In recent years, the number of pulsars with secure mass measurements has increased to a level that allows us to probe the underlying neutron star mass distribution in detail. We critically review radio pulsar mass measurements and present a detailed examination through which we are able to put stringent constraints on the underlying neutron star mass distribution. For the first time, we are able to analyze a sizable population of neutron star-white dwarf systems in addition to double neutron star systems with a technique that accounts for systematically different measurement errors. We find that neutron stars that have evolved through different evolutionary paths reflect distinctive signatures through dissimilar distribution peak and mass cutoff values. Neutron stars in double neutron star and neutron star-white dwarf systems show consistent respective peaks at 1.35 Msun and 1.50 Msun which suggest significant mass accretion (Delta m~0.15 Msun) has occurred during the spin up phase. The width of the mass distribution implied by double neutron star systems is indicative of a tight initial mass function while the inferred mass range is significantly wider for neutron stars that have gone through recycling. We find a mass cutoff at 2 Msun for neutron stars with white dwarf companions which establishes a firm lower bound for the maximum neutron star mass. This rules out the majority of strange quark and soft equation of state models as viable configurations for neutron star matter. The lack of truncation close to the maximum mass cutoff suggests that the 2 Msun limit is set by evolutionary constraints rather than nuclear physics or general relativity, and the existence of rare super-massive neutron stars is possible.
A supernova (SN) explosion drives stellar debris into the circumstellar material (CSM) filling a region on a scale of parsecs with X-ray emitting plasma. The velocities involved in supernova remnants (SNRs), thousands of km/s, can be directly measured with medium and high-resolution X-ray spectrometers and add an important dimension to our understanding of the last stages of the progenitor, the explosion mechanism, and the physics of strong shocks. After touching on the ingredients of SNR kinematics, I present a summary of the still-growing measurement results from SNR X-ray observations. Given the advances in 2D/3D hydrodynamics, data analysis techniques, and especially X-ray instrumentation, it is clear that our view of SNRs will continue to deepen in the decades ahead.
We measure the red giant branch bump (RGBB) of the Galactic bulge, the most metal-rich RGBB ever detected. The RGBB luminosity functions peaks at the expected brightness, but its number density is very low relative to Galactic globular cluster calibrations, implying the Galactic bulge has a higher helium enrichment parameter {\Delta}Y/{\Delta}Z $\ge$ 4.0 for Y~0.35 rather than the standard 2.0 with Y=0.27. The RGBB is (0.71 +/- 0.02) mag fainter than the red clump (RC) in I toward the densest stellar regions imaged by the OGLE-III Galactic bulge photometric survey, (|l| $\le$ 4, 2 <~ |b| $\le$ 4). The number density of RGBB stars is (12.7 +/- 2.0)% that of RC stars. The brightness dispersion of the RGBB is significantly lower than that of the RC, a result that is difficult to explain as the luminosity of the RGBB is known to significantly vary with metallicity. Sightlines toward the Galactic bulge that have two RCs have two RGBBs with similar properties to one another, an expected outcome if the Milky Way's bulge is X-shaped. We also find preliminary evidence of the Galactic bulge asymptotic giant branch bump, at a brightness of ~1.1 mag brighter than the RC in I and with a number density ~1.5% that of the RC. Accounting for the RGBB has a small effect on the best-fit parameters of the RC, shifting its best-fit peak brightness and reducing its brightness dispersion by ~0.015 mag each.
Supernovae arise from progenitor stars occupying the upper end of the initial mass function. Their extreme brightness allows individual massive stars to be detected at cosmic distances, lending supernovae great potential as tracers of the upper end of the IMF and its evolution. Exploiting this potential requires progress in many areas of supernova science. These include understanding the progenitor masses that produce various types of supernovae and accurately characterizing the supernova outburst and the environment in which it was produced. I present some preliminary work identifying the environmental conditions that produce the most luminous supernovae, believed to arise from stars with masses greater than 100 M_sun. I illustrate that the presence of these extreme supernovae in small star-forming dwarfs can be used to test our understanding of the upper end of the IMF.
We present the results of a search for nuclear X-ray activity in nearby galaxies using Chandra archival data in a sample of 62 galaxies from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS). We detect 37 nuclear X-ray sources; seven of these are new detections. Most of the nuclear X-ray sources are likely to be AGNs. The fraction of galaxies hosting AGNs is thus about 60%, much higher than that found with optical searches, and demonstrates the efficacy of X-ray observations to find hidden AGNs in optically normal galaxies. We find that the nuclear X-ray sources are preferentially present in earlier type galaxies. Unlike what is observed at high redshift, we do not find a strong correlation between the AGN luminosity and the 24 micron luminosity of the host galaxy; we find a strong correlation with the 3.6 micron luminosity instead. This suggests that at the present epoch the accretion rate depends on the total mass of the galaxy, as perhaps does the black hole mass.
Aims: We study the Galactic large-scale synchrotron emission by generating a reliable all-sky spectral index map and temperature map at 45 MHz. Methods: We use our observations, the published all-sky map at 408 MHz, and a bibliographical compilation to produce a map corrected for zero-level offset and extragalactic contribution. Results: We present full sky maps of the Galactic emission at 45 MHz and the Galactic spectral index between 45 and 408 MHz with an angular resolution of 5\degs. The spectral index varies between 2.1 and 2.7, reaching values below 2.5 at low latitude because of thermal free-free absorption and its maximum in the zone next to the Northern Spur.
We present a unified three-dimensional model of the convection zone and upper atmosphere of the Sun in spherical geometry. In this model, magnetic fields, generated by a helically forced dynamo in the convection zone, emerge without the assistance of magnetic buoyancy. We use an isothermal equation of state with gravity and density stratification. Recurrent plasmoid ejections, which rise through the outer atmosphere, is observed. In addition, the current helicity of the small--scale field is transported outwards and form large structures like magnetic clouds.
We present the PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS), a spectroscopic faint galaxy redshift survey to z~1. PRIMUS uses a low-dispersion prism and slitmasks to observe ~2,500 objects at once in a 0.18 deg^2 field of view, using the IMACS camera on the Magellan I Baade 6.5m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. PRIMUS covers a total of 9.1 deg^2 of sky to a depth of i_AB~23 in seven different deep, multi-wavelength fields that have coverage from GALEX, Spitzer and either XMM or Chandra, as well as multiple-band optical and near-IR coverage. PRIMUS includes ~120,000 robust redshifts of unique objects with a redshift precision of dz/(1+z)~0.005. The redshift distribution peaks at z=0.56 and extends to z=1.2 for galaxies and z=5 for broad-line AGN. The motivation, observational techniques, fields, target selection, slitmask design, and observations are presented here, with a brief summary of the redshift precision; a companion paper presents the data reduction, redshift fitting, redshift confidence, and survey completeness. PRIMUS is the largest faint galaxy survey undertaken to date. The high targeting fraction (~80%) and large survey size will allow for precise measures of galaxy properties and large-scale structure to z~1.
We quantify the fraction of galaxies at moderate redshifts (0.1<z<0.5) that appear red-and-dead in the optical, but in fact contain obscured star formation detectable in the infrared (IR), with the PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS). PRIMUS has measured ~120,000 robust redshifts with a precision of sigma_z/(1+z)~0.5% over 9.1 square degrees of the sky to the depth of i~23 (AB), up to redshift z~1. We specifically targeted 6.7 square degree fields with existing deep IR imaging from the Spitzer Space Telescope from the SWIRE and S-COSMOS surveys. We select in these fields an i band flux-limited sample (i<20 mag in the SWIRE fields and i<21 mag in the S-COSMOS field) of 3310 red-sequence galaxies at 0.1<z<0.5 for which we can reliably classify obscured star-forming and quiescent galaxies using IR color. Our sample constitutes the largest galaxy sample at intermediate redshift to study obscured star formation on the red sequence, and we present the first quantitative analysis of the fraction of obscured star-forming galaxies as a function of luminosity. We find that on average, at L ~ L*, about 15% of red-sequence galaxies have IR colors consistent with star-forming galaxies. The percentage of obscured star-forming galaxies increases by ~8% per mag with decreasing luminosity from the highest luminosities to L~0.2L*. Our results suggest that a significant fraction of red-sequence galaxies have ongoing star formation and that galaxy evolution studies based on optical color therefore need to account for this complication.
NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) is, at the distance of just 3.8 Mpc, the nearest easily observable giant elliptical galaxy. Therefore it is the best target to investigate the early star formation history of an elliptical galaxy. Our aims are to establish when the oldest stars formed in NGC 5128, and whether this galaxy formed stars over a long period. We compare simulated colour-magnitude diagrams with the deep ACS/HST photometry. We find that that the observed colour-magnitude diagram can be reproduced satisfactorily only by simulations that have the bulk of the stars with ages in excess of ~10 Gyr, and that the alpha-enhanced models fit the data much better than the solar scaled ones. Data are not consistent with extended star formation over more than 3-4 Gyr. Two burst models, with 70-80% of the stars formed 12+/-1 Gyr ago and with 20-30% younger contribution with 2-4 Gyr old stars provide the best agreement with the data. The old component spans the whole metallicity range of the models (Z=0.0001-0.04), while for the young component the best fitting models indicate higher minimum metallicity (~1/10 - 1/4 Z_sun). The bulk of the halo stars in NGC5128 must have formed at redshift z>=2 and the chemical enrichment was very fast, reaching solar or even twice-solar metallicity already for the ~11-12 Gyr old population. The minor young component, adding ~20-30% of the stars to the halo, and contributing less than 10% of the mass, may have resulted from a later star formation event ~2-4 Gyr ago. (abridged)
Only a small fraction of local galaxies harbor an accreting black hole, classified as an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, many stellar systems are plausibly expected to host black holes, from globular clusters to nuclear star clusters, to massive galaxies. The mere presence of stars in the vicinity of a black hole provides a source of fuel via mass loss of evolved stars. In this paper we assess the expected luminosities of black holes embedded in stellar systems of different sizes and properties, spanning a large range of masses. We model the distribution of stars and derive the amount of gas available to a central black hole through a geometrical model. We estimate the luminosity of the black holes under simple, but physically grounded, assumptions on the accretion flow. Finally we discuss the detectability of ‘quiescent’ black holes in the local Universe.
Proto-planetary nebulae (pPN) and planetary nebulae (PN) seem to be formed by interacting winds from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The observational issue that most pPN are bipolar but most older PN are elliptical is addressed. We present 2.5D hydrodynamical numerical simulations of episodic cooling interacting winds to investigate the long term evolution of PN morphologies. We track wind acceleration, decrease in mass-loss and episodic change in wind geometry from spherical (AGB) to collimated (pPN) and back to spherical again (PN). This outflow sequence is found to produce realistic PN dynamics and morphological histories. Effects from different AGB distributions and jet duty cycles are also investigated.
We present a measurement of the lifetime of ground state atomic carbon, C(^3P), against ionization processes in interplanetary space and compare it to the lifetime expected from the dominant physical processes likely to occur in this medium. Our measurement is based on analysis of a far ultraviolet (FUV) image of comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) recorded by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) on 2005 March 1. The bright CI 1561 A and 1657 A multiplets dominate the GALEX FUV band. We used the image to create high S/N radial profiles that extended beyond one million km from the comet nucleus. Our measurements yielded a total carbon lifetime of 7.1 -- 9.6 x 10^5 s (scaled to 1 AU). Which compares favorably to calculations assuming solar photoionization, solar wind proton change exchange and solar wind electron impact ionization are the dominant processes occurring in this medium and that comet Machholz was embedded in the slow solar wind. The shape of the CI profiles inside 3x10^5 km suggests that either the CO lifetime is shorter than previously thought and/or a shorter-lived carbon-bearing parent molecule, such as CH_4 is providing the majority of the carbon in this region of the coma of comet Machholz.
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are amongst the most interesting dark matter (DM) candidates. Many DM candidates naturally arise in theories beyond the standard model (SM) of particle physics, like weak-scale supersymmetry (SUSY). Experiments aim to detect WIMPs by scattering, annihilation or direct production, and thereby determine the underlying theory to which they belong, along with its parameters. Here we examine the prospects for further constraining the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) with future ton-scale direct detection experiments. We consider ton-scale extrapolations of three current experiments: CDMS, XENON and COUPP, with 1000 kg-years of raw exposure each. We assume energy resolutions, energy ranges and efficiencies similar to the current versions of the experiments, and include backgrounds at target levels. Our analysis is based on full likelihood constructions for the experiments. We also take into account present uncertainties on hadronic matrix elements for neutralino-quark couplings, and on halo model parameters. We generate synthetic data based on four benchmark points and scan over the CMSSM parameter space using nested sampling. We construct both Bayesian posterior PDFs and frequentist profile likelihoods for the model parameters, as well as the mass and various cross-sections of the lightest neutralino. Future ton-scale experiments will help substantially in constraining supersymmetry, especially when results of experiments primarily targeting spin-dependent nuclear scattering are combined with those directed more toward spin-independent interactions.
The mechanism of Type Ia supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is unknown, but a subset of both may be due to white dwarf-white dwarf (WD-WD) and neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) mergers, respectively. A general problem with this picture is the production of binaries with semi-major axes small enough to merge via gravitational wave (GW) emission in significantly less than the Hubble time (t_H), and thus accommodate the observation that these events closely follow episodes of star formation in time. I explore the possibility that such systems are not binaries at all, but actually coeval, or dynamical formed, hierarchical triple systems. The tertiary induces Kozai oscillations in the inner binary, driving it to high eccentricity, and dramatically reducing its GW merger timescale. This effect significantly increases the allowed range of binary period P such that the merger time is t_merge < t_H. I find that Chandrasehkar mass binaries with P as large as ~300 days can in fact merge in < t_H if they contain a prograde solar-mass tertiary at high enough inclination. For systems with retrograde tertiaries, the allowed range of P such that t_merge < t_H is yet larger. In contrast, P < 0.3 days is required in the absence of a tertiary. I discuss implications of these findings for the production of Ia supernovae via WD-WD mergers, as well as GRBs formed via binary mergers composed of NSs, black holes, and WDs. Based on the statistics of solar-type binaries, I argue that nearly many tight WD-WD binaries should be in triple systems affected by the Kozai resonance. In analogy, the tightest NS-NS binaries may also have formed in triples. If true, expectations for the mHz GW signal from individual sources, the diffuse background, and the foreground for GW experiments like LISA are modified. This work motivates future studies of the triple fraction of intermediate mass A/B stars and massive O stars.
We present Suzaku observations of three iron low-ionization broad absorption line quasars (FeLoBALs), SDSS J0943+5417, J1352+4239, and J1723+5553. We detect J1723+5553 (3\sigma) in the observed 3-10 keV band, and constrain its intrinsic NH column density to NH > 7e23 cm^-2, by modeling its X-ray hardness ratio. This is only the second detection in the X-ray of an FeLoBAL. We measure the upper limits of the X-ray flux in the other two quasars. We study the broadband spectral index, aox, between the X-ray and UV bands by combining the X-ray measurements and the UV flux extrapolated from the 2MASS magnitudes, assuming a range of intrinsic column densities, and then compare the aox values for the three FeLoBALs with those from a large sample of normal quasars. We find that the three FeLoBALs are consistent with the spectral energy distribution (SED) of normal quasars if the intrinsic NH column densities are NH > 6e24 cm^-2 for J0943+5417 and J1352+4293, and 7e23 < NH < 9e24 cm^-2 for J1723+5553. At these large intrinsic column densities, the optical depth from Thompson scattering can reach ~7, which will also significantly modulate the UV flux. If the intrinsic SEDs of FeLoBALs are consistent with normal quasars, our results suggest that the X-ray absorbing material is located at a different place from the UV absorbing wind, likely between the X-ray and UV emitting regions. We find a significant kinetic feedback efficiency for FeLoBALs, indicating they are an important feedback mechanism in quasars.
Using 3D-MHD Eulerian-grid numerical simulations, we study the formation and evolution of rising magnetic towers propagating into an ambient medium. The towers are generated from a localized injection of pure magnetic energy. No rotation is imposed on the plasma. We compare the evolution of a radiatively cooling tower with an adiabatic one, and find that both bend due to pinch instabilities. Collimation is stronger in the radiative cooling case; the adiabatic tower tends to expand radially. Structural similarities are found between these towers and the millimeter scale magnetic towers produced in laboratory experiments.
In the present work, we study the cosmological model with fermionic field (the so-called fermionic k-essence model). We also find the exact solution of the model and examine the influence of such gravity-fermion interaction on the expansion of the Universe. We show that this model can describes the observed accelerated expansion of our universe.
We have studied power density spectra (PDS) of 206 long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). We fitted the PDS with a simple power-law and extracted the exponent of the power-law (alpha) and the noise-crossing threshold frequency (f_th). We find that the distribution of the extracted alpha peaks around -1.4 and that of f_th around 1 Hz. In addition, based on a sub-set of 58 bursts with known redshifts, we show that the redshift-corrected threshold frequency is positively correlated with the isotropic peak luminosity. The correlation coefficient is 0.57 +/- 0.03.
The Suzaku observation of a giant radio galaxy 3C 35 revealed faint extended X-ray emission, associated with its radio lobes and/or host galaxy. After careful subtraction of the X-ray and non-X-ray background and contaminating X-ray sources, the X-ray spectrum of the faint emission was reproduced by a sum of the power-law (PL) and soft thermal components. The soft component was attributed to the thermal plasma emission from the host galaxy. The photon index of the PL component, $\Gamma = 1.35_{-0.86}^{+0.56}$$_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$ where the first and second errors represent the statistical and systematic ones, was found to agree with the synchrotron radio index from the lobes, $\Gamma_{\rm R} = 1.7$. Thus, the PL component was attributed to the inverse Compton (IC) X-rays from the synchrotron electrons in the lobes. The X-ray flux density at 1 keV was derived as $13.6\pm 5.4_{-3.6}^{+4.0}$ nJy with the photon index fixed at the radio value. The X-ray surface brightness from these lobes ($\sim 0.2$ nJy arcmin$^{-2}$) is lowest among the lobes studied through the IC X-ray emission. In combination with the synchrotron radio flux density, $7.5 \pm 0.2$ Jy at 327.4 MHz, the electron energy density spatially averaged over the lobes was evaluated to be the lowest among those radio galaxies, as $u_{\rm e} = (5.8 \pm 2.3 _{-1.7}^{+1.9}) \times 10^{-14}$ ergs cm$^{-3}$ over the electron Lorentz factor of $10^{3}$ -- $10^{5}$. The magnetic energy density was calculated as $u_{\rm m}=(3.1_{-1.0}^{+2.5}$$_{-0.9}^{+1.4}) \times 10^{-14}$ ergs cm$^{-3}$, corresponding to the magnetic field strength of $0.88_{-0.16}^{+0.31}$$_{-0.14}^{+0.19}$ $\mu$G. These results suggest that the energetics in the 3C 35 lobes are nearly consistent with equipartition between the electrons and magnetic fields.
Many phenomena seen in solar atmosphere are connected with underphotospheric processes. MHD oscillation and other dynamical processes observed in quit sun objects are, for example, these phenomena. In our research we use Stereo Behind EUV(171\AA and 304\AA ) observations to study dynamical processes in quiet Sun regions. We found an eruption event in a coronal bright point on the border of a small coronal hole close to the center of the Solar disk. Several oscillating loops became visible inside of the hole after the eruption. We suppose that these loops oscillation were induced by the eruption process in coronal bright point. The nature of interaction transfer agent is unclear because any propagating disturbance was not detected. For data processing we used Pixelize wavelet filtration (PWF method) and Time-distance plots. We measured the supposed interaction transfer speed and found it about 2-3 km/s. We tried to find out the nature of the interaction transfer agent.
We present a perturbative approach for studying inflation models with soft departures from scale free spectra of the power law model. In the perturbed power law (PPL) approach one obtains at the leading order both the scalar and tensor power spectra with the running of their spectral indices, in contrast to the widely used slow roll expansion. The PPL spectrum is confronted data and we show that the PPL parameters are well estimated from WMAP-7 data.
