 progenitor star. We study both the case in which metals are initially in the gaseous phase, as well as the situation in which they are heavily depleted into dust. We find that high-velocity lines from low-ionization states of silicon, carbon, and iron are initially present in the spectrum only if the metals are heavily depleted into dust prior to the GRB explosion. However, such lines disappear on timescales of a fraction of a second for a burst observed on-axis, and of a few seconds for a burst seen at high-latitude, making their observation virtually impossible. Rest-frame lines produced in the termination shock are instead clearly visible in all conditions. We conclude that time-resolved, early-time spectroscopy is not a promising way in which the properties of the GRB progenitor wind can be routinely studied. Previous detections of high velocity features in GRB UV spectra must have been due either due to a superposition of a physically unrelated absorber or to a progenitor star with very unusual properties.
The catalogue by Johannes Hevelius with the positions and magnitudes of 1564 entries was published by his wife Elisabeth Koopman in 1690. We provide a machine-readable version of the catalogue, and briefly discuss its accuracy on the basis of comparison with data from the modern Hipparcos Catalogue. We compare our results with an earlier analysis by Rybka (1984), finding good overall agreement. The magnitudes given by Hevelius correlate well with modern values. The accuracy of his position measurements is similar to that of Brahe, with sigma=2 arcmin for with more errors larger than 5 arcmin than expected for a Gaussian distribution. The position accuracy decreases slowly with magnitude. The fraction of stars with position errors larger than a degree is 1.5 per cent, rather smaller than the fraction of 5 per cent in the star catalogue of Brahe.
Radio remote sensing of the heliosphere using spacecraft radio signals has been used to study the near-sun plasma in and out of the ecliptic, close to the sun, and on spatial and temporal scales not accessible with other techniques. Studies of space-time variations in the inner solar wind are particularly timely because of the desire to understand and predict space weather, which can disturb satellites and systems at 1AU and affect human space exploration. Here we demonstrate proof-of-concept of a new radio science application for spacecraft radio science links. The differing transfer functions of plasma irregularities to spacecraft radio up- and downlinks can be exploited to localize plasma scattering along the line of sight. We demonstrate the utility of this idea using Cassini radio data taken in 2001-2002. Under favorable circumstances we demonstrate how this technique, unlike other remote sensing methods, can determine center-of-scattering position to within a few thousandths of an AU and thickness of scattering region to less than about 0.02 AU. This method, applied to large data sets and used in conjunction with other solar remote sensing data such as white light data, has space weather application in studies of inhomogeneity and nonstationarity in the near-sun solar wind.
We provided accurate estimates of distances, radii and iron abundances for four metal-rich Cepheids, namely V340 Ara, UZ Sct, AV Sgr and VY Sgr. The main aim of this investigation is to constrain their pulsation properties and their location across the Galactic inner disk. We adopted new accurate NIR (J,H,K) light curves and new radial velocity measurements for the target Cepheids to determinate their distances and radii using the Baade-Wesselink technique. In particular, we adopted the most recent calibration of the IR surface brightness relation and of the projection factor. Moreover, we also provided accurate measurements of the iron abundance of the target Cepheids. Current distance estimates agree within one sigma with similar distances based either on empirical or on theoretical NIR Period-Luminosity relations. However, the uncertainties of the Baade-Wesselink distances are on average a factor of 3-4 smaller when compared with errors affecting other distance determinations. Mean Baade-Wesselink radii also agree at one sigma level with Cepheid radii based either on empirical or on theoretical Period-Radius relations. Iron abundances are, within one sigma, similar to the iron contents provided by Andrievsky and collaborators, thus confirming the super metal-rich nature of the target Cepheids. We also found that the luminosity amplitudes of classical Cepheids, at odds with RR Lyrae stars, do not show a clear correlation with the metal-content. This circumstantial evidence appears to be the consequence of the Hertzsprung progression together with the dependence of the topology of the instability strip on metallicity, evolutionary effects and binaries.
Establishing the origin of the short-lived radionuclide (SLR) 26-Al, which was present in refractory inclusions in primitive meteorites, has profound implications for the astrophysical context of solar system formation. Recent observations that 26-Al was homogeneously distributed in the inner solar system prove that this SLR has a stellar origin. In this Letter, we address the issue of the incorporation of hot 26-Al-rich stellar ejecta into the cold protosolar nebula. We first show that the 26-Al atoms produced by a population of massive stars in an OB association cannot be injected into protostellar cores with enough efficiency. We then show that this SLR likely originated in a Wolf-Rayet star that escaped from its parent cluster and interacted with a neighboring molecular cloud. The explosion of this runaway star as a supernova probably triggered the formation of the solar system. This scenario also accounts for the meteoritic abundance of 41-Ca.
Although the gravitational wave kick velocity in the orbital plane of coalescing black holes has been understood for some time, apparently conflicting formulae have been proposed for the dominant out-of-plane kick, each a good fit to different data sets. This is important to resolve because it is only the out-of-plane kicks that can reach more than 500 km/s and can thus eject merged remnants from galaxies. Using a different ansatz for the out-of-plane kick, we show that we can fit almost all existing data to better than 5 %. This is good enough for any astrophysical calculation, and shows that the previous apparent conflict was only because the two data sets explored different aspects of the kick parameter space.
It has been widely believed that, except in very extreme situations, the influence of gravity on quantum fields should amount to just small, sub-dominant contributions. This view seemed to be endorsed by the seminal results obtained over the last decades in the context of renormalization of quantum fields in curved spacetimes. Here, however, we argue that this belief is false by showing that there exist well-behaved spacetime evolutions where the vacuum energy density of free quantum fields is forced, by the very same background spacetime, to become dominant over any classical energy-density component. This semiclassical gravity effect finds its roots in the infrared behavior of fields on curved spacetimes. By estimating the time scale for the vacuum energy density to become dominant, and therefore for backreaction on the background spacetime to become important, we argue that this vacuum dominance may bear unexpected astrophysical and cosmological implications.
We study models in which soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM become universal at some unification scale, $M_{in}$, above the GUT scale, $\mgut$. We assume that the scalar masses and gaugino masses have common values, $m_0$ and $m_{1/2}$ respectively, at $M_{in}$. We use the renormalization-group equations of the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) GUT to evaluate their evolutions down to $\mgut$, studying their dependences on the unknown parameters of the SU(5) superpotential. After displaying some generic examples of the evolutions of the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters, we discuss the effects on physical sparticle masses in some specific examples. We note, for example, that near-degeneracy between the lightest neutralino and the lighter stau is progressively disfavoured as $M_{in}$ increases. This has the consequence, as we show in $(m_{1/2}, m_0)$ planes for several different values of $\tan \beta$, that the stau coannihilation region shrinks as $M_{in}$ increases, and we delineate the regions of the $(M_{in}, \tan \beta)$ plane where it is absent altogether. Moreover, as $M_{in}$ increases, the focus-point region recedes to larger values of $m_0$ for any fixed $\tan \beta$ and $m_{1/2}$. We conclude that the regions of the $(m_{1/2}, m_0)$ plane that are commonly favoured in phenomenological analyses tend to disappear at large $M_{in}$.
Using the momentum-dependent MDI effective interaction for nucleons, we have studied the transition density and pressure at the boundary between the inner crust and liquid core of hot neutron stars. We find that the dependence of their values on the temperature of a neutron star and the slope parameter of the nuclear symmetry energy is affected by whether neutrinos are trapped in the neutron star. While both the transition density and pressure in neutrino-free neutron stars decrease with increasing temperature of the neutron star and the slope parameter of the symmetry energy, only the transition density in neutrino-trapped neutron stars shows a similar dependence as the transition pressure in neutrino-trapped neutron stars shows a complex relation to the values of these parameters. We have also studied the effect of the nuclear symmetry energy on the critical temperature above which the inner crust of hot neutron stars disappears, and found that with increasing value of the slope parameter of the symmetry energy, the critical temperature decreases slightly in the neutrino-trapped matter but first decreases and then increases in the neutrino-free matter.
We investigate consequences of an ultraviolet fixed point in quantum gravity for the cosmological constant. For this purpose we perform dimensional reduction of a general dilatation symmetric effective action $\Gamma$ in dimension $d>4$ to an effective four-dimensional theory of gravity with a dilaton field. We find a stable flat phase in the space of extrema of $\Gamma$ which results in a vanishing four-dimensional cosmological constant $\Lambda$. In order to understand the self-tuning mechanism leading to $\Lambda = 0$ we discuss in detail the most general warped geometries with maximal four-dimensional symmetry and $SO(d-4)$ isometry of internal space. While the solutions of the $d$-dimensional field equations admit singular spaces with arbitrary $\Lambda$, the extremum condition for $\Gamma$ imposes additional restrictions which result in $\Lambda = 0$. In cosmology, the dilatation symmetric fixed point may only be reached for asymptotic time $t \to \infty$. At finite $t$ dilatation anomalies result in an effective potential and mass for the pseudo-dilaton or cosmon and in dark energy.
Photon charge has been of interest as a phenomenological testing ground for basic assumptions in fundamental physics. There have been several constraints on the photon charge based on very different considerations. In this paper we put further limits based on the well known properties of charged black holes and their subsequent evaporation by Hawking radiation and the assumption of charge conservation over this long physical process.
Nurowski [arXiv:1003.1503] has recently suggested a link between the observation of Dark Energy in cosmology and the projective equivalence of certain Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metrics. Specifically, he points out that two FLRW metrics with the same unparameterized geodesics have their energy densities differing by a constant. From this he queries whether the existence of dark energy is meaningful. We point out that physical observables in cosmology are not projectively invariant and we relate the projective symmetry uncovered by Nurowski to some previous work on projective equivalence in cosmology.
We introduce and carefully define an entire class of field theories based on non-standard spinors. Their dominant interaction is via the gravitational field which makes them naturally dark; we refer to them as Dark Spinors. We provide a critical analysis of previous proposals for dark spinors noting that they violate Lorentz invariance. As a working assumption we restrict our analysis to non-standard spinors which preserve Lorentz invariance, whilst being non-local and explicitly construct such a theory. We construct the complete energy-momentum tensor and derive its components explicitly by assuming a specific projection operator. It is natural to next consider dark spinors in a cosmological setting. We find various interesting solutions where the spinor field leads to slow roll and fast roll de Sitter solutions. We also analyse models where the spinor is coupled conformally to gravity, and consider the perturbations and stability of the spinor.
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The time-dependent propagation of neutral quanta through space is governed by a rigorous continuity equation (the Boltzmann transport equation). Requiring this equation to take the form of a Lorentz-covariant wave equation implies (i) properties of space-time which an observer would describe as a uniform expansion in agreement with Hubble's law, and (ii) that the quantum transport behaves like in a multiplicative medium with multiplication factor = 2. This inherent, essentially explosive multiplicity of vacuum, caused by the requirement of Lorentz-covariance, is in the paper suggested as a potential origin of dark energy. In addition, it is shown that this requirement of Lorentz-covariant quantum transport leads to an apparent accelerated expansion of the universe in potential agreement with recent astronomical observations.
We present a series of numerical simulations aimed at understanding the nature and origin of turbulence in coronal loops in the framework of the Parker model for coronal heating. A coronal loop is studied via reduced magnetohydrodynamics simulations in Cartesian geometry. A uniform and strong magnetic field threads the volume between the two photospheric planes, where a velocity field in the form of a 1D shear flow pattern is present. Initially the magnetic field which developes in the coronal loop is a simple map of the photospheric velocity field. This initial configuration is unstable to a multiple tearing instability which develops islands with X and O points in the plane orthogonal to the axial field. Once the nonlinear stage sets in the system evolution is characterized by a regime of MHD turbulence dominated by magnetic energy. A well developed power law in energy spectra is observed and the magnetic field never returns to the simple initial state mapping the photospheric flow. The formation of X and O points in the planes orthogonal to the axial field allows the continued and repeated formation and dissipation of small scale current sheets where the plasma is heated.
Recent observations have gathered a considerable sample of high redshift galaxy candidates and determined the evolution of their luminosity function (LF). To interpret these findings, we use cosmological SPH simulations including, in addition to standard physical processes, a detailed treatment of the Pop III-Pop II transition in early objects. The simulated high-z galaxies match remarkably well the amplitude and slope of the observed LF in the redshift range 5<z<10. The LF shifts towards fainter luminosities with increasing redshift, while its faint-end slope keeps an almost constant value, \alpha ~-2. The stellar populations of high-z galaxies have ages of 100-300 (40-130) Myr at z=5 (z=7-8), implying an early (z>9.4) start of their star formation activity; the specific star formation rate is almost independent of galactic stellar mass. These objects are enriched rapidly with metals and galaxies identified by HST/WFC3 (M_UV < -18) show metallicities ~0.1 Zsun even at z=7-8. Most of the simulated galaxies at z~7 (noticeably the smallest ones) are virtually dust-free, and none of them has an extinction larger than E(B-V) = 0.01. The bulk (50%) of the ionizing photons is produced by objects populating the faint-end of the LF (M_UV < -16), which JWST will resolve up to z=7.3. PopIII stars continue to form essentially at all redshifts; however, at z=6 (z=10) the contribution of Pop III stars to the total galactic luminosity is always less than 5% for M_UV < -17 (M_UV < -16). The typical high-z galaxies closely resemble the GRB host galaxy population observed at lower redshifts, strongly encouraging the use of GRBs to detect the first galaxies.
(Abridged) We apply a very general statistical theorem introduced by Cramer (1936) to study the origin of the deviations of the halo spin PDF from the reference lognormal shape. We find that these deviations originate from correlations between two quantities entering the definition of spin, namely the ratio $J/M^{5/2}$ (which depends only on mass) and the total gravitational binding energy $E$. To reach this conclusion, we have made usage of the results deduced from two high spatial- and mass resolution simulations. Our simulations cover a relatively small volume and produce a sample of more than 16.000 gravitationally bound halos, each traced by at least 300 particles. We verify that our results are stable to different systematics, by comparing our results with those derived by the GIF2 and by a more recent simulation performed by Maccio' et al. We find that the spin probability distribution function shows systematic deviations from a lognormal, at all redshifts z <= 1. These deviations depend on mass and redshift: at small masses they change little with redshift, and also the best lognormal fits are more stable. The J-M relationship is well described by a power law of exponent $\alpha$ very near to the linear theory prediction (alpha=5/3), but systematically lower than this at z<= 0.3. We argue that the fact that deviations from a lognormal PDF are present only for high-spin halos could point to a role of large-scale tidal fields in the evolution of the spin PDF.
We introduce a powerful semi-numeric modeling tool, 21cmFAST, designed to efficiently simulate the cosmological 21-cm signal. Our code generates 3D realizations of evolved density, ionization, peculiar velocity, and spin temperature fields, which it then combines to compute the 21-cm brightness temperature. Although the physical processes are treated with approximate methods, we compare our results to a state-of-the-art large-scale hydrodynamic simulation, and find good agreement on scales pertinent to the upcoming observations (>~ 1 Mpc). The power spectra from 21cmFAST agree with those generated from the numerical simulation to within 10s of percent, down to the Nyquist frequency. We show results from a 1 Gpc simulation which tracks the cosmic 21-cm signal down from z=250, highlighting the various interesting epochs. Depending on the desired resolution, 21cmFAST can compute a redshift realization on a single processor in just a few minutes. Our code is fast, efficient, customizable and publicly available, making it a useful tool for 21-cm parameter studies.
In this review I demonstrate that a realistic model for the formation of galaxy disks depends on a proper treatment of the gas in galaxies. Historically, cosmological simulations of disk galaxy formation have suffered from a lack of resolution and a physically motivated feedback prescription. Recent computational progress has allowed for unprecedented resolution, which in turn allows for a more realistic treatment of feedback. These advances have led to a new examination of gas accretion, evolution, and loss in the formation of galaxy disks. Here I highlight the role that gas inflows, the regulation of gas by feedback, and gas outflows play in achieving simulated disk galaxies that better match observational results as a function of redshift.
Most of the baryonic matter in the Universe is permeated by magnetic fields
which affect many, if not most, of astrophysical phenomena both, in compact
sources and in diffuse gas. Recent years have been marked by a worldwide surge
of interest in the astrophysical magnetic fields, their origin, and their
influence on the formation and evolution of astrophysical objects (stars,
galaxies, cooling flows). This growing interest is in part due to the fact that
it has become possible to trace magnetic fields in molecular clouds, over vast
extensions of the Milky Way and to study extragalactic magnetic fields,
including fields in clusters of galaxies. With the combination of various
techniques, such as Zeeman and Faraday rotation measurements with synchrotron
and aligned grain polarimetry, it is now possible to undertake quantitative
observational studies of magnetic fields, the results of which can be compared
with high resolution dynamo and MHD turbulence simulations. This brings the
field to a new stage.
In this paper, I will briefly review the importance of the cosmic magnetic
fields both from a theoretical and from an observational perspective, focusing
on their role in stellar and compact objects, in the interstellar medium and
star formation regions, and in galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the
primordial Universe.
Fermi can measure the spectral properties of gamma-ray bursts over a very large energy range and is opening a new window on the prompt emission of these energetic events. Localizations by the instruments on Fermi in combination with follow-up by Swift provide accurate positions for observations at longer wavelengths leading to the determination of redshifts, the true energy budget, host galaxy properties and facilitate comparison with pre-Fermi bursts. Multi-wavelength follow-up observations were performed on the afterglows of four bursts with high energy emission detected by Fermi/LAT : GRB090323, GRB090328, GRB090510 and GRB090902B. They were obtained in the optical/near-infrared bands with GROND mounted at the MPG/ESO 2.2m telescope and additionally of GRB090323 in the optical with the 2 m telescope in Tautenburg, Germany. Three of the events are classified as long bursts while GRB090510 is a well localized short GRB with GeV emission. In addition, host galaxies were detected for three of the four bursts. Spectroscopic follow-up was initiated with the VLT for GRB090328 and GRB090510. The afterglow observations in 7 bands are presented for all bursts and their host galaxies are investigated. Knowledge of the distance and the local dust extinction enables comparison of the afterglows of LAT-detected GRBs with the general sample. The spectroscopic redshifts of GRB090328 and GRB090510 were determined to be z=0.7354+/-0.0003 and z=0.903 +/- 0.001 and dust corrected star-formation rates of 4.8 Mdot yr^-1 and 0.60 M_dot yr^-1 were derived for their host galaxies, respectively. The afterglows of long bursts exhibit power-law decay indices alpha from less than 1 to ~2.3 and spectral indices (beta) values from 0.65 to ~1.2 which are fairly standard for GRB afterglows. Constraints are placed on the jet half opening angles of less than 2.1 deg to greater than 6.4 deg which allows limits to be placed on the beaming corrected energies. These range from less than 5x10^50 erg to the one of the highest values ever recorded, greater than 2.2x10^52 erg for GRB090902B, and are not consistent with a standard candle. The extremely energetic long Fermi bursts have optical afterglows which lie in the top half of the brightness distribution of all optical afterglows detected in the Swift era or even in the top 5% if incompleteness is considered. The properties of the host galaxies of these LAT detected bursts in terms of extinction, star formation rates and masses do not appear to differ from previous samples.
The "radiation inner edge" of an accretion disk is defined as the inner boundary of the region from which most of the luminosity emerges. Similarly, the "reflection edge" is the smallest radius capable of producing a significant X-ray reflection of the fluorescent iron line. For black hole accretion disks with very sub-Eddington luminosities these and all other "inner edges" locate at ISCO. Thus, in this case, one may rightly consider ISCO as the unique inner edge of the black hole accretion disk. However, even for moderate luminosities, there is no such unique inner edge as differently defined edges locate at different places. Several of them are significantly closer to the black hole than ISCO. The differences grow with the increasing luminosity. For nearly Eddington luminosities, they are so huge that the notion of the inner edge losses all practical significance.
Helioseismology has produced unprecedented measurements of the Sun's internal structure and dynamics over the past 25 years. Much of this work has been based on global helioseismology. Now local helioseismology too is showing its great promise. This review summarizes very briefly the principal global results that may be relevant to an understanding of the origins of solar magnetism. Recent results regarding the variation of frequencies over the solar cycle and the temporal variations of subsurface flows are briefly summarized.
We present evidence that 'bona fide' disks and starburst systems occupy distinct regions in the gas mass versus star formation (SF) rate plane, both for the integrated quantities and for the respective surface densities. This result is based on CO observations of galaxy populations at low and high redshifts, and on the current consensus for the CO luminosity to gas mass conversion factors. The data suggest the existence of two different star formation regimes: a long-lasting mode for disks and a more rapid mode for starbursts, the latter probably occurring during major mergers or in dense nuclear SF regions. Both modes are observable over a large range of SF rates. The detection of CO emission from distant near-IR selected galaxies reveals such bimodal behavior for the first time, as they allow us to probe gas in disk galaxies with much higher SF rates than are seen locally. The different regimes can potentially be interpreted as the effect of a top-heavy IMF in starbursts. However, we favor a different physical origin related to the fraction of molecular gas in dense clouds. The IR luminosity to gas mass ratio (i.e., the SF efficiency) appears to be inversely proportional to the dynamical (rotation) timescale. Only when accounting for the dynamical timescale, a universal SF law is obtained, suggesting a direct link between global galaxy properties and the local SF rate.
We present and discuss the characteristics and performances, both in term of computational speed and precision, of a numerical code which numerically integrates the equation of motions of N 'particles' interacting via Newtonian gravitation and move in an external galactic smooth field. The force evaluation on every particle is done by mean of direct summation of the contribution of all the other system's particle, avoiding truncation error. The time integration is done with second-order and sixth-order symplectic schemes. The code, NBSymple, has been parallelized twice, by mean of the Computer Unified Device Architecture to make the all-pair force evaluation as fast as possible on high-performance Graphic Processing Units NVIDIA TESLA C 1060, while the O(N) computations are distributed on various CPUs by mean of OpenMP Application Program. The code works both in single precision floating point arithmetics or in double precision. The use of single precision allows the use at best of the GPU performances but, of course, limits the precision of simulation in some critical situations. We find a good compromise in using a software reconstruction of double precision for those variables that are most critical for the overall precision of the code. The code is available on the web site astrowww.phys.uniroma1.it/dolcetta/nbsymple.html
In this paper we first present a complete classification of gravitational waves according to their frequencies: (i) Ultra high frequency band (above 1 THz); (ii) Very high frequency band (100 kHz - 1 THz); (iii) High frequency band (10 Hz - 100 kHz); (iv) Middle frequency band (0.1 Hz - 10 Hz); (v) Low frequency band (100 nHz - 0.1 Hz); (vi) Very low frequency band (300 pHz - 100 nHz); (vii) Ultra low frequency band (10 fHz - 300 pHz); (viii) Hubble (extremely low) frequency band (1 aHz - 10 fHz); (ix) Infra-Hubble frequency band (below 1 aHz). After briefly discussing the method of detection for different frequency bands, we review the concept and status of space gravitational-wave missions --- LISA, ASTROD, ASTROD-GW, Super-ASTROD, DECIGO and Big Bang Observer. We then address to the determination of dark energy equation, and probing the inflationary physics using space gravitational wave detectors.
Recent coronagraphic imaging of the AB Aurigae disk has revealed a region of low polarized scattered light suggestive of perturbations from a planet at a radius of ~100 AU. We model this darkened region using our fully non-plane-parallel radiative-transfer code combined with a simple hydrostatic equilibirum approximation to self-consistently solve for the structure of the disk surface as seen in scattered light. By comparing the observations to our models, we find that the observations are consistent with the absence of a planet, with an upper limit of 1 Jupiter mass.
Several authors have claimed that the observable Hawking emission from a microscopic black hole is significantly modified by the formation of a photosphere or chromosphere around the black hole due to QED or QCD interactions between the emitted particles. Analyzing these models we identify a number of physical and geometrical effects which invalidate them. In all cases, we find that the observational signatures of a cosmic or Galactic background of black holes or an individual black hole remain essentially those of the standard Hawking model, with little change to the detection probability.
GRB afterglows are among the best examples of astrophysical sources requiring a true multiwavelength observational approach. Radiation processes and main physical ingredients can only be disentangled with knowledge of their spectral and temporal properties through the largest possible band, i.e. from the X-ray down to radio. We now briefly review some of the most relevant observational findings recently obtained through optical observations.
Scope of this contribution is twofold. First, it describes the potential of the global astrometry mission Gaia for detecting and measuring planetary systems based on detailed double-blind mode simulations and on the most recent predictions of the satellite's astrometric payload performances (launch is foreseen for late Summer 2012). Then, the identified capabilities are put in context by highlighting the contribution that the Gaia exoplanet discoveries will be able to bring to the science of extrasolar planets of the next decade.
We present a new efficient technique for measuring evolution of the galaxy luminosity function. The method reconstructs the evolution over the luminosity-redshift plane using any combination of three input dataset types: 1) number counts, 2) galaxy redshifts, 3) integrated background flux measurements. The evolution is reconstructed in adaptively sized regions of the plane according to the input data as determined by a Bayesian formalism. We demonstrate the performance of the method using a range of different synthetic input datasets. We also make predictions of the accuracy with which forthcoming surveys conducted with SCUBA2 and the Herschel Space Satellite will be able to measure evolution of the sub-millimetre luminosity function using the method.