The non-linear evolution of the halo population is followed by solving the continuity equation under the hypothesis that haloes move by the action of gravity. An exact and general formula for the Eulerian bias field of dark matter haloes in terms of the Lagrangian bias is expanded at second-order including the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity. Particular attention is paid in defining a gauge-invariant bias which is necessary when dealing with relativistic effects and measured quantities. We show that scale-dependent effects in the Eulerian bias arise both at first- and second-order independently from the presence of some primordial non-Gaussianity. Furthermore, the Eulerian bias inherits from the primordial non-Gaussianity not only a scale-dependence, but also a modulation with the angle of observation when sources with different biases are correlated.
In the past, spectropolarimetric data from Hinode/SP has been employed to infer the distribution of the magnetic field vector in the quiet Sun. While some authors have found predominantly horizontal magnetic fields, others favor an isotropic distribution. In this paper, we investigate whether it is actually possible to accurately retrieve the magnetic field vector in regions with very low polarization signals (e.g: internetwork), employing the \ion{Fe}{I} line pair at 6300 {\AA}. We first perform inversions of the Stokes vector observed with Hinode/SP in the quiet Sun at disk center in order to confirm the distributions retrieved by other authors. We then carry out several Monte-Carlo simulations with synthetic data where we show that the observed distribution of the magnetic field vector can be explained in terms of purely vertical ($\gamma=0\deg$) and weak fields ($\bar{B}<20$ G), that are misinterpreted by the analysis technique (Stokes inversion code) as being horizontal ($\gamma \approx 90\deg$) and stronger ($\bar{B} \approx 100$ G), due to the effect of the photon noise. This casts doubts as to whether previous results, presenting the distributions for the magnetic field vector peaking at $\gamma=90\deg$ and $\bar{B}=100$ G, are actually correct. We propose that an accurate determination of the magnetic field vector can be achieved by decreasing the photon noise to a point where most of the observed profiles posses Stokes $Q$ or $U$ profiles that are above the noise level. Unfortunately, for noise levels as low as $2.8\times 10^{-4}$ only 30% of the observed region with Hinode/SP have strong enough $Q$ or $U$ signals, implying that the magnetic field vector remains unknown in the rest of the internetwork.
The detection of increased sodium absorption during primary transit implies the presence of an atmosphere around an extrasolar planet, and enables us to infer the structure of this atmosphere. Sodium has only been detected in the atmospheres of two planets to date -- HD 189733b and HD 209458b. WASP-17b is the least dense planet currently known. It has a radius approximately twice that of Jupiter and orbits an F6-type star. The transit signal is expected to be about 5 times larger than that observed in HD 209458b. We obtained 24 spectra with the GIRAFFE spectrograph on the VLT, 8 during transit. The integrated flux in the sodium doublet at wavelengths 5889.95 and 5895.92 angstroms was measured at bandwidths 0.75, 1.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 angstroms. We find a transit depth of 0.55 +/- 0.13 per cent at 1.5 angstroms. This suggests that, like HD 209458b, WASP-17b has an atmosphere depleted in sodium compared to models for a cloud-free atmosphere with solar sodium abundance. We observe a sharp cut-off in sodium absorption between 3.0 and 4.0 angstroms, which may indicate a layer of clouds high in the atmosphere.
We present a novel method for measuring the masses of evolved stars from their limb-darkening observations parameterized as a linear-plus-square-root function with two coefficients. The coefficients of the law are related to integrated moments of the intensity and carry information about the extension of the stellar atmosphere, which is correlated to the ratio of the stellar radius to mass, R/M. Here, we show why the limb-darkening law is related to the R/M, and apply this result to limb-darkening observations of the microlensing event EROS-BLG-2000-5.
We explore the role of mass loss and convective core overshoot in the evolution of Classical Cepheids. Stellar evolution models are computed with a recipe for pulsation-driven mass loss and it is found that mass loss alone is unable to account for the long-standing Cepheid mass discrepancy. However, the combination of mass loss and moderate convective core overshooting does provide a solution, bringing the amount of convective core overshooting in Cepheids closer to that found for other stars.
The main goal of this project is to search for p-mode oscillations in a selected sample of DA white dwarfs near the blue edge of the DAV (g-mode) instability strip, where the p-modes should be excited following theoretical models. A set of high quality time-series data on nine targets has been obtained in 3 photometric bands (Sloan u', g', r') using ULTRACAM at the VLT with a typical time resolution of a few tens of ms. Such high resolution is required because theory predicts very short periods, of the order of a second, for the p-modes in white dwarfs. The data have been analyzed using Fourier transform and correlation analysis methods. Results: P-modes have not been detected in any of our targets. The upper limits obtained for the pulsation amplitude, typically less than 0.1%, are the smallest limits reported in the literature. The Nyquist frequencies are large enough to fully cover the frequency range of interest for the p-modes. For the brightest target of our sample, G 185-32, a p-mode oscillation with a relative amplitude of 5x10**(-4) would have been easily detected, as shown by a simple simulation. For G 185-32 we note an excess of power below ~2 Hz in all the three nights of observation, which might be due in principle to tens of low-amplitude close modes. However, neither correlation analysis nor Fourier transform of the amplitude spectrum show significant results. We also checked the possibility that the p-modes have a very short lifetime, shorter than the observing runs, by dividing each run in several subsets and analyzing these subsets independently. The amplitude spectra show only a few peaks with S/N ratio higher than 4 sigma but the same peaks are not detected in different subsets, as we would expect, and we do not see any indication of frequency spacing. As a secondary result of this project, ... (see the paper)
A Monte Carlo model has been developed to study the degradation of <1000 eV electrons in an atmosphere of CO2, which is one of the most abundant species in Mars' and Venus' atmospheres. The e-CO2 cross sections are presented in an assembled set along with their analytical representations. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out at several energies to calculate the "yield spectra", which embodied all the information related to electron degradation process and can be used to calculate "yield" (or population) for any inelastic process. The numerical yield spectra have been fitted analytically resulting in an analytical yield spectra (AYS). We have calculated the mean energy per ion pair and efficiencies for various inelastic processes, including the double and dissociative double ionization of \car\ and negative ion formation. The energy distribution of the secondary electrons produced per incident electron is also presented at few incident energies. The mean energy per ion pair for CO2 is 37.5 (35.8) eV at 200 (1000) eV, compared to experimental value 32.7 eV at high energies. Ionization is the dominant loss process at energies above 50 eV with contribution of ~50%. Among the excitation processes, 13.6 eV and 12.4 eV states are the dominant loss processes consuming ~28% energy above 200 eV. Around and below ionization threshold, 13.6 eV, 12.4 eV, and 11.1 eV, followed by 8.6 eV and 9.3 eV excitation states are important loss processes, while below 10 eV vibrational excitation dominates.
Recent observations by CREAM, ATIC-2 and PAMELA experiments suggest that (1) the spectrum of cosmic ray (CR) helium is harder than that of CR proton below the knee $10^15 eV$ and (2) all CR spectra become hard at $\gtrsim 10^{11} eV/n$. We propose a new picture that higher energy CRs are generated in more helium-rich region to explain the hardening (1) without introducing different sources for CR helium. The helium to proton ratio at $\sim 100$ TeV exceeds the Big Bang abundance $Y=0.25$ by several times, and the different spectrum is not reproduced within the diffusive shock acceleration theory. We argue that CRs are produced in the chemically enriched region, such as a superbubble, and the outward-decreasing abundance naturally leads to the hard spectrum of CR helium when escaping from the supernova remnant (SNR) shock. We provide a simple analytical spectrum that also fits well the hardening (2) because of the decreasing Mach number in the hot superbubble with $\sim 10^6$ K. Our model predicts hard and concave spectra for heavier CR elements.
The energetic electromagnetic eruptions observed during the prompt phase of gamma-ray bursts are attributed to synchrotron emissions. The internal shocks moving through the ultrarelativistic jet, which is ejected by an imploding supermassive star, are the likely source of this radiation. Synchrotron emissions at the observed strength require the simultaneous presence of powerful magnetic fields and highly relativistic electrons. We explore with one and three-dimensional relativistic particle-in-cell simulations the transition layer of a shock, that evolves out of the collision of two plasma clouds at a speed 0.9c and in the presence of a quasi-parallel magnetic field. The cloud densities vary by a factor of 10. The number densities of ions and electrons in each cloud, which have the mass ratio 250, are equal. The peak Lorentz factor of the electrons is determined in the 1D simulation, as well as the orientation and the strength of the magnetic field at the boundary of the two colliding clouds. The relativistic masses of the electrons and ions close to the shock transition layer are comparable as in previous work. The 3D simulation shows rapid and strong plasma filamentation behind the transient precursor. The magnetic field component orthogonal to the initial field direction is amplified in both simulations to values that exceed those expected from the shock compression by over an order of magnitude. The forming shock is quasi-perpendicular due to this amplification. The simultaneous presence of highly relativistic electrons and strong magnetic fields will give rise to significant synchrotron emissions.
The Planetary and Lunar ephemerides INPOP10a version has several improvements in the fitting process, the data sets used in the fit and in the general features of the solution. No big change was brought in the dynamics. As a consequence of these changes, the extrapolation capabilities of INPOP10a are improved compared to INPOP08, especially for the Earth, Mars, Mercury and Saturn orbits. As for INPOP08, INPOP10a provides to the user, positions, velocities of the planets and the moon and TT-TDB chebychev polynomials at \url{this http URL}.
We study the impact of dust evolution in a protoplanetary disk around a T Tauri star on the disk chemical composition. For the first time we utilize a comprehensive model of dust evolution which includes growth, fragmentation and sedimentation. Specific attention is paid to the influence of grain evolution on the penetration of the UV field in the disk. A chemical model that includes a comprehensive set of gas phase and grain surface chemical reactions is used to simulate the chemical structure of the disk. The main effect of the grain evolution on the disk chemical composition comes from sedimentation, and, to a lesser degree, from the reduction of the total grain surface area. The net effect of grain growth is suppressed by the fragmentation process which maintains a population of small grains, dominating the total grain surface area. We consider three models of dust properties. In model GS both growth and sedimentation are taken into account. In models A5 and A4 all grains are assumed to have the same size (10(-5) cm and 10(-4) cm, respectively) with constant gas-to-dust mass ratio of 100. Like in previous studies, the "three-layer" pattern (midplane, molecular layer, hot atmosphere) in the disk chemical structure is preserved in all models, but shifted closer to the midplane in models with increased grain size (GS and A4). Unlike other similar studies, we find that in models GS and A4 column densities of most gas-phase species are enhanced by 1-3 orders of magnitude relative to those in a model with pristine dust (A5), while column densities of their surface counterparts are decreased. We show that column densities of certain species, like C2H, HC(2n+1)N (n=0-3), H2O and some other molecules, as well as the C2H2/HCN abundance ratio which are accessible with Herschel and ALMA can be used as observational tracers of early stages of the grain evolution process in protoplanetary disks.
The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) instrument on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has produced for the first time an image of a lunar magnetic anomaly in backscattered hydrogen atoms. The image shows that a partial void of the solar wind, a mini-magnetosphere, is formed above the strong magnetic anomaly near the Crisium antipode. The mini-magnetosphere is 360 km across at the surface and is surrounded by a 300-km-thick region of enhanced plasma flux that results from the solar wind flowing around the mini-magnetosphere. The mini-magnetosphere is visible only in hydrogen atoms with energy exceeding 150 eV. Fluxes with energies below 100 eV do not show corresponding spatial variations. While the high-energy atoms result from the backscattering process, the origin of the low-energy component is puzzling. These observations reveal a new class of objects, mini-magnetospheres, and demonstrate a new observational technique to study airless bodies, imaging in backscattered neutral atoms.
Significant proton fluxes were detected in the near wake region of the Moon by an ion mass spectrometer on board Chandrayaan-1. The energy of these nightside protons is slightly higher than the energy of the solar wind protons. The protons are detected close to the lunar equatorial plane at a $140^{\circ}$ solar zenith angle, i.e., ~50$^{\circ}$ behind the terminator at a height of 100 km. The protons come from just above the local horizon, and move along the magnetic field in the solar wind reference frame. We compared the observed proton flux with the predictions from analytical models of an electrostatic plasma expansion into a vacuum. The observed velocity was higher than the velocity predicted by analytical models by a factor of 2 to 3. The simple analytical models cannot explain the observed ion dynamics along the magnetic field in the vicinity of the Moon.
We analyze archival HST/STIS/FUV-MAMA imaging and spectroscopy of 13 compact star clusters within the circumnuclear starburst region of M83, the closest such example. We compare the observed spectra with semi-empirical models, which are based on an empirical library of Galactic O and B stars observed with IUE, and with theoretical models, which are based on a new theoretical UV library of hot massive stars computed with WM-Basic. The models were generated with Starburst99 for metallicities of Z=0.020 and Z=0.040, and for stellar IMFs with upper mass limits of 10, 30, 50, and 100 M_sol. We estimate the ages and masses of the clusters from the best fit model spectra, and find that the ages derived from the semi-empirical and theoretical models agree within a factor of 1.2 on average. A comparison of the spectroscopic age estimates with values derived from HST/WFC3/UVIS multi-band photometry shows a similar level of agreement for all but one cluster. The clusters have a range of ages from about 3 to 20 Myr, and do not appear to have an age gradient along M83's starburst. Clusters with strong P-Cygni profiles have masses of a few times 10^4 M_sol, seem to have formed stars more massive than 30 M_sol, and are consistent with a Kroupa IMF from 0.1-100 M_sol. Field regions in the starburst lack P-Cygni profiles and are dominated by B stars.
We present highlights from a study of a sample of 10 extreme-luminosity candidate ultraluminous X-ray sources (L_X > 5 x 10^(40) erg sec^(-1)), all at distances < 100 Mpc, identified from a cross-correlation of the RC3 catalogue of galaxies with the 2XMM catalogue. Five of the sample have also been observed by Chandra. Of the 10 sources, seven reside in the disc or arms of spiral galaxies, and the remaining three are close to large elliptical galaxies. Unlike many less luminous ultraluminous X-ray sources, temporal variability is observed on short (ks) and long (year) timescales for most sources in our sample. Long term spectral variability is also evident in some sources. In one case, we use archival Chandra data to demonstrate that a hyperluminous X-ray source candidate identified by XMM-Newton is actually resolved into multiple point sources at high spatial resolution, but note that the other candidates remain unresolved under Chandra's intense scrutiny.
Motivated both by considerations of the generation of large-scale astrophysical magnetic fields and by potential problems with mean magnetic field generation by turbulent convection, we investigate the mean electromotive force (emf) resulting from the magnetic buoyancy instability of a rotating layer of stratified magnetic field, considering both unidirectional and sheared fields. We discuss why the traditional decomposition into $\alpha$ and $\beta$ effects is inappropriate in this case, and that it is only consideration of the entire mean emf that is meaningful. By considering a weighted average of the unstable linear eigenmodes, and averaging over the horizontal plane, we obtain depth-dependent emfs. For the simplified case of isothermal, ideal MHD we are able to obtain an analytic expression for the emf; more generally the emf has to be determined numerically. We calculate how the emf depends on the various parameters of the problem, particularly the rotation rate and the latitude of the magnetic layer.
The metallicity gradient and the stellar distribution within the Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822 has been studied photometrically using asymptotic branch stars (AGB). In order to study the stellar and metallicity distribution, the carbon- and oxygen-rich AGB stars have been isolated using deep high-quality near-infrared UKIRT photometry. The ratio between them, the C/M ratio, has been used to derive the [Fe/H] abundance within the galaxy. The [Fe/H] abundance and stellar distribution were analysed as a function of galactic radius. A mean C/M ratio of 0.288 +/- 0.014 has been found which corresponds to an iron abundance of [Fe/H] =-1.14 +/-0.08 dex, with variations in the north and south, as well as at larger galactocentric distances. Variations in the magnitude of the tip of the red giant branch has also been detected.
I review what is known and surmised about magnetic fields in space, from our Milky Way environment to the distant Universe beyond the GZK horizon. This includes our gradually improving specification of the CR propagation environment within the Milky Way, the nearby universe within ~ 10 Mpc, and out to the GZK "horizon" near 100Mpc. Within these modest intergalactic distances we hope for some pointing capability for CR energies above ~ 1019eV, and for different species, as the observed event numbers accumulate in this range over the near future. The wider intergalactic propagation environment beyond the GZK horizon is also discussed. It sets a useful context for understanding other types of anisotropies, including sources of HE photons, neutrinos, leptons, etc. and for understanding relative time of arrival differences, such as those produced by lepton-photon cascades in the intergalactic medium. The global layout of potential UHECR sources is likely connected with the large scale structure (LSS) of cosmic filaments and voids, at least within ~ 100 Mpc. Possible source candidates for UHECR production are discussed, at various redshift ranges up to z ~ 2. Candidates discussed are AGN-jet sources, Centaurus A and more distant giant radio galaxies, and the possible indirect role of galaxies having a strong magnetized CR gas outflow that is driven by "starbursts" involving multiple supernovae and other energetic stellar events. Various analysis methods are described. I also discuss the current state of the results and near-future prospects for improving them.
Observations of high-excitation molecular emission lines can greatly increase our understanding of AGB winds, as they trace the innermost regions of the circumstellar envelope. The PACS spectrometer on-board the Herschel Space Telescope, provides for the first time the spectral resolution and sensitivity necessary to trace these lines. We report on the first modelling efforts of a PACS spectral scan for the OH/IR star V669 Cas. Central to our methodology is the consistent treatment of both dust and gas by using a line radiative transfer and a continuum radiative transfer code conjointly. Water emission lines are found to be extremely sensitive to the dust-to-gas ratio, emphasizing the need of consistent modelling for dust and gas.
One of the nicest results in cosmological perturbation theory is the analytical resummaton of the leading corrections at large momentum, which was obtained by Crocce and Scoccimarro for the propagator. Using an exact evolution equation, we generalize this result, by showing that a class of next-to-leading corrections can also be resummed at all orders in perturbation theory. The new corrections modify the propagator by a few percent in the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation range of scales, and therefore cannot be neglected in resummation schemes aiming at an accuracy compatible with future generation galaxy surveys. Similar tools can be employed to derive improved approximations for the Power Spectrum.
We use Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) data for 170 deg^2, recalibrated and transformed to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ugri photometric system, to study the distribution of near-turnoff main sequence stars in the Galactic halo along four lines of sight, to heliocentric distances of ~35 kpc. We find that the halo stellar number density profile becomes steeper at Galactocentric distances greater than R_{gal}~28 kpc, with the power law index changing from n_{inner}=-2.62+-0.04 to n_{outer}=-3.8+-0.1. In particular, we test a series of single power law models and find them to be strongly disfavored by the data. We measure the oblateness of the halo to be q=c/a=0.70+-0.01 and detect no evidence of it changing across the range of probed distances. The Sagittarius stream is detected in the l=173 and b=-62 direction as an overdensity of [Fe/H] ~ -1.5 dex stars at R_{gal}~32 kpc, providing a new constraint for the Sagittarius stream and dark matter halo models. We also detect the Monoceros stream as an overdensity of [Fe/H] > -1.5 dex stars in the l=232 and b=26 direction at R_{gal}<25 kpc. In the two sightlines where we do not detect significant substructure, the median metallicity is found to be independent of distance within systematic uncertainties ([Fe/H] ~ -1.5+-0.1 dex).
The MAGIC collaboration has recently reported correlated X-ray and very high-energy gamma-ray emission from the gamma-ray binary LS I +61 303 during ~60% of one orbit. These observations suggest that the emission in these two bands has its origin in a single particle population. We aim at improving our understanding of the source behaviour by explaining the simultaneous X-ray and VHE data through a radiation model. We use a model based on a one zone population of relativistic leptonic particles assuming dominant adiabatic losses located at the position of the compact object. The adiabatic cooling timescale is inferred from the X-ray fluxes. The model can reproduce the spectra and lightcurves in the X-ray and VHE bands. Adiabatic losses could be the key ingredient to explain the X-ray and partially the VHE lightcurves. From the best fit result, we obtain a magnetic field of B=0.2 G, a minimum luminosity budget of ~2x10^35 erg/s and a relatively high acceleration efficiency. In addition, our results seem to confirm that the GeV emission detected by Fermi does not come from the same parent particle population as the X-ray and VHE emission and the Fermi spectrum poses a constraint on the hardness of the particle spectrum at lower energies. In the context of our scenario, more sensitive observations would allow to constrain the inclination angle, which could determine the nature of the compact object.