Using new and archival observations made with the Swift satellite and other facilities, we examine 147 X-ray sources selected from the ROSAT All-Sky-Survey Bright Source Catalog (RASS/BSC) to produce a new limit on the number of isolated neutron stars (INSs) in the RASS/BSC, the most constraining such limit to-date. Independent of X-ray spectrum and variability, the number of INSs is <=48 (90% confidence). Restricting attention to soft (having an effective temperature of < 200 eV), non-variable X-ray sources -- as in a previous study -- yields an all-sky limit of <=31 INSs. In the course of our analysis, we identify five new high-quality INS candidates for targeted follow-up observations. A future all-sky X-ray survey with eROSITA, or another mission with similar capabilities, can be expected to increase the detected population of X-ray-discovered INSs from the 8 to 50 in the BSC, to (for a disk population) 240 to 1500, which will enable a more detailed study of neutron star population models.
Between July 5th and July 7th 2004, two intriguing fast coronal mass ejection(CME)-streamer interaction events were recorded by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO). At the beginning of the events, the streamer was pushed aside from their equilibrium position upon the impact of the rapidly outgoing and expanding ejecta; then, the streamer structure, mainly the bright streamer belt, exhibited elegant large scale sinusoidal wavelike motions. The motions were apparently driven by the restoring magnetic forces resulting from the CME impingement, suggestive of magnetohydrodynamic kink mode propagating outwards along the plasma sheet of the streamer. The mode is supported collectively by the streamer-plasma sheet structure and is therefore named "streamer wave" in the present study. With the white light coronagraph data, we show that the streamer wave has a period of about 1 hour, a wavelength varying from 2 to 4 solar radii, an amplitude of about a few tens of solar radii, and a propagating phase speed in the range 300 to 500 km s$^{-1}$. We also find that there is a tendancy for the phase speed to decline with increasing heliocentric distance. These observations provide good examples of large scale wave phenomena carried by coronal structures, and have significance in developing seismological techniques for diagnosing plasma and magnetic parameters in the outer corona.
We investigate how ideas from the International Environmental Agreement (IEA) literature can be applied to the problem of space debris mitigation. The problem of space debris is similar to other international environmental problems in that there is a potential for a tragedy of the commons effect--individual nations bear all the cost of their mitigation measures but share only a fraction of the benefit. Consequently, nations have a tendency to underinvest in mitigation. Coalitions of nations, brought together by IEAs, have the potential to lessen the tragedy of the commons effect by pooling the costs and benefits of mitigation. This work brings together two recent modeling advances: i) a game theoretic model for studying the potential gains from IEA cooperation between nations with asymmetric costs and benefits, ii) an orbital debris model that gives the societal cost that specific actions, such as failing to deorbit an inactive satellite, have on the environment. We combine these two models with empirical launch share data for a "proof of concept" of an IEA for a single mitigation measure, deorbiting spacecraft at the end of operational lifetime. Simulations of all possible coalitions for a proxy set of 12 asymmetric nations suggest the possibility that stable coalitions can provide significant deorbiting gains relative to nations acting in the absence of an IEA coalition.
Thirty-four years of WSO (Wilcox Solar Observatory) and thirteen years of SOHO/MDI (Michelson Doppler Imager on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) magnetograms have been studied to measure the east-west inclination angle, indicating the toroidal component of the photospheric magnetic field. This analysis reveals that the large-scale toroidal component of the global magnetic field is antisymmetric around the equator and reverses direction in regions associated with flux from one solar cycle compared to the next. The toroidal field revealed the first early signs of cycle 24 at high latitudes, especially in the northern hemisphere, appearing as far back as 2003 in the WSO data and 2004 in MDI. As in previous cycles, the feature moves gradually equatorward. Cycles overlap and the pattern associated with each cycle lasts about 17 years. Even though the polar field at the current solar minimum is significantly lower than the three previous minima, the toroidal field pattern is similar.
We present the results of an analysis of hard X-ray observations of the C2.7 solar flare detected by the RT-2 Experiment onboard the Coronas - Photon satellite. We detect hard X-ray pulsations at periods of ~12 s and ~15 s. We find a marginal evidence for a decrease in period with time. We have augmented these results using the publicly available data from the RHESSI satellite. We present a spectral analysis and measure the spectral parameters.
The matter power spectrum as derived from large scale structure (LSS) surveys contains two important and distinct pieces of information: an overall smooth shape and the imprint of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We investigate the separate impact of these two types of information on cosmological parameter estimation, and show that for the simplest cosmological models, the broad-band shape information currently contained in the SDSS DR7 halo power spectrum (HPS) is by far superseded by geometric information derived from the baryonic features. An immediate corollary is that contrary to popular beliefs, the upper limit on the neutrino mass m_\nu presently derived from LSS combined with cosmic microwave background (CMB) data does not in fact arise from the possible small-scale power suppression due to neutrino free-streaming, if we limit the model framework to minimal LambdaCDM+m_\nu. However, in more complicated models, such as those extended with extra light degrees of freedom and a dark energy equation of state parameter w differing from -1, shape information becomes crucial for the resolution of parameter degeneracies. This conclusion will remain true even when data from the Planck surveyor become available. In the course of our analysis, we introduce a new dewiggling procedure that allows us to extend consistently the use of the SDSS HPS to models with an arbitrary sound horizon at decoupling. All the cases considered here are compatible with the conservative 95%-bounds \sum m_\nu < 1.16 eV, N_eff = 4.8 \pm 2.0.
Beginning with a historical account of the spectral classification, its refinement through additional criteria is presented. The line strengths and ratios used in two dimensional classifications of each spectral class are described. A parallel classification scheme for metal-poor stars and the standards used for classification are presented. The extension of spectral classification beyond M to L and T and spectroscopic classification criteria relevant to these classes are described. Contemporary methods of classifications based upon different automated approaches are introduced.
Models of galaxy formation invoke the major merger of gas-rich progenitor galaxies as the trigger for significant phases of black hole growth and the associated feedback that suppresses star formation to create red spheroidal remnants. However, the observational evidence for the connection between mergers and active galactic nucleus (AGN) phases is not clear. We analyze a sample of low-mass early-type galaxies known to be in the process of migrating from the blue cloud to the red sequence via an AGN phase in the green valley. Using deeper imaging from SDSS Stripe 82, we show that the fraction of objects with major morphological disturbances is high during the early starburst phase, but declines rapidly to the background level seen in quiescent early-type galaxies by the time of substantial AGN radiation several hundred Myr after the starburst. This observation empirically links the AGN activity in low-redshift early-type galaxies to a significant merger event in the recent past. The large time delay between the merger-driven starburst and the peak of AGN activity allows for the merger features to decay to the background and hence may explain the weak link between merger features and AGN activity in the literature.
We present results from an on-going survey for the HI 21 cm line and the OH 18 cm lines in IR galaxies with the Arecibo 305 m Radio Telescope. The observations of 85 galaxies extracted from the 2 Jy IRAS-NVSS sample in the R.A. (B1950) range 20 h-00 h are reported in this paper. We detected the HI 21 cm line in 82 of these galaxies, with 18 being new detections, and the OH 18 cm lines in 7 galaxies, with 4 being new detections. In some cases, the HI spectra show the classic double-horned or single-peaked emission profiles. However, the majority exhibit distorted HI spectral features indicating that the galaxies are in interacting and/or merging systems. From these HI and OH observations, various properties of the sample are derived and reported.
Context: The nature of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is still unclear.
Metallicities may have an important effect on their properties.
Aims: In this paper, we study the He star donor channel towards SNe Ia
comprehensively and systematically at various metallicities.
Methods: Employing Eggleton's stellar evolution code with the optically thick
wind assumption, we calculated about 10 000 WD + He star systems and obtained
SN Ia production regions of the He star donor channel with metallicities
Z=0.03, 0.02, 0.004 and 0.0001. According to a detailed binary population
synthesis approach, we also obtained SN Ia birthrates at various metallicities.
Results: Our study shows that both the initial mass of the He donor star and
the initial orbital period for SNe Ia increase with metallicity, while the
minimum initial mass of the carbon--oxygen white dwarfs producing SNe Ia
decreases with metallicity. For a constant star-formation galaxy, SN Ia
birthrates increase with metallicity. If a single starburst is assumed, SNe Ia
occur systemically earlier and the peak value of the birthrate is larger for a
high Z, and the He star donor channel with different metallicities can produce
the young SNe Ia with delay times $\sim$45-220Myr.
We study the general evolution of spherical overdensities for thawing class of dark energy models. We model dark energy with scalar fields having canonical as well as non-canonical kinetic energy. For non-canonical case, we consider models where the kinetic energy is of the Born-Infeld Form. We consider various potentials like linear, inverse-square, exponential as well as PNGB-type. We also consider that the dark energy virializes together with the matter component inside the spherical overdensity. Our study shows that models with linear potential in particular with Born-Infeld type kinetic term can have siginificant deviations from the $\Lambda$CDM model in terms of density contrast at the time of virialization.
An abundance analysis has been conducted for a sample of nine post-AGB candidate stars; eight of them have not been explored before. We find four very promising objects like HD 105262, HD 53300 and CpD$-62^o5428$ among them. We find strong evidence of dust-gas separation through selective depletion of refractive elements in HD 105262. The same effect is also observed in HD 53300, CpD$-62^o5428$ and HD 114855 although abundance peculiarities are relatively smaller for the last two stars. We find strong enrichment of nitrogen for HD 725, HD 842, HD 1457, HD 9233 and HD 61227 but no further evidence to support their post-AGB nature. We have compared the observed [N/C] ratios of these stars with the predictions of evolutionary models which include the rotation induced mixing.
Turbulent magnetic fields fill most of the volume of the solar atmosphere. However, their spatial and temporal variations are still unknown. Since 2007, during the current solar minimum, we are periodically monitoring several wavelength regions in the solar spectrum to search for variations of the turbulent magnetic field in the quiet Sun. These fields, which are below the resolution limit, can be detected via the Hanle effect which influences the scattering polarization signatures (Q/I) in the presence of magnetic fields. We present a description of our program and first results showing that such a synoptic program is complementary to the daily SOHO magnetograms for monitoring small-scale magnetic fields.
Aims. The ESO SN Ia Progenitor Survey (SPY) aims at finding merging double
degenerate binaries as candidates for supernova type Ia (SN Ia) explosions. A
white dwarf merger has also been suggested to explain the formation of rare
types of stars like R CrB, extreme helium or He sdO stars. Here we present the
hot subdwarf B binary GD 687, which will merge in less than a Hubble time.
Methods. The orbital parameters of the close binary have been determined from
time resolved spectroscopy. Since GD 687 is a single-lined binary, the spectra
contain only information about the subdwarf primary and its orbit. From high
resolution spectra the projected rotational velocity was derived. Assuming
orbital synchronisation, the inclination of the system and the mass of the
unseen companion were constrained.
Results. The derived inclination is $i=39.3^{+6.2}_{-5.6}\,^{\circ}$. The
mass $M_{\rm 2}=0.71_{-0.21}^{+0.22}\,M_{\rm \odot}$ indicates that the
companion must be a white dwarf, most likely of C/O composition. This is only
the fourth case that an sdB companion has been proven to be a white dwarf
unambiguously. Its mass is somewhat larger than the average white dwarf mass,
but may be as high as $0.93\,M_{\rm \odot}$ in which case the total mass of the
system comes close to the Chandrasekhar limit.
Conclusions. GD 687 will evolve into a double degenerate system and merge to
form a rare supermassive white dwarf with a mass in excess of solar. A death in
a sub-Chandrasekhar supernova is also conceivable.
Cosmology provides a unique and very powerful laboratory for testing neutrino physics. Here, I review the current status of cosmological neutrino measurements. Future prospects are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the interplay with experimental neutrino physics. Finally I discuss the possibility of a direct detection of the cosmic neutrino background and its associated anisotropy.
The indirect detection of particle dark matter (DM) is based on the search for anomalous components in cosmic rays (CRs) due to the annihilation of DM pairs in the galactic halo, on the top of the standard astrophysical production. These additional exotic components are potentially detectable at Earth as spectral distortions for the various cosmic radiations: $\chi + \chi \to q \bar{q}, W^+ W^-, ... \to \bar{p}, \bar{D}, e^+ \gamma and \nu's $. Detection of the DM annihilation products has motivated the spectacular development of several new experimental techniques. They range from detectors on ballons or in space for the study of antimatter and gamma-rays, to large area cosmic-ray and gamma-ray detecors on the ground to neutrino telescopes underground for the study of the neutrino component. In the following, we will discuss in detail the antimatter component of DM indirect searches, namely antiprotons, antideuterons, and positrons.
Within the distance of 1 pc from the Galactic center (GC), more than 100 young massive stars have been found. The massive stars at 0.1--1 pc from the GC are located in one or two disks, while those within 0.1 pc from the GC, S-stars, have an isotropic distribution. How these stars are formed is not well understood, especially for S-stars. Here we propose that a young star cluster with an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) can form both the disks and S-stars. We performed a fully self-consistent $N$-body simulation of a star cluster near the GC. Stars escaped from the tidally disrupted star cluster were carried to the GC due to an 1:1 mean motion resonance with the IMBH formed in the cluster. In the final phase of the evolution, the eccentricity of the IMBH becomes very high. In this phase, stars carried by the 1:1 resonance with the IMBH were dropped from the resonance and their orbits are randomized by a chaotic Kozai mechanism. The mass function of these carried stars is extremely top-heavy within 10''. The surface density distributions of young massive stars has a slope of -1.5 within 10'' from the GC. The distribution of stars in the most central region is isotropic. These characteristics agree well with those of stars observed within 10'' from the GC.
Stellar flares affect all atmospheric layers from the photosphere over chromosphere and transition region up into the corona. Simultaneous observations in different spectral bands allow to obtain a comprehensive picture of the environmental conditions and the physical processes going on during different phases of the flare. We investigate the properties of the coronal plasma during a giant flare on the active M dwarf CN Leo observed simultaneously with the UVES spectrograph at the VLT and XMM-Newton.From the X-ray data, we analyze the temporal evolution of the coronal temperature and emission measure, and investigate variations in electron density and coronal abundances during the flare. Optical Fe XIII line emission traces the cooler quiescent corona. Although of rather short duration (exponential decay time < 5 minutes), the X-ray flux at flare peak exceeds the quiescent level by a factor of 100. The electron density averaged over the whole flare is greater than 5 * 10^11 cm^-3. The flare plasma shows an enhancement of iron by a factor of approx. 2 during the rise and peak phase of the flare. We derive a size of <9000 km for the flaring structure from the evolution of the the emitting plasma during flare rise, peak, and decay. The characteristics of the flare plasma suggest that the flare originates from a compact arcade instead of a single loop. The combined results from X-ray and optical data further confine the plasma properties and the geometry of the flaring structure in different atmospheric layers.
Twenty six Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) variables are identified in the
Local Group galaxy Leo I. These include 7 Mira and 5 semi-regular variables for
which periods, amplitudes and mean magnitudes are determined. The large range
of periods for the Miras, 158<P<523 days, suggests an AGB spanning a
significant age range. The youngest must be around 1.6 Gyr while the oldest
could be 10 Gyr or more. Two of these old Miras are found in the outer regions
of Leo I (over 490 arcsec from the centre) where stars on the extended AGB are
rare. They could provide an interesting test of third dredge-up and mass loss
in old stars with low metallicity and are worth further detailed investigation.
At least two stars, one a Mira, the other an irregular variable, are undergoing
obscuration events due to dust ejection.
An application of the Mira period-luminosity relation to these stars yields a
distance modulus for Leo I of (m-M)=21.80 \pm 0.11 mag (internal), \pm 0.12
(total) (on a scale that puts the LMC at 18.39 mag) in good agreement with
other determinations.
We introduce a method for calculating the probability density function (PDF) of a turbulent density field in three dimensions using only information contained in the projected two-dimensional column density field. We test the method by applying it to numerical simulations of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in molecular clouds. To a good approximation, the PDF of log(normalised column density) is a compressed, shifted version of the PDF of log(normalised density). The degree of compression can be determined observationally from the column density power spectrum, under the assumption of statistical isotropy of the turbulence.
The rate of gravitational wave bursts from the mergers of massive primordial black holes in clusters is calculated. Such clusters of black holes can be formed through phase transitions in the early Universe. The central black holes in clusters can serve as the seeds of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. The expected burst detection rate by the LISA gravitational wave detector is estimated.
The rapidly increasing volume of asteroseismic observations on solar-type
stars has revealed a need for automated analysis tools. The reason for this is
not only that individual analyses of single stars are rather time consuming,
but more importantly that these large volumes of observations open the
possibility to do population studies on large samples of stars and such
population studies demand a consistent analysis. By consistent analysis we
understand an analysis that can be performed without the need to make any
subjective choices on e.g. mode identification and an analysis where the
uncertainties are calculated in a consistent way.
Here we present a set of automated asterosesimic analysis tools. The main
engine of these set of tools is an algorithm for modelling the autocovariance
spectra of the stellar acoustic spectra allowing us to measure not only the
frequency of maximum power and the large frequency separation, but also the
small frequency separation and potentially the mean rotational rate and the
inclination.
The measured large and small frequency separations and the frequency of
maximum power are used as input to an algorithm that estimates fundamental
stellar parameters such as mass, radius, luminosity, effective temperature,
surface gravity and age based on grid modeling.
All the tools take into account the window function of the observations which
means that they work equally well for space-based photometry observations from
e.g. the NASA Kepler satellite and ground-based velocity observations from e.g.
the ESO HARPS spectrograph.
A semiclassical approach to Gravitoelectromagnetic Inflation (GEMI) using a Lorentz gauge in an effective 4D vacuum equation of state obtained from a 5D vacuum is revisited. The dynamics of seminal inflaton and electromagnetic fields in the early inflationary universe is studied taking into account the source terms in the dynamics of the electromagnetic fluctuations, which were omitted in a previous work. We found that the spectrum of electric fluctuations suffer important modifications.
We show that cold clumps in the intra--cluster medium (ICM) efficiently lose their angular momentum as they fall in, such that they can rapidly feed the central AGN and maintain a heating feedback process. Such cold clumps are predicted by the cold feedback model, a model for maintaining the ICM in cooling flows hot by a feedback process. The clumps very effectively lose their angular momentum in two channels: the drag force exerted by the ICM and the random collisions between clumps when they are close to the central black hole. We conclude that the angular momentum cannot prevent the accretion of the cold clumps, and the cold feedback mechanism is a viable model for a feedback mechanism in cooling flows. Cold feedback does not suffer from the severe problems of models that are based on the Bondi accretion.
The transition from liquid metal to silicate rock in the cores of the terrestrial planets is likely to be accompanied by a gradient in the composition of the outer core liquid. The electrical conductivity of a volatile enriched liquid alloy can be substantially lower than a light-element-depleted fluid found close to the inner core boundary. In this paper, we investigate the effect of radially variable electrical conductivity on planetary dynamo action using an electrical conductivity that decreases exponentially as a function of radius. We find that numerical solutions with continuous, radially outward decreasing electrical conductivity profiles result in strongly modified flow and magnetic field dynamics, compared to solutions with homogeneous electrical conductivity. The force balances at the top of the simulated fluid determine the overall character of the flow. The relationship between Coriolis and Lorentz forces near the outer boundary controls the flow and magnetic field intensity and morphology of the system. Our results imply that a low conductivity layer near the top of Mercury's liquid outer core is consistent with its weak magnetic field.
We use Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) measurements from the VIRGO (Variability of solar IRradiance and Gravity Oscillations) instrument on board SOHO to obtain preliminary estimates of the mean total radiative energy emitted by X-class solar flares. The basic tool is that of summed-epoch analysis, which has also enabled us to detect and partially characterize systematic errors present in the basic data. We describe these errors, which significantly degrade the photometry at high frequencies. We find the ratio of GOES 1-8\{AA} luminosity to total bolometric luminosity to be of order 0.01.
The formation of massive stars is a highly complex process in which it is not clear whether the star-forming gas is in global gravitational collapse or in an equilibrium state, supported by turbulence. By studying one of the most massive and dense star-forming regions in the Galaxy at a distance of less than 3 kpc, the filament containing the well-known sources DR21 and DR21(OH), we expect to find observational signatures that allow to discriminate between the two views. We use molecular line data from our 13CO 1-0, CS 2-1, and N2H+ 1-0 survey of the Cygnus X region obtained with the FCRAO and high-angular resolution observations of CO, CS, HCO+, N2H+, and H2CO, obtained with the IRAM 30m telescope. We observe a complex velocity field and velocity dispersion in the DR21 filament in which regions of highest column-density, i.e. dense cores, have a lower velocity dispersion than the surrounding gas and velocity gradients that are not (only) due to rotation. Infall signatures in optically thick line profiles of HCO+ and 12CO are observed along and across the whole DR21 filament. From modelling the observed spectra, we obtain a typical infall speed of 0.6 km/s and mass accretion rates of the order of a few 10^-3 Msun/yr for the two main clumps constituting the filament. These massive (4900 and 3300 Msun) clumps are both gravitationally contracting. All observed kinematic features in the DR21 filament can be explained if it is formed by the convergence of flows at large scales and is now in a state of global gravitational collapse. Whether this convergence of flows originated from self-gravity at larger scales or from other processes can not be settled with the present study. The observed velocity field and velocity dispersion are consistent with results from (magneto)-hydrodynamic simulations where the cores lie at the stagnation points of convergent turbulent flows.
The paper investigates the overall and detailed features of cosmic ray (CR) spectra in the knee region using the scenario of nuclei-photon interactions around the acceleration sources. Young supernova remnants can be the physical realities of such kind of CR acceleration sites. The results show that the model can well explain the following problems simultaneously: the knee of CR spectra and the sharpness of the knee, the detailed irregular structures of CR spectra, the so-called "component B" of Galactic CRs, and the electron/positron excesses reported by recent observations. The success of such a coherent explanation can serve as an evidence that at least a portion of CRs might be accelerated at the sources similar to young supernova remnants.
The orbital period of the recurrent nova U Sco has been observed to decrease during the 1999 outburst. In an outburst mass is ejected from the surface of the white dwarf. The separation of the binary system widens and the orbital period increases. We find that magnetic braking between outbursts, mass transfer to the companion, and frictional angular momentum losses during outbursts are all too small to account for this unexpected change. We find, however, that if the secondary has a sufficiently strong magnetic field, B=8x10^3 G, then the ejected material can couple to it and corrotate with the system. The ejected material gains angular momentum while the binary system loses it and the period decreases. If such a strong magnetic field is indeed present, then we predict that a period decrease should be observed also during the current 2010 outburst. If, however, the presence of such a field can be ruled out observationally, then the cause for the period decrease (if confirmed) remains unknown.
This deep, extended solar minimum and the slow start to Cycle 24 strongly suggest that Cycle 24 will be a small cycle. A wide array of solar cycle prediction techniques have been applied to predicting the amplitude of Cycle 24 with widely different results. Current conditions and new observations indicate that some highly regarded techniques now appear to have doubtful utility. Geomagnetic precursors have been reliable in the past and can be tested with 12 cycles of data. Of the three primary geomagnetic precursors only one (the minimum level of geomagnetic activity) suggests a small cycle. The Sun's polar field strength has also been used to successfully predict the last three cycles. The current weak polar fields are indicative of a small cycle. For the first time, dynamo models have been used to predict the size of a solar cycle but with opposite predictions depending on the model and the data assimilation. However, new measurements of the surface meridional flow indicate that the flow was substantially faster on the approach to Cycle 24 minimum than at Cycle 23 minimum. In both dynamo predictions a faster meridional flow should have given a shorter cycle 23 with stronger polar fields. This suggests that these dynamo models are not yet ready for solar cycle prediction.
We produce a 10-day series of simulated Doppler images at a 15-minute cadence that reproduces the spatial and temporal characteristics seen in the SOHO/MDI Doppler data. Our simulated data contains a spectrum of cellular flows with but two necessary components --- a granule component that peaks at wavenumbers of about 4000 and a supergranule component that peaks at wavenumbers of about 110. We include the advection of these cellular components by a differential rotation profile that depends on latitude and wavenumber (depth). We further mimic the evolution of the cellular pattern by introducing random variations to the amplitudes and phases of the spectral components at rates that reproduce the level of cross-correlation as a function of time and latitude. Our simulated data do not include any wave-like characteristics for the supergranules yet can accurately reproduce the rotation characteristics previously attributed to wave-like characteristics.
Intrinsic alignments constitute the major astrophysical systematic for cosmological weak lensing surveys. We present a purely geometrical method with which one can study gravitational shear-intrinsic ellipticity correlations directly in weak lensing data. Linear combinations of second-order cosmic shear measures are constructed such that the intrinsic alignment signal is boosted while suppressing the contribution by gravitational lensing. We then assess the performance of a specific parametrisation of the weights entering these linear combinations for three representative survey models. Moreover a relation between this boosting technique and the intrinsic alignment removal via nulling is derived. For future all-sky weak lensing surveys with photometric redshift information the boosting technique yields statistical errors on model parameters of intrinsic alignments whose order of magnitude is compatible with current constraints determined from indirect measurements. Parameter biases due to a residual cosmic shear signal are negligible in case of quasi-spectroscopic redshifts and remain sub-dominant for typical values of the photometric redshift scatter. We find good agreement between the performance of the intrinsic alignment removal based on the boosting technique and standard nulling methods, possibly indicating a fundamental limit in the separation of lensing and intrinsic alignment signals.
The isocyanic acid (HNCO) presents an extended distribution in the centers of the Milky Way and the spiral galaxy IC342. Based on the morphology of the emission and the HNCO abundance with respect to H2, several authors made the hypothesis that HNCO could be a good tracer of interstellar shocks. Here we test this hypothesis by observing a well-known Galactic source where the chemistry is dominated by shocks. We have observed several transitions of HNCO towards L1157-mm and two positions (B1 and B2) in the blue lobe of the molecular outflow. The HNCO line profiles exhibit the same characteristics of other well-known shock tracers like CH3OH, H2CO, SO or SO2. HNCO, together with SO2 and OCS, are the only three molecules detected so far whose emission is much more intense in B2 than in B1, making these species valuable probes of chemical differences along the outflow. The HNCO abundance with respect to H2 is 0.4-1.8 10^-8 in B1 and 0.3-1 10^-7 in B2. These abundances are the highest ever measured, and imply an increment with respect to L1157-mm of a factor up to 83, demonstrating that this molecule is actually a good shock tracer. Our results probe that shocks can actually produce the HNCO abundance measured in galactic nuclei and even higher ones. We propose that the gas phase abundance of HNCO is due both to grain mantles erosion by the shock waves and by neutral-neutral reactions in gas phase involving CN and O2. The observed anticorrelation of CN and HNCO fluxes supports this scenario. The observed similarities of the HNCO emission and the sulfured molecules may arise due to formation pathways involving also O2.
Although there are now some tentative signs that the start of cycle 24 has begun there is still considerable interest in the somewhat unusual behaviour of the current solar minimum and the apparent delay in the true start of the next cycle. While this behaviour is easily tracked by observing the change in surface activity a question can also be asked about what is happening beneath the surface where the magnetic activity ultimately originates? In order to try to answer this question we can look at the behaviour of the frequencies of the Sun's natural seismic modes of oscillation - the p modes. These seismic frequencies also respond to changes in activity and are probes of conditions in the solar interior. The Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) has made measurements of low-degree (low-$\ell$) p mode frequencies over the last three solar cycles, and so is in a unique position to explore the current unusual and extended solar minimum. We compare the frequency shifts in the low-$\ell$ p-modes obtained from the BiSON data with the change in surface activity as measured by different proxies and show there are significant differences especially during the declining phase of solar cycle 23 and into the current minimum. We also observe quasi-biennial periodic behaviour in the p mode frequencies over the last 2 cycles that, unlike in the surface measurements, seems to be present at mid- and low-activity levels. Additionally we look at the frequency shifts of individual $\ell$ modes.
We present a new technique to fit color-magnitude diagrams of open clusters based on the Cross-Entropy global optimization algorithm. The method uses theoretical isochrones available in the literature and maximizes a weighted likelihood function based on distances measured in the color-magnitude space. The weights are obtained through a non parametric technique that takes into account the star distance to the observed center of the cluster, observed magnitude uncertainties, the stellar density profile of the cluster among others. The parameters determined simultaneously are distance, reddening, age and metallicity. The method takes binary fraction into account and uses a Monte-Carlo approach to obtain uncertainties on the determined parameters for the cluster by running the fitting algorithm many times with a re-sampled data set through a bootstrapping procedure. We present results for 9 well studied open clusters, based on 15 distinct data sets, and show that the results are consistent with previous studies. The method is shown to be reliable and free of the subjectivity of most previous visual isochrone fitting techniques.
A possible solution to the dark energy problem is that Einstein's theory of general relativity is modified. A suite of models have been proposed that, in general, are unable to predict the correct amount of large scale structure in the distribution of galaxies or anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background. It has been argued, however, that it should be possible to constrain a general class of theories of modified gravity by focusing on properties such as the growing mode, gravitational slip and the effective, time varying Newton's constant. We show that assuming certain physical requirements such as stability, metricity and gauge invariance, it is possible to come up with consistency conditions between these various parameters. In this paper we focus on theories which have, at most, 2nd derivatives in the metric variables and find restrictions that shed light on current and future experimental constraints without having to resort to a (as yet unknown) complete theory of modified gravity. We claim that future measurements of the growth of structure on small scales (i.e. from 1-200 h^{-1} Mpc) may lead to tight constraints on both dark energy and modified theories of gravity.
We present OASIS observations obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope for the SB(rs)c galaxy NGC 4900. About 800 spectra in the wavelength range 4700-5500 AA and 6270- 7000 AA have been collected with a spatial resolution of ~50 pc. This galaxy is part of a sample to study the stellar populations and their history in the central region of galaxies. In this paper, we present our iterative technique developed to describe consistently the different stellar com- ponents seen through emission and absorption lines. In NGC 4900 we find many young bursts of star formation distributed along the galaxy large scale bar on each side of the nucleus. They represent nearly 40 per cent of the actual stellar mass in the field of view. The age for these bursts ranges from 5.5 to 8 Myr with a metallicity near and above 2 Zsun . The extinction map gives E(B-V) values from 0.19+/-0.01 near the youngest bursts to 0.62+/-0.06 in a dusty internal bar perpendicular to the large scale bar. The Mg 2 and Fe I absorption lines indicate the superposition of a background stellar population with an age between 100 Myr to 3 Gyr and a sub-solar metallicity on average. We propose that all these episodes of star formation are the consequence of a secular evolution. In this scenario, the galactic large scale bar plays an important role with respect to the recent bursts and the dusty nuclear bar observed. The iterative technique allows us to improve the determination of the stellar population parameters, mainly an older age is obtained for the old component and more reliable stellar population masses are found. A composite/transition type activity in the galaxy nucleus is also revealed with this technique.
We update the SOHO/SWAN H Lyman-alpha brightness analysis to cover the 1996-2008 time interval. A forward model applied to the intensity maps provides the latitude and time dependence of the interstellar Hydrogen ionisation rate over more than a full solar cycle. The hydrogen ionisation, being almost entirely due to charge-exchange with solar wind ions, reflects closely the solar wind flux. Our results show that the solar wind latitudinal structure during the present solar minimum is strikingly different from the previous minimum, with a much wider slow solar wind equatorial belt which persists until at least the end of 2008. We compute absolute values of the in-ecliptic H ionisation rates using OMNI solar wind data and use them to calibrate our ionisation rates at all heliographic latitudes. We then compare the resulting fluxes with the synoptic LASCO/C2 electron densities at 6 solar radii. The two time-latitude patterns are strikingly similar over all the cycle. This comparison shows that densities at 6 solar radii can be used to infer the solar wind type close to its source, with high (resp. low) densities tracing the slow (resp. fast) solar wind, simply because the density reflects at which altitude occurs the acceleration. The comparison between the two minima suggests that the fast polar wind acceleration occurs at larger distance during the current minimum compared to the previous one. This difference, potentially linked to the magnetic field decrease or(and) the coronal temperature decrease should be reproduced by solar wind expansion models.
The optical-infrared afterglow of the LAT-detected long duration burst, GRB 090902B, has been observed by several instruments. The earliest detection by ROTSE-IIIa occurred 80 minutes after detection by the GBM instrument onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, revealing a bright afterglow and a decay slope suggestive of a reverse shock origin. Subsequent optical-IR observations followed the light curve for 6.5 days. The temporal and spectral behavior at optical-infrared frequencies is consistent with synchrotron fireball model predictions; the cooling break lies between optical and XRT frequencies ~ 1.9 days after the burst. The inferred electron energy index is $p = 1.8 \pm 0.2$, which would however imply an X-ray decay slope flatter than observed. The XRT and LAT data have similar spectral indices and the observed steeper value of the LAT temporal index is marginally consistent with the predicted temporal decay in the radiative regime of the forward shock model. Absence of a jet break during the first 6 days implies a collimation-corrected $\gamma$-ray energy $E_{\gamma} > 2.2\times10^{52}\rm$ ergs, one of the highest ever seen in a long-duration GRBs. More events combining GeV photon emission with multi-wavelength observations will be required to constrain the nature of the central engine powering these energetic explosions and to explore the correlations between energetic quanta and afterglow emission.
We explore how radiative cooling, supernova feedback, cosmic rays and a new model of the energetic feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) affect thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) power spectra. To do this, we use a suite of hydrodynamical TreePM-SPH simulations of the cosmic web in large periodic boxes and tailored higher resolution simulations of individual galaxy clusters. Our AGN feedback simulations match the recent universal pressure profile and cluster mass scaling relations of the REXCESS X-ray cluster sample better than previous analytical or numerical approaches. For multipoles l < 2000, our power spectra with and without enhanced feedback are similar, suggesting theoretical uncertainties over that range are relatively small, although current analytic and semi-analytic approaches overestimate this SZ power. We find the power at high 2000-10000 multipoles which ACT and SPT probe is sensitive to the feedback prescription, hence can constrain the theory of intracluster gas, in particular for the highly uncertain redshifts >0.8. The apparent tension between sigma_8 from primary cosmic microwave background power and from analytic SZ spectra inferred using ACT and SPT data is lessened with our AGN feedback spectra.
We present Hubble Space Telescope observations in the far UV of the ultraluminous X-ray source in NGC 6946 associated with the optical nebula MF 16. Both a point-like source coincident with the X-ray source and the surrounding nebula are detected in the FUV. The point source has a flux of 5E-16 erg s^-1 cm^-2 Ang^-1 and the nebula has a flux of 1.6E-15 erg s^-1 cm^-2 Ang^-1, quoted at 1533 Ang and assuming an extinction of A_V = 1.54. Thus, MF 16 appears to host the first directly detected ultraluminous UV source (ULUV). The flux of the point-like source is consistent with a blackbody with T ~ 30,000 K, possibly from a massive companion star, but this spectrum does not create sufficient ionizing radiation to produce the nebular HeII flux and a second, hotter emission component would be required. A multicolor disk blackbody spectrum truncated with an outer disk temperature of ~16,000 K provides an adequate fit to the FUV, B, V, I, and HeII fluxes and can produce the needed ionizing radiation. Additional observations are required to determine the physical nature of the source.
We study scalar field fluctuations of the inflaton field in an early inflationary universe with a black-hole, which is described by an effective 4D SdS metric, which is obtained after make a planar coordinate transformation on a 5D Ricci-flat Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS) static metric. The spectrum of fluctuations at zeroth order result to be independent of the scalar field mass $M$ on Schwarzschild scales, while on cosmological scales it exhibits a mass dependence. In the first-order expansion, the spectrum depends of the inflaton mass.
Kerrr in the title is not a typo. The third "r" stands for "regular", in the sense of pathology-free, rotating black hole. We exhibit a long search-for, exact, Kerr-like, solution of the Einstein equations with novel features: i) no curvature ring singularity; ii) no "anti-gravity" universe with causality violating timelike closed world-lines; iii) no "super-luminal" matter disk. The ring singularity is replaced by a classical, circular, rotating string with Planck tension representing the inner engine driving the rotation of all the surrounding matter. The resulting geometry is regular and smoothly interpolates among inner Minkowski space, borderline deSitter and outer Kerr universe. The key ingredient to cure all unphysical features of the ordinary Kerr black hole is the choice of a "noncommutative geometry inspired" matter source as the input for the Einstein equations, in analogy with spherically symmetric black holes described in earlier works.
We propose the most general modified first-order Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, whose action does not contain time derivatives higher than the second order. The Hamiltonian structure of this theory is studied in all the details in the case of the spatially-flat FRW space-time, demonstrating many of the features of the general theory. It is shown that, with some plausible assumptions, including the projectability of the lapse function, this model is consistent. As a large class of such theories, the modified $F(R)$ Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity is introduced. The study of its ultraviolet properties shows that its $z=3$ version seems to be renormalizable in the same way as the original Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz proposal. The Hamiltonian analysis of the modified $F(R)$ Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity shows that it is in general a consistent theory. The $F(R)$ gravity action is also studied in the fixed-gauge form, where the appearance of a scalar field is particularly illustrative. Then the spatially-flat FRW cosmology for this $F(R)$ gravity is investigated. It is shown that a special choice of parameters for this theory leads to the same equations of motion as in the case of traditional $F(R)$ gravity. Nevertheless, the cosmological structure of the modified $F(R)$ Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity turns out to be much richer than for its traditional counterpart. The emergence of multiple de Sitter solutions indicates to the possibility of unification of early-time inflation with late-time acceleration within the same model. Power-law $F(R)$ theories are also investigated in detail. It is analytically shown that they have a quite rich cosmological structure: early/late-time cosmic acceleration of quintessence, as well as of phantom types. Also it is demonstrated that all the four known types of finite-time future singularities may occur in the power-law Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz $F(R)$ gravity. Finally, a covariant proposal for (renormalizable) $F(R)$ gravity within the Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz spirit is presented.
Two-dimensional electrostatic turbulence in magnetized weakly-collisional plasmas exhibits a cascade of entropy in phase space [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. At scales smaller than the gyroradius, this cascade is characterized by the dimensionless ratio D of the collision time to the eddy turnover time measured at the scale of the thermal Larmor radius. When D >> 1, a broad spectrum of fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales is found in both position and velocity space. The distribution function develops structure as a function of v_{perp}, the velocity coordinate perpendicular to the local magnetic field. The cascade shows a local-scale nonlinear interaction in both position and velocity spaces, and Kolmogorov's scaling theory can be extended into phase space.
The Lagrange point $L_1$ for the Sun-Earth system is considered due to its special importance for the scientific community for the design of space missions. The location of the Lagrangian points with the trajectories and stability regions of $L_1$ are computed numerically for the initial conditions very close to the point. The influence of belt, effect of radiation pressure due to Sun and oblateness effect of second primary(finite body Earth) is presented for various values of parameters. The collinear point $L_1$ is asymptotically stable within a specific interval of time $t$ correspond to the values of parameters and initial conditions.
The electronic spectra of gas-phase cationic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), trapped in the Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance cell of the PIRENEA experiment, have been measured by multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy in the 430-480 nm spectral range using the radiation of a mid-band optical parametric oscillator laser. We present here the spectra recorded for different species of increasing size, namely the pyrene cation (C16H10+), the 1-methylpyrene cation (CH3-C16H9+), the coronene cation (C24H12+), and its dehydrogenated derivative C24H10+. The experimental results are interpreted with the help of time-dependent density functional theory calculations and analysed using spectral information on the same species obtained from matrix isolation spectroscopy data. A kinetic Monte Carlo code has also been used, in the case of pyrene and coronene cations, to estimate the absorption cross-sections of the measured electronic transitions. Gas-phase spectra of highly reactive species such as dehydrogenated PAH cations are reported for the first time.
We investigate the generation of gravitational waves in the hybrid quintessential inflationary model. The full gravitational-wave energy spectrum is calculated using the method of continuous Bogoliubov coefficients. The post-inflationary kination period, characteristic of quintessential inflationary models, leaves a clear signature on the spectrum, namely, a peak at high frequencies. The maximum of the peak is firmly located at the MHz-GHz region of the spectrum and corresponds to $\Omega_{GW} \simeq 10^{-12}$. This peak is substantially smaller than the one appearing in the gravitational-wave energy spectrum of the original quintessential inflationary model, therefore avoiding any conflict with the nucleosynthesis constraint on $\Omega_\Omega_{GW}$.
Let's take stock of the situation on one of the most studied astrophysical phenomena during the latest years: the jets escaping from protostars, stellar singularities, GRB and active galactic nuclei.
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We introduce an objective method to assess the probability of finding extreme events in the cold dark matter such as voids, overdensities or very high mass haloes. Our approach uses an ensemble of N-body simulations of the hierarchical clustering of dark matter to find extreme structures. The frequency of extreme events, in our case the cell or smoothing volume with the highest count of cluster-mass dark matter haloes, is well described by a Gumbel distribution. This distribution can then be used to forecast the probability of finding even more extreme events, which would otherwise require a much larger ensemble of simulations to quantify. We use our technique to assess the chance of finding concentrations of massive clusters or superclusters, like the two found in the two-degree field galaxy redshift survey (2dFGRS), using a counts-in-cells analysis. The Gumbel distribution gives an excellent description of the distribution of extreme cell counts across two large ensembles of simulations covering different cosmologies, and measuring the clustering in both real and redshift space. We find examples of structures like those found in the 2dFGRS in the simulations. However, the chance of finding such structures in a volume equal to that of the 2dFGRS is less than 1%.
The Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON) has collected helioseismic data over three solar cycles. We use these data to determine how the internal properties of the Sun during this minimum differ from the previous two minima. The cycle 24 data show oscillatory differences with respect to the other two sets, indicating relatively localized changes in the solar interior. Analysis of MDI data from Cycle 23 and Cycle 24 also show significant signs of differences.
We analyze optical and radio properties of radiogalaxies detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The sample of radio sources are selected from the catalogue of Kimball & Ivezi\'c (2008) with flux densities at 325, 1400 and 4850 MHz, using WENSS, NVSS and GB6 radio surveys and from flux measurements at 74 MHz taken from VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey \citep{cohen}. We study radiogalaxy spectral properties using radio colour-colour diagrams and find that our sample follows a single power law from 74 to 4850 MHz. The spectral index vs. spectroscopic redshift relation ($\alpha-z$) is not significant for our sample of radio sources. We analyze a subsample of radio sources associated with clusters of galaxies identified from the maxBCG catalogue and find that about 40% of radio sources with ultra steep spectra (USS, $\alpha<-1$, where $S_\nu \propto \nu^{\alpha}$) are associated with galaxy clusters or groups of galaxies. We construct a Hubble diagram of USS radio sources in the optical $r$ band up to $z\sim0$.8 and compare our results with those for normal galaxies selected from different optical surveys and find that USS radio sources are around as luminous as the central galaxies in the maxBCG cluster sample and typically more than 4 magnitudes brighter than normal galaxies at $z\sim0$.3. We study correlations between spectral index, richness and luminosity of clusters associated with radio sources. We find that USS at low redshift are rare, most of them reside in regions of unusually high ambient density, such of those found in rich cluster of galaxies. Our results also suggest that clusters of galaxies associated with steeper than the average spectra have higher richness counts and are populated by luminous galaxies in comparison with those environments associated to radio sources with flatter than the average spectra. A plausible explanation for our results is that radio emission is more pressure confined in higher gas density environments such as those found in rich clusters of galaxies and as a consequence radio lobes in rich galaxy clusters will expand adiabatically and lose energy via synchrotron and inverse Compton losses, resulting in a steeper radio spectra.
We present high-resolution 345 GHz interferometric observations of two extreme luminous (L_{IR}>10^{13} L_sun), submillimetre-selected galaxies (SMGs) in the COSMOS field with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). Both targets were previously detected as unresolved point-sources by the SMA in its compact configuration, also at 345 GHz. These new data, which provide a factor of ~3 improvement in resolution, allow us to measure the physical scale of the far-infrared in the submillimetre directly. The visibility functions of both targets show significant evidence for structure on 0.5-1 arcsec scales, which at z=1.5 translates into a physical scale of 5-8 kpc. Our results are consistent with the angular and physical scales of two comparably luminous objects with high-resolution SMA followup, as well as radio continuum and CO sizes. These relatively compact sizes (<5-10 kpc) argue strongly for merger-driven starbursts, rather than extended gas-rich disks, as the preferred channel for forming SMGs. For the most luminous objects, the derived sizes may also have important physical consequences; under a series of simplifying assumptions, we find that these two objects in particular are forming stars close to or at the Eddington limit for a starburst.
We investigate whether the subhalos of Lambda-CDM galaxy halos have potentials consistent with the observed properties of Milky Way satellites, particularly those with high-quality photometric and kinematic data: Fornax, Leo I, Sculptor, Sextans, and Carina. We compare spherical models with isotropic velocity dispersion tensors to the observed, circularly averaged star counts, line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles and line-of-sight velocity distributions. We identify subhalos within the six high-resolution dark matter halos of the Aquarius Project for which the spherically averaged potentials result in excellent fits to each of the five galaxies. In particular, our simple one-integral models reproduce the observations in the inner regions, proving that these data are fully consistent with Lambda-CDM expectations and do not require cored dark matter distributions. For four of the five satellites the fits require moderately cusped {\it stellar} density profiles. The star count data for Leo I, however, do require a cored distribution of star counts. Current data suggest that these five satellites may be hosted by Lambda-CDM subhalos with maximum circular velocities in the range 10 to 30 km/s.
Previous observational studies of the infrared (IR)-radio relation out to high redshift employed any detectable star forming systems at a given redshift within the restricted area of cosmological survey fields. Consequently, the evolution inferred relies on a comparison between the average IR/radio properties of (i) very IR-luminous high-z sources and (ii) more heterogeneous low(er)-z samples that often lack the strongest IR emitters. In this report we consider populations of objects with comparable luminosities over the last 10 Gyr by taking advantage of deep IR (esp. Spitzer 24 micron) and VLA 1.4 GHz observations of the COSMOS field. Consistent with recent model predictions, both Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) and galaxies on the bright end of the evolving IR luminosity function do not display any change in their average IR/radio ratios out to z~2 when corrected for bias. Uncorrected data suggested ~0.3 dex of positive evolution.
Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar. Its X-ray emission shows a very strong 4.8-hour orbital modulation. But its mass-donating companion is a Wolf-Rayet star. Also unlike most other X-ray binaries Cygnus X-3 is relatively bright in the radio virtually all of the time (the exceptions being the quenched states). Cygnus X-3 also undergoes giant radio outbursts (up to 20 Jy). In this presentation we discuss and review the flaring behavior of Cygnus X-3 and its various radio/X-ray states. We present a revised set of radio/X-ray states based on Cygnus X-3's hardness-intensity diagram (HID). We also examine the connection of a certain type of activity to the reported AGILE/Fermi gamma-ray detections of Cygnus X-3.
The solar F10.7 index is has been a reliable and sensitive activity index since 1947. As with other indices, it has been showing unusual behavior in the Cycle 23/24 minimum. The origins of the solar microwave flux lie in a variety of features, and in two main emission mechanisms: free-free and gyroresonance. In past solar cycles F10.7 has correlated well with the sunspot number SSN. We find that this correlation has broken down in Cycle~23, confirming this with Japanese fixed-frequency radiometric microwave data.
The anisotropy of clustering in redshift space provides a direct measure of the growth rate of large scale structure in the Universe. Future galaxy redshift surveys will make high precision measurements of these distortions, and will potentially allow us to distinguish between different scenarios for the accelerating expansion of the Universe. Accurate predictions are needed in order to distinguish between competing cosmological models. We study the distortions in the redshift space power spectrum in $\Lambda$CDM and quintessence dark energy models, using large volume N-body simulations, and test predictions for the form of the redshift space distortions. We find that the linear perturbation theory prediction by \citet{Kaiser:1987qv} is a poor fit to the measured distortions, even on surprisingly large scales $k \sim 0.03 h$Mpc$^{-1}$. An improved model for the redshift space power spectrum, including the non-linear velocity divergence power spectrum, is presented and agrees with the power spectra measured from the simulations up to $k \sim 0.2 h$Mpc$^{-1}$. We have found a density-velocity relation which is cosmology independent and which relates the non-linear velocity divergence spectrum to the non-linear matter power spectrum. We provide a formula which generates the non-linear velocity divergence $P(k)$ at any redshift, using only the non-linear matter power spectrum and the linear growth factor at the desired redshift. This formula is accurate to better than 10% on scales $k<0.2 h $Mpc$^{-1}$ for all the cosmological models discussed in this paper. Our results will extend the statistical power of future galaxy surveys.
We study the cosmological perturbations created during the New Higgs inflationary phase. In the New Higgs Inflation, the Higgs boson is kinetically coupled to the Einstein tensor and only three perturbative degrees of freedom, a scalar and two tensorial (gravitational waves), propagate during Inflation. Scalar perturbations are found to match the latest WMAP-7yrs data within Standard Model Higgs parameters. Primordial gravitational waves also, although propagating with superluminal speed, are consistent with present data. Finally, we estimate the values of the parameter of the New Higgs Inflation in relation to the Higgs mass, the spectral index and amplitude of the primordial scalar perturbations showing that the unitarity bound of the theory is not violated.
The corona at solar minimum generally differs greatly from that during active times. We discuss the current Cycle 23/24 minimum from the point of view of the occurrence of flares and CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections). By comparison with the previous minimum, the flare/CME ratio diminished by almost an order of magnitude. This suggests that the environmental effect in flare/CME association differed in the sense that the Cycle 23/24 minimum corona was relatively easy to disrupt.
We analyze the behavior of the parsec-scale jet of the quasar 3C~454.3 during pronounced flaring activity in 2005-2008. Three major disturbances propagated down the jet along different trajectories with Lorentz factors $\Gamma>$10. The disturbances show a clear connection with millimeter-wave outbursts, in 2005 May/June, 2007 July, and 2007 December. High-amplitude optical events in the $R$-band light curve precede peaks of the millimeter-wave outbursts by 15-50 days. Each optical outburst is accompanied by an increase in X-ray activity. We associate the optical outbursts with propagation of the superluminal knots and derive the location of sites of energy dissipation in the form of radiation. The most prominent and long-lasting of these, in 2005 May, occurred closer to the black hole, while the outbursts with a shorter duration in 2005 Autumn and in 2007 might be connected with the passage of a disturbance through the millimeter-wave core of the jet. The optical outbursts, which coincide with the passage of superluminal radio knots through the core, are accompanied by systematic rotation of the position angle of optical linear polarization. Such rotation appears to be a common feature during the early stages of flares in blazars. We find correlations between optical variations and those at X-ray and $\gamma$-ray energies. We conclude that the emergence of a superluminal knot from the core yields a series of optical and high-energy outbursts, and that the mm-wave core lies at the end of the jet's acceleration and collimation zone.