Aims. This article shows the first evidence for gravitational lensing phenomena in high energy gamma-rays. This evidence comes from the observation of a gravitational lens induced echo in the light curve of the distant blazar PKS 1830-211. Methods. Traditional methods for the estimation of time delays in gravitational lensing systems rely on the cross-correlation of the light curves of the individual images. In this paper, we use 300 MeV-30 GeV photons detected by the Fermi-LAT instrument. The Fermi-LAT instrument cannot separate the images of known lenses. The observed light curve is thus the superposition of individual image light curves. The Fermi-LAT instrument has the advantage of providing long, evenly spaced, time series. In addition, the photon noise level is very low. This allows to use directly Fourier transform methods. Results. A time delay between the two compact images of PKS 1830-211 has been searched for both by the autocorrelation method and the “double power spectrum” method. The double power spectrum shows a 3 {\sigma} evidence for a time delay of 27.5 $\pm$ 1.3 days, consistent with the result from Lovell et al. (1998). The relative uncertainty on the time delay estimation is reduced from 20% to 5%.
We investigate the metallicity properties of host galaxies of long Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) in the light of the Fundamental Metallicity Relation (FMR), the tight dependence of metallicity on mass and SFR recently discovered for SDSS galaxies with stellar masses above 10^9.2 Msun. As most of the GRB hosts have masses below this limit, the FMR can only be used after an extension towards lower masses. At this aim, we study the FMR for galaxies with masses down to ~10^8.3 Msun, finding that the FMR does extend smoothly at lower masses, albeit with a much larger scatter. We then compare the resulting FMR with the metallicity properties of 18 host galaxies of long GRBs. While the GRB hosts show a systematic offset with respect to the mass-metallicity relation, they are fully consistent with the FMR. This shows that the difference with the mass-metallicity relation is due to higher than average SFRs, and that GRBs do not preferentially select low-metallicity hosts among the star-forming galaxies. The apparent low metallicity is therefore a consequence of the occurrence of long GRB in low mass, actively star-forming galaxies, known to dominate the current cosmic SFR.
We present new $^{12}$CO(J=1-0) observations of the barred galaxy NGC 4303 using the Nobeyama 45m telescope (NRO45) and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). The H$\alpha$ images of barred spiral galaxies often show active star formation in spiral arms, but less so in bars. We quantify the difference by measuring star formation rate and efficiency at a scale where local star formation is spatially resolved. Our CO map covers the central 2$\farcm$3 region of the galaxy; the combination of NRO45 and CARMA provides a high fidelity image, enabling accurate measurements of molecular gas surface density. We find that star formation rate and efficiency are twice as high in the spiral arms as in the bar. We discuss this difference in the context of the Kennicutt-Schimidt (KS) law, which indicates a constant star formation rate at a given gas surface density. The KS law breaks down at our native resolution ($\sim$ 250 pc), and substantial smoothing (to 500 pc) is necessary to reproduce the KS law, although with greater scatter.
We propose a novel bias-free method for reconstructing the power spectrum of the weak lensing deflection field from cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. The proposed method is in contrast to the standard method of CMB lensing reconstruction where a reconstruction bias needs to be subtracted to estimate the lensing power spectrum. This bias depends very sensitively on the modeling of the signal and noise properties of the survey, and a misestimate can lead to significantly inaccurate results. Our method obviates this bias and hence the need to characterize the detailed noise properties of the CMB experiment. We illustrate our method with simulated lensed CMB maps with realistic noise distributions. This bias-free method can also be extended to create much more reliable estimators for other four-point functions in cosmology, such as those appearing in primordial non-Gaussianity estimators.
We evaluate the effect of a supersonic relative velocity between the baryons and dark matter on the thermal and density evolution of the first gas clouds at z < 50. Through a series of cosmological simulations, initialized at z=100 with a range of relative streaming velocities and minihalo formation redshifts, we find that the typical streaming velocities will have little effect on the gas evolution. Once the collapse begins, the subsequent evolution of the gas will be nearly indistinguishable from the case of no streaming, and star formation will still proceed in the same way, with no change in the characteristic Pop III stellar masses. Reionization is expected to be dominated by halo masses of > 10^8 M_sun, for which the expected effect of streaming is negligible.
We propose a warm inflationary model in the context of relativistic D-brane inflation in a warped throat. The inflaton has Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) kinetic term and is coupled to radiation through a dissipation term. Warm DBI inflation provides an alternative to the traditional reheating mechanism by smoothly connecting an early inflationary period with a radiation dominated phase. The primary source for the primordial cosmological perturbation is a random thermal noise. The perturbation freezes at the sound horizon and the power spectrum is determined by a combination of the dissipative parameter and the sound speed parameter. The thermal dissipation ameliorates the {\it eta} problem and softens theoretical constraints from the extra-dimensional volume and from observational bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The warm DBI inflation mechanism can lead to appreciable non-Gaussianity of the equilateral type. A slow-roll warm inflation model is obtained in the non-relativistic limit. As a phenomenological model, ignoring compactification constraints, we show that large-field warm inflation models do not necessarily yield a large tensor-to-scalar ratio.
We investigate the non-Pauli-Fierz (nPF) theory, a linearized massive gravity with a generic graviton mass term, which has been ignored due to a ghost in its spectrum and the resultant loss of unitarity. We first show that it is possible to use the Lee-Wick mechanism, a unitarization through the decay of a ghost, in order to handle the sixth mode ghost of nPF, and then check for the quantum consistency. Once proven to be consistent, nPF could become a viable candidate for a large distance modification of gravity, because it naturally solves the intrinsic problems that most dark energy/modified gravity models suffer from: It smoothly converges to general relativity at short distances, and the small graviton mass necessary to modify gravity at large scales is radiatively stable.
Models of weak-scale supersymmetry offer viable dark matter (DM) candidates. Their parameter spaces are however rather large and complex, such that pinning down the actual parameter values from experimental data can depend strongly on the employed statistical framework and scanning algorithm. In frequentist parameter estimation, a central requirement for properly constructed confidence intervals is that they cover true parameter values, preferably at exactly the stated confidence level when experiments are repeated infinitely many times. Since most widely-used scanning techniques are optimised for Bayesian statistics, one needs to assess their abilities in providing correct confidence intervals in terms of the statistical coverage. Here we investigate this for the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) when only constrained by data from direct searches for dark matter. We construct confidence intervals from one-dimensional profile likelihoods and study the coverage by generating several pseudo-experiments for two benchmark sets of pseudo-true parameters. We use nested sampling to scan the parameter space and evaluate the coverage for the two benchmarks when either flat or logarithmic priors are imposed on gaugino and scalar mass parameters. We observe both under- and over-coverage, which in some cases vary quite dramatically when benchmarks or priors are modified. We show how most of the variation can be explained as the impact of explicit and implicit priors, where the latter are indirectly imposed by physicality conditions. For comparison, we also evaluate the coverage for Bayesian credible intervals, and (predictably) observe significant under-coverage in those cases.
We investigate evolutionary dynamics related to periodicity fossil biodiversity. Coherent periodic fluctuation in origination/extinction of marine genera that survive <45 million years is the source of an observed ~62 million year periodicity analyzed in Paper I. We also show that the evolutionary dynamics of "long-lived" genera (those that survive >45 million years) do not participate in the periodic fluctuation in diversity and differ from those of "short-lived" genera. The difference between the evolutionary dynamics of these 2 genera classes indicates that the periodic pattern is not an artifact of variation in quality of the geologic record. The interplay of these two previously undifferentiated systems, together with the secular increase in abundance of "long-lived" genera, is probably the source of heretofore unexplained differences in evolutionary dynamics between the Paleozoic and post-Paleozoic as reported by others. Testing for cycles similar to the 62 Myr cycle in fossil biodiversity superimposed on the long-term trends of the Phanerozoic as described in Paper I, we find a significant (but weaker) signal in sedimentary rock packages, particularly carbonates, which suggests a connection. The presence of a periodic pattern in evolutionary dynamics of the vulnerable "short-lived" component of marine fauna demonstrates that a long-term periodic fluctuation in environmental conditions capable of affecting evolution in the marine realm characterizes our planet. Coincidence in timing is more consistent with a common cause than sampling bias. A previously identified set of mass extinctions preferentially occur during the declining phase of the 62 Myr periodicity, supporting the idea that the periodicity relates to variation in biotically important stresses. Further work should focus on finding links to physical phenomena that might reveal the causal system or systems.
We consider a model of DBI inflation where two stacks of mobile branes are moving ultra relativistically in a warped throat. The stack closer to the tip of the throat is annihilated with the background anti-branes while inflation proceeds by the second stack. The effects of branes annihilation and particles creation during DBI inflation on the curvature perturbations power spectrum and the scalar spectral index are studied. We show that for super-horizon scales, modes which are outside the sound horizon at the time of branes collision, the spectral index has a shift to blue spectrum compared to the standard DBI inflation. For small scales the power spectrum approaches to its background DBI inflation value with the decaying superimposed oscillatory modulations.
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We present a catalog of Fe, Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti abundances for 2961 red giant stars that are likely members of eight dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW): Sculptor, Fornax, Leo I, Sextans, Leo II, Canes Venatici I, Ursa Minor, and Draco. For the purposes of validating our measurements, we also observed 445 red giants in MW globular clusters and 21 field red giants in the MW halo. The measurements are based on Keck/DEIMOS medium-resolution spectroscopy combined with spectral synthesis. We estimate uncertainties in [Fe/H] by quantifying the dispersion of [Fe/H] measurements in a sample of stars in monometallic globular clusters. We estimate uncertainties in Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti abundances by comparing our medium-resolution spectroscopic measurements to high-resolution spectroscopic abundances of the same stars. For this purpose, our DEIMOS sample included 132 red giants with published high-resolution spectroscopy in globular clusters, the MW halo field, and dwarf galaxies. The standard deviations of the differences in [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] (the average of [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], and [Ti/Fe]) between the two samples is 0.15 and 0.16, respectively. This catalog represents the largest sample of multi-element abundances in dwarf galaxies to date. The next papers in this series draw conclusions on the chemical evolution, gas dynamics, and star formation histories from the catalog presented here. The wide range of dwarf galaxy luminosity reveals the dependence of dwarf galaxy chemical evolution on galaxy stellar mass.
We use a sample of 121 spectroscopically normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to show that their intrinsic color is correlated with their ejecta velocity, as measured from the blueshift of the Si II 6355 feature near maximum brightness, v_Si. The SN Ia sample was originally used by Wang et al. (2009) to show that the relationship between color excess and peak magnitude, which in the absence of intrinsic color differences describes a reddening law, was different for two subsamples split by v_Si (defined as "Normal" and "High-Velocity"). We verify this result, but find that the two subsamples have the same reddening law when extremely reddened events (E(B-V) > 0.35 mag) are excluded. We also show that (1) the High-Velocity subsample is offset by ~0.06 mag to the red from the Normal subsample in the (B_max - V_max) - M_V plane, (2) the B_max - V_max cumulative distribution functions of the two subsamples have nearly identical shapes, but the High-Velocity subsample is offset by ~0.07 mag to the red in B_max - V_max, and (3) the bluest High-Velocity SNe Ia are ~0.10 mag redder than the bluest Normal SNe Ia. Together, this evidence indicates a difference in intrinsic color for the subsamples. Accounting for this intrinsic color difference reduces the scatter in Hubble residuals from 0.190 mag to 0.130 mag for SNe Ia with A_V < 0.7 mag. The scatter can be further reduced to 0.109 mag by exclusively using SNe Ia from the Normal subsample. Additionally, this result can at least partially explain the anomalously low values of R_V found in large SN Ia samples. We explain the correlation between ejecta velocity and color as increased line blanketing in the High-Velocity SNe Ia, causing them to become redder. We discuss some implications of this result, and stress the importance of spectroscopy for future SN Ia cosmology surveys, with particular focus on the design of WFIRST.
Thompson has recently argued that the Kozai mechanism is primarily responsible for driving white-dwarf binary mergers and so generating type Ia supernovae (SNe). If this is the case, the gravitational wave signal from these systems will be characterized by isolated repeating pulses that are well approximated by parabolic encounters. I show that standard Fourier-based searches would do a very poor job of digging these sources out of the noise, and propose a new type matched filter search, which can improve sensitivity by up to a factor ~30 relative to Fourier. If these eccentric binaries account for even a modest fraction of the observed SN rate, then there should be of order 1 pulse every 20 seconds coming from within 1 kpc, and there should be of order a thousand detectable sources in this same volume. I outline methods of identifying these sources both to remove this very pernicious background to other signals, and to find candidate SN Ia progenitors, and I sketch practical methods to find optical counterparts to these sources and so measure their masses and distances.
We determine the intrinsic shapes and orientations of 27,450 type I and II active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies in the spectroscopic sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, by studying the distribution of projected axis ratios of AGN hosts. Our aim is to study possible alignments between the AGN and host galaxy systems (e.g. the accretion disc and the galaxy angular momentum) and the effect of dust obscuration geometry on the AGN type. We define control samples of non-AGN galaxies that mimic the morphology, colour, luminosity and concentration distributions of the AGN population, taking into account the effects of dust extinction and reddening. By assuming that AGN galaxies have the same underlying three-dimensional shape distribution as their corresponding control samples, we find that the spiral and elliptical type I AGN populations are strongly biased toward face-on galaxies, while ellipticals and spirals type II AGN are biased toward edge-on orientations. These findings rule out random orientations for AGN hosts at high confidence for type I spirals (delta chi^2~170) and type II ellipticals (delta chi^2~14), while the signal for type I ellipticals and type II spirals is weaker (delta chi^2~5 and delta chi^2~3, respectively). We obtain a much stronger tendency for the type II spirals to be edge-on when just high [OIII] equivalent width (EW) AGN are considered, meaning that >20% of low [OIII] EW edge-on type II AGN may be missing from the optical sample. The subset of AGN with point-like detections in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) survey also tend to be face-on (delta chi^2>100), suggesting that radio jets are parallel to the galaxy disc angular momentum. [ABRIDGE]
Recently, an analysis of data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope has revealed a flux of gamma rays concentrated around the inner ~0.5 degree of the Milky Way, with a spectrum that is sharply peaked at 2-4 GeV. If interpreted as the products of annihilating dark matter, this signal implies that the dark matter consists of particles with a mass between 7.3 and 9.2 GeV, a range very similar to that required to accommodate the signals reported by CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA. In addition to gamma rays, the dark matter is predicted to produce energetic electrons and positrons in the Inner Galaxy, which emit synchrotron photons as a result of their interaction with the Galactic Magnetic Field. In this letter, we calculate the flux and spectrum of this synchrotron emission assuming that the gamma rays from the Galactic Center originate from dark matter, and compare the results to measurements from the WMAP satellite. We find that a sizable flux of hard synchrotron emission is predicted in this scenario, and that this can easily account for the observed intensity, spectrum, and morphology of the "WMAP Haze".
On geological timescales, the Earth is likely to be exposed to an increased flux of high energy cosmic rays (HECRs) from astrophysical sources such as nearby supernovae, gamma ray bursts or by galactic shocks. Typical cosmic ray energies may be much higher than the ~ 1 GeV flux which normally dominates. These high-energy particles strike the Earth's atmosphere initiating an extensive air shower. As the air shower propagates deeper, it ionizes the atmosphere by producing charged secondary particles. Secondary particles such as muons and thermal neutrons produced as a result of nuclear interactions are able to reach the ground, enhancing the radiation dose. Muons contribute 85% to the radiation dose from cosmic rays. This enhanced dose could be potentially harmful to the biosphere. This mechanism has been discussed extensively in literature but has never been quantified. Here, we have developed a lookup table that can be used to quantify this effect by modeling terrestrial muon flux from any arbitrary cosmic ray spectra with 10 GeV - 1 PeV primaries. This will enable us to compute the radiation dose on terrestrial planetary surfaces from a number of astrophysical sources and provide an important constraint on the habitability of terrestrial planets.
Although many double white dwarfs (DWDs) have been observed, the evolutionary channel by which they are formed from low-mass/long-period red-giant-main-sequence (RG-MS) binaries remains uncertain. The canonical explanations involve some variant of double common-envelope (CE) evolution, however it has been found that such a mechanism cannot produce the observed distribution. We present a model for the initial episode of mass transfer (MT) in RG-MS binaries, and demonstrate that their evolution into double white dwarfs need not arise through a double-CE process, as long as the initial primary's core mass (Md,c) does not exceed 0.46M$_{\odot}$. Instead, the first episode of dramatic mass loss may be stable, non-conservative MT. We find a lower bound on the fraction of transferred mass that must be lost from the system in order to provide for MT, and demonstrate the feasibility of this channel in producing observed low-mass (with M$_{d,c}$ < 0.46M$_{\odot}$) DWD systems.
The ESA Gaia mission will provide a multi-epoch database for a billion of objects, including variable objects that comprise stars, active galactic nuclei and asteroids. We highlight a few of Gaia's properties that will benefit the study of variable objects, and illustrate with two examples the work being done in the preparation of the data processing and object characterization. The first example relates to the analysis of the nearly simultaneous multi-band data of Gaia with the Principal Component Analysis techniques, and the second example concerns the classification of Gaia time series into variability types. The results of the ground-based processing of Gaia's variable objects data will be made available to the scientific community through the intermediate and final ESA releases throughout the mission.
To date, there have been several detections of high-mass black hole binaries in both the Milky Way and other galaxies. For some of these, the spin parameter of the black hole has been estimated. As many of these systems are quite tight, a suggested origin of the spin is angular momentum imparted by the synchronous rotation of the black hole progenitor with its binary companion. Using Cygnus X-1, the best studied high-mass black hole binary, we investigate this possibility. We find that such an origin of the spin is not likely, and our results point rather to the spin being the result of processes during the collapse.
We present new measurements of the redshift-space three-point correlation function (3PCF) of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Using the largest dataset to date, the Data Release 7 (DR7) LRGs, and an improved binning scheme compared to previous measurements, we measure the LRG 3PCF on large scales up to ~90 Mpc/h, from the mildly non-linear to quasi-linear regimes. Comparing the LRG correlations to the dark matter two- and three-point correlation functions, obtained from N-body simulations we infer linear and non-linear bias parameters. As expected, LRGs are highly biased tracers of large scale structure, with a linear bias b1 ~ 2; the LRGs also have a large positive non-linear bias parameter, in agreement with predictions of galaxy population models. The use of the 3PCF to estimate biasing helps to also make estimates of the cosmological parameter {\sigma_8}, as well as to infer best-fit parameters of the Halo Occupation Distribution parameters for LRGs. We also use a large suite of public mock catalogs to characterize the error covariance matrix for the 3PCF and compare the variance among simulation results with jackknife error estimates.
The rate evolution of subluminous Type Ia Supernovae is presented using data from the Supernova Legacy Survey. This sub-sample represents the faint and rapidly-declining light-curves of the observed supernova Ia (SN Ia) population here defined by low stretch values (s<0.8). Up to redshift z=0.6, we find 18 photometrically-identified subluminous SNe Ia, of which six have spectroscopic redshift (and three are spectroscopically-confirmed SNe Ia). The evolution of the subluminous volumetric rate is constant or slightly decreasing with redshift, in contrast to the increasing SN Ia rate found for the normal stretch population, although a rising behaviour is not conclusively ruled out. The subluminous sample is mainly found in early-type galaxies with little or no star formation, so that the rate evolution is consistent with a galactic mass dependent behavior: $r(z)=A\times M_g$, with $A=(1.1\pm0.3)\times10^{-14}$ SNe per year and solar mass.
We investigate the chromospheric evaporation in the flare of 2007 January 16 using line profiles observed by the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) onboard Hinode. Three points at flare ribbons of different magnetic polarities are analyzed in detail. We find that the three points show different patterns of upflows and downflows in the impulsive phase of the flare. The spectral lines at the first point are mostly blue shifted, with the hotter lines showing a dominant blue-shifted component over the stationary one. At the second point, however, only weak upflows are detected; in stead, notable downflows appear at high temperatures (up to 2.5-5.0 MK). The third point is similar to the second one only that it shows evidence of multi-component downflows. While the evaporated plasma falling back down as warm rain is a possible cause of the redshifts at points 2 and 3, the different patterns of chromospheric evaporation at the three points imply existence of different heating mechanisms in the flaring active region.
We clarify the behavior of curvature perturbations in a nonlinear theory in case the inflaton temporarily stops during inflation. We focus on the evolution of curvature perturbation on superhorizon scales by adopting the spatial gradient expansion and show that the nonlinear theory, called the {\it beyond} $\delta N$-formalism for a general single scalar field as the next-leading order in the expansion. Both the leading-order in the expansion ($\delta N$-formalism) and our nonlinear theory include the solutions of full-nonlinear orders in the standard perturbative expansion. Additionally, in our formalism, we can deal with the time evolution in contrast to $\delta N$-formalism, where curvature perturbations remain just constant, and show decaying modes do not couple with growing modes as similar to the case with linear theory. We can conclude that although the decaying mode diverges when $\dot{\phi}$ vanishes, there appears no trouble for both the linear and nonlinear theory since these modes will vanish at late times.
We consider the possible pattern of the overall spiral structure of the Galaxy, using data on the distribution of neutral (atomic), molecular, and ionized hydrogen, on the base of the hypothesis of the spiral structure being symmetric, i.e. the assumption that spiral arms are translated into each other for a rotation around the galactic center by 180{\deg} (a two-arm pattern) or by 90{\deg} (a four-arm pattern). We demonstrate that, for the inner region, the observations are best represented with a four-arm scheme of the spiral pattern, associated with all-Galaxy spiral density waves. The basic position is that of the Carina arm, reliably determined from distances to HII regions and from HI and H2 radial velocities. This pattern is continued in the quadrants III and IV with weak outer HI arms; from their morphology, the Galaxy should be considered an asymmetric multi-arm spiral. The kneed shape of the outer arms that consist of straight segments can indicate that these arms are transient formations that appeared due to a gravitational instability in the gas disk. The distances between HI superclouds in the two arms that are the brightest in neutral hydrogen, the Carina arm and the Cygnus (Outer) arm, concentrate to two values, permitting to assume the presence of a regular magnetic field in these arms.
If there are scalar particles of small or moderate mass coupled very weakly to Dirac neutrinos, in a minimal way, then neutrino-anti-neutrino clouds of sufficient number density can experience an instability in which helicities are suddenly reversed. The predicted collective evolution is many orders of magnitude faster than given by cross-section calculations. The instabilities are the analogue of the ``flavor-angle" instabilities (enabled by the Z exchange force) that may drive very rapid flavor exchange among the neutrinos that emerge from a supernova. Operating in the mode of putting limits on the coupling constant of the scalar field, for the most minimal coupling scheme, with independent couplings to all three neutrinos, we find a rough limit on the dimensionless coupling constant for a neutrino-flavor independent coupling of $G<10^{-10}$, to avoid the effective number of light neutrinos in the early universe being essentially six. If, on the other hand, we wish to fine-tune the model to give a more modest excess (over three) in the effective neutrino number, as may be needed according to recent WMAP analyses, it is easy to do so.
The nonbaryonic dark matter of the Universe is assumed to consist of new stable particles. A specific case is possible, when new stable particles bear ordinary electric charge and bind in heavy "atoms" by ordinary Coulomb interaction. Such possibility is severely restricted by the constraints on anomalous isotopes of light elements that form positively charged heavy species with ordinary electrons. The trouble is avoided, if stable particles $X^{--}$ with charge -2 are in excess over their antiparticles (with charge +2) and there are no stable particles with charges +1 and -1. Then primordial helium, formed in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, captures all $X^{--}$ in neutral "atoms" of O-helium (OHe). Schrodinger equation for system of nucleus and OHe is considered and reduced to an equation of relative motion in a spherically symmetrical potential, formed by the Yukawa tail of nuclear scalar isoscalar attraction potential, acting on He beyond the nucleus, and dipole Coulomb repulsion between the nucleus and OHe at small distances between nuclear surfaces of He and nucleus. The values of coupling strength and mass of $\sigma$-meson, mediating scalar isoscalar nuclear potential, are rather uncertain. Within these uncertainties and in the approximation of rectangular potential wells and wall we find a range of these parameters, at which the sodium nuclei have a few keV binding energy with OHe. The result also strongly depend on the precise value of parameter $d_o$ that determines the size of nuclei. At nuclear parameters, reproducing DAMA results, OHe-nucleus bound states can exist only for intermediate nuclei, thus excluding direct comparison with these results in detectors, containing very light (e.g. $^3He$) and heavy nuclei (like Xe).
In a sample of 476931 NELGs obtained from the SDSS DR5 data we find that in 22% of the galaxies the emission line [OIII]$\lambda$5007, H$\beta$, or both, are missing. The nature of the activity in these galaxies was determined using a diagnostic diagram comparing the equivalent width of [NII]$\lambda$6584 with the ratio [NII]$\lambda$6584/H$\alpha$. The majority of these galaxies are AGN. The H$\alpha$ emission lines have a mean FWHM of 400 km s$^{-1}$ and mean luminosity of 5.6$\times$10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$, which justify their classification as LLAGN. A study of their star formation histories using STARLIGHT reveals no trace of star formation over the last Gyr period. The hosts of the LLAGNs are early-type, T$\le 2$, with bulges more massive than those of the luminous AGNs.
We have used the diagnostic diagram that compares the ratio of emission lines [NII]$\lambda$6584/H$\alpha$ with the equivalent width of [NII]$\lambda$6584, as proposed by Coziol et al. (1998), to determine the source of ionization of SDSS NELGs that cannot be classified by standard diagnostic diagrams, because the emission line [OIII]$\lambda$5007, H$\beta$, or both, are missing. We find these galaxies to be consistent with low luminosity AGNs, suggesting that this characteristic is the signature of the LLAGNs in the nearby Universe.
We investigate the quality factor and RMS amplitude of the lower kHz QPOs from XTE J1701-462, a unique X-ray source which was observed in both the so-called Z and atoll states. Correcting for the frequency drift of the QPO, we show that, as in all sources for which such a correction can be applied, the quality factor and RMS amplitude drops sharply above above a critical frequency. For XTE J1701-462 this frequency is estimated to be ~800 Hz, where the quality factor reaches a maximum of ~200 (e.g. a value consistent with the one observed from more classical systems, such as 4U~1636-536). Such a drop has been interpreted as the signature of the innermost stable circular orbit, and that interpretation is consistent with the observations we report here. The kHz QPOs in the Z state are much less coherent and lower amplitude than they are in the atoll state. We argue that the change of the QPO properties between the two source states is related to the change of the scale height of the accretion disk; a prediction of the toy model proposed by barret et al. (2007). As a by-product of our analysis, we also increased the significance of the upper kHz QPO detected in the atoll phase up to 4.8 sigma (single trial significance), and show that the frequency separation (266.5+/-13.1 Hz) is comparable with the one measured from simultaneous twin QPOs the Z phase.
We provide a status report on our current understanding of the mass scales for Pop III.1 and Pop III.2 stars. Since the last review (Norman 2008), substantial progress has been made both numerically and analytically on the late stages of protostellar cloud core collapse, protostar formation and accretion, and stellar evolution taking into account cloud core properties and radiative feedback effects. Based on this, there are growing indications that primordial stars forming from purely cosmological initial conditions (Pop III.1) were substantially more massive than stars forming in preionized gas (Pop III.2) where HD cooling is important. Different stellar endpoints are predicted for these two types of Pop III stars with different chemical enrichment signatures: the former die as pair instability supernovae or intermediate mass black holes, whereas the latter die as iron core-collapse supernovae, leaving behind neutron star and stellar black hole remnants. We review recent simulations which show evidence for binary fragmentation at high densities, and comment on the significance of these results. We then summarize an attempt to directly calculate the Pop III.1 IMF taking into account the latest numerical and analytical models. We conclude with suggestions for the kind of simulations needed next to continue improving our understanding of Pop III star formation, which is a necessary input to understanding high redshift galaxy formation.
This contribution contains the introductory remarks that I presented at IAU Symposium 270 on ``Computational Star Formation" held in Barcelona, Spain, May 31 -- June 4, 2010. I discuss the historical development of numerical MHD methods in astrophysics from a personal perspective. The recent advent of robust, higher order-accurate MHD algorithms and adaptive mesh refinement numerical simulations promises to greatly improve our understanding of the role of magnetic fields in star formation.
We use an approach to estimate galaxy morphologies based on an ellipticity (e) vs. Bulge-to-Total ratio (B/T) plane. We have calibrated this plane by comparing with Dressler's classifications. With the aid of our calibration, we have classified 635 galaxies in 18 Abell clusters (0.02 < z < 0.08). Our approach allowed us to recover the Kormendy's relation. We found that ellipticals and Spirals are slightly brighter than S0 in R band. As S0 bulges are brighter than spirals bulges, we believe that ram pressure is not the main mechanism to generate S0s. In our sample, cluster radio galaxies morphologies cover the range S0-E-cD and their bulges have absolutes magnitudes distributed within -21 mag < M < -24.5 mag. If we believe Ferrarese & Merrit's relation, these radio sources have 10^8-10^9 M black hole mass.
Gravitational redshifts in solar-type main-sequence stars are expected to be some 500 ms$^{-1}$ greater than those in giants. Such a signature is searched for between groups of open-cluster stars which share the same average space motion and thus have the same average Doppler shift. 144 main-sequence stars and cool giants were observed in the M67 open cluster using the ESO FEROS spectrograph, obtaining radial velocities by cross correlation with a spectral template. M67 dwarf and giant radial-velocity distributions are well represented by Gaussian functions, sharing the same apparent average radial velocity within $\simeq$ 100 ms$^{-1}$. In addition, dwarfs in M67 appear to be dynamically hotter ($\sigma$ = 0.90 kms$^{-1}$) than giants ($\sigma$ = 0.68 kms$^{-1}$). Explanations for the lack of an expected signal are sought: a likely cause is the differential wavelength shifts produced by different hydrodynamics in dwarf and giant atmospheres. Radial-velocity differences measured between unblended lines in low-noise averaged spectra vary with line-strength: stronger lines are more blushifted in dwarfs than in giants, apparently 'compensating' for the gravitational redshift. Synthetic high-resolution spectra are computed from 3-dimensional hydrodynamic model atmospheres for both giants and dwarfs, and synthetic wavelength shifts obtained. In agreement with observations, 3D models predict substantially smaller wavelength-shift differences than expected from gravitational redshift only. The procedures developed could be used to test 3D models for different classes of stars, but will ultimately require high-fidelity spectra for measurements of wavelength shifts in individual spectral lines.
We could infer a secular decreasing trend in the poloidal to toroidal solar
magnetic flux amplification factor ( Af) using geomagnetic observations (
classic and IHV corrected aa indices) during the sunspot cycles 9-23. A similar
decreasing trend is also observed for the solar equatorial rotation (W) which
imply possibly a decrease in the efficiency of the solar dynamo during the
above period. We could show correlated changes of Af and extreme space weather
activity variations near earth since the middle of the 19th century. Indirect
solar observations ( solar proton fluence estimates) suggests that the distinct
enhancements in extreme space weather activity , Af and W found during sunspot
cycles 10 to 15 is probably largest of that kind during the past 400 years. We
find that the sunspot activity can reach an upper limit (R<300) when Af becomes
unity. If the current sunspot cycle 24 turns out to be weak then very severe
space weather conditions is most probable to occur during this cycle.
Key words: Flux amplification,solar dynamo, space weather, predictions,cycle
24
Based on the characteristics of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and the MRI-driven turbulence, we construct a steady model for a geometrically thin disk using "non-standard" $\alpha$-prescription. The efficiency of the angular momentum transport depends on the magnetic Prandtl number, $Pm = \nu/\eta$, where $\nu$ and $\eta$ are the microscopic viscous and magnetic diffusivities. In our disk model, Shakura-Sunyaev's $\alpha$-parameter has a power-law dependence on the magnetic Prandtl number, that is $\alpha \propto Pm^\delta$ where $\delta$ is the constant power-law index. Adopting Spitzer's microscopic diffusivities, the magnetic Prandtl number becomes a decreasing function of the disk radius when $\delta > 0$. The transport efficiency of the angular momentum and the viscous heating rate are thus smaller in the outer part of the disk, while these are impacted by the size of index $\delta$. We find that the disk becomes more unstable to the gravitational instability for a larger value of index $\delta$. The most remarkable feature of our disk model is that the thermal and secular instabilities can grow in its middle part even if the radiation pressure is negligibly small in the condition $\delta > 2/3$. In the realistic disk systems, it would be difficult to maintain the steady mass accretion state unless the $Pm$-dependence of MRI-driven turbulence is relatively weak.
A white paper prepared for the Space Studies Board, National Academy of Sciences (USA), for its Decadal Survey of Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics), reviewing and encouraging studies of flare physics in the chromosphere.
Numerous studies have investigated the role of thermal instability in regulating the phase transition between the cold cloudy and warm diffuse medium of the interstellar medium. Considerable interest has also been devoted in investigating the properties of turbulence in thermally usntable flows, special emphasis on molecular clouds and the possibility of star formation. In this study, we investigate another setting in which this instability may be important, namely its effect on dynamo action in interstellar flows. The setup we consider is a three dimensional periodic cube of gas with an initially weak magnetic field, subject to heating and cooling, the properties of which are such that thermal instability is provoked at certain temperature regime. Dynamo action is established through external forcing on the flow field. By comparing the results with a cooling function with exactly the same net effect but no thermally unstable regime, we find the following. The critical Reynolds number for the onset of the large-scale dynamo was observed to roughly double between the thermally stable versus unstable runs, the conclusion being that the thermal instability makes large-scale dynamo action more difficult. Whereas density and magnetic fields were observed to be almost completely uncorrelated in the thermally stable cases investigated, the action of thermal instability was observed to produce a positive correlation of the form B propto rho^0.2. This correlation is rather weak, and in addition it was observed to break down at the limit of the highest densities.
It is shown that a "second (iron) knee" in cosmic ray spectrum expected at energy about 100 PeV could not probably be found there. The reason is very simple: the position of the "iron knee" depends on an answer to the questions: "What do we see at 3-5 PeV? Is the knee seen at this energy associated with proton or iron primaries?"
We analyse new spectra of the multiple system SZ Cam because previous studies found different values of the primary radial velocity amplitude. The older solutions of light curves also have different ratios of secondary to primary luminosity as inferred from the observed equivalent widths of spectral lines. We therefore reanalyse the light curves of the eclipsing pair. Only the light curve derived by Wesselink has a solution that agrees with the observed equivalent width ratio. The resulting parameters of the binary are discussed. Masses of $M_1=16.6$ and $M_2=11.9$ M$_{\odot}$, and radii $R_1=9.4$ and $R_2=5.4$ R$_{\odot}$ are derived. We point out that radial velocities measured with the CCF method can be misleading when the method is applied to multiple systems with complex line blends. New radial velocities are also obtained for the visual component ADS 2984 A (HD 25639).
We discuss the effect of chemical separation as matter freezes at the base of the ocean of an accreting neutron star, and argue that the retention of light elements in the liquid acts as a source of buoyancy that drives a slow but continual mixing of the ocean, enriching it substantially in light elements, and leading to a relatively uniform composition with depth. We first consider the timescales associated with different processes that can redistribute elements in the ocean, including convection, sedimentation, crystallization, and diffusion. We then calculate the steady state structure of the ocean of a neutron star for an illustrative model in which the accreted hydrogen and helium burns to produce a mixture of O and Se. Even though the H/He burning produces only 2% oxygen by mass, the steady state ocean has an oxygen abundance more than ten times larger, almost 40% by mass. Furthermore, we show that the convective motions transport heat inwards, with a flux of ~ 0.2 MeV per nucleon for an O-Se ocean, heating the ocean and steepening the outwards temperature gradient. The enrichment of light elements and heating of the ocean due to compositionally-driven convection likely have important implications for carbon ignition models of superbursts.
Recent high temporal and spatial resolution observations of the chromosphere have forced the definition of a new type of spicule, ``type II's", that are characterized by rising rapidly, having short lives, and by fading away at the end of their lifetimes. Here, we report on features found in realistic 3D simulations of the outer solar atmosphere that resemble the observed type II spicules. These features evolve naturally from the simulations as a consequence of the magnetohydrodynamical evolution of the model atmosphere. The simulations span from the upper layer of the convection zone to the lower corona and include the emergence of horizontal magnetic flux. The state-of-art Oslo Staggered Code (OSC) is used to solve the full MHD equations with non-grey and non-LTE radiative transfer and thermal conduction along the magnetic field lines. We describe in detail the physics involved in a process which we consider a possible candidate as a driver mechanism to produce type II spicules. The model spicule is composed of material rapidly ejected from the chromosphere that rises into the corona while being heated, its source lying in a region with large field gradients and intense electric current that leads to strong Lorentz and pressure gradient forces as well as heating.
The Anglo-Australian Planet Search has now accumulated 12 years of radial-velocity data with long-term instrumental precision better than 3 m/s. In this paper, we expand on earlier simulation work, to probe the frequency of near-circular, long-period gas-giant planets residing at orbital distances of 3-6 AU -- the so-called "Jupiter analogs." We present the first comprehensive analysis of the frequency of these objects based on radial-velocity data. We find that 3.3% of stars in our sample host Jupiter analogs; detailed, star-by-star simulations show that no more than 37% of stars host a giant planet between 3-6 AU.
We have studied the stability of low degree $g$-modes in uniformly rotating B-type stars, taking into account the effects of the Coriolis force and the rotational deformation. From an analysis treating rotation frequency as a small parameter it is found that slow rotation tends to $destabilize$ high radial-order $retrograde$ $g$-modes, although the effect is very small or absent for relatively low order modes. Calculating eigenfrequencies at selected rotation rates, we find, on the other hand, that rapid rotation tends to $stabilize$ $retrograde$ $g$-modes. The stabilizing effect appears stronger for less massive B-type stars having low effective temperatures. If we change rotation rate continuously, the frequency of a $g$-mode belonging to ($l', m$) crosses frequencies of other $g$-modes belonging to ($l', m$). If the parity of the two encountering modes are the same, they interact each other and the stability (i.e., imaginary part of eigenfrequency) of each mode is modified. Using an asymptotic method we discuss the property of such mode crossings and couplings. For rapidly rotating stars mode couplings are important for the stability of low degree $g$-modes. In particular, we find that the stabilization of retrograde $g$-modes in rapidly rotating stars is due to many strong mode couplings, while %prograde sectoral% modes are exceptionally immune to the damping effects from the mode couplings.
In order to understand the periodic and semi-periodic variations of luminous O- B- A-type stars, linear nonadiabatic stability analyses for radial and nonradial oscillations have been performed for massive evolutionary models ($8M_\odot - 90M_\odot$). In addition to radial and nonradial oscillations excited by the kappa-mechanism and strange-mode instability, we discuss the importance of low-degree oscillatory convection (nonadiabatic g$^-$) modes. Although their kinetic energy is largely confined to the convection zone generated by the Fe opacity peak near $2\times10^5$K, the amplitude can emerge to the photosphere and should be observable in a certain effective temperature range. They have periods longer than those of the radial strange modes so that they seem to be responsible for some of the long-period microvariations of LBVs (S Dor variables) and $\alpha$ Cyg variables. Moreover, monotonously unstable radial modes are found in some models whose initial masses are greater than or equal to $60M_\odot$ with $Z=0.02$. The monotonous instability probably corresponds to the presence of an optically thick wind. The instability boundary roughly coincides with the Humphreys-Davidson limit.