Accurate weak-lensing analysis requires not only accurate measurement of galaxy shapes but also precise and unbiased measurement of galaxy redshifts. The photometric redshift technique appears as the only possibility to determine the redshift of the background galaxies used in the weak-lensing analysis. Using the photometric redshift quality, simple shape measurement requirements, and a proper sky model, we explore what could be an optimal weak-lensing dark energy mission based on FoM calculation. We found that photometric redshifts reach their best accurracy for the bulk of the faint galaxy population when filters have a resolution R~3.2. We show that an optimal mission would survey the sky through 8 filters using 2 cameras (visible and near infrared). Assuming a 5-year mission duration, a mirror size of 1.5m, a 0.5deg2 FOV with a visible pixel scale of 0.15", to maximize the Weak Lensing FoM, an optimal exposure time is found to be 4x200s per filter (at the Galactic poles) thus covering ~11000deg2 of the sky over the mission. This work demonstrates that a full account of the observational strategy is required to properly optimize the instrument parameters to maximize the FoM of the future weak-lensing space dark energy mission.
We have made the first detections of the 88 micron [OIII] line from galaxies in the early Universe, detecting the line from the lensed AGN/starburst composite systems APM 08279+5255 at z = 3.911 and SMM J02399-0136 at z = 2.8076. The line is exceptionally bright from both systems, with apparent (lensed) luminosities ~10^11 L_solar. For APM 08279, the [OIII] line flux can be modeled in a star formation paradigm, with the stellar radiation field dominated by stars with effective temperatures, Teff >36,000 K, similar to the starburst found in M82. The model implies ~35% of the total far-IR luminosity of the system is generated by the starburst, with the remainder arising from dust heated by the AGN. The 88 micron line can also be generated in the narrow line region of the AGN if gas densities are around a few 1000 cm-3. For SMM J02399 the [OIII] line likely arises from HII regions formed by hot (Teff >40,000 K) young stars in a massive starburst that dominates the far-IR luminosity of the system. The present work demonstrates the utility of the [OIII] line for characterizing starbursts and AGN within galaxies in the early Universe. These are the first detections of this astrophysically important line from galaxies beyond a redshift of 0.05.
We show that under certain conditions, subsurface structures in the solar interior can alter the average acoustic power observed at the photosphere above them. By using numerical simulations of wave propagation, we show that this effect is large enough for it to be potentially used for detecting emerging active regions before they appear on the surface. In our simulations, simplified subsurface structures are modeled as regions with enhanced or reduced acoustic wave speed. We investigate the dependence of the acoustic power above a subsurface region on the sign, depth, and strength of the wave speed perturbation. Observations from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Michelson Doppler Imager (SOHO/MDI) prior and during the emergence of NOAA active region 10488 are used to test the use of acoustic power as a potential precursor of magnetic flux emergence.
We present results from a wide-field imaging campaign at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study the spectacular outburst of comet 17P/Holmes in late 2007. Using image-processing techniques we probe inside the spherical dust coma and find sixteen fragments having both spatial distribution and kinematics consistent with isotropic ejection from the nucleus. Photometry of the fragments is inconsistent with scattering from monolithic, inert bodies. Instead, each detected fragment appears to be an active cometesimal producing its own dust coma. By scaling from the coma of the primary nucleus of 17P/Holmes, assumed to be 1.7 km in radius, we infer that the sixteen fragments have maximum effective radii between ~ 10 m and ~ 100 m on UT 2007 Nov. 6. The fragments subsequently fade at a common rate of ~ 0.2 mag/day, consistent with steady depletion of ices from these bodies in the heat of the Sun. Our characterization of the fragments supports the hypothesis that a large piece of material broke away from the nucleus and crumbled, expelling smaller, icy shards into the larger dust coma around the nucleus.
We present a spectroscopic analysis of white dwarfs found in the Kiso survey. Spectroscopic observations at high signal-to-noise ratio have been obtained for all DA and DB stars in the Kiso Schmidt ultraviolet excess survey (KUV stars). These observations led to the reclassification of several KUV objects, including the discovery of three unresolved DA+DB double degenerate binaries. The atmospheric parameters (Teff and log g) are obtained from detailed model atmosphere fits to optical spectroscopic data. The mass distribution of our sample is characterized by a mean value of 0.606 Msun and a dispersion of 0.135 Msun for DA stars, and 0.758 Msun and a dispersion of 0.192 Msun for DB stars. Absolute visual magnitudes obtained from our spectroscopic fits allow us to derive an improved luminosity function for the DA and DB stars identified in the Kiso survey. Our luminosity function is found to be significantly different from earlier estimates based on empirical photometric calibrations of Mv for the same sample. The results for the DA stars now appear entirely consistent with those obtained for the PG survey using the same spectroscopic approach. The space density for DA stars with Mv<12.75 is 2.80X10^-4 pc^-3 in the Kiso survey, which is 9.6% smaller than the value found in the PG survey. The completeness of both surveys is briefly discussed.
Motivated by the recent discovery of massive planets on wide orbits, we present a mechanism for the formation of such planets via disk fragmentation in the embedded phase of star formation. In this phase, the forming disk intensively accretes matter from the natal cloud core and undergoes several fragmentation episodes. However, most fragments are either destroyed or driven into the innermost regions (and probably onto the star) due to angular momentum exchange with spiral arms, leading to multiple FU-Ori-like bursts and disk expansion. Fragments that are sufficiently massive and form in the late embedded phase (when the disk conditions are less extreme) may open a gap and evolve into giant planets on typical orbits of several tens to several hundreds of AU. For this mechanism to work, the natal cloud core must have sufficient mass and angular momentum to trigger the burst mode and also form extended disks of the order of several hundreds of AU. When mass loading from the natal cloud core diminishes and the main fragmentation phase ends, such extended disks undergo a transient episode of contraction and density increase, during which they may give birth to a last and survivable set of giant planets on wide and relatively stable orbits.
(Abridged) We present CARMA observations of the thermal dust emission from the circumstellar disks around the young stars RYTau and DGTau at wavelengths of 1.3mm and 2.8mm. The angular resolution of the maps is as high as 0.15arcsec, or 20AU at the distance of the Taurus cloud, which is a factor of 2 higher than has been achieved to date at these wavelengths. The unprecedented detail of the resulting disk images enables us to address three important questions related to the formation of planets. (1) What is the radial distribution of the circumstellar dust? (2) Does the dust emission show any indication of gaps that might signify the presence of (proto-)planets? (3) Do the dust properties depend on the orbital radius? We find that modeling the disk surface density in terms of either a classical power law or the similarity solution for viscous disk evolution, reproduces the observations well. The 1.3mm image from RYTau shows two peaks separated by 0.2arcsec with a decline in the dust emission toward the stellar position, which is significant at about 2-4sigma. For both RYTau and DGTau, the dust emission at radii larger than 15 AU displays no significant deviation from an unperturbed viscous disk model. In particular, no radial gaps in the dust distribution are detected. Under reasonable assumptions, we exclude the presence of planets more massive than 5 Jupiter masses orbiting either star at distances between about 10 and 60 AU. The radial variation of the dust opacity slope, beta, was investigated by comparing the 1.3mm and 2.8mm observations. We find mean values of beta of 0.5 and 0.7 for DGTau and RYTau respectively. Variations in beta are smaller than 0.7 between 20 and 70 AU. These results confirm that the circumstellar dust throughout these disks differs significantly from dust in the interstellar medium.
In this work we study Herbig-Haro objects located in the region around the head of the cometary globule CG 30. Two sets of optical images are presented. The first set was obtained with the 3.5 m New Technology Telescope in 1995 in three emission lines: Halpha, [SII]6731,6716 A and [OII]3729 A. The second set is an Halpha image of the CG 30/31/38 complex obtained in 2006 with the 8 m Subaru telescope. A proper motion study of the HH objects in the region was performed using the Halpha images from both epochs. Due to the high resolution of our images we were able to, for the first time, resolve the HH 120 object into ten knots and measure proper motions for some of them. We discover several new HH objects and a large bipolar jet, HH 950, emerging from the head of CG 30. We suggest that two previously known submillimeter sources are the driving sources for the HH 120 and HH 950 flows.
The cumulative luminosity distribution functions (CLFs) of radio millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in globular clusters (GCs) and in the Galactic field at a frequency of 1.4 GHz have been examined. Assuming a functional form, $N \propto L^q$ where $N$ is the number of MSPs and $L$ is the luminosity at 1.4 GHz, it is found that the CLFs significantly differ with a steeper slope, $q=-0.83 \pm 0.05$, in GCs than in the Galactic field ($q=-0.48 \pm 0.04$), suggesting a different formation or evolutionary history of MSPs in these two regions of the Galaxy. To probe the production mechanism of MSPs in clusters, a search of the possible relationships between the MSP population and cluster properties was carried out. The results of an investigation of 9 GCs indicate positive correlations between the MSP population and the stellar encounter rate and metallicity. This provides additional evidence suggesting that stellar dynamical interactions are important in the formation of the MSP population in GCs.
To explore the difference between the most two recent solar minima, we analyze the in-situ ACE and ULYSSES observations and examine the distributions of the three types of solar wind (streamer-stalk-associated wind, wind from outside the streamer stalk that can be associated, in part, with coronal holes, and interplanetary coronal mass ejections). We use the taxonomy provided by Zhao et al. (2009) to identify the three types of solar wind. We then map the in-situ observations to the 2.5 solar radii surface. With the aid of the potential-field-source surface model (PFSS), we calculate the normal distance from the solar wind "foot point" to the local helisopheric current sheet on that surface. We find that the source region of the streamer stalk wind is narrower compared to the previous minimum. The area outside the streamer stalk is accordingly larger, but the magnetic field strength is observed to be lower, with the result that the total amount of the magnetic open flux from the outside of streamer stalk region is conserved in the two successive solar minima. The implications of the conservation of open magnetic flux for models of the behavior of the solar magnetic field are discussed.
The particle mass used in cosmology N-body simulations is close to 10^10\Msun, which is about 10^65 times larger than the GeV scale expected in particle physics. However, self-gravity interacting particle systems made up of different particles mass have different statistical and dynamical properties. Here we demonstrate that, due to this particle mass difference, the nowaday cosmology N-body simulations can have introduced an excessive core collapse process, especially for the low mass halos at high redshift. Such dynamical effect introduces an excessive cuspy center for these small halos, and it implies a possible connection to the so called "small scale crisis" for CDM models. Our results show that there exist a physical limit in cosmological simulations, and we provide a simple suggestion based on it to relieve those effects from the bias.
Cygnus X-3 is one of the brightest X-ray and radio sources in the Galaxy, and is well known for its erratic behaviour in X-rays as well as in the radio, occasionally producing major radio flares associated with relativistic ejections. However, even after many years of observations in various wavelength bands Cyg X-3 still eludes clear physical understanding. Studying different emission bands simultaneously in microquasars has proved to be a fruitful approach towards understanding these systems, especially by shedding light on the accretion disc/jet connection. We continue this legacy by constructing a hardness-intensity diagram (HID) from archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data and linking simultaneous radio observations to it. We find that surprisingly Cyg X-3 sketches a similar shape in the HID to that seen in other transient black hole X-ray binaries during outburst but with distinct differences. Together with the results of this analysis and previous studies of Cyg X-3 we conclude that the X-ray states can be assigned to six distinct states. This categorization relies heavily on the simultaneous radio observations and we identify one new X-ray state, the hypersoft state, similar to the ultrasoft state, which is associated to the quenched radio state during which there is no or very faint radio emission. Recent observations of GeV flux observed from Cyg X-3 (Tavani et al. 2009; Fermi LAT Collaboration et al. 2009) during a soft X-ray and/or radio quenched state at the onset of a major radio flare hint that a very energetic process is at work during this time, which is also when the hypersoft X-ray state is observed. In addition, Cyg X-3 shows flaring with a wide range of hardness.
We study the response of the low-degree solar p-mode frequencies to the unusual extension of the minimum of solar surface activity since 2007. Helioseismic observations collected by the space-based, Sun-as-a-star GOLF instrument and by the ground-based, multi-site network GONG (integrated signal) are analyzed. Temporal variations of the low-degree (l=0,1,2), p-mode frequencies are obtained. Although the known correlation of the frequency changes with the solar surface activity is recovered for the period 1996-2007, since the second half of 2007 and until July 2009 (latest period analyzed) we notice a peculiar behavior amongst modes of different angular degrees. In particular, a clear increase of the l=0 and l=2 p-mode frequencies is consistently obtained since late 2007, while the l=1 frequencies follow the general decreasing trend of surface activity. We interpret these differences in the frequency shifts of individual low-degree modes as indicative of variations at high latitudes in the magnetic flux beneath the surface of the Sun related to the onset of solar cycle 24.
The star HD 49385 is the first G-type solar-like pulsator observed in the seismology field of the space telescope CoRoT. The satellite collected 137 days of high-precision photometric data on this star, confirming that it presents solar-like oscillations. HD 49385 was also observed in spectroscopy with the NARVAL spectrograph in January 2009. Our goal is to characterize HD 49385 using both spectroscopic and seismic data. The fundamental stellar parameters of HD 49385 are derived with the semi-automatic software VWA, and the projected rotational velocity is estimated by fitting synthetic profiles to isolated lines in the observed spectrum. A maximum likelihood estimation is used to determine the parameters of the observed p modes. We perform a global fit, in which modes are fitted simultaneously over nine radial orders, with degrees ranging from l=0 to l=3 (36 individual modes). Precise estimates of the atmospheric parameters (Teff, [M/H], log g) and of the vsini of HD 49385 are obtained. The seismic analysis of the star leads to a clear identification of the modes for degrees l=0,1,2. Around the maximum of the signal (nu=1013 microHz), some peaks are found significant and compatible with the expected characteristics of l=3 modes. Our fit yields robust estimates of the frequencies, linewidths and amplitudes of the modes. We find amplitudes of about 5.6 +/- 0.8 ppm for radial modes at the maximum of the signal. The lifetimes of the modes range from one day (at high frequency) to a bit more than two days (at low frequency). Significant peaks are found outside the identified ridges and are fitted. They are attributed to mixed modes.
S5 0716+714 is a well-studied BL Lac object in the sky. Verifying the existence of correlations among the flux variations in different bands serves as an important tool to investigate the emission processes. To examine the possible existence of a lag between variations in different optical bands on this source, we employ a discrete correlation function (DCF) analysis on the light curves. In order to obtain statistically meaningful values for the cross-correlation time lags and their related uncertainties, we perform Monte Carlo simulations called "flux redistribution/random subset selection" (FR/RSS). Our analysis confirms that the variations in different optical light curves are strongly correlated. The time lags show a hint of the variations in high frequency band leading those in low frequency band of the order of a few minutes.
The very first stars in the Universe can be very massive, up to $10^6M_\odot$. They would leave behind massive black holes that could act as seeds for growing super massive black holes of active galactic nuclei. Given the anticipated fast rotation such stars would end their live as super massive collapsars and drive powerful magnetically-dominated jets. In this paper we investigate the possibility of observing the bursts of high-energy emission similar to the Long Gamma Ray Bursts associated with normal collapsars. We show that during the collapse of supercollapsars, the Blandford-Znajek mechanism can produce jets as powerful as few$\times10^{51}$erg/s and release up to $10^{56}$erg of the black hole rotational energy. Due to the higher intrinsic time scale and higher redshift the initial bright phase of the burst can last for about $10^5$ seconds whereas the central engine would remain active for about 10 days. Due to the high redshift the burst spectrum is expected to be soft, with the spectral energy distribution peaking at around 60keV. The peak total flux density is relatively low, few$\times 10^{-7}erg\, cm^{-2} s^{-1}$, but not prohibitive. The such events should be rear 0.03 year$^{-1}$, the observations needs long term program and could be done in future.
The final stage of terrestrial planet formation is known as the giant impact stage where protoplanets collide with one another to form planets. So far this stage has been mainly investigated by N-body simulations with an assumption of perfect accretion in which all collisions lead to accretion. However, this assumption breaks for collisions with high velocity and/or a large impact parameter. We derive an accretion condition for protoplanet collisions in terms of impact velocity and angle and masses of colliding bodies, from the results of numerical collision experiments. For the first time, we adopt this realistic accretion condition in N-body simulations of terrestrial planet formation from protoplanets. We compare the results with those with perfect accretion and show how the accretion condition affects terrestrial planet formation. We find that in the realistic accretion model, about half of collisions do not lead to accretion. However, the final number, mass, orbital elements, and even growth timescale of planets are barely affected by the accretion condition. For the standard protoplanetary disk model, typically two Earth-sized planets form in the terrestrial planet region over about 100 M years in both realistic and perfect accretion models. We also find that for the realistic accretion model, the spin angular velocity is about 30% smaller than that for the perfect accretion model that is as large as the critical spin angular velocity for rotational instability. The spin angular velocity and obliquity obey Gaussian and isotropic distributions, respectively, independently of the accretion condition.
We perform kinetic simulations of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in Type Ia supernova remnants (SNRs) expanding into a uniform interstellar medium (ISM). Bohm-like diffusion assumed, and simple models for Alfvenic drift and dissipation are adopted. Phenomenological models for thermal leakage injection are considered as well. We find that the preshock gas temperature is the primary parameter that governs the cosmic ray (CR) acceleration efficiency and energy spectrum, while the CR injection rate is a secondary parameter. For SNRs in the warm ISM, if the injection fraction is larger than 10^{-4}, the DSA is efficient enough to convert more than 20 % of the SN explosion energy into CRs and the accelerated CR spectrum exhibits a concave curvature flattening to E^{-1.6}. Such a flat source spectrum near the knee energy, however, may not be reconciled with the CR spectrum observed at Earth. On the other hand, SNRs in the hot ISM, with an injection fraction smaller than 10^{-4}, are inefficient accelerators with less than 10 % of the explosion energy getting converted to CRs. Also the shock structure is almost test-particle like and the ensuing CR spectrum can be steeper than E^{-2}. With amplified magnetic field strength of order of 30 microG, Alfven waves generated by the streaming instability may drift upstream fast enough to make the modified test-particle power-law as steep as E^{-2.3}, which is more consistent with the observed CR spectrum.
We consider the spin angular momentum evolution of the accreting components of Algol-type binary stars. In wider Algols the accretion is through a disc so that the accreted material can transfer enough angular momentum to the gainer that material at its equator should be spinning at break-up. We demonstrate that even a small amount of mass transfer, much less than required to produce today's mass ratios, transfers enough angular momentum to spin the gainer up to this critical rotation velocity. However the accretors in these systems have spins typically between 10 and $40\,$per cent of the critical rate. So some mechanism for angular momentum loss from the gainers is required. We consider generation of magnetic fields in the radiative atmospheres in a differentially rotating star and the possibility of angular momentum loss driven by strong stellar winds in the intermediate mass stars, such as the primaries of the Algols. Differential rotation, induced by the accretion itself, may produce such winds which carry away enough angular momentum to reduce their rotational velocities to the today's observed values. We apply this model to two systems with initial periods of 5\,d, one with initial masses 5 and $3\,\rm{M}_{\odot}$ and the other with 3.2 and $2\,\rm{M}_{\odot}$. Our calculations show that, if the mass outflow rate in the stellar wind is about $10\,$per cent of the accretion rate and the dipole magnetic field is stronger than about $1\,$kG, the spin rate of the gainer is reduced to below break-up velocity even in the fast phase of mass transfer. Larger mass loss is needed for smaller magnetic fields. The slow rotation of the gainers in the classical Algol systems is explained by a balance between the spin-up by mass accretion and spin-down by a stellar wind linked to a magnetic field.
Context. Accurate long-baseline interferometric measurements require careful calibration with reference stars. Small calibrators with high angular diameter accuracy ensure the true visibility uncertainty to be dominated by the measurement errors. Aims. We review some indirect methods for estimating angular diameter, using various types of input data. Each diameter estimate, obtained for the test-case calibrator star lambda Gru, is compared with the value 2.71 mas found in the Bord\'e calibrator catalogue published in 2002. Methods. Angular size estimations from spectral type, spectral index, in-band magnitude, broadband photometry, and spectrophotometry give close estimates of the angular diameter, with slightly variable uncertainties. Fits on photometry and spectrophotometry need physical atmosphere models with "plausible" stellar parameters. Angular diameter uncertainties were estimated by means of residual bootstrapping confidence intervals. All numerical results and graphical outputs presented in this paper were obtained using the routines developed under PV-WAVE, which compose the modular software suite SPIDAST, created to calibrate and interprete spectroscopic and interferometric measurements, particularly those obtained with VLTI-AMBER. Results. The final angular diameter estimate 2.70 mas of lambda Gru, with 68% confidence interval 2.65-2.81 mas, is obtained by fit of the MARCS model on the ISO-SWS 2.38-27.5 mum spectrum, with the stellar parameters T_eff = 4 250 K, log(g) = 2.0, z = 0.0 dex, M = 1.0 M_sun, and xi_turb = 2.0 km/s.
Evidence shows that massive black holes reside in most local galaxies. Studies have also established a number of relations between the MBH mass and properties of the host galaxy such as bulge mass and velocity dispersion. These results suggest that central MBHs, while much less massive than the host (~ 0.1%), are linked to the evolution of galactic structure. In hierarchical cosmologies, a single big galaxy today can be traced back to the stage when it was split up in hundreds of smaller components. Did MBH seeds form with the same efficiency in small proto-galaxies, or did their formation had to await the buildup of substantial galaxies with deeper potential wells? I briefly review here some of the physical processes that are conducive to the evolution of the massive black hole population. I will discuss black hole formation processes for `seed' black holes that are likely to place at early cosmic epochs, and possible observational tests of these scenarios.
We present multiwavelength investigation of morphology, physical-environment, stellar contents and star formation activity in the vicinity of star-forming region Sh 2-100. It is found that the Sh 2-100 region contains seven HII regions of ultracompact and compact nature. The present estimation of distance for three HII regions, along with the kinematic distance for others, suggests that all of them belong to the same molecular cloud complex. Using NIR photometry, we identified the most probable ionizing sources of six HII regions. Their approximate photometric spectral type estimates suggest that they are massive early-B to mid-O ZAMS stars and agree well with radio continuum observations at 1280 MHz. The morphology of the complex shows a non-uniform distribution of warm and hot dust, well mixed with the ionized gas, which correlates well with the variation of average visual extinction (~ 4.2 - 97 mag) across the region. We estimated the physical parameters of ionized gas with the help of radio continuum observations. We detected an optically visible compact nebula located to the south of the 850 micron emission associated with one of the HII regions and the diagnostic of the optical emission line ratios gives electron density and electron temperature of ~ 0.67 x 10^3 cm^-3 and ~ 10^4 K, respectively. The physical parameters suggest that all the HII regions are in different stages of evolution, which correlate well with the probable ages in the range ~ 0.01 - 2 Myr of the ionizing sources. The positions of IR excess stars, ultracompact and compact HII regions at the periphery of an HI shell, possibly created by a WR star, indicate that star formation in Sh 2-100 region might have been induced by an expanding HI shell.
The primary target in the seismo-field of CoRoT, HD 49434, known to be a bona fide hybrid gamma Doradus/delta Scuti, shows excited intermediate-order g modes. Time-Dependent Convection models, however, predict a range in frequency that is stable to pulsations, between the simultaneously excited high-order g modes (gamma Dor) and low-order p and g modes (delta Sct). Furthermore, theoretical studies based on model computations of delta Sct stars suggest that stochastically excited modes are likely to be observed. A pertinent question would then be to ask: Might those observed intermediate-order g modes be stochastically excited? By employing a statistical method which searches for the signature of stochastic excitation in stellar pulsations, we investigate the nature of those modes with possible implications on the identification of their excitation mechanism. Preliminary results are rather inconclusive about the presence of stochastic excitation. A new analysis that thoroughly takes into account sampling effects is necessary in order to get more reliable results.
It is now more than 40 years since the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and in the last two decades there has been major progress in the observations of bursts, the afterglows and their host galaxies. This recent progress has been fueled by the ability of gamma-ray telescopes to quickly localise GRBs and the rapid follow-up observations with multi-wavelength instruments in space and on the ground. A total of 674 GRBs have been localised to date using the coded aperture masks of the four gamma-ray missions, BeppoSAX, HETE II, INTEGRAL and Swift. As a result there are now high quality observations of more than 100 GRBs, including afterglows and host galaxies, revealing the richness and progress in this field. The observations of GRBs cover more than 20 orders of magnitude in energy, from 10^-5 eV to 10^15 eV and also in two non-electromagnetic channels, neutrinos and gravitational waves. However the continuation of progress relies on space based instruments to detect and rapidly localise GRBs and distribute the coordinates.
A photometric calibration of Kurucz static model atmospheres is used to obtain parameters of RR Lyrae stars: variation of stellar angular radius $\vartheta$, effective temperature $T_{\rm e}$, and gravity $g_{\rm e}$ as a function of phase, interstellar reddening $E(B-V)$ toward the star, and atmospheric metallicity $M$. Photometric and hydrodynamic conditions are given to find the phases of pulsation when the quasi-static atmosphere approximation (QSAA) can be applied. The QSAA is generalized to a non-uniformly moving spherical atmosphere, and the distance $d$, mass ${\cal M}$, and atmospheric motion are derived from the laws of mass and momentum conservation. To demonstrate the efficiency of the method, the $UBV(RI)_C$ photometry of SU Dra was used to derive the following parameters: $[M]=-1.60\pm .10$ dex, $E(B-V)=0.015\pm .010$, $d=663\pm 67$ pc, ${\cal M}=(0.68\pm .03){\cal M}_\odot$, equilibrium luminosity, $L_{\rm eq}=45.9\pm 9.3L_\odot$, $T_{\rm eq}=6813\pm 20$ K.