At z=0, clusters are primarily populated by red, elliptical and massive galaxies, while blue, spiral and lower-mass galaxies are common in low-density environments. Understanding how and when these differences were established is of absolute importance for our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, but results at high-z remain contradictory. By taking advantage of the widest and deepest H-alpha narrow-band survey at z=0.84 over the COSMOS and UKIDSS UDS fields, probing a wide range of densities (from poor fields to rich groups and clusters, including a confirmed super-cluster with a striking filamentary structure), we show that the fraction of star-forming galaxies falls continuously from ~40% in fields to approaching 0% in rich groups/clusters. We also find that the median SFR increases with environmental density, at least up to group densities - but only for low and medium mass galaxies, and thus such enhancement is mass-dependent at z~1. The environment also plays a role in setting the faint-end slope (alpha) of the H-alpha luminosity function. Our findings provide a sharper view on galaxy formation and evolution and reconcile previously contradictory results at z~1: stellar mass is the primary predictor of star formation activity, but the environment also plays a major role.
Protoplanetary disks (PPDs) surrounding young stars are short-lived (~0.3-10 Myr), compact (~10-1000 AU) rotating reservoirs of gas and dust. PPDs are believed to be birthplaces of planetary systems, where tiny grains are assembled into pebbles, then rocks, planetesimals, and eventually planets, asteroids, and comets. Strong variations of physical conditions (temperature, density, ionization rate, UV/X-rays intensities) make a variety of chemical processes active in disks, producing simple molecules in the gas phase and complex polyatomic (organic) species on the surfaces of dust particles. In this entry, we summarize the major modern observational methods and theoretical paradigms used to investigate disk chemical composition and evolution, and present the most important results. Future research directions that will become possible with the advent of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and other forthcoming observational facilities are also discussed.
We argue that decays of radioactive nuclei related to $^{44}$Ti and $^{56}$Ni ejected during supernova explosions provide a vast pool of mildly relativistic positrons and electrons which can be further accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies by reverse and forward shocks - the second phenomenon related to the supernova explosions. We demonstrate the feasibility of this interesting link, which can be a clue for solution of the well known theoretical problem of electron injection in relation to the diffusive shock acceleration in supernova remnants, for the brightest radio source Cas A.
We propose a new fluid model of dark energy for $-1 \leq \omega_{\text{eff}} \leq 0$ as an alternative to the generalized Chaplygin gas models. The energy density of dark energy fluid is severely suppressed during barotropic matter dominant epochs, and it dominates the universe evolution only for eras of small redshift. From the perspective of fundamental physics, the fluid is a tachyon field with a scalar potential flatter than that of power-law decelerated expansion. Different from the standard $\Lambda\text{CDM}$ model, the suggested dark energy model claims that the cosmic acceleration at present epoch can not continue forever but will cease in the near future and a decelerated cosmic expansion will recover afterwards.
We report here the first results of a multi-wavelength campaign focussing on
magnetospheric accretion processes of the classical TTauri star (cTTS)
V2129Oph. In this paper, we present spectropolarimetric observations collected
in 2009 July with ESPaDOnS at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT).
Circularly polarised Zeeman signatures are clearly detected, both in
photospheric absorption and accretion-powered emission lines, from time-series
of which we reconstruct new maps of the magnetic field, photospheric brightness
and accretion-powered emission at the surface of V2129Oph using our newest
tomographic imaging tool -- to be compared with those derived from our old 2005
June data set, reanalyzed in the exact same way.
We find that in 2009 July, V2129Oph hosts octupolar & dipolar field
components of about 2.1 & 0.9kG respectively, both tilted by about 20deg with
respect to the rotation axis; we conclude that the large-scale magnetic
topology changed significantly since 2005 June (when the octupole and dipole
components were about 1.5 and 3 times weaker respectively), demonstrating that
the field of V2129Oph is generated by a non-stationary dynamo. We also show
that V2129Oph features a dark photospheric spot and a localised area of
accretion-powered emission, both close to the main surface magnetic region
(hosting fields of up to about 4kG in 2009 July). We finally obtain that the
surface shear of V2129Oph is about half as strong as solar.
From the fluxes of accretion-powered emission lines, we estimate that the
observed average logarithmic accretion rate (in Msun/yr) at the surface of
V2129Oph is -9.2+-0.3 at both epochs, peaking at -9.0 at magnetic maximum. It
implies in particular that the radius at which the magnetic field of V2129Oph
truncates the inner accretion disc is 0.93x and 0.50x the corotation radius in
2009 July and 2005 June respectively.
The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (MUCHFUSS) aims at finding hot subdwarf stars with massive compact companions like massive white dwarfs (M > 1.0 Msun), neutron stars or stellar mass black holes. The existence of such systems is predicted by binary evolution theory and recent discoveries indicate that they exist in our Galaxy. First results are presented for seven close binary sdBs with short orbital periods ranging from 0.21 d to 1.5 d. The atmospheric parameters of all objects are compatible with core helium-burning stars. The companions are most likely white dwarfs. In one case the companion could be shown to be a white dwarf by the absence of light-curve variations. However, in most cases late type main sequence stars cannot be firmly excluded. Comparing our small sample with the known population of close sdB binaries we show that our target selection method aiming at massive companions is efficient. The minimum companion masses of all binaries in our sample are high compared to the reference sample of known sdB binaries.
Objects in the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt and the main asteroid belt should emit microwaves that may give rise to extra anisotropy signals in the multipole of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment. Constraints are derived from the absence of positive detection of such anisotropies for ell<10, giving the total mass of Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects to be smaller than 0.3 earth mass. This limit is consistent with the mass extrapolated from the observable population with the size of a > 15 km, assuming that the small-object population follows the power law in size dN/da ~ a^{-q} with the canonical index expected for collisional equilibrium, q ~ 3.5, with which 23% of the mass is ascribed to objects smaller than are observationally accessible down to grains. A similar argument applied to the main asteroid belt indicates that the grain population should not increase faster than q ~ 3.6 towards smaller radii, if it follows the power law continued to observed asteroids with larger radii. It is underlined that both cases are only slightly above the limit that can be significant, implying the importance of tightening further the CMB anisotropy limit, which could be attained with the observation at higher radio frequencies.
Based on the extended Greenwich-NOAA/USAF catalogue of sunspot groups it is demonstrated that the parameters describing the latitudinal width of the sunspot generating zone (SGZ) are closely related to the current level of solar activity, and the growth of the activity leads to the expansion of SGZ. The ratio of the sunspot number to the width of SGZ shows saturation at a certain level of the sunspot number, and above this level the increase of the activity takes place mostly due to the expansion of SGZ. It is shown that the mean latitudes of sunspots can be reconstructed from the amplitudes of solar activity. Using the obtained relations and the group sunspot numbers by Hoyt and Schatten (1998), the latitude distribution of sunspot groups ("the Maunder butterfly diagram") for the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries is reconstructed and compared with historical sunspot observations.
Mean motion resonances are a common feature of both our own Solar System and of extrasolar planetary systems. Bodies can be trapped in resonance when their orbital semi-major axes change, for instance when they migrate through a protoplanetary disc. We use a Hamiltonian model to thoroughly investigate the capture behaviour for first and second order resonances. Using this method, all resonances of the same order can be described by one equation, with applications to specific resonances by appropriate scaling. We focus on the limit where one body is a massless test particle and the other a massive planet. We quantify how the the probability of capture into a resonance depends on the relative migration rate of the planet and particle, and the particle's eccentricity. Resonant capture fails for high migration rates, and has decreasing probability for higher eccentricities, although for certain migration rates, capture probability peaks at a finite eccentricity. We also calculate libration amplitudes and the offset of the libration centres for captured particles, and the change in eccentricity if capture does not occur. Libration amplitudes are higher for larger initial eccentricity. The model allows for a complete description of a particle's behaviour as it successively encounters several resonances. The model is applicable to many scenarios, including (i) Planet migration through gas discs trapping other planets or planetesimals in resonances; (ii) Planet migration through a debris disc; (iii) Dust migration through PR drag. Full details can be found in \cite{2010submitted}. (Abridged)
Comparing the number of clear nights (cloud free) available for astronomical observations is a critical task because it should be based on homogeneous methodologies. Current data are mainly based on different judgements based on observer logbooks or on different instruments. In this paper we present a new homogeneous methodology on very different astronomical sites for modern optical astronomy, in order to quantify the available night time fraction. The data are extracted from night time GOES12 satellite infrared images and compared with ground based conditions when available. In this analysis we introduce a wider average matrix and 3-Bands correlation in order to reduce the noise and to distinguish between clear and stable nights. Temporal data are used for the classification. In the time interval 2007-2008 we found that the percentage of the satellite clear nights is 88% at Paranal, 76% at La Silla, 72.5% at La Palma, 59% at Mt. Graham and 86.5% at Tolonchar. The correlation analysis of the three GOES12 infrared bands B3, B4 and B6 indicates that the fraction of the stable nights is lower by 2% to 20% depending on the site.
IRAS 20126+4104 is one of the best candidates for a high-mass (proto)star surrounded by an accretion disk. Such a fact may be used to set constraints on theories of high-mass star formation, but requires confirmation that the mass and luminosity of IRAS 20126+4104 are indeed typical of a B0.5 star, which in turn requires an accurate estimate of the distance. We used the Very Long Baseline Array and the European VLBI Network to observe the 22.2 GHz water and 6.7 GHz methanol masers in IRAS 20126+4104 at a number of epochs suitably distributed in time. The absolute positions of the maser features were established with respect to reference quasars, which allowed us to derive absolute proper motions. From the parallax of the water masers we obtain a distance of 1.64 \pm 0.05 kpc, which is very similar to the value adopted so far in the literature (1.7 kpc) and confirms that IRAS 20126+4104 is a high-mass (proto)star. From the methanol masers we derive the component in the plane of the sky of the systemic velocity of the disk+star system (-16 km/s in right-ascension and +7.6 km/s in declination). Accurate knowledge of the distance and systemic velocity allows us to improve on the model fit to the water maser jet presented in a previous study. Finally, we identify two groups of methanol maser features, one undergoing rotation in the disk and possibly distributed along a narrow ring centered on the star, the other characterised by relative proper motions indicating that the features are moving away from the disk, perpendicular to it. We speculate that the latter group might be tracing the disk material marginally entrained by the jet.
The evolution of AGB stars is notoriously complex. The confrontation of AGB population models with observed stellar populations is a useful alternative to the detailed study of individual stars in efforts to converge towards a reliable evolution theory. I review here the impact of studies of star clusters on AGB models and AGB population synthesis, deliberately leaving out any more complex stellar populations. Over the last 10 years, despite much effort, the absolute uncertainties in the predictions of the light emitted by intermediate age populations have not been reduced to a satisfactory level. Observational sample definitions, as well as the combination of the natural variance in AGB properties with small number statistics, are largely responsible for this situation. There is hope that the constraints may soon become strong enough, thanks to large unbiased surveys of star clusters, resolved colour-magnitude diagrams, and new analysis methods that can account for the stochastic nature of AGB populations in clusters.
The radio light curve and spectral evolution of the blazar CTA 102 during its 2006 outburst can be rather well explained by the standard shock-in-jet model. The results of a pixel-to-pixel spectral analysis of multi-frequency VLBI images, together with kinematics derived from the MOJAVE survey lead to the picture of an over-pressured jet with respect to the ambient medium. The interaction of a traveling shock wave with a standing one is a possible scenario which could explain the observed spectral behaviour
The blazar CTA 102 underwent a major radio flare in April 2006. We used several 15 GHz VLBI observations from the MOJAVE program to investigate the influence of this extreme event on jet kinematics. The result of modeling and analysis lead to the suggestion of an interaction between traveling and standing shocks 0.2 mas away from the VLBI core.
Circumstellar discs are expected to be the nursery of planets. Grain growth within such discs is the first step in the planet formation process in the core-accretion gas-capture scenario. We aim at providing selected criteria on observational quantities derived from multi-wavelength imaging observations that allow to identify dust grain growth and settling. We define a wide-ranged parameter space of discs in various states of their evolution. Using a parametrised model set-up and radiative transfer techniques we compute multi-wavelength images of discs at different inclinations. Using millimetre and sub-millimetre images we are in the position to constrain the process of dust grain growth and sedimentation. However, the degeneracy between parameters prohibit the same achievement using near- to mid-infrared images. Using face-on observations in the N and Q Band, the sedimentation height can be constrained.
We have found evidence for interaction between a standing and a traveling shock in the jet of the blazar CTA 102. Our result is based in the study of the spectral evolution of the turnover frequency-turnover flux density plane. The radio/mm light curves were taken during a major radio outburst in April 2006.
We present a new web-tool - Net-PSICoNS - for population synthesis of isolated near-by cooling neutron stars (NSs). The main aim is to provide an easy test of models of the NS thermal evolution which can be used by groups studying this subject. A user can upload cooling curves for a set of masses, modify the mass spectrum if necessary, change radii to fit the EoS used for cooling curve calculations, and then a population synthesis of close-by isolated cooling NSs is performed. The output includes the Log N -- Log S distribution confronted with the ROSAT observations and several other sets of data. In this paper, we summarize the idea of the test proposed by Popov et al. (2006), and present a user's manual for the web-tool.
The solar modulation, a combination of diffusion, convection, magnetic drift and energy loss inside the heliosphere is usually seen as a depletion in the Galactic cosmic ray (CR) flux at low energy (less than 10 GeV/nuc). Antiparticles such as antiprotons or positrons undergo the same processes of respective particles but with a different magnitude depending on the Solar magnetic field polarity. For electrons and positrons, due to the small mass, energy loss mechanisms as inverse compton, synchrotron, bremsstrahlung and ionization have to be taken into account, together with the typical adiabatic losses considered in the heliosphere. We developed a Monte Carlo stochastic simulation with the aim to compare the solar modulation of particles and antiparticles in the same observation period. We are able to estimate the different behaviours associated to the charge sign dependent processes of the heliospheric modulation. We compared the simulated positron fraction with measurements performed by AMS-01 and PAMELA. We also present the prediction for the AMS-02 experiment.
We study the relationship between galaxy colour, stellar mass, and local galaxy density in a deep near-infrared imaging survey up to a redshift of z~3 using the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS). The GNS is a deep near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope survey imaging a total of 45 square arcminutes of the GOODS fields, reaching a stellar mass completeness limit of log M* = 9.5 M_sun at z=3. Using this data we measure galaxy local densities based on galaxy counts within a fixed aperture, as well as the distance to the 3rd, 5th and 7th nearest neighbour. We compare the average rest-frame (U-B) colour and fraction of blue galaxies in different local densities and at different stellar masses. We find a strong correlation between colour and stellar mass at all redshifts up to z~3. Massive red galaxies are already in place at z~3 at the expected location of the red-sequence in the colour-magnitude diagram, although they are star forming. We do not find a strong correlation between colour and local density, however, there may be evidence that the highest overdensities are populated by a higher fraction of blue galaxies than average or underdense areas. This could indicating that the colour-density relation at high redshift is reversed with respect to lower redshifts (z<1), where higher densities are found to have lower blue fractions. Our data suggests that the possible higher blue fraction at extreme overdensities might be due to a lack of massive red galaxies at the highest local densities.
We constrain the Interacting Dark Matter (IDM) scenario which allows for the acceleration of the Universe without Dark Energy (Basilakos & Plionis 2009) by using the newly revised observational data including $H(z)$ data and Union2 SNe Ia via the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. For the mimicking $\Lambda$CDM model, we obtain a more stringent upper limit of the effective annihilation term at $\kappa C_1\approx 10^{-4}{Gyr}^{-1}$, and a tighter lower limit of the relevant mass of Dark Matter particles at $M_x\approx 10^{-8}{Gev}$. For the mimicking $w$CDM model, we find the effective equation of state for the special IDM model favors the effective phantom model with a constant EoS ($w<-1$)
The hydrodynamic state of the interstellar medium (ISM) heated and randomly stirred by supernovae (SNe) is investigated. We use a three-dimensional non-ideal hydrodynamic ISM model in a domain extending 0.5 x 0.5 kpc horizontally and 2 kpc vertically to explore the relative importance of various physical and numerical effects on the multi-phase, turbulent ISM. We include both Type I and II SNe, the latter occurring only in dense regions. First we investigate the role of the thermal instability in the temperature range 300-6100 K, comparing results obtained for two different cooling functions, one susceptible to the instability, the other stable. The presence of thermal instability in the system is mainly visible as the tendency of the gas to avoid the relevant temperature range, as it quickly evolves towards either colder or warmer phases. Nevertheless, the formation of dense structures for both cooling functions appears to be dominated by expanding and colliding supernova remnants, rather than by the thermal instability. As we need to include a finite thermal conduction coefficient to resolve the thermal instability with our uniform grid, we also explore the effects of changing Prandtl number on the system. The purely divergent SN forcing is found to produce significant amounts of vorticity. The relative vorticity is around 0.6-0.7 for the highest Prandtl numbers explored, Pr=40, and is observed to diminish almost by a factor of two for the lowest Prandtl numbers studied, Pr=1. Rotation laws with angular velocity decreasing or increasing outwards are investigated, enabling us to separate the contributions to kinetic helicity due to rotation and shear. When angular velocity decreases outwards, these two contributions partly cancel each other, resulting in a smaller net helicity.
We study stellar population parameters of a sample of 13 dwarf galaxies located in poor groups of galaxies using high resolution spectra observed with VIMOS at the ESO-VLT. LICK-indices were compared with Simple Stellar Population models to derive ages, metallicities and [alpha/Fe]-ratios. Comparing the dwarfs with a sample of giant ETGs residing in comparable environments we find that the dwarfs are on average younger, less metal-rich, and less enhanced in alpha-elements than giants. Age, Z, and [alpha/Fe] ratios are found to correlate both with velocity dispersion and with morphology. We also find possible evidence that low density environment (LDE) dwarfs experienced more prolonged star formation histories than Coma dwarfs, however, larger samples are needed to draw firm conclusions.
The electron-cyclotron maser instability (ECMI) is responsible for generation of the planetary auroral radio emissions. Most likely, the same mechanism produces radio bursts from ultracool dwarfs. We investigate amplification of plasma waves by the horseshoe-like electron distribution (similar to those observed in the terrestrial magnetosphere) as well as relaxation of this distribution due to the ECMI. We aim to determine parameters of the generated plasma waves, timescales of the relaxation process, and the conversion efficiency of the particle energy into waves. We have developed a kinetic relativistic quasi-linear 2D code for simulating the coevolution of an electron distribution and the high-frequency plasma waves. The code includes the processes of wave growth and particle diffusion which are assumed to be much faster than other processes (particle injection, etc.). A number of simulations have been performed for different parameter sets which seem to be typical for the magnetospheres of ultracool dwarfs (in particular, the plasma frequency is much less than the cyclotron one). The calculations have shown that the fundamental extraordinary mode dominates strongly. The generated waves have the frequency slightly below the electron cyclotron frequency and propagate across the magnetic field. The final intensities of other modes are negligible. The conversion efficiency of the electron energy into the extraordinary waves is typically around 10%. Complete relaxation of the unstable electron distribution takes much less than a second. Energy efficiency of the ECMI is more than sufficient to provide the observed intensity of radio emission from ultracool dwarfs. On the other hand, the observed light curves of the emission are not related to the properties of this instability and reflect, most likely, dynamics of the electron acceleration process and/or geometry of the radiation source.
We study the statistical properties of the Luminous Red Galaxies sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In particular we test, by determining the probability density function (PDF) of galaxy (conditional) counts in spheres, whether statistical properties are self-averaging within the sample. We find that there are systematic differences in the shape of the PDF and in the location of its peak, signaling that there are major systematic effects in the data which make the estimation of volume average quantities unreliable within this sample. We discuss that these systematic effects are related to the fluctuating behavior of the redshift counts which can be originated by intrinsic fluctuations in the galaxy density field or by observational selection effects. The latter possibility implies that more than 20 % of the galaxies have not been observed and that such a selection should not be a smooth function of redshift.