We present for the first time a coherent model of the polarized Galactic synchrotron and thermal dust emissions which are the main diffuse foreground for the measurement of the polarized power spectra of the CMB fluctuations with the Planck satellite mission. We produce 3D models of the Galactic magnetic field including regular and turbulent components, and of the distribution of matter in the Galaxy, relativistic electrons and dust grains. By integrating along the line of sight we construct maps of the polarized Galactic synchrotron and thermal dust emission for each of these models and compare them to currently available data. We consider the 408 MHz all-sky continuum survey, the 23 GHz band of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the 353 GHz Archeops data.}{The best-fit parameters obtained are consistent with previous estimates in the literature based only on synchrotron emission and pulsar rotation measurements. They allows us to reproduce the large scale structures observed on the data. Poorly understood local Galactic structures and turbulence make difficult an accurate reconstruction of the observations in the Galactic plane. Finally, using the best-fit model we are able to estimate the expected polarized foreground contamination at the Planck frequency bands. For the CMB bands, 70, 100, 143 and 217 GHz, at high Galactic latitudes although the CMB signal dominates in general, a significant foreground contribution is expected at large angular scales. In particular, this contribution will dominate the CMB signal for the B modes expected from realistic models of a background of primordial gravitational waves.
The polar condensation/sublimation of CO2, that involve about one fourth of the atmosphere mass, is the major Martian climatic cycle. Early observations in visible and thermal infrared have shown that the sublimation of the Seasonal South Polar Cap (SSPC) is not symmetric around the geographic South Pole. Here we use observations by OMEGA/Mars Express in the near-infrared to detect unambiguously the presence of CO2 at the surface, and to estimate albedo. Second, we estimate the sublimation of CO2 released in the atmosphere and show that there is a two-step process. From Ls=180^\circ to 220^\circ, the sublimation is nearly symmetric with a slight advantage for the cryptic region. After Ls=220^\circ the anti-cryptic region sublimation is stronger. Those two phases are not balanced such that there is 22%\pm9 more mass the anti-cryptic region, arguing for more snow precipitation. We compare those results with the MOLA height measurements. Finally we discuss implications for the Martian atmosphere about general circulation and gas tracers, e.g. Ar.
Aiming to perform a study of the warm dust and gas in the luminous blue variable star G79.29+0.46 and its associated nebula, we present infrared Spitzer imaging and spectroscopy, and new CO J=2-->1 and 4-->3 maps obtained with the IRAM 30m radio telescope and with the Submillimeter Telescope, respectively. We have analyzed the nebula detecting multiple shells of dust and gas connected to the star. Using Infrared Spectrograph-Spitzer spectra, we have compared the properties of the central object, the nebula, and their surroundings. These spectra show a rich variety of solid-state features (amorphous silicates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and CO2 ices) and narrow emission lines, superimposed on a thermal continuum. We have also analyzed the physical conditions of the nebula, which point to the existence of a photo-dissociation region.
We present results of deep polarization imaging at 1.4 GHz with the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory as part of the DRAO Planck Deep Fields project. This deep extragalactic field covers 15.16 square degrees centered at RA = 16h 14m and DEC = 54d 56', has an angular resolution of 42" x 62" at the field center, and reaches a sensitivity of 55 microJy/beam in Stokes I and 45 microJy/beam in Stokes Q and U. We detect 958 radio sources in Stokes I of which 136 are detected in polarization. We present the Euclidean-normalized polarized differential source counts down to 400 microJy. These counts indicate that sources have a higher degree of fractional polarization at fainter Stokes I flux density levels than for brighter sources, confirming an earlier result. We find that the majority of our polarized sources are steep-spectrum objects with a mean spectral index of -0.77, and there is no correlation between fractional polarization and spectral index. We also matched deep field sources to counterparts in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters catalogue. Of the polarized sources, 77% show structure at the arc-second scale whereas only 38% of the sources with no detectable polarization show such structure. The median fractional polarization is for resolved sources is 6.8%, while it is 4.4% for compact objects. The polarized radio sources in our deep field are predominantly those sources which are resolved and show the highest degrees of fractional polarization, indicating that the lobe dominated structure may be the source of the highly polarized sources. These resolved radio galaxies dominate the polarized source counts at P_0 = sqrt(Q^2 + U^2) < 3 mJy.
In this series of lectures we review observational evidence for, and theoretical investigations into, cosmic acceleration and dark energy. The notes are in four sections. First I review the basic cosmological formalism to describe the expansion history of the universe and how distance measures are defined. The second section covers the evidence for cosmic acceleration from cosmic distance measurements. Section 3 discusses the theoretical avenues being considered to explain the cosmological observations and section 4 discusses how the growth of inhomogeneities and large scale structure observations might help us pin down the theoretical origin of cosmic acceleration.
Cold steady-state disk wind theory from near Keplerian accretion disks requires a large scale magnetic field at near equipartition strength. However the minimum magnetization has never been tested. We investigate the time evolution of an accretion disk threaded by a weak vertical magnetic field. The strength of the field is such that the disk magnetization falls off rapidly with radius. Four 2.5D numerical simulations of viscous resistive accretion disk are performed using the magnetohydrodynamic code PLUTO. In these simulations, a mean field approach is used and turbulence is assumed to give rise to anomalous transport coefficients (alpha prescription). The large scale magnetic field introduces only a small perturbation to the disk structure, with accretion driven by the dominant viscous torque. A super fast magnetosonic jet is observed to be launched from the innermost regions and remains stationary over more than 953 Keplerian orbits. The self-confined jet is launched from a finite radial zone in the disk which remains constant over time. Ejection is made possible because the magnetization reaches unity at the disk surface, due to the steep density decrease. However, no ejection is reported when the midplane magnetization becomes too small. The asymptotic jet velocity remains nevertheless too low to explain observed jets due to the negligible power carried away by the jet. Astrophysical disks with superheated surface layers could drive analogous outflows even if their midplane magnetization is low. Sufficient angular momentum would be extracted by the turbulent viscosity to allow the accretion process to continue. The magnetized outflows would be no more than byproducts, rather than a fundamental driver of accretion. However, if the midplane magnetization increases towards the center, a natural transition to an inner jet dominated disk could be achieved.
We continue our deep optical imaging survey of the Virgo cluster using the CWRU Burrell Schmidt telescope by presenting B-band surface photometry of the core of the Virgo cluster in order to study the cluster's intracluster light (ICL). We find ICL features down to mu_b ~ 29 mag sq. arcsec, confirming the results of Mihos et al. (2005), who saw a vast web of low-surface brightness streams, arcs, plumes, and diffuse light in the Virgo cluster core using V-band imaging. By combining these two data sets, we are able to measure the optical colors of many of the cluster's low-surface brightness features. While much of our imaging area is contaminated by galactic cirrus, the cluster core near the cD galaxy, M87, is unobscured. We trace the color profile of M87 out to over 2000 arcsec, and find a blueing trend with radius, continuing out to the largest radii. Moreover, we have measured the colors of several ICL features which extend beyond M87's outermost reaches and find that they have similar colors to the M87's halo itself, B-V ~ 0.8. The common colors of these features suggests that the extended outer envelopes of cD galaxies, such as M87, may be formed from similar streams, created by tidal interactions within the cluster, that have since dissolved into a smooth background in the cluster potential.
We report on submillimetre bolometer observations of the isolated neutron star RX J1856.5--3754 using the LABOCA bolometer array on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) Telescope. No cold dust continuum emission peak at the position of RX J1856.5--3754 was detected. The 3 sigma flux density upper limit of 5 mJy translates into a cold dust mass limit of a few earth masses. We use the new submillimetre limit, together with a previously obtained H-band limit, to constrain the presence of a gaseous, circumpulsar disc. Adopting a simple irradiated-disc model, we obtain a mass accretion limit of dM/dt less than 10^{14} g/s, and a maximum outer disc radius of around 10^{14} cm. By examining the projected proper motion of RX J1856.5--3754, we speculate about a possible encounter of the neutron star with a dense fragment of the CrA molecular cloud a few thousand years ago.
It has been argued that rather generic features of string-inspired inflationary theories with low-energy supersymmetry (SUSY) make it difficult to achieve inflation with a Hubble scale H > m_{3/2}, where m_{3/2} is the gravitino mass in the SUSY-breaking vacuum state. We present a class of string-inspired supergravity realizations of chaotic inflation where a simple, dynamical mechanism yields hierarchically small scales of post-inflationary supersymmetry breaking. Within these toy models we can easily achieve small ratios between m_{3/2} and the Hubble scale of inflation. This is possible because the expectation value of the superpotential <W> relaxes from large to small values during the course of inflation. However, our toy models do not provide a reasonable fit to cosmological data if one sets the SUSY-breaking scale to m_{3/2} < TeV. Our work is a small step towards relieving the apparent tension between high-scale inflation and low-scale supersymmetry breaking in string compactifications.
We study the initial value formulation of metric-affine f(R)-gravity in presence of a Klein-Gordon scalar field acting as source of the field equations. Sufficient conditions for the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem are formulated. This result completes the analysis of the same problem already considered for other sources.
We show how taking into account the kinematical effect of extra dimensions can have a significant impact on the gravity wave emission from cosmic strings. Additional dimensions both round off cusps, as well as reduce the probability of their formation. We recompute the cusp gravity wave burst with these factors and find a significant dimension dependent damping of the gravity waves.
We point out that there are regions in the MSSM parameter space which successfully provide a dark matter (DM) annihilation explanation for observed positron excess (e.g. PAMELA), while still remaining in agreement with all other data sets. Such regions (e.g. the uplifted Higgs region) can realize an enhanced neutralino DM annihilation dominantly into leptons via a Breit-Wigner resonance through the CP-odd Higgs channel. Such regions can give the proper thermal relic DM abundance, and the DM annihilation products are compatible with current antiproton and gamma ray observations. This scenario can succeed without introducing any additional degrees of freedom beyond those already in the MSSM.
The left-right twin Higgs model predicts a light stable scalar \hat{S}, which is a candidate for WIMP dark matter. We study its scattering on nucleon and find that the cross section is below the CDMS II upper bound but can reach the SuperCDMS sensitivity. Then we study the Higgs phenomenology by paying special attention to the decay h->\hat{S}\hat{S} which is strongly correlated with the dark matter scattering on nucleon. We find that such an invisible decay can be sizable, which can severely suppress the conventional decay modes like h->VV (V=W,Z) and h->b\bar{b}. On the other hand, compared to the SM prediction, the rates of Higgs boson productions at the LHC via gluon-gluon fusion, weak boson fusion or in association with top quark pairs are all reduced significantly, e.g., the gluon-gluon fusion channel can be suppressed by about 30%.
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Direct-imaging searches for planets reveal wide orbit planets amenable to spectroscopy, and their atmospheres represent an important comparison to the irradiated atmospheres of Hot Jupiters. Using AO integral field spectroscopy of 2M1207 b, the shape of the continuum emission over the J, H, and K bands from the atmosphere of this young, planetary mass companion is measured in order to compare with atmospheric and evolutionary models, and objects of similar temperature in young clusters and the field. The 2M1207 b spectrum has the highest spectral resolution (R~300-1500) and largest wavelength coverage, including the first J-band spectrum, for this benchmark object. The high signal-to-noise of the data allow a clear identification of signatures of low surface gravity, and comparison with a grid of AMES-Dusty models reveals a best-fit effective temperature of Teff=1600 K with a preferred surface gravity of log g=4.5. The J-band flux is depressed relative to nearly all L-type objects, and the detailed shape of the absorption features across the H-band exhibit differences from the model predictions. The possible origins of 2M1207 b and its low luminosity are examined with the new data and analysis which suggest that extinction from a disk with large grains is a viable scenario and is preferred over scatttering off an optically thick disk. The 2M1207 b spectrum presents an important comparison for the types of features which may be present in upcoming spectra of the atmospheres of planets imaged in orbit around stellar primaries.
We have searched for variable sources in the core region of M80, using far ultra-violet data taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We found three sources that exhibit strong signs of variability in our data. Among these is source TDK1, which we believe to be an RR Lyrae star that reached maximum brightness during our observations. The light curve shows a >3 mag FUV brightening over the course of ~5 hours, with an estimated peak brightness of ~16.7 mag, followed by a decrease to ~20 mag. Archival optical data obtained with WFPC2 confirm that TDK1 is variable in all wavebands. TDK1's SED is reasonably fit by a star with temperature T(eff)=6700K and radius R=4.2R(sun), consistent with the suggestion that it is an RR Lyrae. Based on the photometric and variability characteristics of the other two variables, we suggest that TDK2 is likely to be an SX Phoenicis star with ~55 minutes period, and TDK3 is likely another RR Lyrae. Finally, we briefly discuss the FUV counterparts to two previously known variables in M80, the classical nova T Sco and the dwarf nova DN1.
We present VLT-UVES Li abundances for 28 halo dwarf stars between [Fe/H]=-2.5 and -3.5, 10 of which have [Fe/H]<-3. Four different T_eff scales have been used. Direct Infrared Flux Method (IRFM) has been used on the basis of 2MASS infrared photometry. H_alpha wings have been fitted against synthetic grids computed by means of 1D LTE atmosphere models, assuming different self-broadening theories. Finally, a grid of H_alpha profiles has been computed by means of 3D hydrodynamical atmosphere models. The Li I doublet at 670.8 nm has been used to measure A(Li) by means of 3D hydrodynamical NLTE spectral syntheses. An analytical fit of A(Li)(3D, NLTE) as a function of equivalent width, T_eff, log g, and [Fe/H] has been derived and is made available. A(Li) does not exhibit a plateau below [Fe/H]=-3. A strong positive correlation with [Fe/H] appears, not influenced by the choice of the T_eff estimator. From a linear fit, we obtain a strong slope of about 0.30 dex in A(Li) per dex in [Fe/H], significant to 2-3 sigma, and consistent among all the four T_eff estimators. A significant slope is also detected in the A(Li)--T_eff plane, driven mainly by the coolest stars in the sample which appear Li-poor. Removing such stars does not alter the behavior in the A(Li)-[Fe/H] plane. The scatter in A(Li) increases by a factor of 2 towards lower metallicities, while the plateau appears very thin above [Fe/H]=-2.8. The meltdown of the Spite plateau below [Fe/H]\sim-3 is established, but its cause is unclear. If the primordial A(Li) is the one derived from WMAP, it appears difficult to envision a single depletion phenomenon producing a thin, metallicity independent plateau above [Fe/H]=-2.8, and a highly scattered, metallicity dependent distribution below. The fact that no star below [Fe/H]=-3 lies above the plateau suggests that they formed at plateau level and underwent subsequent depletion.
We present multi-wavelength observations of the centre of RXCJ1504.1-0248 - the galaxy cluster with the most luminous and relatively nearby cool core at z~2. Although there are several galaxies within 100 kpc of the cluster core, only the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), which lies at the peak of the X-ray emission, has blue colours and strong line-emission. Approximately 80 Msun/yr of intracluster gas is cooling below X-ray emitting temperatures, similar to the observed UV star formation rate of ~140 Msun/yr. Most star formation occurs in the core of the BCG and in a 42 kpc long filament of blue continuum, line emission, and X-ray emission, that extends southwest of the galaxy. The surrounding filamentary nebula is the most luminous around any observed BCG. The number of ionizing stars in the BCG is barely sufficient to ionize and heat the nebula, and the line ratios indicate an additional heat source is needed. This heat source can contribute to the H\alpha-deduced star formation rates (SFRs) in BCGs and therefore the derived SFRs should only be considered upper limits. AGN feedback can slow down the cooling flow to the observed mass deposition rate if the black hole accretion rate is of the order of 0.5 Msun/yr at 10% energy output efficiency. The average turbulent velocity of the nebula is vturb ~325 km/s which, if shared by the hot gas, limits the ratio of turbulent to thermal energy of the intracluster medium to less than 6%.
We present new radial-velocity measurements of HAT-P-13, a star with two previously known companions: a transiting giant planet "b" with an orbital period of 3 days, and a more massive object "c" on a 1.2 yr, highly eccentric orbit. For this system, dynamical considerations would lead to constraints on planet b's interior structure, if it could be shown that the orbits are coplanar and apsidally locked. By modeling the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, we show that planet b's orbital angular momentum vector and the stellar spin vector are well-aligned on the sky (lambda = -0.9 +/- 8.5 deg), suggesting that the planetary orbits are also well-aligned. The refined orbital solution favors a slightly eccentric orbit for planet b (e = 0.0142_{-0.0044}^{+0.0052}), although it is not clear whether it is apsidally locked with c's orbit (\Delta\omega = 48_{-38}^{+25} deg). We find a long-term trend in the star's radial velocity and interpret it as evidence for an additional body "d", which may be another planet or a low-mass star. The next inferior conjunction of c, when a transit may happen, is expected on JD 2,455,315.2 +/- 1.9 (centered on UT 17h 2010 April 28).
We present a first-principles derivation of the evolution equations describing a thin axisymmetric disk of gas and stars with an arbitrary rotation curve that is kept in a state of marginal gravitational instability and energy equilibrium due to the balance between energy released by accretion and energy lost due to decay of turbulence. Unlike previous analyses of this problem, our results do not depend on an assumed model for the rate of mass and angular momentum transport due to gravitational instability, or on an order-of-magnitude energy equilibrium argument. Instead, we self-consistently determine the position- and time-dependent transport rates from the fluid dynamical equations. We show that there is a steady-state configuration for disks dominated by gravitational instability, and for disks in this state we analytically determine the velocity dispersion, surface density, and rates of mass and angular momentum transport as a function of the gas mass fraction, the rotation curve, and the rate of external accretion onto the disk edge. We show that disks that are initially out of steady state will evolve into it on timescales comparable to the orbital period if the accretion rate is high. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results for the structure of disks in a broad range of environments, including high redshift galaxies, the outer gaseous disks of local galaxies, and accretion disks around protostars.
Primordial Black Holes (PBHs), which may have been created in the early Universe, are predicted to be detectable by their Hawking radiation. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observatory offers increased sensitivity to the gamma-ray bursts produced by PBHs with an initial mass of $\sim 5\times 10^{14}$ g expiring today. PBHs are candidate progenitors of unidentified Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) that lack X-ray afterglow. We propose spectral lag, which is the temporal delay between the high and low energy pulses, as an efficient method to identify PBH evaporation events with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT).
We present the results of modeling dust SEDs across the SMC with the aim of mapping the distribution of PAHs in a low-metallicity environment. Using Spitzer Survey of the SMC (S3MC) photometry from 3.6-160 um over the main star-forming regions of the Wing and Bar along with spectral mapping from 5-38 um from the Spitzer Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (S4MC) in selected regions, we model the dust SED and emission spectrum to determine the fraction of dust in PAHs across the SMC. We use the regions of overlapping photometry and spectroscopy to test the reliability of the PAH fraction as determined from SED fits alone. The PAH fraction in the SMC is low compared to the Milky Way and variable--with relatively high fractions (q_PAH~1-2%) in molecular clouds and low fractions in the diffuse ISM (<q_PAH>=0.6%). We use the map of PAH fraction across the SMC to test a number of ideas regarding the production, destruction and processing of PAHs in the ISM. We find weak or no correlation between the PAH fraction and the distribution of carbon AGB stars, the location of supergiant H I shells and young SN remnants, or the turbulent Mach number. We find that the PAH fraction is correlated with CO intensity, peaks in the dust surface density and the molecular gas surface density as determined from 160 um emission. The PAH fraction is high in regions of active star-formation, as predicted by its correlation with molecular gas, but is suppressed in H II regions. Because the PAH fraction in the diffuse ISM is generally very low--in accordance with previous work on modeling the SED of the SMC--and the PAH fraction is relatively high in molecular regions, we suggest that PAHs are destroyed in the diffuse ISM of the SMC and/or PAHs are forming in molecular clouds. We discuss the implications of these observations for our understanding of the PAH life cycle, particularly in low-metallicity galaxies.
The seventh part of the OGLE-III Catalog of Variable Stars (OIII-CVS) consists of 4630 classical Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The sample includes 2626 fundamental-mode (F), 1644 first-overtone (1O), 83 second-overtone (2O), 59 double-mode F/1O, 215 double-mode 1O/2O, and 3 triple-mode classical Cepheids. For each object basic parameters, multi-epoch VI photometry collected within 8 or 13 years of observations, and finding charts are provided in the OGLE Internet archive. We present objects of particular interest: exceptionally numerous sample of single-mode second-overtone pulsators, five double Cepheids, two Cepheids with eclipsing variations superimposed on the pulsation light curves. At least 139 first-overtone Cepheids exhibit low-amplitude secondary variations with periods in the range 0.60-0.65 of the primary ones. These stars populate three distinct sequences in the Petersen diagram. The origin of this secondary modulation is still unknown. Contrary to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) we found only a few candidates for anomalous Cepheids in the SMC. This fact may be a clue for the explanation of the origin of the anomalous Cepheids. The period and luminosity distributions of Cepheids in both Magellanic Clouds suggest that there are two or three populations of classical Cepheids in each of the galaxies. The main difference between the LMC and SMC lays in different numbers of Cepheids in each group. We fit the period-luminosity (PL) relations of SMC Cepheids and compare it with the LMC PL laws.
We present a study of the vertical magnetic field of the Milky Way towards the Galactic poles, determined from observations of Faraday rotation toward more than 1000 polarized extragalactic radio sources at Galactic latitudes |b| > 77 degs, using the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We find median rotation measures (RMs) of 0.0 +/- 0.5 rad/m^2 and +6.3 +/- 0.7 rad/m^2 toward the north and south Galactic poles, respectively, demonstrating that there is no coherent vertical magnetic field in the Milky Way at the Sun's position. If this is a global property of the Milky Way's magnetism, then the lack of symmetry across the disk rules out pure dipole or quadrupole geometries for the Galactic magnetic field. The angular fluctuations in RM seen in our data show no preferred scale within the range ~ 0.1 to 25 degs. The observed standard deviation in RM of ~ 9 rad/m^2 then implies an upper limit of ~1microGauss on the strength of the random magnetic field in the warm ionized medium at high Galactic latitudes.
We report the detection of Cd I (Z = 48), Lu II (Z = 71), and Os II (Z = 76) in the metal-poor star BD+173248. These abundances are derived from an ultraviolet spectrum obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. This is the first detection of these neutron-capture species in a metal-poor star enriched by the r-process. We supplement these measurements with new abundances of Mo I, Ru I, and Rh I derived from an optical spectrum obtained with the High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph on Keck. Combined with previous abundance derivations, 32 neutron-capture elements have been detected in BD+173248, the most complete neutron-capture abundance pattern in any metal-poor star to date. The light neutron-capture elements (38 <= Z <= 48) show a more pronounced even-odd effect than expected from current Solar system r-process abundance predictions. The age for BD+173248 derived from the Th II/Os II chronometer is in better agreement with the age derived from other chronometers than the age derived from Th II/Os I. New Hf II abundance derivations from transitions in the ultraviolet are lower than those derived from transitions in the optical, and the lower Hf abundance is in better agreement with the scaled Solar system r-process distribution.
The current cycle minimum appears to be deeper and broader than recent cycle minima, and this minimum appears similar to the minima in the early 1900s. With the best-ever solar irradiance measurements from several different satellite instruments, this minimum offers a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of secular (long-term) changes in the solar irradiance. Comparisons of the 2007-2009 irradiance results to the irradiance levels during the previous minimum in 1996 suggest that the solar irradiance is lower in this current minimum. For example, the total solar irradiance (TSI) indicates lower irradiance in 2008 than in 1996 by about 200 ppm, and the SOHO Solar EUV Monitor (SEM) 26 to 34 nm irradiance is about 15% lower in 2008 than in 1996. However, these irradiance variations have 30-50% uncertainties due to these results depending strongly on instrument degradation trends over 12 years. Supporting evidence for lower irradiance include that the solar magnetic fields are lower and that there are more low-latitude coronal holes during this current minimum.
Holography is expected as one of the promising descriptions of quantum general relativity. We present a model for a cosmological system involving two holographic screens and find that their equilibrium exactly yields a standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We discuss its cosmological implications by taking into account higher order quantum corrections and quantum nature of horizon evaporation. We will show that this model could give rise to a holographic inflation at high energy scales and realize a late-time acceleration in a unified approach. We test our model from the SN Ia observations and find it can give a nice fit to the data.