Since the 1980's it has been becoming increasingly clear that the Solar System's irregular satellites are collisionally evolved. We derive a general model for the collisional evolution of an irregular satellite swarm and apply it to the Solar System and extrasolar planets. Our model reproduces the Solar System's complement of observed irregulars well, and suggests that the competition between grain-grain collisions and Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag helps set the fate of the dust. Because swarm collision rates decrease over time the main dust sink can change with time, and may help unravel the accretion history of synchronously rotating regular satellites that show brightness asymmetries. Some level of dust must be present on AU scales around the Solar System's giant planets, which we predict may be at detectable levels. We also predict whether dust produced by extrasolar circumplanetary swarms can be detected. The coronagraphic instruments on JWST will have the ability to detect the dust generated by these swarms, which are most detectable around planets that orbit at tens of AU from the youngest stars. Because the collisional decay of swarms is relatively insensitive to planet mass, swarms can be much brighter than their host planets and allow discovery of Neptune-mass planets that would otherwise remain invisible. This dust may have already been detected. The observations of the planet Fomalhaut b can be explained as scattered light from dust produced by the collisional decay of an irregular satellite swarm around a 10 Earth-mass planet. Such a swarm comprises about 5 Lunar masses worth of irregular satellites. Finally, we consider what happens if Fomalhaut b passes through Fomalhaut's main debris ring, which allows the circumplanetary swarm to be replenished through collisions with ring planetesimals. (abridged)
We review the methods used to test for the existence of cosmological birefringence, i.e. a rotation of the plane of linear polarization for electromagnetic radiation traveling over cosmological distances, which might arise in a number of important contexts involving the violation of fundamental physical principles. The main methods use: (1) the radio polarization of radio galaxies and quasars, (2) the ultraviolet polarization of radio galaxies, and (3) the cosmic microwave background polarization. We discuss the main results obtained so far, the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and future prospects.
Context: The K2V star eps Eri hosts one known inner planet, an outer Kuiper belt analog, and an inner disk of warm dust. Spitzer/IRS measurements indicate that the warm dust is present at distances as close as a few AU from the star. Its origin is puzzling, since an "asteroid belt" that could produce this dust would be unstable because of the known inner planet. Aims: Here we test the hypothesis that the observed warm dust is generated by collisions in the outer belt and is transported inward by Poynting-Robertson (P-R) drag and strong stellar winds. Methods: We simulated a steady-state distribution of dust particles outside 10AU with a collisional code and in the inner region (r<10AU) with single-particle numerical integrations. By assuming homogeneous spherical dust grains composed of water ice and silicate, we calculated the thermal emission of the dust and compared it with observations. We investigated two different orbital configurations for the inner planet inferred from RV measurements, one with a highly eccentric orbit of e=0.7 and another one with a moderate one of e=0.25. We also produced a simulation without a planet. Results: Our models can reproduce the shape and magnitude of the observed SED from mid-IR to sub-mm wavelengths, as well as the Spitzer/MIPS radial brightness profiles. The best-fit dust composition includes both ice and silicates. The results are similar for the two possible planetary orbits and without a planet. Conclusions: The observed warm dust in the system can indeed stem from the outer belt and be transported inward by P-R and stellar wind drag. The inner planet has little effect on the distribution of dust, so that the planetary orbit could not be constrained. Reasonable agreement between the model and observations can only be achieved by relaxing the assumption of purely silicate dust and assuming a mixture of silicate and ice in comparable amounts.
Our goal is to assess Gaia's performance on the period recovery of short period (p < 2 hours) and small amplitude variability. To reach this goal first we collected the properties of variable stars that fit the requirements described above. Then we built a database of synthetic light-curves with short period and low amplitude variability with time sampling that follows the Gaia nominal scanning law and with noise level corresponding to the expected photometric precision of Gaia. Finally we performed period search on the synthetic light-curves to obtain period recovery statistics. This work extends our previous period recovery studies to short period variable stars which have non-stationary Fourier spectra.
Recent hydrodynamical simulations have shown that differentially rotating neutron stars formed in core-collapse supernovae may develop global non-axisymmetric instabilities even when $T/|W|$ (the ratio of the rotational kinetic energy $T$ to the gravitational potential energy $|W|$) is relatively small (less than 0.1). Such low-$T/|W|$ instability can give rise to efficient gravitational wave emission from the proto-neutron star. We investigate how this instability is affected by magnetic fields using a cylindrical stellar model. Wave absorption at the corotation resonance plays an important role in facilitating the hydrodynamic low-$T/|W|$ instability. In the presence of a toroidal magnetic field, the corotation resonance is split into two magnetic resonances where wave absorptions take place. We show that the toroidal magnetic field suppresses the low-$T/|W|$ instability when the total magnetic energy $W_{\rm B}$ is of order $0.2\,T$ or larger, corresponding to toroidal fields of a few $\times 10^{16}$ G or stronger. Although poloidal magnetic fields do not influence the instability directly, they can affect the instability by generating toroidal fields through linear winding of the initial poloidal field and magneto-rotational instability. We show that an initial poloidal field with strength as small as $10^{14}$ G may suppress the low-$T/|W|$ instability.
It is now widely acknowledged that cosmic rays experiments can test possible new physics directly generated at the Planck scale or at some other fundamental scale. By studying particle properties at energies far beyond the reach of any man-made accelerator, they can yield unique checks of basic principles. A well-known example is provided by possible tests of special relativity at the highest cosmic-ray energies. But other essential ingredients of standard theories can in principle be tested: quantum mechanics, uncertainty principle, energy and momentum conservation, effective space-time dimensions, hamiltonian and lagrangian formalisms, postulates of cosmology, vacuum dynamics and particle propagation, quark and gluon confinement, elementariness of particles... Standard particle physics or string-like patterns may have a composite origin able to manifest itself through specific cosmic-ray signatures. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, but also cosmic rays at lower energies, are probes of both "conventional" and new Physics. Status, prospects, new ideas, and open questions in the field are discussed.
We have investigated properties of photospheric Bright Points (BPs) observed in an Active Region during its decay phase and in a quiet Sun region. We have analyzed two sets of photospheric observations taken with IBIS (Interferometric Bidimensioal Spectrometer) at the NSO Dunn Solar Telescope. The first set consists of spectral data acquired in the Fe I 709.0 nm and Ca I 854.2 nm lines and simultaneous broad-band and of G-band observations. The second set consists of spectro-polarimetric observations in the Fe I 630.15 nm - 630.25 nm doublet and simultaneous white light and G-band observations. The relation between BP filling factor and RMS image contrast indicates that, on average, BPs cover up to 3% of the solar surface outside Active Regions. The relation between area and intensity values of the features identified on both data sets suggests that they are composed of aggregations of magnetic flux elements. The horizontal velocity values are as high as 2 km/s, thus supporting the scenario of BPs motion contributing to the coronal heating.
Although the formulas for the light deflection due to quadrupole gravitational field of deflecting bodies are well known, the formulas are rather complicated, so that massive computations of quadrupole light deflection (e.g., in the framework of astrometric survey missions like Gaia) are time-consuming. Considering an observer situated within a few million kilometers from the Earth (clearly the most practical case), we derive the simplest possible form of the relevant formulas still having numerical accuracy of 1 micro-arcsecond. This form leads to simple upper estimates for the quadrupole light deflection in various cases allowing one to relate the magnitude of the actual quadrupole deflection with the corresponding monopole deflection due to the same body. These upper estimates can be used to decide if, for a given configuration, the actual quadrupole deflection should be computed for a given accuracy goal.
We present stereoscopic observations of six sequent eruptions of a filament in the active region NOAA 11045 on 2010 Feb 8, with the advantage of the STEREO twin viewpoints in combination with the earth viewpoint from SOHO instruments and ground-based telescopes. The last one of the six eruptions is with a coronal mass ejection, while the others are not. The flare in this successful one is more intensive than in the others. Moreover, the filament material velocity of the successful one is also the largest among them. Interestingly, all the filament velocities are found proportional to their flare powers. We calculate magnetic field intensity at low altitude, the decay indexes of the external field above the filament, and the asymmetry properties of the overlying fields before and after the failed eruptions and find little difference between them, indicating the same coronal confinement for the failed and the successful eruptions. The results suggest that, besides the confinement of coronal magnetic field, the energy released in low corona should be another crucial element for production of a failed or successful filament eruption. That is, only a coronal mass ejection can be launched away if the energy released exceeds some critical value, given the same coronal conditions.
We present rotation period measurements for 41 field M-dwarfs, all of which have masses inferred (from their parallaxes and 2MASS K-band magnitudes) to be between the hydrogen burning limit and 0.35 Msol, and thus should remain fully-convective throughout their lifetimes. We measure a wide range of rotation periods, from 0.28 days to 154 days, with the latter commensurate with the typical sensitivity limit of our observations. Using kinematics as a proxy for age, we find that the majority of objects likely to be thick disk or halo members (and hence, on average, older) rotate very slowly, with a median period of 92 days, compared to 0.7 days for those likely to be thin disk members (on average, younger), although there are still some rapid rotators in the thick disk sample. When combined with literature measurements for M-dwarfs, these results indicate an increase in spin-down times with decreasing stellar mass, in agreement with previous work, and that the spin-down time becomes comparable to the age of the thick disk sample below the fully-convective boundary. We additionally infer that the spin-down must remove a substantial amount of angular momentum once it begins in order to produce the slow rotators we observe in the thick disk candidates, suggesting that fully-convective M-dwarfs may still experience strong winds.
The simplest models of inflation based on slow roll produce nearly scale invariant primordial power spectra (PPS). But there are also numerous models that predict radically broken scale invariant PPS. In particular, markedly cuspy dips in the PPS correspond to nulls where the perturbation amplitude, hence PPS, goes through a zero at a specific wavenumber. Near this wavenumber, the true quantum nature of the generation mechanism of the primordial fluctuations may be revealed. Naively these features may appear to arise from fine tuned initial conditions. However, we show that this behavior arises under fairly generic set of conditions involving super-Hubble scale evolution of perturbation modes during inflation. We illustrate this with the well-studied examples of punctuated inflation and the Starobinsky-break model.
High-contrast near-infrared imaging of the nearby star HR 8799 has shown three giant planets. Such images were possible due to the wide orbits (> 25 AU) and youth (< 100 Myr) of the imaged planets, which are still hot and bright as they radiate away gravitational energy acquired during their formation. A major area of contention in the extrasolar planet community is whether outer planets (> 10 AU) more massive than Jupiter form via one-step gravitational instabilities or, rather, via a two-step process involving accretion of a core followed by accumulation of a massive outer envelope composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Here we report the presence of a fourth planet, interior to and about the same mass as the other three. The system, with this additional planet, represents a challenge for current planet formation models as none of them can explain the in situ formation of all four planets. With its four young giant planets and known cold/warm debris belts, the HR 8799 planetary system is a unique laboratory to study the formation and evolution of giant planets at wide > 10 AU separations.
We explore the superhorizon generation of large fnl of the local form in two field inflation. We calculate the two- and three-point observables in a general class of potentials which allow for an analytic treatment using the delta N formalism. Motivated by the conservation of the curvature perturbation outside the horizon in the adiabatic mode and also by the observed adiabaticity of the power spectrum, we follow the evolution of fnl^{local} until it is driven into the adibatic solution by passing through a phase of effectively single field inflation. We find that although large fnl^{local} may be generated during inflation, such non-gaussianities are transitory and will be exponentially damped as the cosmological fluctuations approach adiabaticity.
The chiral nonlinear ($\sigma,\pi,\omega$) mean-field model is an extension of the conserving nonlinear (nonchiral) $\sigma$-$\omega$ hadronic mean-field model which is thermodynamically consistent, relativistic and Lorentz-covariant mean-field theory of hadrons. In the extended chiral ($\sigma,\pi,\omega$) mean-field model, all the masses of hadrons are produced by chiral symmetry breaking mechanism, which is different from other conventional chiral partner models. By comparing both nonchiral and chiral mean-field approximations, the effects of chiral symmetry breaking to the mass of $\sigma$-meson, coefficients of nonlinear interactions, coupling ratios of hyperons to nucleons and Fermi-liquid properties are investigated in nuclear matter, hyperonic matter, and neutron stars.
Naked singularities are hypothetical astrophysical objects, characterized by a gravitational singularity without an event horizon. Penrose has proposed a conjecture, according to which there exists a cosmic censor who forbids the occurrence of naked singularities. Distinguishing between astrophysical black holes and naked singularities is a major challenge for present day observational astronomy. A possibility of differentiating naked singularities from black holes is through the comparative study of thin accretion disks properties around rotating naked singularities and Kerr-type black holes, respectively. In the present paper, we consider accretion disks around rotating naked singularities, obtained as solutions of the field equations in the Einstein-massless scalar field theory. A first major difference between rotating naked singularities and Kerr black holes is in the frame dragging effect, the angular velocity of a rotating naked singularity being inversely proportional to its spin parameter. Due to the differences in the exterior geometry, the thermodynamic and electromagnetic properties of the disks are different for these two classes of compact objects, consequently giving clear observational signatures that could discriminate between black holes and naked singularities. For specific values of the spin parameter and of the scalar charge, the energy flux from the disk around a rotating naked singularity can exceed by several orders of magnitude the flux from the disk of a Kerr black hole. The conversion efficiency of the accreting mass into radiation by rotating naked singularities is always higher than the conversion efficiency for black holes. Thus, these observational signatures may provide the necessary tools from clearly distinguishing rotating naked singularities from Kerr-type black holes.
We show how backreaction of the inflaton potential energy on heavy scalar fields can flatten the inflationary potential, as the heavy fields adjust to their most energetically favorable configuration. This mechanism operates in previous UV-complete examples of axion monodromy inflation - flattening a would-be quadratic potential to one linear in the inflaton field - but occurs more generally, and we illustrate the effect with several examples. Special choices of compactification minimizing backreaction may realize chaotic inflation with a quadratic potential, but we argue that a flatter potential such as power-law inflation $V(\phi) \propto \phi^p$ with $p<2$ is a more generic option at sufficiently large values of $\phi$.
We report new results obtained in calibrations of superheated liquid droplet detectors used in dark matter searches with different radiation sources (n,$\alpha$,$\gamma$). In particular, detectors were spiked with alpha-emitters located inside and outside the droplets. It is shown that the responses are different, depending on whether alpha particles or recoil nuclei create the signals. The energy thresholds for $\alpha$-emitters are compared with test beam measurements using mono-energetic neutrons, as well as with theoretical predictions. Finally a model is presented which describes how the observed intensities of particle induced acoustic signals can be related to the dynamics of bubble growth in superheated liquids. An improved understanding of the bubble dynamics is an important first step in obtaining better discrimination between particle types interacting in detectors of this kind.
We show how gauge coupling unification is successfully implemented through non- supersymmetric $GU$ $\times G_f (GU=SU(5), SO(10); G_f=S_4, SO(3)_f, SU(3)_f)$ at the grand unification scale $M_U > 10^{15}$ GeV using low-scale flavor symmetric theory, $SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y$ $ \times SU(3)_C \times S_4$, recently proposed by Hagedorn, Lindner, and Mohapatra (HLM). Apart from embedding the single-step breaking model in $SU(5)\times G_f$ or $SO(10)\times G_f$, we also show how unification takes place with proton lifetime predictions with two classes of intermediate symmetries: (i) $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times SU(4)_C\times S_4$, (ii) $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{B-L}\times SU(3)_c\times S_4$. We estimate threshold effects on the relevant mass scales and find that some of the model predictions are consistent with current experimental limit on proton lifetime but expected to be observable by ongoing or planned searches on $ p\rightarrow e^+ \pi^0$. In certain cases, in addition to low-mass charged and neutral scalars of the HLM model, implementation of unification is found to require weak-triplet Higgs scalar $\sigma(3,0,1)$ and/or color-octet scalar $c(1,0,8)$ with masses accessible for detection at LHC, ILC or planned accelerators. With intermediate Pati-Salam symmetry and the intermediate scale identical to the HLM requirement of the type-I see-saw scale ($M_R\simeq 10^{13}$ GeV), we also obtain models with a stable proton even if threshold effects are ignored. One single-step breaking model and another two-step breaking model are identified where unification is achieved by only additional light fermions including the popular fermionic dark matter particle $F_{\sigma}(3, 0, 1)$ with mass $\sim 1$ TeV which is expected to be detected at the accelerator energies.
Positive results of dark matter searches in experiments DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA confronted with results of other groups can imply nontrivial particle physics solutions for cosmological dark matter. Stable particles with charge -2, bound with primordial helium in O-helium "atoms" (OHe), represent a specific nuclear-interacting form of dark matter. Slowed down in the terrestrial matter, OHe is elusive for direct methods of underground Dark matter detection using its nuclear recoil. However, low energy binding of OHe with sodium nuclei can lead to annual variations of energy release from OHe radiative capture in the interval of energy 2-4 keV in DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA experiments. At nuclear parameters, reproducing DAMA results, the energy release predicted for detectors with chemical content other than NaI differ in the most cases from the one in DAMA detector. Moreover there is no bound systems of OHe with light and heavy nuclei, so that there is no radiative capture of OHe in detectors with xenon or helium content. Due to dipole Coulomb barrier, transitions to more energetic levels of Na+OHe system with much higher energy release are suppressed in the correspondence with the results of DAMA experiments. The proposed explanation inevitably leads to prediction of abundance of anomalous Na, corresponding to the signal, observed by DAMA.
We discuss the hybrid inflation model where the inflaton field is nonminimally coupled to gravity. In the Jordan frame, the potential contains $\phi^4$ term as well as terms in the original hybrid inflation model. In our model, inflation can be classified into the type (I) and the type (II). In the type (I), inflation is terminated by the tachyonic instability of the waterfall field, while in the type (II) by the violation of slow-roll conditions. In our model, the reheating takes place only at the true minimum and even in the case (II) finally the tachyonic instability occurs after the termination of inflation. For a negative nonminimal coupling, inflation takes place in the vacuum-dominated region, in the large field region, or near the local minimum/maximum. Inflation in the vacuum dominated region becomes either the type (I) or (II), resulting in blue or red spectrum of the curvature perturbations, respectively. Inflation around the local maximum can be either the type (I) or the type (II), which results in the red spectrum of the curvature perturbations, while it around the local minimum must be the type (I), which results in the blue spectrum. In the large field region, to terminate inflation, potential in the Einstein frame must be positively tilted, always resulting in the red spectrum. We then numerically solve the equations of motion to investigate the whole dynamics of inflaton and confirm that the spectrum of curvature perturbations changes from red to blue ones as scales become smaller.
The current report presents the work carried out by the author to investigate the recombination lines of CII in the spectra of planetary nebulae. Two CIII targets were prepared and used to generate theoretical data required in the investigation of recombination lines that arise from collisions between electrons and ions in thin plasma found in planetary nebulae and other astrophysical objects. One of these targets contains 9 atomic terms while the other contains 26 terms. For each one of these targets, theoretical data concerning bound and autoionizing states were generated in the intermediate coupling approximation by R-matrix and Autostructure codes and compared to experimental data. The comparison revealed very good agreement. These theoretical data were then used to generate emissivity data and compare it to the carbon recombination lines found in the observational line list of Zhang et al [2005] on the planetary nebula NGC 7027. The main tool used in this analysis is the `Emissivity' code which is a program developed by the author [2010] in the course of this investigation to calculate the emissivity of transition lines from resonances and subsequent cascade decay. The results of the analysis from both targets using a least-squares optimization technique indicate a temperature of 10200-10500K of the line-emitting region.
A classical model for the extension of singular spacetime geometries across their singularities is presented. The regularization introduced by this model is based on the following observation. Among the geometries that satisfy Einstein's field equations there is a class of geometries, with certain singularities, where the components of the metric density and their partial derivatives remain finite in the limit where the singularity is approached. Here we exploit this regular behavior of the metric density and elevate its status to that of a fundamental variable -- from which the metric is constructed. We express Einstein's field equations as a set of equations for the metric density, and postulate junction conditions that the metric density satisfies at singularities. Using this model we extend certain geometries across their singularities. The following examples are discussed: radiation dominated Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, Schwarzschild black hole, Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole, and certain Kasner solutions. For all of the above mentioned examples we obtain a unique extension of the geometry beyond the singularity.
We examine the status of light neutralinos in an effective Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) at the electroweak scale which was considered in the past and discussed in terms of the available data of direct searches for dark matter (DM) particles. Our reanalysis is prompted by new measurements at the Tevatron and B-factories which might potentially provide significant constraints on the MSSM model. Here we examine in detail all these new data and show that the present published results from the Tevatron and B-factories have only a mild effect on the original light neutralino population. This population, which fits quite well the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation data, would also agree with the preliminary results of CDMS, CoGeNT and CRESST, should these data, which are at present only hints or excesses of events over the expected backgrounds, be interpreted as authentic signals of DM. For the neutralino mass we find a lower bound of 7-8 GeV. Our results differ from some recent conclusions by other authors because of a few crucial points which we try to single out and elucidate.
We propose a left-right symmetric model to simultaneously give natural inflation and flavor mixing from a Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking at the Planck scale. Our model can be embedded in SO(10) grand unification theories.
We develop a new, mathematically precise framework for treating the effects of nonlinear phenomena occurring on small scales in general relativity. Our approach is an adaptation of Burnett's formulation of the "shortwave approximation", which we generalize to analyze the effects of matter inhomogeneities as well as gravitational radiation. Our framework requires the metric to be close to a "background metric", but allows arbitrarily large stress-energy fluctuations on small scales. We prove that, within our framework, if the matter stress-energy tensor satisfies the weak energy condition (i.e., positivity of energy density in all frames), then the only effect that small scale inhomogeneities can have on the dynamics of the background metric is to provide an "effective stress-energy tensor" that is traceless and has positive energy density---corresponding to the presence of gravitational radiation. In particular, nonlinear effects produced by small scale inhomogeneities cannot mimic the effects of dark energy. We also develop "perturbation theory" off of the background metric. We derive an equation for the "long-wavelength part" of the leading order deviation of the metric from the background metric, which contains the usual terms occurring in linearized perturbation theory plus additional contributions from the small-scale inhomogeneities. Under various assumptions concerning the absence of gravitational radiation and the non-relativistic behavior of the matter, we argue that the "short wavelength" deviations of the metric from the background metric near a point $x$ should be accurately described by Newtonian gravity, taking into account only the matter lying within a "homogeneity lengthscale" of $x$. Finally, we argue that our framework should provide an accurate description of the actual universe.
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We present metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) for the central regions of eight dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way: Fornax, Leo I and II, Sculptor, Sextans, Draco, Canes Venatici I, and Ursa Minor. We use the published catalog of abundance measurements from the previous paper in this series. The measurements are based on spectral synthesis of iron absorption lines. For each MDF, we determine maximum likelihood fits for Leaky Box, Pre-Enriched, and Extra Gas (wherein the gas supply available for star formation increases before it decreases to zero) analytic models of chemical evolution. Although the models are too simplistic to describe any MDF in detail, a Leaky Box starting from zero metallicity gas fits none of the galaxies except Canes Venatici I well. The MDFs of some galaxies, particularly the more luminous ones, strongly prefer the Extra Gas Model to the other models. Only for Canes Venatici I does the Pre-Enriched Model fit significantly better than the Extra Gas Model. The best-fit effective yields of the less luminous half of our galaxy sample do not exceed 0.02 Z_sun, indicating that gas outflow is important in the chemical evolution of the less luminous galaxies. We surmise that the ratio of the importance of gas infall to gas outflow increases with galaxy luminosity. Strong correlations of average [Fe/H] and metallicity spread with luminosity support this hypothesis.
We report the detection of a planetary companion around HIP 13044, a metal-poor red horizontal branch star belonging to a stellar halo stream that results from the disruption of an ancient Milky Way satellite galaxy. The detection is based on radial velocity observations with FEROS at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope. The periodic radial velocity variation of P=16.2 days can be distinguished from the periods of the stellar activity indicators. We computed a minimum planetary mass of 1.25 Jupiter masses and an orbital semimajor axis of 0.116 AU for the planet. This discovery is unique in three aspects: First, it is the first planet detection around a star with a metallicity much lower than few percent of the solar value; second, the planet host star resides in a stellar evolutionary stage that is still unexplored in the exoplanet surveys; third, the planetary system HIP 13044 most likely has an extragalactic origin in a disrupted former satellite of the Milky Way.
We present physical properties of two submillimeter selected gravitationally lensed sources, identified in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. These submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) have flux densities > 100 mJy at 500 um, but are not visible in existing optical imaging. We fit light profiles to each component of the lensing systems in Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 um data and successfully disentangle the foreground lens from the background source in each case, providing important constraints on the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the background SMG at rest-frame optical-near-infrared wavelengths. The SED fits show that these two SMGs have high dust obscuration with Av ~4 to 5 and star formation rates of ~100 M_sun/yr. They have low gas fractions and low dynamical masses compared to 850 um selected galaxies.
We explore whether global observed properties, specifically half-light radii, mean surface brightness, and integrated stellar kinematics, suffice to unambiguously differentiate galaxies from star clusters, which presumably formed differently and lack dark matter halos. We find that star clusters lie on the galaxy scaling relationship referred to as the Fundamental Manifold (FM), on the extension of a sequence of compact galaxies, and so conclude that there is no simple way to differentiate star clusters from ultra-compact galaxies. By extending the validity of the FM over a larger range of parameter space and a wider set of objects, we demonstrate that the physics that constrains the resulting baryon and dark matter distributions in stellar systems is more general than previously appreciated. The generality of the FM implies 1) that the stellar spatial distribution and kinematics of one type of stellar system does not arise solely from a process particular to that set of systems, such as violent relaxation for elliptical galaxies, but is instead the result of an interplay of all processes responsible for the generic settling of baryons in gravitational potential wells, 2) that the physics of how baryons settle is independent of whether the system is embedded within a dark matter halo, and 3) that peculiar initial conditions at formation or stochastic events during evolution do not ultimately disturb the overall regularity of baryonic settling. We also utilize the relatively simple nature of star clusters to relate deviations from the FM to the age of the stellar population and find that stellar population models systematically and significantly over predict the mass-to-light ratios of old, metal-rich clusters.
We describe a search for MgII(2796,2803) absorption lines in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectra of QSOs whose lines of sight pass within impact parameters of 200 kpc of galaxies with photometric redshifts of z=0.46-0.6 and redshift errors Delta z~0.05. The galaxies selected have the same colors and luminosities as the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) population previously selected from the SDSS. A search for Mg II lines within a redshift interval of +/-0.1 of a galaxy's photometric redshift shows that absorption by these galaxies is rare: the covering fraction is ~ 10-15% between 20 and 100 kpc, for Mg II lines with rest equivalent widths of Wr >= 0.6{\AA}, falling to zero at larger separations. There is no evidence that Wr correlates with impact parameter or galaxy luminosity. Our results are consistent with existing scenarios in which cool Mg II-absorbing clouds may be absent near LRGs because of the environment of the galaxies: if LRGs reside in high-mass groups and clusters, either their halos are too hot to retain or accrete cool gas, or the galaxies themselves - which have passively-evolving old stellar populations - do not produce the rates of star formation and outflows of gas necessary to fill their halos with Mg II absorbing clouds. In the rarer cases where Mg II is detected, however, the origin of the absorption is less clear. Absorption may arise from the little cool gas able to reach into cluster halos from the intergalactic medium, or from the few star-forming and/or AGN-like LRGs that are known to exist.
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition of gas into different thermal components must itself depend on the star formation rate, since a steady state distribution requires a balance between heating (largely from stellar UV for the atomic component) and cooling. In this presentation, I discuss a simple thermal and dynamical equilibrium model for the star formation rate in disk galaxies, where the basic inputs are the total surface density of gas and the volume density of stars and dark matter, averaged over ~kpc scales. Galactic environment is important because the vertical gravity of the stars and dark matter compress gas toward the midplane, helping to establish the pressure, and hence the cooling rate. In equilibrium, the star formation rate must evolve until the gas heating rate is high enough to balance this cooling rate and maintain the pressure imposed by the local gravitational field. In addition to discussing the formulation of this equilibrium model, I review the current status of numerical simulations of multiphase disks, focusing on measurements of quantities that characterize the mean properties of the diffuse ISM. Based on simulations, turbulence levels in the diffuse ISM appear relatively insensitive to local disk conditions and energetic driving rates, consistent with observations. It remains to be determined, both from observations and simulations, how mass exchange processes control the ratio of cold-to-warm gas in the atomic ISM.
A first adiabatic core is a transient object formed in the early phase of star formation. The observation of a first core is believed to be difficult because of its short lifetime and low luminosity. On the basis of radiation hydrodynamic simulations, we propose a novel theoretical model of first cores, Exposed Long-lifetime First core (ELF). In the very low-mass molecular core, the first core evolves slowly and lives longer than 10,000 years because the accretion rate is considerably low. The evolution of ELFs is different from that of ordinary first cores because radiation cooling has a significant effect there. We also carry out radiation transfer calculation of dust-continuum emission from ELFs to predict their observational properties. ELFs have slightly fainter but similar SEDs to ordinary first cores in radio wavelengths, therefore they can be observed. Although the probabilities that such low mass cores become gravitationally unstable and start to collapse are low, we still can expect that a considerable number of ELFs can be formed because there are many low-mass molecular cloud cores in star-forming regions that can be progenitors of ELFs.
We describe the information that can be gained when a survey is done multi-epoch, and its particular impact for open clusters. We first explain the irreplaceable information that multi-epoch observations are giving within astrometry, photometry and spectroscopy. Then we give three examples for results on open clusters from multi-epoch surveys, namely, the distance to the Pleiades, the angular momentum evolution of low mass stars and asteroseismology. Finally we mention several very large surveys, which are ongoing or planned for the future, Gaia, JASMINE, LSST, and VVV.
We present detailed optical photometry for 25 Type Ibc supernovae within d~150 Mpc obtained with the robotic Palomar 60-inch telescope in 2004-2007. This study represents the first uniform, systematic, and statistical sample of multi-color SNe Ibc light-curves available to date. We correct the light-curves for host galaxy extinction using a new technique based on the photometric color evolution, namely, we show that the (V-R) color of extinction-corrected SNe Ibc at t~10 days after V-band maximum is tightly distributed, (V-R)=0.26+-0.06 mag. Using this technique, we find that SNe Ibc typically suffer from significant host galaxy extinction, E(B-V)~0.4 mag. A comparison of the extinction-corrected light-curves for SNe Ib and Ic reveals that they are statistically indistinguishable, both in luminosity and decline rate. We report peak absolute magnitudes of M_R=-17.9+-0.9 mag and M_R=-18.3+-0.6 mag for SNe Ib and Ic, respectively. Focusing on the broad-lined SNe Ic, we find that they are more luminous than the normal SNe Ibc sample, M_R=-19.0+-1.1 mag, with a probability of only 1.6% that they are drawn from the same population of explosions. By comparing the peak absolute magnitudes of SNe Ic-BL with those inferred for local engine-driven explosions (GRB-SN 1998bw, XRF-SN 2006aj, and SN2009bb) we find a 25% probability that they are drawn from the SNe Ic-BL population. Finally, we fit analytic models to the light-curves to derive typical Ni-56 masses of M_Ni ~0.2 and 0.5 M_sun for SNe Ibc and SNe Ic-BL, respectively. With reasonable assumptions for the photospheric velocities, we extract kinetic energy and ejecta mass values of M_ej ~ 2 M_sun and E_K~1e+51 erg for SNe Ibc, while for SNe Ic-BL we find higher values, M_ej~5~M_sun and E_K~1e+52 erg. We discuss the implications for the progenitors of SNe Ibc and their relation to engine-driven explosions [ABRIDGED].
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft is providing the first all-sky maps of the energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced by charge-exchange between interstellar neutral \HI\ atoms and heliospheric solar wind and pickup ions in the heliosphere boundary regions. The 'edge' of the interstellar cloud presently surrounding the heliosphere extends less than 0.1 pc in the upwind direction, terminating at an unknown distance, indicating that the outer boundary conditions of the heliosphere could change during the lifetime of the IBEX satellite. Using reasonable values for future outer heliosphere boundary conditions, ENA fluxes are predicted for one possible source of ENAs coming from outside of the heliopause. The ENA production simulations use three-dimensional MHD plasma models of the heliosphere that include a kinetic description of neutrals and a Lorentzian distribution for ions. Based on this ENA production model, it is then shown that the sensitivities of the IBEX 1.1 keV skymaps are sufficient to detect the variations in ENA fluxes that are expected to accompany the solar transition into the next upwind cloud. Approximately 20% of the IBEX 1.1 keV pixels appear capable of detecting the predicted model differences at the $ 3 \sigma$ level, with these pixels concentrated in the Ribbon region. Regardless of the detailed ENA production model, the success of the modeled \BdotR\ directions in reproducing the Ribbon locus, together with our results, indicate that the Ribbon phenomenon traces the variations in the heliosphere distortion caused by the relative pressures of the interstellar magnetic and gaseous components.
Subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) is a technique for populating simulated dark matter distributions with galaxies, assuming a monotonic relation between a galaxy's stellar mass or luminosity and the mass of its parent dark matter halo or subhalo. We examine the accuracy of SHAM in two cosmological SPH simulations, one of which includes momentum-driven winds. The SPH simulations indeed show a nearly monotonic relation between stellar mass and halo mass provided that, for satellite galaxies, we use the mass of the subhalo at the epoch when it became a satellite. In each simulation, the median relation for central and satellite galaxies is nearly identical, though a somewhat larger fraction of satellites are outliers. SHAM-assigned masses (at z=0-2), luminosities (R-band at z=0), or star formation rates (at z=2) have a 68% scatter of 0.09-0.15 dex relative to the true simulation values. When we apply SHAM to the subhalo population of collisionless N-body simulation with the same initial conditions as the SPH runs, we find generally good agreement for the halo occupation distributions and halo radial profiles of galaxy samples defined by thresholds in stellar mass. However, because a small fraction of SPH galaxies suffer severe stellar mass loss after becoming satellites, SHAM slightly overpopulates high mass halos; this effect is more significant for the wind simulation, which produces galaxies that are less massive and more fragile. SHAM recovers the two-point correlation function of the SPH galaxies in the no-wind simulation to better than 10% at scales 0.1 < r < 10 Mpc/h. For the wind simulation, agreement is better than 15% at r > 2 Mpc/h, but overpopulation of massive halos increases the correlation function by a factor of ~2.5 on small scales.
We present the stellar population properties of 13 dwarf galaxies residing in poor groups (low-density environment, LDE) observed with VIMOS@VLT. Ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios were derived from the Lick indices Hbeta, Mgb, Fe5270 and Fe5335 through comparison with our simple stellar population (SSP) models accounting for variable [alpha/Fe] ratios. For a fiducial subsample of 10 early-type dwarfs we derive median values and scatters around the medians of 5.7 \pm 4.4 Gyr, -0.26 \pm 0.28, and -0.04 \pm 0.33 for age, log Z/Zsun, and [alpha/Fe], respectively. For a selection of bright early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the Annibali et al.2007 sample residing in comparable environment we derive median values of 9.8 \pm 4.1 Gyr, 0.06 \pm 0.16, and 0.18 \pm 0.13 for the same stellar population parameters. It follows that dwarfs are on average younger, less metal rich, and less enhanced in the alpha-elements than giants, in agreement with the extrapolation to the low mass regime of the scaling relations derived for giant ETGs. From the total (dwarf + giant) sample we derive that age \propto sigma^{0.39 \pm 0.22}, Z \propto sigma^{0.80 \pm 0.16}, and alpha/Fe \propto sigma^{0.42 \pm 0.22}. We also find correlations with morphology, in the sense that the metallicity and the [alpha/Fe] ratio increase with the Sersic index n or with the bulge-to-total light fraction B/T. The presence of a strong morphology-[alpha/Fe] relation appears to be in contradiction to the possible evolution along the Hubble sequence from low B/T (low n) to high B/T (high n) galaxies. We also investigate the role played by environment comparing the properties of our LDE dwarfs with those of Coma red passive dwarfs from the literature. We find possible evidence that LDE dwarfs experienced more prolonged star formations than Coma dwarfs, however larger data samples are needed to draw more firm conclusions.
The parameters of the p-mode oscillations vary with solar activity. Such temporal variations provide insights for the study of the structural and dynamical changes occurring in the Sun's interior throughout the solar cycle. We present here a complete picture of the temporal variations of the global p-mode parameters (excitation, damping, frequency, peak asymmetry, and rotational splitting) over the entire solar cycle 23 and the beginning of cycle 24 as observed by the space-based, Sun-as-a-star helioseismic GOLF and VIRGO instruments onboard SoHO.
We explore a dark-matter model in which there are two dark-matter species nearly degenerate in mass, with epsilon = Delta M/M << 1. The heavier particle undergoes two-body decay with a half-life tau, to the lighter dark-matter particle and a noninteracting massless particle. Unlike previous work on decaying dark matter, we explore the regime tau > 100 Myr and non-relativistic kick speeds vk / c = epsilon. Using a set of N-body simulations of isolated dark-matter halos, we show how halos change as a function of tau and vk. We find that tau < 40 Gyr is ruled out for vk > 20 km s^{-1} (epsilon > 10^{-4}) when we compare the simulations to observations of dwarf-galaxy- to cluster-mass dark matter halos. We highlight which set of observations should provide better future constraints for decays and other types of dark-matter physics.
Near- to mid-infrared period-magnitude relations and also the period-bolometric luminosity relation of OGLE-III Mira-like variables in the LMC are derived. The relations have a kink, and the period at which the break occurs is quantitatively obtained. There are many Mira-like variables whose fluxes at the optical and the near-infrared wavebands are fainter than the ones predicted by the period-magnitude relations. The deviation is due to the circumstellar extinction, and the amount of the deviation is found to be strongly correlated with near-infrared colors. The empirical formulae relating the amount of the deviation and the near-infrared colors are derived. These relations are useful to accurately calculate the distances to the dusty Mira-like variables, because the dimmed fluxes due to the circumstellar extinction can be estimated. In a manner analogous to the interstellar extinction law, the ratios of deviations at any two different wavebands are calculated. The ratios are found to change with the pulsation period, indicating that the dust properties are subject to change as Mira-like variables evolve.
We present a new radio-selected cluster of galaxies, 0217+70, using observations from the Very Large Array and archival optical and X-ray data. The new cluster is one of only seven known that has candidate double peripheral radio relics, and the only one of those with a giant radio halo (GRH), as well. It also contains unusual diffuse radio filaments interior to the peripheral relics, and a clumpy, elongated X-ray structure. All of these indicate a very actively evolving system, with ongoing accretion and merger activity, illuminating a network of shocks, such as those first seen in numerical simulations. The peripheral relics are most easily understood as outgoing spherical merger shocks with large variations in brightness along them, likely reflecting the inhomogeneities in the shocks' magnetic fields . The interior filaments could be projections of substructures from the sheet-like peripheral shocks, or they might be separate structures due to multiple accretion events. ROSAT images show large-scale diffuse X-ray emission coincident with the GRH, and additional patchy diffuse emission that suggests a recent merger event. This uniquely rich set of radio shocks and halo offer the possibility, with deeper X-ray, optical and data higher resolution radio observations, of testing the models of how shocks and turbulence couple to the relativistic plasma. 0217+70 is also over-luminous in the radio compared to the empirical radio-X-ray correlation for clusters -- the third example of such a system. This new population of diffuse radio emission opens up the possibility of probing low-mass cluster mergers with upcoming deep radio continuum surveys.
This paper aims to study the color behavior of the BL Lac object OJ 287 during optical outburst. According to the revisit of the data from the OJ-94 monitoring project and the analysis the data obtained with the 60/90 cm Schmidt Telescope of NAOC, we found a bluer-when-brighter chromatism in this object. The amplitude of variation tends to decrease with the decrease of frequency. These results are consistent with the shock-in-jet model. We made some simulations and confirmed that both amplitude difference and time delay between variations at different wavelengths can result in the phenomenon of bluer-when-brighter. Our observations confirmed that OJ 287 underwent a double-peaked outburst after about 12 years from 1996, which provides further evidence for the binary black hole model in this object.