We report near-IR spectroscopic observations of the Eta Carinae massive binary system during 2008-2009 using VLT/CRIRES. We detect a strong, broad absorption wing in He I 10833 extending up to -1900 km/s across the 2009.0 spectroscopic event. Archival HST/STIS ultraviolet and optical data shows a similar high-velocity absorption (up to -2100 km/s) in the UV resonance lines of Si IV 1394, 1403 across the 2003.5 event. UV lines from low-ionization species, such as Si II 1527, 1533 and C II 1334, 1335, show absorption up to -1200 km/s, indicating that the absorption with v from -1200 to -2100 km/s originates in a region markedly faster and more ionized than the nominal wind of the primary star. Observations obtained at the OPD/LNA during the last 4 spectroscopic cycles (1989-2009) also display high-velocity absorption in He I 10833 during periastron. Based on the OPD/LNA dataset, we determine that material with v < -900 km/s is present in the phase range 0.976 < phi < 1.023 of the spectroscopic cycle, but absent in spectra taken at phi < 0.947 and phi > 1.049. Therefore, we constrain the duration of the high-velocity absorption to be 95 to 206 days (or 0.047 to 0.102 in phase). We suggest that the high-velocity absorption originates from shocked gas in the wind-wind collision zone, at distances of 15 to 45 AU in the line-of-sight to the primary star. Using 3-D hydrodynamical simulations of the wind-wind collision zone, we find that the dense high-velocity gas is in the line-of-sight to the primary star only if the binary system is oriented in the sky so that the companion is behind the primary star during periastron, corresponding to a longitude of periastron of omega ~ 240 to 270 degrees. We study a possible tilt of the orbital plane relative to the Homunculus equatorial plane and conclude that our data are broadly consistent with orbital inclinations in the range i=40 to 60 degrees.
We study the kinematics of GALEX-selected H_alpha knots in the outer disk (beyond R25) of NGC 628 (M74), a galaxy representative of large, undisturbed, extended UV (Type 1 XUV) disks. Our spectroscopic target sample of 235 of the bluest UV knots surrounding NGC 628 yielded 15 H_alpha detections (6%), roughly the number expected given the different mean ages of the two populations. The measured vertical velocity dispersion of the H_alpha knots between 1 - 1.8 R25 (13.5 - 23.2 kpc) is < 11 km/s. We assume that the H_alpha knots trace an 'intermediate' vertical mass density distribution (between the isothermal sech(z)^2 and exponential distributions) with a constant scaleheight across the outer disk (h_z = 700 pc) and estimate a total surface mass density of 7.5 solar masses/pc^2. This surface mass density can be accounted for by the observed gas and stars in the outer disk (little or no dark matter in the disk is required). The vertical velocity dispersion of the outer disk H_alpha knots nearly matches that measured from older planetary nebulae near the outskirts of the optical disk by Herrmann et al., suggesting a low level of scattering in the outer disk. A dynamically cold stellar component extending nearly twice as far as the traditional optical disk poses interesting constraints on the accretion history of the galaxy.
Strong lensing is one of the most direct probes of the mass distribution in the inner regions of galaxy clusters. It can be used to constrain the density profiles and to measure the mass of the lenses. Moreover, the abundance of strong lensing events can be used to constrain the structure formation and the cosmological parameters through the so-called "arc-statistics" approach. However, several issues related to the usage of strong lensing clusters in cosmological applications are still controversial, leading to the suspect that several biases may affect this very peculiar class of objects. With this study we aim at better understanding the properties of galaxy clusters which can potentially act as strong lenses. We do so by investigating the properties of a large sample of galaxy clusters extracted from the N-body/hydrodynamical simulation MareNostrum Universe. We explore the correlation between the cross section for lensing and many properties of clusters, like the mass, the three-dimensional and projected shapes, their concentrations, the X-ray luminosity and the dynamical activity. We find that the probability of strong alignments between the major axes of the lenses and the line of sight is a growing function of the lensing cross section. In projection, the strong lenses appear rounder within R200, but we find that their cores tend to be more elliptical as the lensing cross section increases. We also find that the cluster concentrations estimated from the projected density profiles tend to be biased high. The X-ray luminosity of strong lensing clusters is higher than that of normal lenses of similar mass and redshift. This is particular significant for the least massive lenses. Finally, we find that the strongest lenses generally exhibit an excess of kinetic energy within the virial radius, indicating that they are more dynamically active than usual clusters.
The third US Naval Observatory (USNO) CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC3 was released at the IAU General Assembly on 2009 August 10. It is a highly accurate, all-sky astrometric catalog of about 100 million stars in the R = 8 to 16 magnitude range. Recent epoch observations are based on over 270,000 CCD exposures, which have been re-processed for the UCAC3 release applying traditional and new techniques. Challenges in the data have been high dark current and asymmetric image profiles due to the poor charge transfer efficiency of the detector. Non-Gaussian image profile functions were explored and correlations are found for profile fit parameters with properties of the CCD frames. These were utilized to constrain the image profile fit models and adequately describe the observed point-spread function of stellar images with a minimum number of free parameters. Using an appropriate model function, blended images of double stars could be fit successfully. UCAC3 positions are derived from 2-dimensional image profile fits with a 5-parameter, symmetric Lorentz profile model. Internal precisions of about 5 mas per coordinate and single exposure are found, which are degraded by the atmosphere to about 10 mas. However, systematic errors exceeding 100 mas are present in the x,y-data which have been corrected in the astrometric reductions following the x,y-data reduction step described here.
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play an important role in the study of cosmic evolution, especially in cosmology. There are several progenitor models for SNe Ia proposed in the past years. In this paper, by considering the effect of accretion disk instability on the evolution of white dwarf (WD) binaries, we performed detailed binary evolution calculations for the WD + red-giant (RG) channel of SNe Ia, in which a carbon-oxygen WD accretes material from a RG star to increase its mass to the Chandrasekhar mass limit. According to these calculations, we mapped out the initial and final parameters for SNe Ia in the orbital period--secondary mass plane for various WD masses for this channel. We discussed the influence of the variation of the duty cycle value on the regions for producing SNe Ia. Similar to previous studies, this work also indicates that the long-period dwarf novae offer a possible ways for producing SNe Ia. Meanwhile, we find that the surviving companion stars from this channel have a low mass after SN explosion, which may provide a means for the formation of the population of single low-mass WDs (<0.45Msun).
There is a significant nonlinear correlation between the Eddington ratio (L_bol=L_Edd) and the Eddington-scaled kinetic power (L_kin=L_Edd) of jets in low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) (Merloni & Heinz). It is believed that these low luminosity AGNs contain advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs). We adopt the ADAF model developed by Li & Cao, in which the global dynamics of ADAFs with magnetically driven outflows is derived numerically, to explore the relation between bolometric luminosity and kinetic power of jets. We find that the observed relation, L_kin/L_Edd ~ (L_bol=L_Edd)^0.49, can be well reproduced by the model calculations with reasonable parameters for ADAFs with magnetically driven outflows. Our model calculations is always consistent with the slope of the correlation independent of the values of the parameters adopted. Compared with the observations, our results show that over 60% of the accreted gas at the outer radius escapes from the accretion disc in a wind before the gas falls into the black holes. The observed correlation between Eddington-scaled kinetic power and Bondi power can also be qualitatively reproduced by our model calculations. Our results show that the mechanical efficiency varies from 10^-2 ~ 10^-3, which is roughly consistent with that required in AGN feedback simulations.
The high-frequency radio sky, like the gamma-ray sky surveyed by the Fermi
satellite, is dominated by flat-spectrum radio quasars and BL-Lac objects at
bright flux levels. To investigate the relationship between radio and gamma-ray
emission in extragalactic sources, we have crossmatched the Australia Telescope
20 GHz survey catalogue (AT20G; Murphy et al. 2010) with the Fermi-LAT 1-year
Point Source Catalogue (1FGL; Abdo et al. 2010a). The 6.0 sr of sky covered by
both catalogues (delta<0 deg, |b|<1.5 deg) contains 5890 AT20G radio sources
and 604 1FGL gamma-ray sources. The AT20G source positions are accurate to
within ~1 arcsec and, after excluding known Galactic sources, 43% of Fermi 1FGL
sources have an AT20G source within the 95% Fermi confidence ellipse. Monte
Carlo tests imply that at least 95% of these matches are genuine associations.
Only five gamma-ray sources (1% of the Fermi catalogue) have more than one
AT20G counterpart in the Fermi error box. The AT20G matches also generally
support the AGN associations made by Abdo et al. (2010b).
We find a trend of increasing gamma-ray flux density with 20 GHz radio flux
density. The Fermi detection rate of AT20G sources is close to 100% for the
brightest 20 GHz sources, decreasing to 20% at 1 Jy and roughly 1% at 100 mJy.
Eight of the matched AT20G sources have no association listed in 1FGL and are
presented here as potential gamma-ray AGN for the first time. We also identify
an alternative AGN counterpart to one 1FGL source. The percentage of Fermi
sources with AT20G detections decreases towards the Galactic plane, suggesting
that the 1FGL catalogue contains at least 50 Galactic gamma-ray sources in the
southern hemisphere that have yet to be identified.
We introduced a semi-analytic model to study the detail of radial related processes on galaxy disks. Based on this recipe, we can calculate neutral and molecular gas in interstellar medium, and include the molecular phase into star formation recipes. From our model, we reproduced the radial surface density profiles and mass functions shown in the observational results. We can also give some predictions and explanations to the scale relations of neutral and molecular gas in disk galaxies.
The Sun affects the Earth's physical phenomena in multiple ways, in particular the material in interplanetary space comes from coronal expansion in the form of inhomogeneous plasma flow (solar wind), which is the primary source of the interplanetary medium. Ground-based Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) observations are an important and effective method for measuring solar wind speed and the structures of small diameter radio sources. We discuss one mode of ground-based single-station observations: Single-Station Single-Frequency (SSSF) mode. To realize the SSSF mode, a new system has been established at Urumqi Astronomical Observatory (UAO), China, and a series of experimental observations were carried out successfully from May to December, 2008.
Seeing-limited resolution in large telescopes working over wide wavelength range depends substantially on the turbulence outer scale and cannot be adequately described by one "seeing" value. We attempt to clarify frequent confusions on this matter. We study the effects of finite turbulence outer scale and partial adaptive corrections by means of analytical calculations and numerical simulations. If a von Karman turbulence model is adopted, a simple approximate formula captures the dependence of atmospheric long-exposure resolution on the outer scale over the entire practically interesting range of telescope diameters and wavelengths. In the infrared (IR), the difference with the standard Kolmogorov seeing formula can exceed a factor of two. We find that low-order adaptive turbulence correction produces residual wave-fronts with effectively small outer scale, so even very low compensation order leads to a substantial improvement in resolution over seeing, compared to the standard theory. Seeing-limited resolution of large telescopes, especially in the IR, is currently under-estimated by not accounting for the outer scale. On the other hand, adaptive-optics systems designed for diffraction-limited imaging in the IR can improve the resolution in the visible by as much as two times.
We present the results of deep radio observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) of the globular cluster NGC 6388. We show that there is no radio source detected (with a r.m.s. noise level of 27 uJy) at the cluster centre of gravity or at the locations of the any of the Chandra X-ray sources in the cluster. Based on the fundamental plane of accreting black holes which is a relationship between X-ray luminosity, radio luminosity and black hole mass, we place an upper limit of 1500 M_sun on the mass of the putative intermediate-mass black hole located at the centre of NGC 6388. We discuss the uncertainties of this upper limit and the previously suggested black hole mass of 5700 M_sun based on surface density profile analysis.
We construct a systematic survey of extragalactic \gamma-ray sky at the energies above 100 GeV using the data of Fermi telescope. Such survey has not been previously done by the ground-based Cherenkov gamma-ray telescopes which have, contrary to Fermi, narrow field of view. We study a map of arrival directions of the highest energy photons detected by Fermi at Galactic latitudes |b| > 10 degrees and search for significant point source like excesses above the diffuse Galactic and extragalactic \gamma-ray backgrounds. We identify eight significant point source like excesses in this map. Seven of the eight sources are known TeV blazars. The previously unknown source is identified with a head-tail radio galaxy IC 310, situated in Perseus cluster of galaxies. The source is detected with significance 6 sigma above 30 GeV. We identify two possible scenaria for gamma-ray emission from this source. One possibility is that emission originates from the base of relativistic outflow from the active nucleus, as in the BL Lacs and FR I type radio galaxies. Otherwise gamma-ray photons could be produced at the bow shock formed in result of fast motion of the galaxy through the intracluster medium. The two models could be distinguished via the study of variability of the \gamma-ray signal.
We discovered Balmer-lines absorption from Halpha to H9 in iron low-ionizaton broad absorption line (FeLoBAL) quasar, SDSS J172341.10+555340.5 by near-infrared spectroscopy with the Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS (CISCO) attached to the Subaru telescope. The redshift of the Balmer-lines absorption is 2.0530+/-0.0003, and it is blueshifted by 5370 km/s from Balmer emission lines. They are > 4000 km/s blueshifted from the previously known UV absorption lines. Relatively strong (EW_res}=20 A) [O III] emission lines are detected, and it is similar to other broad absorption line quasars with Balmer-lines absorption We derived the column density of neutral hydrogen of 5.2 x 10^17 cm^-2 by using the curve of growth and taking account of Lyalpha trapping. We searched for UV absorption lines which have the same redshift with Balmer-lines absorption. We found at least Al III and Fe ||| absorption lin es at z=2.053 which corresponds to previously unidentified absorption lines.
It is generally assumed that a large fraction of stars are initially born in clusters. However, a large fraction of these disrupt on short timescales and the stars end up belonging to the field. Understanding this process is of paramount importance if we wish to constrain the star formation histories of external galaxies using star clusters. We attempt to understand the relation between field stars and star clusters by simultaneously studying both in a number of nearby galaxies. As a pilot study, we present results for the late-type spiral NGC 4395 using HST/ACS and HST/WFPC2 images. Different detection criteria were used to distinguish point sources (star candidates) and extended objects (star cluster candidates). Using a synthetic CMD method, we estimated the star formation history. Using simple stellar population model fitting, we calculated the mass and age of the cluster candidates. The field star formation rate appears to have been roughly constant, or to have possibly increased by up to about a factor of two, for ages younger than $\sim$300 Myr within the fields covered by our data. Our data do not allow us to constrain the star formation histories at older ages. We identify a small number of clusters in both fields. Neither massive ($>10^5$ M$_\odot$) clusters nor clusters with ages $\geq1$ Gyr were found in the galaxy and we found few clusters older than 100 Myr. Based on our direct comparison of field stars and clusters in NGC 4395, we estimate the ratio of star formation rate in clusters that survive for $10^7$ to $10^8$ years to the total star formation to be $\Gamma\sim0.03$. We suggest that this relatively low $\Gamma$ value is caused by the low star formation rate of NGC 4395.
The analysis of the first solar-like targets done by CoRoT has shown that the oscillation amplitudes are about 25% below the theoretical amplitudes while the convective backgrounds are up to three times higher than in the solar case (Michel et al. 2008). In such conditions, the comb-like structure of the acoustic modes has smaller signal-to-noise ratios than initially expected complicating the characterization of individual modes. In the present work we apply the curvelet filtering to the solar-like targets already observed by CoRoT as well as a partial reconstruction of the signal from the obtained spacing of the comb-like structure of the acoustic modes. It enables us to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the ridges in the Echelle diagrams. Finally, we study how the analysis of the p modes can be improved.
The structure of electric current and magnetic helicity in the solar corona is closely linked to solar activity over the 11-year cycle, yet is poorly understood. As an alternative to traditional current-free "potential field" extrapolations, we investigate a model for the global coronal magnetic field which is non-potential and time-dependent, following the build-up and transport of magnetic helicity due to flux emergence and large-scale photospheric motions. This helicity concentrates into twisted magnetic flux ropes, which may lose equilibrium and be ejected. Here, we consider how the magnetic structure predicted by this model-in particular the flux ropes-varies over the solar activity cycle, based on photospheric input data from six periods of cycle 23. The number of flux ropes doubles from minimum to maximum, following the total length of photospheric polarity inversion lines. However, the number of flux rope ejections increases by a factor of eight, following the emergence rate of active regions. This is broadly consistent with the observed cycle modulation of coronal mass ejections, although the actual rate of ejections in the simulation is about a fifth of the rate of observed events. The model predicts that, even at minimum, differential rotation will produce sheared, non-potential, magnetic structure at all latitudes.
Abundances relative to iron for carbon, nitrogen, strontium and barium are presented for 33 stars on the red giant branch of the globular cluster omega Centauri. They are based on intermediate-resolution spectroscopic data covering the blue spectral region analyzed using spectrum synthesis techniques. The data reveal the existence of a broad range in the abundances of these elements, and a comparison with similar data for main sequence stars enables insight into the evolutionary history of the cluster. The majority of the red giant branch stars were found to be depleted in carbon, i.e. [C/Fe]<0, while [N/Fe] for the same stars shows a range of ~1 dex, from [N/Fe]~0.7 to 1.7 dex. The strontium-to-iron abundance ratios varied from solar to mildly enhanced (0.0<=[Sr/Fe]<=0.8), with [Ba/Fe] generally equal to or greater than [Sr/Fe]. The carbon and nitrogen abundance ratios for the one known CH star in the sample, ROA 279, are [C/Fe]=0.6 and [N/Fe]=0.5 dex. Evidence for evolutionary mixing on the red giant branch is found from the fact that the relative carbon abundances on the main sequence are generally higher than those on the red giant branch. However, comparison of the red giant branch and main sequence samples shows that the upper level of nitrogen enhancement is similar in both sets at [N/Fe]~2.0dex. This is most likely the result of primordial rather than evolutionary mixing processes. One red giant branch star, ROA 276, was found to have Sr and Ba abundance ratios. High resolution spectra of ROA 276 were obtained with the Magellan Telescope/MIKE spectrograph combination to confirm this result, revealing that ROA 276 is indeed an unusual star. For this star calculations of the depletion effect strongly suggest that the observed Sr enhancement in ROA 276 is of primordial origin, rather than originating from a surface accretion event.
We present observations of the recently discovered supernova 2008iz in M82 with the VLBI High Sensitivity Array at 22 GHz, the Very Large Array at frequencies of 1.4, 4.8, 8.4, 22 and 43 GHz, and the Chandra X-ray observatory. The supernova was clearly detected on two VLBI images, separated by 11 months. The source shows a ring-like morphology and expands with a velocity of ~23000 km/s. The most likely explosion date is in mid February 2008. The measured expansion speed is a factor of ~2 higher than expected under the assumption that synchrotron self-absorption dominates the light curve at the peak, indicating that this absorption mechanism may not be important for the radio emission. We find no evidence for an asymmetric explosion. The VLA spectrum shows a broken power law, indicating that the source was still optically thick at 1.4 GHz in April 2009. Finally, we report upper limits on the X-ray emission from SN 2008iz and a second radio transient recently discovered by MERLIN observations.
We review the evidence for the argument that Rudolf Wolf's calibration of the Sunspot Number is likely to be correct and that Max Waldmeier introduced an upwards jump in the sunspot number in 1945. The combined effect of these adjustments suggests that there has been no secular change in the sunspot number since coming out of the Maunder Minimum ~1700.
Tidal interactions between neighboring objects span across the whole admissible range of lengths in nature: from, say, atoms to clusters of galaxies i.e. from micro to macrocosms. According to current cosmological theories, galaxies are embedded within massive non-baryonic dark matter (DM) halos, which affects their formation and evolution. It is therefore highly rewarding to understand the role of tidal interaction between the dark and luminous matter in galaxies. The current investigation is devoted to Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs), looking in particular at the possibility of establishing whether the tidal interaction of the DM halo with the luminous baryonic component may be at the origin of the so-called "tilt" of the Fundamental Plane (FP). The extension of the tensor virial theorem to two-component matter distributions implies the calculation of the self potential energy due to a selected subsystem, and the tidal potential energy induced by the other one. The additional assumption of homeoidally striated density profiles allows analytical expressions of the results for some cases of astrophysical interest. The current investigation raises from the fact that the profile of the (self + tidal) potential energy of the inner component shows maxima and minima, suggesting the possible existence of preferential scales for the virialized structure, i.e. a viable explanation of the so called "tilt" of the FP. It is found that configurations related to the maxima do not suffice, by themselves, to interpret the FP tilt, and some other relation has to be looked for.
The Cartwheel galaxy harbours more Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) than any other galaxy observed so far, and as such it is a particularly interesting target to study them. In this paper we analyse the three Chandra observations of the brightest ULX (N10) in the Cartwheel galaxy, in light of current theoretical models suggested to explain such still elusive objects. For each model we derive the relevant spectral parameters. Based on self--consistency arguments we can interpret N10 as an accreting binary system powered by a ~100 solar masses black hole. A young supernova strongly interacting with its surroundings is a likely alternative, that can be discarded only with the evidence of a flux increase from future observations.
Active galactic nuclei present continuum and line emission. The emission lines are originated by gas located close to the central super-massive black hole. Some of these lines are broad, and would be produced in a small region called broad-line region. This region could be formed by clouds surrounding the central black hole. In this work, we study the interaction of such clouds with the base of the jets in active galactic nuclei, and we compute the produced high-energy emission. We focus on sources with low luminosities in the inner jet regions, to avoid strong gamma-ray absorption. We find that the resulting high-energy radiation may be significant in Centaurus A. Also, this phenomenon might be behind the variable gamma-ray emission detected in M87, if very large dark clouds are present. The detection of jet-cloud interactions in active galactic nuclei would give information on the properties of the jet base and the very central regions.
Synthetic spectra are needed to determine fundamental stellar and wind parameters of all types of stars. They are also used for the construction of theoretical spectral libraries helpful for stellar population synthesis. Therefore, a database of theoretical spectra is required to allow rapid and quantitative comparisons to spectroscopic data. We provide such a database offering an unprecedented coverage of the entire Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We present the POLLUX database of synthetic stellar spectra. For objects with Teff < 6 000 K, MARCS atmosphere models are computed and the program TURBOSPECTRUM provides the synthetic spectra. ATLAS12 models are computed for stars with 7 000 K <Teff <15 000 K. SYNSPEC gives the corresponding spectra. Finally, the code CMFGEN provides atmosphere models for the hottest stars (Teff > 25 000 K). Their spectra are computed with CMF_FLUX. Both high resolution (R>150 000) optical spectra in the range 3 000 to 12 000 A and spectral energy distributions extending from the UV to near--IR ranges are presented. These spectra cover the HR diagram at solar metallicity. We propose a wide variety of synthetic spectra for various types of stars in a format that is compliant with the Virtual Observatory standards. A user--friendly web interface allows an easy selection of spectra and data retrieval. Upcoming developments will include an extension to a large range of metallicities and to the near--IR high resolution spectra, as well as a better coverage of the HR diagram, with the inclusion of models for Wolf-Rayet stars and large datasets for cool stars. The POLLUX database is accessible at this http URL and through the Virtual Observatory.
We have developed a method to compute the possible distribution of radio emission regions in a typical pulsar magnetosphere, taking into account the viewing geometry and rotational effects of the neutron star. Our method can estimate the emission altitude and the radius of curvature of particle trajectory as a function of rotation phase for a given inclination angle, impact angle, spin-period, Lorentz factor, field line constant and the observation frequency. Further, using curvature radiation as the basic emission mechanism, we simulate the radio intensity profiles that would be observed from a given distribution of emission regions, for different values of radio frequency and Lorentz factor. We show clearly that rotation effects can introduce significant asymmetries into the observed radio profiles. We investigate the dependency of profile features on various pulsar parameters. We find that the radiation from a given ring of field lines can be seen over a large range of pulse longitudes, originating at different altitudes, with varying spectral intensity. Preferred heights of emission along discrete sets of field lines are required to reproduce realistic pulsar profiles, and we illustrate this for a known pulsar. Finally, we show how our model provides feasible explanations for the origin of core emission, and also for one-sided cones which have been observed in some pulsars.
Compared with ordinary spirals, the ISM in ring galaxies experiences markedly different physical conditions and evolution. As a result, ring galaxies provide interesting perspectives on the triggering/quenching of large scale star formation and the destructive effects of massive stars on molecular cloud complexes. We use high resolution radio, sub-millimeter, infrared, and optical data to investigate the role of gravitational stability in star formation regulation, factors influencing the ISM's molecular fraction, and evidence of peculiar star formation laws and efficiencies in two highly evolved ring galaxies: Cartwheel and the Lindsay-Shapley ring.
Accretion among macroscopic bodies of ~km size or larger is enhanced significantly due to gravitational focusing. Two regimes can be distinguished. Initially, the system experiences runaway growth, in which the gravitational focusing factors increase, and bodies at the high-mass tail of the distribution grow fastest. However, at some point the runaway body dynamically heats its environment, gravitational focusing factors decrease, and runaway growth passes into oligarchic growth. Based on the results of recent simulations, we reconsider the runaway growth-oligarchy transition. In contrast to oligarchy, we find that runaway growth cannot be approximated with a two component model (of small and large bodies) and that the criterion of Ida & Makino (1993), which is frequently adopted as the start of oligarchy, is not a sufficient condition to signify the transition. Instead, we propose a new criterion based on timescale arguments. We then find a larger value for the runaway growth-oligarchy transition: from several hundreds of km in the inner disk regions up to ~10^3 km for the outer disk. These findings are consistent with the view that runaway growth has been responsible for the size distribution of the present day Kuiper belt objects. Our finding furthermore outlines the proper initial conditions at the start of the oligarchy stage.
The Feburary 2010 edition of the AAO newsletter contains articles on Helium-rich subluminous B stars, the discovery of large-scale gravitationall infall in a massive proto-stellar cluster, HERMES: the new multi-object high-resolution spectrograph for the AAT, future fibre positioning technology and a number of regular features.
We report new methods for evaluating realistic observing programs that search stars for planets by direct imaging, where observations are selected from an optimized star list, and where stars can be observed multiple times. We show how these methods bring critical insight into the design of the mission & its instruments. These methods provide an estimate of the outcome of the observing program: the probability distribution of discoveries (detection and/or characterization), & an estimate of the occurrence rate of planets (eta). We show that these parameters can be accurately estimated from a single mission simulation, without the need for a complete Monte Carlo mission simulation, & we prove the accuracy of this new approach. Our methods provide the tools to define a mission for a particular science goal, for example defined by the expected number of discoveries and its confidence level. We detail how an optimized star list can be built & how successive observations can be selected. Our approach also provides other critical mission attributes, such as the number of stars expected to be searched, & the probability of zero discoveries. Because these attributes depend strongly on the mission scale, our methods are directly applicable to the design of such future missions & provide guidance to the mission & instrument design based on scientific performance. We illustrate our new methods with practical calculations & exploratory design reference missions for JWST operating with a distant starshade to reduce scattered and diffracted starlight on the focal plane. We estimate that 5 habitable Earth-mass planets would be discovered & characterized with spectroscopy, with a probability of 0 discoveries of 0.004, assuming a small fraction of JWST observing time (7%), eta=0.3, and 70 observing visits, limited by starshade fuel.
The holy grail of exoplanet searches is an exo-Earth, an Earth mass planet in the habitable zone around a nearby star. Mass is the most important parameter of a planet and can only be measured by observing the motion of the star around the planet-star center of mass. A single image of a planet, however, does not provide evidence that the planet is Earth mass or that it is in a habitable zone orbit. The planet's orbit, however, can be measured either by imaging the planet at multiple epochs or by measuring the position of the star at multiple epochs by space-based astrometry. The measurement of an exo-planet's orbit by direct imaging is complicated by a number of factors: (1) the inner working angle (IWA); (2) the apparent brightness of the planet depending on the orbital phase; (3) confusion arising from the presence of multiple planets; and (4) the planet-star contrast. In this paper we address the question: "Can a prior astrometric mission that can identify which stars have Earthlike planets significantly improve the science yield of a mission to image exo-Earths?" We find that the Occulting Ozone Observatory (a small external occulter mission that cannot measure spectra) could confirm the orbits of ~4 to ~6 times as many exo-Earths if an astrometric mission preceded it to identify which stars had such planets. We find that in the case of an internal coronagraph, a survey of the nearest ~60 stars could be done with a telescope of half the size if an astrometric mission had first identified the presence of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone and measured their orbital parameters.
We present new spectral (FPI and long-slit) data on the Eastern optical filament of the well known radionebula W50 associated with SS433. We find that on sub-parsec scales different emission lines are emitted by different regions with evidently different physical conditions. Kinematical properties of the ionized gas show evidence for moderately high (V ~ 100 km/s) supersonic motions. [OIII]5007 emission is found to be multi-component and differs from lower-excitation [SII]6717 line both in spatial and kinematical properties. Indirect evidence for very low characteristic densities of the gas (n ~ 0.1cm^{-3}) is found. We propose radiative (possibly incomplete) shock waves in low-density, moderately high metallicity gas as the most probable candidate for the power source of the optical filament. Apparent nitrogen over-abundance is better understood if the location of W50 in the Galaxy is taken into account.
Gamma-ray bursts have the potential to produce the particle energies (up to $10^{21}$\,eV) and the energy budget ($10^{44}\, \rm{erg\, yr^{-1}\, Mpc^{-3}}$) to accommodate the spectrum of the highest energy cosmic rays; on the other hand, there is no observational evidence that they accelerate hadrons. The Fermi GST recently observed two bursts that exhibit a power-law high-energy extension of the typical (Band) photon spectrum that extends to $\sim 30$ GeV. On the basis of fireball phenomenology we argue that they, along with GRB941017 observed by EGRET in 1994, show indirect evidence for considerable baryon loading. Since the detection of neutrinos is the only unambiguous way to establish that GRBs accelerate protons, we use two methods to estimate the neutrino flux produced when they interact with fireball photons to produce charged pions and neutrinos. While the number of events expected from the Fermi bursts detected to date is small, we conclude that an event like GRB941017 will be detected by the IceCube neutrino telescope if gamma-ray bursts are indeed the sources of the observed cosmic rays.
We perform two-dimensional MHD simulations on the solar flux emergence. We set the initial magnetic flux sheet at z=-20,000 km in the convection zone. The flux sheet rises through the convective layer due to the Parker instability, however, decelerates beneath the photosphere because the plasma on the flux sheet piles up owing to the convectively stable photosphere above. Meanwhile, the flux sheet becomes locally unstable to the Parker instability within the photosphere, and the further evolution to the corona occurs (two-step emergence model). We carry out a parameter survey to investigate the condition for this two-step model. We find that magnetic fluxes which form active regions are likely to have undergone the two-step emergence. The condition for the two-step emergence is 10^21 - 10^22 Mx with 10^4 G at z=-20,000 km in the convection zone.
A nonabelian generalization of the neutral Witten current-carrying string model is discussed in which the bosonic current-carrier belongs to a two dimensional representation of SU(2). We find that the current-carrying solutions can be of three different kinds: either the current spans a U(1) subgroup, and in which case one is left with an abelian current-carrying string, or the three currents are all lightlike, travelling in the same direction (only left or right movers). The third, genuinely nonabelian situation, cannot be handled within a cylindrically symmetric framework, but can be shown to depend on all possible string Lorentz invariant quantities that can be constructed out of the phase gradients.
We investigate theoretically the motion of tiny heavy passive particles transported in a plane inviscid flow consisting of two point vortices, in order to understand particle dispersion and trapping during vortex interaction. In spite of their large density, particles are not necessarily centrifugated away from vortices. It is observed that they can have various equilibrium positions in the reference frame rotating with the vortices, provided the particle response time and the vortex strength ratio lie in appropriate ranges. A stability analysis reveals that some of these points can be asymptotically stable, and can therefore trap particles released in their basin of attraction. Trapping exists for both co-rotating or contra-rotating vortex pairs. In the latter case, particle trapping on a limit cycle is also observed, and confirmed by using Sapsis and Haller's method [Chaos, 20, 017515, 2010] generalized to non-inertial reference frames.
Loop quantum cosmology provides an efficient framework to study the evolution of the Universe beyond the classical Big Bang paradigm. Due to holonomy corrections, the singularity is replaced by a "bounce". The dynamics of the background is investigated into the details, as a function of the parameters of the model. In particular, the conditions required for inflation to occur are carefully considered and are shown to be generically met. The propagation of gravitational waves is then investigated in this framework. By both numerical and analytical approaches, the primordial tensor power spectrum is computed for a wide range of parameters. Several interesting features could be observationally probed.
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X-ray images of galaxy clusters often display underdense bubbles which are apparently inflated by AGN outflow. I consider the evolution of the magnetic field inside such a bubble, using a mixture of analytic and numerical methods. It is found that the field relaxes into an equilibrium filling the entire volume of the bubble. The timescale on which this happens depends critically on the magnetisation and helicity of the outflow as well as on properties of the surrounding ICM. If the outflow is strongly magnetised, the magnetic field undergoes reconnection on a short timescale, magnetic energy being converted into heat whilst the characteristic length scale of the field rises; this process stops when a global equilibrium is reached. The strength of the equilibrium field is determined by the magnetic helicity injected into the bubble by the AGN: if the outflow has a consistent net flux and consequently a large helicity then a global equilibrium will be reached on a short timescale, whereas a low-helicity outflow results in no global equilibrium being reached and at the time of observation reconnection will be ongoing. However, localised flux-tube equilibria will form. If, on the other hand, the outflow is very weakly magnetised, no reconnection occurs and the magnetic field inside the bubble remains small-scale and passive. These results have implications for the internal composition of the bubbles, their interaction with ICM -- in particular to explain how bubbles could move a large distance through the ICM without breaking up -- as well as for the cooling flow problem in general. In addition, reconnection sites in a bubble could be a convenient source of energetic particles, circumventing the problem of synchrotron emitters having a shorter lifetime than the age of the bubble they inhabit.
We investigate the rotational emission from dust grains that rotate around non- principal axes. We argue that in many phases of the interstellar medium, the smallest grains, which dominate spinning dust emission, are likely to have their nutation state (orientation of principal axes relative to the angular momentum vector) randomized during each thermal spike. We recompute the excitation and damping rates associated with rotational emission from the grain permanent dipole, grain-plasma interactions, infrared photon emission, and collisions. The resulting spinning dust spectra gener- ally show a shift toward higher emissivities and peak frequencies relative to previous calculations.
We present a physical model for origin of the cosmic diffuse infrared background (CDIRB). By utilizing the observed stellar mass function and its evolution as input to a semi-empirical model of galaxy formation, we isolate the physics driving diffuse IR emission. The model includes contributions from three primary sources of IR emission: steady-state star formation owing to isolated disk galaxies, interaction-driven bursts of star formation owing to close encounters and mergers, and obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find that most of the CDIRB is produced by equal contributions from objects at z=0.5-1 and z>1, as suggested by recent observations. Of those sources, the vast majority of the emission originates in systems with low to moderate IR luminosities (L_{IR}<10^{12} $L_sun); the most luminous objects contribute significant flux only at high-redshifts (z>2). All star formation in ongoing mergers accounts for <10% of the total at all wavelengths and redshifts, while emission directly attributable to the interaction-driven burst itself accounts for <5%. We furthermore find that obscured AGN contribute <1-2% of the CDIRB at all wavelengths and redshifts, with a strong upper limit of less than 4% of the total emission. Finally, since electron-positron pair production interactions with the CDIRB represent the primary source of opacity to very high energy (VHE: E_\gamma > 1 TeV) \gamma-rays, the model provides predictions for the optical depth of the Universe to the most energetic photons. We find that these predictions agree with observations of high-energy cutoffs at TeV energies in nearby blazars, and suggest that while the Universe is extremely optically thick at >10 TeV, the next generation of VHE \gamma-ray telescopes can reasonably expect detections from out to 50-150 Mpc.
We present a study of a 20cm selected sample in the Deep SWIRE VLA Field, reaching a limiting flux density of ~13.5 uJy at the image center. In a 0.6x0.6 square degrees field, we are able to assign an optical/IR counterpart to 97% of the radio sources. Up to 11 passbands from the NUV to 4.5um are then used to sample the spectral energy distribution (SED) of these counterparts in order to investigate the nature of the host galaxies. By means of an SED template library and stellar population synthesis models we estimate photometric redshifts, stellar masses, and stellar population properties, dividing the sample in three sub-classes of quiescent, intermediate and star-forming galaxies. We focus on the radio sample in the redshift range 0.3<z<1.3 where we estimate to have a redshift completeness higher than 90%, and study the properties and redshift evolution of these sub-populations. We find that, as expected, the relative contributions of AGN and star-forming galaxies to the uJy population depend on the flux density limit of the sample. At all flux levels a significant population of "green-valley" galaxies is observed. While the actual nature of these sources is not definitely understood, the results of this work may suggest that a significant fraction of faint radio sources might be composite (and possibly transition) objects, thus a simple "AGN vs star-forming" classification might not be appropriate to fully understand what faint radio populations really are.
Despite observed strong correlations between central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and star-formation in galactic nuclei, uncertainties exist in our understanding of their coupling. We present observations of the ratio of heavily-obscured to unobscured quasars as a function of cosmic epoch up to z~3, and show that a simple physical model describing mergers of massive, gas-rich galaxies matches these observations. In the context of this model, every obscured and unobscured quasar represent two distinct phases that result from a massive galaxy merger event. Much of the mass growth of the SMBH occurs during the heavily-obscured phase. These observations provide additional evidence for a causal link between gas-rich galaxy mergers, accretion onto the nuclear SMBH and coeval star formation.
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) calorimeter is designed to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray particles over the energy range from ~10^11 eV to ~10^15 eV. Its first flight as part of the CREAM-I balloon-borne payload in Antarctica during the 2004/05 season resulted in a recordbreaking 42 days of exposure. Calorimeter calibration using various beam test data will be discussed in an attempt to assess the uncertainties of the energy measurements.
Radial velocity (RV) observations of an exoplanet system giving a value of M_T sin(i) condition (i.e. give information about) not only the planet's true mass M_T but also the value of sin(i) (where i is the orbital inclination angle). Thus the value of sin(i) for a system with any particular observed value of M_T sin(i) cannot be assumed to be drawn randomly from a uniform distribution between zero and unity (corresponding to an isotropic i distribution). The actual distribution from which it is drawn depends on the intrinsic distribution of M_T for the exoplanet population being studied. We give a simple Bayesian derivation of this relationship and apply it to several "toy models" for the (currently unknown) intrinsic distribution of M_T. The results show that the effect can be an important one. For example, even for simple power-law distributions of M_T, the median value of sin(i) in an observed RV sample can vary between 0.25 and 0.71 (as compared to the 0.5 value for an isotropic i distribution) for indices of the power-law in the quite plausible range between -2 and -0.5, respectively. Over the same range of indicies, the 95% confidence upper bound on M_T ranges from 4.5 to 400 times larger than M_T sin(i), respectively, due to sin(i) uncertainty alone. More complex, but still simple and plausible, distributions of M_T yield still more complicated and less intuitive $sin(i)$ distributions. In particular, if the M_T distribution contains any characteristic mass scale M_c, the sin(i) distribution will depend on the ratio of M_T sin(i) to $M_c$, often in a non-trivial way. Our qualitative conclusion is that RV studies of exoplanets, both individual objects and statistical samples, should regard the sin(i) factor as more than a "numerical constant of order unity" with simple and well understood statistical properties. (abridged)
Accurate knowledge of the non-linear dark-matter power spectrum is important for understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe, the statistics of dark-matter haloes and their evolution, and cosmological gravitational lensing. We analytically model the dark-matter power spectrum and its cross-power spectrum with dark-matter haloes. Our model extends the halo-model formalism, including realistic substructure population within individual dark-matter haloes and the scatter of the concentration parameter at fixed halo mass. We consider three prescriptions for the mass-concentration relation and two for the substructure distribution in dark-matter haloes. We show that this extension of the halo model mainly increases the predicted power on the small scales, and is crucial for proper modeling the cosmological weak-lensing signal due to low-mass haloes. Our extended formalism shows how the halo model approach can be improved in accuracy as one increases the number of ingredients that are calibrated from n-body simulations.
The CREAM calorimeter, designed to measure the spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei from under 1 TeV to 1000 TeV, is a 20 radiation length (X0) deep sampling calorimeter. The calorimeter is comprised of 20 layers of tungsten interleaved with 20 layers of scintillating fiber ribbons, and is preceded by a pair of graphite interaction targets providing about 0.42 proton interaction lengths (\lambda int). The calorimeter was placed in one of CERN's SPS accelerator beams for calibration and testing. Beams of 150 GeV electrons were used for calibration, and a variety of electron, proton, and nuclear fragment beams were used to test the simulation model of the detector. In this paper we discuss the performance of the calorimeter in the electron beam and compare electron beam data with simulation results.
We use 1 kpc resolution cosmological AMR simulations of a Virgo-like galaxy cluster to investigate the effect of feedback from supermassive black holes (SMBH) on the mass distribution of dark matter, gas and stars. We compared three different models: (i) a standard galaxy formation model featuring gas cooling, star formation and supernovae feedback, (ii) a "quenching" model for which star formation is artificially suppressed in massive halos and finally (iii) the recently proposed AGN feedback model of Booth & Schaye (2009). Without AGN feedback (even in the quenching case), our simulated cluster suffers from a strong overcooling problem, with a stellar mass fraction significantly above observed values in M87. The baryon distribution is highly concentrated, resulting in a strong adiabatic contraction (AC) of dark matter. With AGN feedback, on the contrary, the stellar mass in the bright central galaxy (BCG) lies below observational estimates and the overcooling problem disappears. The stellar mass of the BCG is seen to increase with increasing mass resolution, suggesting that our stellar masses converges to the correct value from below. The gas and total mass distributions are in striking agreement with observations. We also find a slight deficit (~10%) of baryons at the virial radius, due to the effect of AGN-driven shock waves pushing gas to Mpc scales and beyond. This baryon deficit results in a slight adiabatic expansion of the dark matter distribution, that can be explained quantitatively by AC theory.
CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) is a multi-flight balloon mission designed to collect direct data on the elemental composition and individual energy spectra of cosmic rays. Two instrument suites have been built to be flown alternately on a yearly base. The tungsten/Sci-Fi imaging calorimeter for the second flight, scheduled for December 2005, was calibrated with electron and proton beams at CERN. A calibration procedure based on the study of the longitudinal shower profile is described and preliminary results of the beam test are presented.
We explore the inter-relationships between mass, star-formation rate and environment in the SDSS, zCOSMOS and other surveys. The differential effects of mass and environment are completely separable to z ~ 1, indicating that two distinct processes are operating, "mass-quenching" and "environment-quenching". Environment-quenching, at fixed over-density, evidently does not change with epoch to z ~ 1, suggesting that it occurs as large-scale structure develops in the Universe. The observed constancy of the mass-function shape for star-forming galaxies, demands that the mass-quenching of galaxies around and above M*, must be proportional to their star-formation rates at all z < 2. We postulate that this simple mass-quenching law also holds over a much broader range of stellar mass and epoch. These two simple quenching processes, plus some additional quenching due to merging, then naturally produce (a) a quasi-static Schechter mass function for star-forming galaxies with a value of M* that is set by the proportionality between the star-formation and mass-quenching rates, (b) a double Schechter function for passive galaxies with two components: the dominant one is produced by mass-quenching and has exactly the same M* as the star-forming galaxies but an alpha shallower by +1, while the other is produced by environment effects and has the same M* and alpha as the star-forming galaxies, and is larger in high density environments. Subsequent merging of quenched galaxies modifies these predictions somewhat in the denser environments, slightly increasing M* and making alpha more negative. All of these detailed quantitative relationships between the Schechter parameters are indeed seen in the SDSS, lending strong support to our simple empirically-based model. The model naturally produces for passive galaxies the "anti-hierarchical" run of mean ages and alpha-element abundances with mass.
The launch of the Kepler mission on 7th March 2009 opened a new bright future for the search of extra-solar planets while a huge amount of stars will be observed leading to the opportunity to better understand stellar evolution. This will allow us to probe different regions in the HR diagram and put more constraints on the stellar models. Up to now the asteroseismic missions such as MOST and CoRoT were providing some solar-like stars at a very slow cadence. But to study the several hundreds of solar-like oscillating stars that will be observed during the Kepler survey phase, an analysis devoted to one star is impossible if we want to have as much information as we can in a small period of time. We describe here our pipeline, A2Z, which calculates the global parameters of the stars (rotation period, mean large spacing of the acoustic modes, maximum amplitude of the modes), fits the modes globally, and estimates the radius and mass of the stars. This pipeline has been tested on simulated stars and applied to real data from CoRoT.
There exists several modified gravity theories designed to reproduce the empirical Milgrom's formula (MOND). Here we derive analytical results in the context of the static weak-field limit of two of them (BIMOND, leading for a given set of parameters to QUMOND, and TeVeS). In this limit, these theories are constructed to give the same force field for spherical symmetry, but their predictions generally differ out of it. However, for certain realizations of these theories (characterized by specific choices for their free functions), the binding potential-energy of a system is increased, compared to its Newtonian counterpart, by a constant amount independent of the shape and size of the system. In that case, the virial theorem is exactly the same in these two theories, for the whole gravity regime and even outside of spherical symmetry, although the exact force fields are different. We explicitly show this for the force field generated by the two theories inside an elliptical shell. For more general free functions, the virial theorems are however not identical in these two theories. We finally explore the consequences of these analytical results for the two-body force.
After recent sensitivity upgrades at the Keck Interferometer (KI), systematic interferometric 2um studies of the innermost dust in nearby Seyfert nuclei are within observational reach. Here, we present the analysis of new interferometric data of NGC 4151, discussed in context of the results from recent dust reverberation, spectro-photometric and interferometric campaigns. The complete data set gives a complex picture, in particular the measured visibilities from now three different nights appear to be rather insensitive to the variation of the nuclear luminosity. KI data alone indicate two scenarios: the K-band emission is either dominated to ~90% by size scales smaller than 30mpc, which falls short of any dust reverberation measurement in NGC 4151 and of theoretical models of circum-nuclear dust distributions. Or contrary, and more likely, the K-band continuum emission is dominated by hot dust (>= 1300K) at linear scales of about 50mpc. The linear size estimate varies by a few tens of percent depending on the exact morphology observed. Our interferometric, deprojected centro-nuclear dust radius estimate of 55+-5mpc is roughly consistent with the earlier published expectations from circum-nuclear, dusty radiative transfer models, and spectro-photometric modeling. However, our data do not support the notion that the dust emission size scale follows the nuclear variability of NGC 4151 as a R_dust \propto L_nuc^0.5 scaling relation. Instead variable nuclear activity, lagging, and variable dust response to illumination changes need to be combined to explain the observations.
Supra-arcade downflows (SADs) have been observed with Yohkoh/SXT (soft X-rays (SXR)), TRACE (extreme ultra-violet (EUV)), SoHO/LASCO (white light), SoHO/SUMER (EUV spectra), and Hinode/XRT (SXR). Characteristics such as low emissivity and trajectories which slow as they reach the top of the arcade are consistent with post-reconnection magnetic flux tubes retracting from a reconnection site high in the corona until they reach a lower-energy magnetic configuration. Viewed from a perpendicular angle, SADs should appear as shrinking loops rather than downflowing voids. We present XRT observations of supra-arcade downflowing loops (SADLs) following a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2008 April 9 and show that their speeds and decelerations are consistent with those determined for SADs. We also present evidence for a possible current sheet observed during this flare that extends between the flare arcade and the CME. Additionally, we show a correlation between reconnection outflows observed with XRT and outgoing flows observed with LASCO.
Inflation predicts primordial scalar perturbations with a nearly scale-invariant spectrum and a spectral index approximately unity (the Harrison--Zel'dovich (HZ) spectrum). The first important step for inflationary cosmology is to check the consistency of the HZ primordial spectrum with current observations. Recent analyses have claimed that a HZ primordial spectrum is excluded at more than 99% c.l. Here we show that the HZ spectrum is only marginally disfavored if one considers a more general reionization scenario. Data from the Planck mission will settle the issue.
How to create planetesimals from tiny dust particles in a proto-planetary disk before the dust particles spiral to the central star is one of the most challenging problems in the theory of planetary system formation. In our previous paper Kato et al. (2009), we have shown that a steady angular velocity profile that consists of both super and sub-Keplerian regions is created in the disk through non-uniform excitation of Magneto-Rotational Instability (MRI). Such non-uniform MRI excitation is reasonably expected in a part of disks with relatively low ionization degree. In this paper, we show through three-dimensional resistive MHD simulations with test particles that this radial structure of the angular velocity indeed leads to prevention of spiral-in of dust particles and furthermore to their accumulation at the boundary of super-Keplerian and sub-Keplerian regions. Treating dust particles as test particles, their motions under the influence of the non-uniform MRI through gas drag are simulated. In the most favorable cases (meter-size dust particles in the disk region with a relatively large fraction of MRI-stable region), we found that the dust concentration is peaked around the super/sub-Keplerian flow boundary and the peak dust density is 10,000 times as high as the initial value. The peak density is high enough for the subsequent gravitational instability to set in, suggesting a possible route to planetesimal formation via non-uniformly excited MRI in weakly ionized regions of a disk.
This paper presents a detailed analysis of the temporal and spectral variability of the low-energy peaked BL Lac object S5 0716+714 with a long (~74 ks)X-ray observation performed by XMM-Newton on 2007 September 24-25. The source experiences recurrent flares on timescales of hours. The soft X-ray variations, up to a factor of ~4, are much stronger than the hard X-ray variations. With higher energy, the variability amplitude increases in the soft X-rays but decreases in the hard X-rays. The hard X-ray variability amplitude, however, is effectively large. For the first time, we detect a soft lag of ~1000s between the soft and hard X-ray variations. The soft lags might become larger with larger energy differences. The overall X-ray spectra exhibit a softer-when-brighter trend, whereas the soft X-ray spectra appear to show a harder-when-brighter trend. The concave X-ray spectra of the source can be interpreted as the sum of the high-energy tail of the synchrotron emission, dominating in the soft X rays, and the low-energy end of the inverse Compton (IC) emission, contributing more in the hard X-rays. The synchrotron spectra are steep (\Gamma~2.6), while the IC spectra are flat (\Gamma~1.2). The synchrotron spectra appear to harden with larger synchrotron fluxes, while the IC spectra seem to soften with larger IC fluxes. When the source brightens, the synchrotron fluxes increase but the IC fluxes decrease. The synchrotron tail exhibits larger flux variations but smaller spectral changes than the IC component does. The crossing energies between the two components and the trough energies of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) increase when the source brightens. The X-ray spectral variability demonstrates that the synchrotron and IC SED peaks of S5 0716+714 shift to higher energies when it brightens.
We investigate the critical core mass and the envelope growth timescale, assuming grain-free envelopes, to examine how small cores are allowed to form gas giants in the framework of the core accretion model. This is motivated by a theoretical dilemma concerning Jupiter formation: Modelings of Jupiter's interior suggest that it contains a small core of < 10 Earth mass, while many core accretion models of Jupiter formation require a large core of > 10 Earth mass to finish its formation by the time of disk dissipation. Reduction of opacity in the accreting envelope is known to hasten gas giant formation. Almost all the previous studies assumed grain-dominated opacity in the envelope. Instead, we examine cases of grain-free envelopes in this study. Our numerical simulations show that an isolated core of as small as 1.7 Earth mass is able to capture disk gas to form a gas giant on a timescale of million years, if the accreting envelope is grain-free; that value decreases to 0.75 Earth mass, if the envelope is metal-free, namely, composed purely of hydrogen and helium. It is also shown that alkali atoms, which are known to be one of the dominant opacity sources near 1500 K in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters, have little contribution to determine the critical core mass. Our results confirm that sedimentation and coagulation of grains in the accreting envelope is a key to resolve the dilemma about Jupiter formation.
The Virtual Observatory is a new technology of the astronomical research allowing the seamless processing and analysis of a heterogeneous data obtained from a number of distributed data archives. It may also provide astronomical community with powerful computational and data processing on-line services replacing the custom scientific code run on user's computers. Despite its benefits the VO technology has been still little exploited in stellar spectroscopy. As an example of possible evolution in this field we present an experimental web-based service for disentangling of spectra based on code KOREL. This code developed by P. Hadrava enables Fourier disentangling and line-strength photometry, i.e. simultaneous decomposition of spectra of multiple stars and solving for orbital parameters, line-profile variability or other physical parameters of observed objects. We discuss the benefits of the service-oriented approach from the point of view of both developers and users and give examples of possible user-friendly implementation of spectra disentangling methods as a standard tools of Virtual Observatory.
We study the effects of gravity waves, or g-modes, on hot extrasolar planets. These planets are expected to possess stably-stratified atmospheres, which support gravity waves. In this paper, we review the derivation of the equation that governs the linear dynamics of gravity waves and describe its application to a hot extrasolar planet, using HD209458 b as a generic example. We find that gravity waves can exhibit a wide range of behaviors, even for a single atmospheric profile. The waves can significantly accelerate or decelerate the background mean flow, depending on the difference between the wave phase and mean flow speeds. In addition, the waves can provide significant heating (~100 to ~1000 K per planetary rotation), especially to the region of the atmosphere above about 10 scale heights from the excitation region. Furthermore, by propagating horizontally, gravity waves provide a mechanism for transporting momentum and heat from the dayside of a tidally locked planet to its nightside. We discuss work that needs to be undertaken to incorporate these effects in current atmosphere models of extrasolar planets.
We report on an update of the test on the rotation of the plane of linear polarization for light traveling over cosmological distances, using a comparison between the measured direction of the UV polarization in 8 radio galaxies at z>2 and the direction predicted by the model of scattering of anisotropic nuclear radiation, which explains the polarization. No rotation is detected within a few degrees for each galaxy and, if the rotation does not depend on direction, then the all-sky-average rotation is constrained to be \theta = -0.8 +/- 4.2. We discuss the relevance of this result for constraining cosmological birefringence, when this is caused by the interaction with a cosmological pseudo-scalar field or by the presence of a Cherns-Simons term.
We study the mean profiles of the multi--component pulsars PSRs B1839+09, B1916+14 and B2111+46. We estimate the emission height of the core components, and hence find the absolute emission altitudes corresponding to the conal components. By fitting Gaussians to the emission components, we determine the phase location of the component peaks. Our findings indicate that the emission beams of these pulsars have the nested core--cone structures. Based on the phase location of the component peaks, we estimate the aberration--retardation (A/R) phase shifts in the profiles. Due to the A/R phase shift, the peak of the core component in the intensity profile and the inflection point of the polarization angle swing are found to be symmetrically shifted in the opposite directions with respect to the meridional plane in such a way that the core shifts towards the leading side and the polarization angle inflection point towards the trailing side. We have been able to locate the phase location of the meridional plane and to estimate the absolute emission altitude of both the core and the conal components relative to the neutron star centre, using the exact expression for the A/R phase shift given by Gangadhara (2005).
We present new kinetic-gasdynamic model of the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. The model incorporates several processes suggested by McComas et al. (2009) for the origin of the heliospheric ENA ribbon -- the most prominent feature seen in the all sky maps of heliospheric ENAs discovered by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). The ribbon is a region of enhanced fluxes of ENAs crossing almost the entire sky. Soon after the ribbon's discovery it was realized (McComas et al., 2009) that the enhancement of the fluxes could be in the directions where the radial component of the interstellar magnetic field around the heliopause is close to zero (Schwadron et al., 2009). Our model includes secondary charge exchange of the interstellar H atoms with the interstellar pickup protons outside the heliopause and is a further advancement of the kinetic-gasdynamic model by Malama et al. (2006) where pickup protons were treated as a separate kinetic component. Izmodenov et al. (2009) have shown in the frame of Malama's model that the interstellar pickup protons outside the heliopause maybe a significant source of ENAs at energies above 1 keV. The difference between the current work and that of Izmodenov et al. (2009) is in the assumption of no-scattering for newly created pickup protons outside the heliopause. In this limit the model produces a feature qualitatively similar to the ribbon observed by IBEX.
We present first pc-scale radio imaging of the radio-quiet candidate binary black hole system SDSS J1536+0441. The observations were carried out by the European VLBI Network at the frequency of 5 GHz and allowed to image SDSS J1536+0441 with a resolution of about 10 mas (50 pc). Two compact radio cores are detected at the position of the kpc-scale components VLA-A and VLA-B, proving the presence of two compact active nuclei with radio luminosity about 10^{40} erg/s, thus ruling out the possibility that the two radio sources are both powered by one 0.1 pc binary black hole. From a comparison with published 8.5 GHz flux densities we derived an estimate of the radio spectral index of the two pc-scale cores. Both cores have flat or inverted spectral index and, at least for the case of VLA-A, we can rule out the possibility that synchrotron self-absorption is responsible for the inverted radio spectrum. We suggest that thermal free-free emission from an X-ray heated disk wind may be powering the radio emission in VLA-A.
[Abridged] Within the hierarchical framework for galaxy formation, minor
merging and tidal interactions are expected to shape large galaxies to the
present day. As part of a pilot survey, we have carried out ultra deep, wide
field imaging of several isolated spiral galaxies in the Local Volume with data
taken at small (D= 0.1-0.5m) robotic telescopes that provide exquisite surface
brightness sensitivity.
Our observational effort has led to the discovery of six previously
undetected giant stellar structures in the halos of these galaxies that are
likely associated with debris from tidally disrupted satellites. In addition,
we confirm and clarify several enormous stellar over-densities previously
reported in the literature, but never before interpreted as tidal streams. Our
collection of galaxies presents an assortment of tidal phenomena exhibiting
strikingly diverse morphological characteristics. In addition to identifying
great circle-like features that resemble the Sagittarius stream surrounding the
Milky Way, our observations have uncovered enormous structures that extend tens
of kiloparsecs into the halos of the central spiral. We have also found remote
shells, giant clouds of debris extending out into the galactic halos, jet-like
features emerging from galactic disks and large-scale,diffuse structures that
are almost certainly related to the remnants of ancient, already thoroughly
disrupted satellites.
A comparison with available stellar halo evolution simulations set in a
Lambda-Cold Dark Matter cosmology suggests that the extraordinary variety of
stellar morphologies detected in our survey matches that seen in those
simulations. This morphological similarity constitutes new, qualitative
evidence that the hierarchical merging predicted by these theoretical models
applies generally to normal, Milky Way-like disk galaxies in the Local Volume.
We briefly overview our newly developed radiation transport module for MHD simulations and two actual applications. The method combines the advantage of the speed of the Flux-Limited Diffusion approximation and the high accuracy obtained in ray-tracing methods.
We present a catalogue of 179 hyperluminous infrared galaxies (HLIRGs) from the Imperial IRAS-FSS Redshift (IIFSCz) Catalogue. Of the 92 with detections in at least two far infrared bands, 62 are dominated by an M82-like starburst, 22 by an Arp220-like starburst and 8 by an AGN dust torus. On the basis of previous gravitational lensing studies and an examination of HST archive images for a further 5 objects, we estimate the fraction of HLIRGs that are significantly lensed to be 10-30%. We show simple infrared template fits to the SEDs of 23 HLIRGs with spectroscopic redshifts and at least 5 photometric bands. Most can be fitted with a combination of two simple templates: an AGN dust torus and an M82-like starburst. In the optical, 17 of the objects are fitted with QSO templates, 6 are fitted with galaxy templates. 20 of the 23 objects (87%) show evidence of an AGN either from the optical continuum or from the signature of an AGN dust torus, but the starburst component is the dominant contribution to bolometric luminosity in 14 out of 23 objects (61%). The implied star-formation rates, even after correcting for lensing magnification, are in excess of 1000 Mo /yr. We use infrared template-fitting models to predict fluxes for all HLIRGs at submillimetre wavelengths, and show predictions at 350 and 850 mu. Most would have 850 mu fluxes brighter than 5 mJy so should be easily detectable with current submillimetre telescopes. At least 15% should be detectable in the Planck all-sky survey at 350 mu and all Planck all-sky survey sources with z < 0.9 should be IIFSCz sources. From the luminosity-volume test we find that HLIRGs show strong evolution. A simple exponential luminosity evolution applied to all HLIRGs would be consistent with the luminosity functions found in redshift bins 0.3-0.5, 0.5-1 and 1-2.
The surface brightness profile of H-alpha emission in galaxies is generally thought to be confined by a sharp truncation, sometimes speculated to coincide with a star formation threshold. Over the past years, observational evidence for both old and young stellar populations, as well as individual H II regions, has demonstrated that the outer disk is an actively evolving part of a galaxy. To provide constraints on the origin of the aforementioned H-alpha truncation and the relation of H-alpha emission in the outer disk to the underlying stellar population, we measure the shape of the outer H-alpha surface brightness profile of 15 isolated, edge-on late-type disk galaxies using deep, long-slit spectroscopy. Tracing H-alpha emission up to 50% beyond the optical radius, R_25, we find a composite H-alpha surface brightness profile, well described by a broken-exponential law, that drops more steeply in the outer disk, but which is not truncated. The stellar continuum and H-alpha surface brightness both exhibit a break at ~0.7 R_25, but the H-alpha emission drops more steeply than the stellar continuum beyond that break. Although profiles with truncations or single exponential laws correctly describe the H-alpha surface brightness profiles of some individual galaxies, flexible broken-exponentials are required in most cases and are therefore the more appropriate generic description. The common existence of a significant second surface brightness component beyond the H-alpha break radius disfavors the hypothesis that this break is a purely stochastic effect.
Astronomical facilities at the high-altitude observatory Terskol in the Northern Caucasus include optical telescopes with diameters up to 2 m, their instrumentation (high-resolution spectrometers, high-speed photometers, CCDs, etc.), as well as provisions for data distribution via satellite and computer networks. The decades of successful research at Terskol have yielded new data and findings in the following areas of astronomy: discovery and monitoring of NEOs, precise astrometry and photometry of solar system bodies, high-resolution spectroscopy of interstellar clouds, search for optical afterglow of gamma ray bursts, etc. Facilities of the Terskol Observatory are heavily used for the operation of the Synchronous Network of distant Telescopes, which includes optical telescopes at Terskol and at observatories in Bulgaria, Greece, and Ukraine; the remarkable results were obtained especially from synchronous observations of galaxies and flare stars.
A model of jet precession driven by a neutrino-cooled disc around a spinning black hole is present in order to explain the temporal structure and spectral evolution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The differential rotation of the outer part of a neutrino dominated accretion disc may result in precession of the inner part of the disc and the central black hole, hence drives a precessed jet via neutrino annihilation around the inner part of the disc. Both analytic and numeric results for our model are present. Our calculations show that a black hole-accretion disk system with black hole mass $M \simeq 3.66 M_\odot$, accretion rate $\dot{M} \simeq 0.54 M_\odot \rm s^{-1}$, spin parameter $a=0.9$ and viscosity parameter $\alpha=0.01$ may drive a precessed jet with period P=1 s and luminosity $L=10^{51}$ erg s$^{-1}$, corresponding to the scenario for long GRBs. A precessed jet with $P=0.1$s and $L=10^{50}$ erg s$^{-1}$ may be powered by a system with $M \simeq 5.59 M_\odot$, $\dot{M} \simeq 0.74 M_\odot \rm s^{-1}$, $a=0.1$, and $\alpha=0.01$, possibly being responsible for the short GRBs. Both the temporal and spectral evolution in GRB pulse may explained with our model. GRB central engines likely power a precessed jet driven by a neutrino-cooled disc. The global GRB lightcurves thus could be modulated by the jet precession during the accretion timescale of the GRB central engine. Both the temporal and spectral evolution in GRB pulse may be due to an viewing effect due to the jet precession.
We study the distribution of exoplanets around main sequence (MS) stars and apply our results to the binary model for the formation of extreme horizontal branch (EHB; sdO; sdB; hot subdwarfs) stars. We conclude that sdB (EHB) stars are prime targets for planets search. We reach this conclusion by noticing that the bimodal distribution of planets around MS stars with respect to the parameter Mp*a^2, is most prominent for MS stars in the mass range 1Mo<M<1.5Mo; a is the orbital separation and Mp the planet mass. This is also the mass range of the progenitors of EHB stars that are formed through the interaction of their progenitors with planets. In the binary model for the formation of EHB stars interaction with a binary companion or a substellar object (a planet or a brown dwarf), causes the progenitor to lose most of its envelope mass on its red giant branch (RGB) phase. As a result of that the descendant HB star is hot, i.e., an EHB (sdB) star. The bimodal distribution suggests that even if the close-in planet that formed the EHB star did not survive its RGB common envelope evolution, one planet or more might survive at a>1AU. Also, if a planet or more are observed at a>1AU, it is possible that a massive planet did survive the common envelope phase, and it is orbiting the EHB with an orbital period of hours do days.
Initial conditions for star formation in clusters are estimated for protostars whose masses follow the initial mass function (IMF) from 0.05 to 10 solar masses. Star-forming infall is assumed equally likely to stop at any moment, due to gas dispersal dominated by stellar feedback. For spherical infall, the typical initial condensation must have a steep density gradient, as in low-mass cores, surrounded by a shallower gradient, as in the clumps around cores. These properties match observed column densities in cluster-forming regions when the mean infall stopping time is 0.05 Myr and the accretion efficiency is 0.5. The infall duration increases with final protostar mass, from 0.01 to 0.3 Myr, and the mass accretion rate increases from 3 to 300 x 10^(-6) solar masses/yr. The typical spherical accretion luminosity is ~5 solar luminosities, reducing the luminosity problem to a factor ~3. The initial condensation density gradient changes from steep to shallow at radius 0.04 pc, enclosing 0.9 solar masses, with mean column density 2 x 10^(22) cm^(-2), and with effective central temperature 16 K. These initial conditions are denser and warmer than those for isolated star formation.
Sulphur is a volatile alpha-element which is not locked into dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM). Hence, its abundance does not need to be corrected for dust depletion when comparing the ISM to the stellar atmospheres. The abundance of sulphur in the photosphere of metal-poor stars is a matter of debate: according to some authors, [S/Fe] versus [Fe/H] forms a plateau at low metallicity, while, according to other studies, there is a large scatter or perhaps a bimodal distribution. In metal-poor stars sulphur is detectable by its lines of Mult.1 at 920 nm, but this range is heavily contaminated by telluric absorptions, and one line of the multiplet is blended by the hydrogen Paschen zeta line. We study the possibility of using Mult. 3 (at 1045 nm) for deriving the sulphur abundance because this range, now observable at the VLT with the infra-red spectrograph CRIRES, is little contaminated by telluric absorption and not affected by blends at least in metal-poor stars. We compare the abundances derived from Multiplets 1 and 3, taking into account NLTE corrections and 3D effects. Here we present the results for a sample of four stars, although the scatter is less pronounced than in previous analysis, we cannot find a plateau in [S/Fe], and confirm the scatter of the sulphur abundance at low metallicity.
In this paper we discuss the effect of recombinations to highly excited states (n > 100) in hydrogen during the cosmological recombination epoch. For this purpose, we developed a new ODE solver for the recombination problem, based on an implicit Gear's method. This solver allows us to include up to 350 l-resolved shells or ~61 000 separate levels in the hydrogen model and to solve the recombination problem for one cosmology in ~27 hours. This is a huge improvement in performance over our previous recombination code, for which a 100-shell computation (5050 separate states) already required ~150 hours on a single processor. We show that for 350 shells down to redshift z ~200 the results for the free electron fraction have practically converged. The final modification in the free electron fraction at z ~200 decreases from about \DeltaNe/Ne ~2.8% for 100 shells to \DeltaNe/Ne ~1.6% for 350 shells. However, the associated changes in the CMB power spectra at large multipoles l are rather small, so that for accurate computations in connection with the analysis of Planck data already ~100 shells are expected to be sufficient. Nevertheless, the total value of \tau could still be affected at a significant level. We also briefly investigate the effect of collisions on the recombination dynamics. With our current estimates for the collisional rates we find a correction of \DeltaNe/Ne ~ -0.074% at z ~ 700, which is mainly caused by l-changing collisions with protons. Furthermore, we present results on the cosmological recombination spectrum, showing that at low frequencies collisional processes are important. However, the current accuracy of collisional rates is insufficient for precise computations of templates for the recombination spectrum at \nu<~1 GHz, and also the effect of collisions on the recombination dynamics suffers from the uncertainty in these rates. (abridged)
The variations of gravity were measured with a high precision LaCoste-Romberg D gravimeter during a total solar eclipse to investigate the effect of solar eclipse on the gravitational field. The observed anomaly $(7.0 \pm 2.7) \times 10^{-8}$ m/s$^2$ during the eclipse implies that there may be a shielding property of gravitation.
Motivated by Pierre Auger Observatory results favoring a heavy nuclear composition for ultrahigh-energy (UHE) cosmic rays, we investigate implications for the cumulative neutrino background. The requirement that nuclei not be photodisintegrated constrains their interactions in sources, therefore limiting neutrino production via photomeson interactions. Assuming a $dN_{\rm CR}/dE_{\rm CR} \propto E_{\rm CR}^{-2}$ injection spectrum and photodisintegration via the giant dipole resonance, the background flux of neutrinos is lower than $E_\nu^2 \Phi_\nu \sim {10}^{-9} {\rm GeV} {\rm cm}^{-2} {\rm s}^{-1} {\rm sr}^{-1}$ if UHE nuclei ubiquitously survive in their sources. This is smaller than the analogous Waxman-Bahcall flux for UHE protons by about one order of magnitude, and is below the projected IceCube sensitivity. If IceCube detects a neutrino background, it could be due to other sources, e.g., hadronuclear interactions of lower-energy cosmic rays; if it does not, this supports our strong restrictions on the properties of sources of UHE nuclei.
The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the composition and energy spectra of cosmic rays of charge Z = 1 to 26 up to an energy of ~ 10^15 eV. CREAM had two successful flights on long-duration balloons (LDB) launched from Mc- Murdo Station, Antarctica, in December 2004 and December 2005. CREAM-I achieves a substantial measurement redundancy by employing multiple detector systems, namely a Timing Charge Detector and a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) for particle identification, and a Transition Radiation Detector and a sampling tungsten/scintillating-fiber ionization calorimeter (CAL) for energy measurement. In this paper, preliminary energy spectra of various elements measured with CAL/SCD during the first 42-day flight are presented.
We study gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking in ${\cal F}$-SU(5) and its low-energy supersymmetric phenomenology. The gaugino masses are not unified at the traditional grand unification scale, but we nonetheless have the same one-loop gaugino mass relation at the electroweak scale as minimal supergravity (mSUGRA). We introduce parameters testable at the colliders to measure the small second loop deviation from the mSUGRA gaugino mass relation at the electroweak scale. In the minimal SU(5) model with gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking, we show that the deviations from the mSUGRA gaugino mass relations are within 5%. However, in ${\cal F}$-SU(5), we predict the deviations from the mSUGRA gaugino mass relations to be larger due to the presence of vector-like particles, which can be tested at the colliders. We determine the viable parameter space that satisfies all the latest experimental constraints and find it is consistent with the CDMS II experiment. Further, we compute the cross-sections of neutralino annihilations into gamma-rays and compare to the first published Fermi-LAT measurement. Finally, the corresponding range of proton lifetime predictions is calculated and found to be within reach of the future Hyper-Kamiokande and DUSEL experiments.
We propose and analyze a new approach to generate a broadband astro-comb by spectral broadening of a narrowband astro-comb inside a highly nonlinear optical fiber. Numerical modeling shows that cascaded four-wave-mixing dramatically degrades the input comb's side-mode suppression and causes side-mode amplitude asymmetry. These two detrimental effects can systematically shift the center-of-gravity of astro-comb spectral lines as measured by an astrophysical spectrograph with resolution \approx100,000; and thus lead to wavelength calibration inaccuracy and instability. Our simulations indicate that this performance penalty, as a result of nonlinear spectral broadening, can be compensated by using a filtering cavity configured for double-pass. As an explicit example, we present a design based on an Yb-fiber source comb (with 1 GHz repetition rate) that is filtered by double-passing through a low finesse cavity (finesse = 208), and subsequent spectrally broadened in a 2-cm, SF6-glass photonic crystal fiber. Spanning more than 300 nm with 16 GHz line spacing, the resulting astro-comb is predicted to provide 1 cm/s (~10 kHz) radial velocity calibration accuracy for an astrophysical spectrograph. Such extreme performance will be necessary for the search for and characterization of Earth-like extra-solar planets, and in direct measurements of the change of the rate of cosmological expansion.
Composite dark matter is a natural setting for implementing inelastic dark matter - the O(100 keV) mass splitting arises from spin-spin interactions of constituent fermions. In models where the constituents are charged under an axial U(1) gauge symmetry that also couples to the Standard Model quarks, dark matter scatters inelastically off Standard Model nuclei and can explain the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal. This article describes the early Universe cosmology of a minimal implementation of a composite inelastic dark matter model where the dark matter is a meson composed of a light and a heavy quark. The synthesis of the constituent quarks into dark mesons and baryons results in several qualitatively different configurations of the resulting dark matter hadrons depending on the relative mass scales in the system.
With present and upcoming SUSY searches both directly, indirectly and at accelerators, the need for accurate calculations is large. We will here go through some of the tools available both from a dark matter point of view and at accelerators. For natural reasons, we will focus on public tools, even though there are some rather sophisticated private tools as well.
We prove that a class of solutions to Einstein's equations---originally discovered by G. C. McVittie in 1933---includes regular black holes embedded in Friedman-Robertson-Walker cosmologies. If the cosmology is dominated at late times by a positive cosmological constant, the metric is regular everywhere on and outside the black hole horizon and away from the big bang singularity, and the solutions asymptote in the future and near the horizon to the Schwarzschild-de Sitter geometry. For solutions without a positive cosmological constant the would-be horizon is a weak null singularity.
The two apparently distinct phenomena of dark energy (or late-time cosmic acceleration) and quantum gravity dominate physics on extremely low, and extremely high energies, but do not seem to have any apparent empirical connection. Nevertheless, the two have a theoretical connection, through the cosmological constant problem. I argue that the finite temperature quantum gravitational corrections to black hole entropy yields a pressure for the gravitational vacuum (or gravitational aether). Assuming that the relative corrections are linear in horizon temperature (i.e. are suppressed by one power of Planck energy), the pressure is comparable to that of dark energy for astrophysical black holes. This implies that the observation of late-time cosmic acceleration may have provided us with the first precision measurement of quantum gravity, i.e. that of black hole entropy.
In this paper we continue our study on the accretion process onto super-spinning Kerr objects with no event horizon (super-spinars). We discuss the counterpart of the Bondi accretion onto black holes. We first report the results of our numerical simulations. We found a quasi-steady state configuration for any choice of the parameters of our model. The most interesting feature is the presence of hot outflows. Unlike jets and outflows produced around black holes, which are thought to be powered by magnetic fields and emitted from the poles, here the outflows are produced by the repulsive gravitational force at small distance from the super-spinar, and are ejected around the equatorial plane. In some circumstances, the amount of matter in the outflow is considerable, which can indeed significantly reduce the gas mass accretion rate. Finally, we discuss a possible scenario of the accretion process in more realistic situations which cannot be simulated by our code.
Since the dawn of telescopic astronomy astronomers have observed and measured the "spurious" telescopic disks of stars, generally reporting that brighter stars have larger disks than fainter stars. Early observers such as Galileo Galilei interpreted these disks as being the physical bodies of stars; later observers such as William Herschel understood them to be spurious; some, such as Christian Huygens, argued that stars show no disks at all. In the early 19th century George B. Airy produced a theoretical explanation of star images sufficient to explain all historical observations, but astronomers were slow to fully recognize this. Even today conventional wisdom concerning stars and telescopes stands at odds to both historical observations and Airy's theory. We give a detailed analysis of both historical observations and Airy's theory, illustrating how Airy's theory explains the historical observations, from Galileo to Huygens to Herschel. We argue that the observations themselves appear in all cases to be valid and worth further study.
Perfect porcupines are specially-configured networks of gravitational wave detectors, in the limit that the individual detectors and the distances between them are short relative to the gravitational wavelengths of interest. They have beautiful properties which make them ideal gravitational wave telescopes. I present the most important cases explicitly. For a network of one-arm detectors (like "AGIS" \cite{Dimopoulos:2008sv}), the minimal perfect porcupine has 6 detectors, oriented along the 6 diameters of a regular icosahedron. For a network of two-arm detectors (like the equal-arm Michelson interferometers LIGO/VIRGO) the minimal perfect porcupine is a certain 5 detector configuration.
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