Context. Low-mass extrasolar planets are presently being discovered at an increased pace by radial velocity and transit surveys, opening a new window on planetary systems. Aims. We are conducting a high-precision radial velocity survey with the HARPS spectrograph which aims at characterizing the population of ice giants and super-Earths around nearby solar-type stars. This will lead to a better understanding of their formation and evolution, and yield a global picture of planetary systems from gas giants down to telluric planets. Methods. Progress has been possible in this field thanks in particular to the sub-m/s radial velocity precision achieved by HARPS. We present here new high-quality measurements from this instrument. Results. We report the discovery of a planetary system comprising at least five Neptune-like planets with minimum masses ranging from 12 to 25 M_Earth, orbiting the solar-type star HD 10180 at separations between 0.06 and 1.4 AU. A sixth radial velocity signal is present at a longer period, probably due to a 65-M_Earth object. Moreover, another body with a minimum mass as low as 1.4 M_Earth may be present at 0.02 AU from the star. This is the most populated exoplanetary system known to date. The planets are in a dense but still well-separated configuration, with significant secular interactions. Some of the orbital period ratios are fairly close to integer or half-integer values, but the system does not exhibit any mean-motion resonances. General relativity effects and tidal dissipation play an important role to stabilize the innermost planet and the system as a whole. Numerical integrations show long-term dynamical stability provided true masses are within a factor ~3 from minimum masses. We further note that several low-mass planetary systems exhibit a rather "packed" orbital architecture with little or no space left for additional planets. (Abridged)
In this review I outline some ideas in chemical evolution, necessary for understanding the evolution of galaxies from measured elemental abundance ratios. I then discuss abundance results from studies of Local Group dwarf galaxies and the globular cluster Omega Cen. I present a qualitative scenario of prolonged chemical enrichment in a leaky box that can explain the observed abundance ratios in these systems. Space limitations prevent a comprehensive review of this vast field, so I have restricted the discussion to dwarf systems.
Estimation of cosmological parameters from a given dataset requires a construction of a likelihood function which, in general, has a complicated functional form. We adopt a Gaussian copula and constructed a Copula likelihood function for the convergence power spectrum from a weak lensing survey. We show that the parameter estimation based on the Gaussian likelihood introduces erroneously a systematic shift in the confidence region, in particular for a parameter of the dark energy equation of state w. Thus, the Copula likelihood should be used in the future cosmological observations.
To estimate cosmological parameters from a given dataset, we need to construct a likelihood function, which sometimes has a complicated functional form. We introduce the copula, a mathematical tool to construct an arbitrary multivariate distribution function from one-dimensional marginal distribution functions with any given dependence structure. It is shown that a likelihood function constructed by the so-called Gaussian copula can reproduce very well the n-dimensional probability distribution of the cosmic shear power spectrum obtained from large number of ray-tracing simulations. This suggests that the Copula likelihood will be a powerful tool for future weak lensing analyses, instead of the conventional multivariate Gaussian likelihood.
From previous samples of Red Supergiants (RSGs) by various groups, 191 objects are assembled to compose a large sample of RSG candidates in LMC. For 189 of them, the identity as a RSG is verified by their brightness and color indexes in several near- and mid-infrared bands related to the 2MASS JHKs bands and the Spitzer/IRAC and Spitzer/MIPS bands. From the visual time-series photometric observations by the ASAS and MACHO projects which cover nearly 8-10 years, the period and amplitude of light variation are analyzed carefully using both the PDM and Period04 methods. According to the properties of light variation, these objects are classified into five categories: (1) 20 objects are saturated in photometry or located in crowded stellar field with poor photometric results, (2) 35 objects with too complex variation to have any certain period, (3) 23 objects with irregular variation, (4) 16 objects with semi-regular variation, and (5) 95 objects with Long Secondary Period (LSP) among which 31 have distinguishable short period, and 51 have a long period shorter than 3000 days that can be determined with reasonable accuracy. For the semi-regular variables and the LSP variables with distinguishable short period, the period-luminosity relation is analyzed in the visual, near-infrared and mid-infrared bands. It is found that the P-L relation is tight in the infrared bands such as the 2MASS JHKs bands and the Spitzer/IRAC bands, in particular in the Spitzer/IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] bands; meanwhile, the P-L relation is relatively sparse in the V band which may be caused by the inhomogeneous interstellar extinction. The results are compared with others' P-L relationships for RSGs and the P-L sequences of red giants in LMC.
Proposed space-based gravitational-wave detectors such as BBO and DECIGO can detect ~10^6 neutron-star binaries and determine luminosity distance to the binaries with a high precision. Combining the luminosity distance and electromagnetically-derived redshift, one would be able to probe cosmological expansion out to high redshift. In this paper, we show that the Hubble parameter as a function of redshift can be directly measured with monopole and dipole components of the luminosity distance on the sky. As a result, the measurement accuracies of the Hubble parameter in each redshift bin up to z=1 are 3-14 %, 1.5-8 %, and 0.8-4% for the observation time 1 yr, 3 yr, and 10 yr, respectively.
This is an erratum to our paper in Physical Review D82:022004,2010, corresponding to preprint: arXiv:1003.2961 .
We investigate the spin-period evolutions of recycled pulsars in binary accreting systems. Taking both the accretion induced field decay and spin-up into consideration, we calculate their spin-period evolutions influenced by the initial magnetic-field strengths, initial spin-periods and accretion rates, respectively. The results indicate that the minimum spin-period (or maximum spin frequency) of millisecond pulsar (MSP) is independent of the initial conditions and accretion rate when the neutron star (NS) accretes $\sim> 0.2\ms$. The accretion torque with the fastness parameter and gravitational wave (GW) radiation torque may be responsible for the formation of the minimum spin-period (maximum spin frequency). The fastest spin frequency (716 Hz) of MSP can be inferred to associate with a critical fastness parameter about $\omega_{c}=0.55$. Furthermore, the comparisons with the observational data are presented in the field-period ($B-P$) diagram.
We analyze a flux-limited sample of persistent and bright (with 2-10 keV fluxes exceeding 1.4e-10 erg/s/cm2) low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in our Galaxy. It is demonstrated that the majority of binary systems with X-ray luminosities below logL(erg/sec)~37.3 have unevolved secondary companions (except for those with white dwarf donors), while systems with higher X-ray luminosity predominantly harbor giant donors. Mass transfer in binary systems with giants significantly shortens their life time thus steepening the X-ray luminosity function of LMXBs at high luminosity. We argue that this is the reason why the LMXB luminosity function constructed in the last years from observations of sources in our and distant galaxies demonstrates a break at logL(erg/sec)~37.3.
The IceCube collaboration is building a cubic kilometer scale neutrino telescope at a depth of 2 km at the geographic South Pole, utilizing the clear Antarctic ice as a Cherenkov medium to detect cosmic neutrinos. The IceCube observatory is complemented by IceTop, a square kilometer air shower array on top of the in-ice detector. The construction of the detector is nearly finished with 79 of a planned 86 strings and 73 of 80 IceTop stations deployed. Its completion is expected in the winter 2010/11. Using data from the partially built detector, we present initial results of searches for neutrinos from astrophysical sources such as supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, and gamma ray bursts, for anisotropies in cosmic rays, and constraints on the dark matter scattering cross section. Further, we discuss future plans and R&D activities towards new neutrino detection techniques.
Near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999 JU3) is a potential flyby and rendezvous target for interplanetary missions because of its easy to reach orbit. The physical and thermal properties of the asteroid are relevant for establishing the scientific mission goals and also important in the context of near-Earth object studies in general. Our goal was to derive key physical parameters such as shape, spin-vector, size, geometric albedo, and surface properties of 162173 (1999 JU3). With three sets of published thermal observations (ground-based N-band, Akari IRC, Spitzer IRS), we applied a thermophysical model to derive the radiometric properties of the asteroid. The calculations were performed for the full range of possible shape and spin-vector solutions derived from the available sample of visual lightcurve observations. The near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999 JU3) has an effective diameter of 0.87 +/- 0.03 km and a geometric albedo of 0.070 +/- 0.006. The chi2-test reveals a strong preference for a retrograde sense of rotation with a spin-axis orientation of lambda_ecl = 73 deg, beta_ecl = -62 deg and P_sid = 7.63 +/- 0.01 h. The most likely thermal inertia ranges between 200 and 600 Jm-2s-0.5K-1, about a factor of 2 lower than the value for 25143 Itokawa. This indicates that the surface lies somewhere between a thick-dust regolith and a rock/boulder/cm-sized, gravel-dominated surface like that of 25143 Itokawa. Our analysis represents the first time that shape and spin-vector information has been derived from a combined data set of visual lightcurves (reflected light) and mid-infrared photometry and spectroscopy (thermal emission).
A non-LTE (NLTE) abundance analysis was carried out for three extreme helium stars (EHes): BD+10 2179, BD-9 4395, and LS IV+6 002, from their optical spectra with NLTE model atmospheres. NLTE TLUSTY model atmospheres were computed with H, He, C, N, O, and Ne treated in NLTE. Model atmosphere parameters were chosen from consideration of fits to observed He I line profiles and ionization equilibria of C and N ions. The program SYNSPEC was then used to determine the NLTE abundances for Ne as well as H, He, C, N, and O. LTE neon abundances from Ne I lines in the EHes: LSE 78, V1920 Cyg, HD 124448, and PV Tel, are derived from published models and an estimate of the NLTE correction applied to obtain the NLTE Ne abundance. We show that the derived abundances of these key elements, including Ne, are well matched with semi-quantitative predictions for the EHe resulting from a cold merger (i.e., no nucleosynthesis during the merger) of a He white dwarf with a C-O white dwarf.
Cygnus X is one of the closest giant molecular cloud complexes and therefore an extensively studied region of ongoing high mass star formation. However, the distance to this region has been a long-standing issue, since sources at galactic longitude of ~80 degrees could be in the Local Arm nearby (1-2 kpc), in the Perseus Arm at ~5 kpc, or even in the outer arm (~10 kpc). We use combined observations of the EVN plus two Japanese stations to measure very accurate parallaxes of methanol masers in five star-forming regions in Cygnus X to understand if they belong to one large star-forming complex or if they are separate entities located at different distances. Here we report our preliminary result for W75N based on six epochs of VLBI observations: we find that W75N is at a distance of 1.32^{+0.11}_{-0.09} kpc, which is significantly closer than the reported values in the literature (1.5-2 kpc).
We present the first detailed spectral and timing analysis of the High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB) 4U 1909+07 with INTEGRAL and RXTE. 4U 1909+07 is detected in the ISGRI 20-40 keV energy band with an average countrate of 2.6 cps. The pulse period of ~604 sec is not stable, but changing erratically on timescales of years. The pulse profile is strongly energy dependent: it shows a double peaked structure at low energies, the secondary pulse decreases rapidly with increasing energy and above 20 keV only the primary pulse is visible. This evolution is consistent between PCA, HEXTE, and ISGRI. The phase averaged spectrum can be well described by the sum of a photoabsorbed power law with a cutoff at high energies and a blackbody component. To investigate the pulse profile, we performed phase resolved spectral analysis. We find that the changing spectrum can be best described with a variation of the folding energy. We rule out a correlation between the black body component and the continuum variation and discuss possible accretion geometries.
The large majority of extinction sight lines in our Galaxy obey a simple relation depending on one parameter, the total-to-selective extinction coefficient, Rv. Different values of Rv are able to match the whole extinction curve through different environments so characterizing normal extinction curves. In this paper more than sixty curves with large ultraviolet deviations from their best-fit one parameter curve are analyzed. These curves are fitted with dust models to shed light into the properties of the grains, the processes affecting them, and their relations with the environmental characteristics. The extinction curve models are reckoned by following recent prescriptions on grain size distributions able to describe one parameter curves for Rv values from 3.1 to 5.5. Such models, here extended down to Rv=2.0, allow us to compare the resulting properties of our deviating curves with the same as normal curves in a self-consistent framework, and thus to recover the relative trends overcoming the modeling uncertainties. Such curves represent the larger and homogeneous sample of anomalous curves studied so far with dust models. Results show that the ultraviolet deviations are driven by a larger amount of small grains than predicted for lines of sight where extinction depends on one parameter only. Moreover, the dust-to-gas ratios of anomalous curves are lower than the same values for no deviating lines of sight. Shocks and grain-grain collisions should both destroy dust grains, so reducing the amount of the dust trapped into the grains, and modify the size distribution of the dust, so increasing the small-to-large grain size ratio. Therefore, the extinction properties derived should arise along sight lines where shocks and high velocity flows perturb the physical state of the interstellar medium living their signature on the dust properties. (Abridged version)
We investigate the recently published data for the coherence of twin kHz quasi-period oscillations (QPOs) in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and compare the different kHz QPO profiles between bright Z sources and less luminous atoll sources. We find that: (1) The quality factors of upper kHz QPOs are low ($2 \sim 20$ in general) and increase with the frequencies; The data point tracks in $Q-\nu$ plane are roughly similar for Z and atoll sources. (2) There are significant differences in $Q-\nu$ diagram for the lower kHz QPOs between Z and atoll sources, i.e. the quality factors ($Q_1$) of most Z sources rise steadily with the frequencies and are usually lower than 15, except for Sco X-1 with an abrupt drop at high frequency $750 Hz$; While the quality factors of atoll sources are very high (from 2 to 200), and an abrupt drop occur at a maximum quality factor for all of atoll sources. (3) There are three atoll sources (4U 1728-34, 4U 1636-53 and 4U 1608-52) that display very high lower quality factors ($Q_1$) and are detected with spin frequencies. The source with higher spin frequency presents a higher maximum quality factor. (4) The $Q-\nu$ tracks also present specialities for individual sources in each type of sources, and the implications are discussed. Furthermore, enlightened by the similarity between Sco X-1 and atoll sources for the lower $Q-\nu$ tracks, we try to present a holistic scenario for the evolution between atoll and Z sources. The revelations for the mechanisms of kHz QPOs in neutron star LMXBs are discussed.
Stellar dynamical modeling is a powerful method to determine the mass of black holes in quiescent galaxies. However, in previous work the presence of a dark matter halo has been ignored in the modeling. Gebhardt & Thomas (2009) showed that accounting for a dark matter halo increased the black-hole mass of the massive galaxy M87 by a factor of 2. We used a sample of 12 galaxies to investigate the effect of accounting for a dark matter halo in the dynamical modeling in more detail, and also updated the masses using improved modeling. The sample of galaxies possess HST and ground based observations of stellar kinematics. Their black-hole masses have been presented before, but without including a dark matter halo in the models. Without a dark halo, we find a mean increase in the estimated mass of 1.5 for the whole sample compared to previous results. We attribute this change to using a more complete orbit library. When we include a dark matter halo, along with the updated models, we find an additional increase in black-hole mass by a factor of 1.2 in the mean, much less than for M87. We attribute the smaller discrepancy in black-hole mass to using data that better resolves the black hole's sphere of influence. We redetermined the M-sigma and M-L relationships using our updated black-hole masses and find a slight increase in both normalization and intrinsic scatter.
We present a light curve model of the symbiotic nova PU Vul (Nova Vulpeculae 1979) that shows a long-lasted flat peak with no spectral indication of wind mass-loss before decline. Our quasi-evolution models consisting of a series of static solutions explain both the optical flat peak and ultraviolet (UV) light curve simultaneously. The white dwarf mass is estimated to be ~0.6 Mo. We also provide a new determination of the reddening, E(B-V) = 0.43 +/- 0.05, from UV spectral analysis. Theoretical light curve fitting of UV 1455 A provides the distance of d=3.8 +/- 0.7 kpc.
Usually, positions of spacecraft on interplanetary or deep space missions are determined by radar tracking from ground stations, a method by which uncertainty increases with distance from Earth. As an alternative, a spacecraft equipped with e.g. an X-ray telescope could determine its position autonomoulsy via onboard analysis of X-ray pulsar signals. In order to find out which pulsars are best suited for this approach and what accuracy can be achieved, we build up a database containing the temporal emission characteristics of the ~ 60 X-ray pulsars for which a pulsed radiation has been detected by mid 2010.
We present a search based on a time dependent neutrino flux prediction from the X-ray binary LS I +61 303. Results from data taken with the 22 and 40 strings of IceCube are compatible with background fluctuations.
We present a first complete 12 CO J=3-2 map of M81, observed as part of the Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey being carried out at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We detect 9 regions of significant CO emission located at different positions within the spiral arms, and confirm that the global CO emission in the galaxy is low. We combine these data with a new H-alpha map obtained using the Isaac Newton Telescope and archival HI, 24 microns and FUV images to uncover a correlation between the molecular gas and star forming regions in M81. For the nine regions detected in CO J=3-2, we combine our CO J=3-2 data with existing CO J=1-0 data to calculate line ratios. We find that the ratio J=(3-2)/(1-0) is in agreement with the range of typical values found in the literature (0.2-0.8). Making reasonable assumptions, this allows us to constrain the hydrogen density to the range (10^3-10^4) cm^{-3}. We also estimated the amount of hydrogen produced in photo-dissociation regions near the locations where CO J=3-2 was detected.
We present the methodology and some preliminary results of our study of the relationship between a Mira's pulsating photosphere and its surrounding molecular layer(s) throughout several pulsation cycles, based on spatially resolved data. Our dataset consists of archival narrow-band observations in the near-infrared H and K bands obtained with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer between 1999 and 2006, extended with a few nights of VLTI AMBER low spectral resolution data and near-infrared SAAO photometry. The fitted model is the geometric star + layer model proposed by Perrin et al. (2004), in which the physical parameters (diameter and temperature of star and layer; wavelength dependent optical depth of the layer) are given a sinusoidal time dependence.
A systematic multiple hypothesis testing approach is applied to the search for astrophysical sources of high energy neutrinos. The method is based on the maximisation of the detection power maintaining the control of the confidence level of an hypothetical discovery. This is achieved by using the so-called "False Discovery Rate" (FDR) controlling procedure. It has the advantage to be independent of the signal modelling and to naturally take into account the trial factor. Moreover it is well suited to the detection of multiple sources.
We show that the UV spectrum (1280-3200 A) of the "superficially normal" A-star Vega, as observed by the IUE satellite at a resolution comparable to the star's rotational broadening width, can be fit remarkably well by a single-temperature synthetic spectrum based on LTE atmosphere models and a newly constructed UV line list. If Vega were a normal, equator-on, slow-rotating star, then its spectrum and our analysis would indicate a temperature of Teff ~ 9550 K, surface gravity of log g ~ 3.7, general surface metallicity of [m/H] ~ -0.5, and a microturbulence velocity of v(turb) ~ 2.0 km/s. Given its rapid rotation and nearly pole-on orientation, however, these parameters must be regarded as representing averages across the observed hemisphere. Modeling the complex UV line spectrum has allowed us to determine the specific surface abundances for 17 different chemical elements, including CNO, the light metals, and the iron group elements. The resultant abundance pattern agrees in general with previous results, although there is considerable scatter in the literature. Despite its peculiarities, Vega has turned out to provide a powerful test of the extent of our abilities to model the atmospheric properties of the early A-stars, particularly the detailed UV line spectrum. The value of the measurements from this pilot study will increase as this analysis is extended to more objects in the rich high-dispersion IUE data archive, including both normal and peculiar objects.
NGC 6791 is an old, metal-rich star cluster normally considered to be a disk open cluster. Its red giant branch is broad in color yet, to date, there is no evidence for a metallicity spread among its stars. The turnoff region of the main sequence is also wider than expected from broad-band photometric errors. Analysis of the color-magnitude diagram reveals a color gradient between the core of the cluster and its periphery; we evaluate the potential explanations for this trend. While binarity and photometric errors appear unlikely, reddening variations across the face of the cluster cannot be excluded. We argue that a viable alternative explanation for this color trend is an age spread resulting from a protracted formation time for the cluster; the stars of the inner region of NGC 6791 appear to be older by ~1 Gyr on average than those of the outer region.
We present a study of the relationship between galaxy colour, stellar mass, and local galaxy density in a deep near-infrared imaging survey up to a redshift of z~3 using the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS). The GNS is a very deep, near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope survey imaging a total of 45 arcmin^2 in the GOODS fields, reaching a stellar mass completeness limit of M* = 10^9.5 M_sun at z=3. Using this data we measure galaxy local densities based on galaxy counts within a fixed aperture, as well as the distance to the 3rd, 5th and 7th nearest neighbour. We find a strong correlation between colour and stellar mass at all redshifts up to z~3. We do not find a strong correlation between colour and local density, however, the highest overdensities might be populated by a higher fraction of blue galaxies than average or underdense areas, indicating a possible reversal of the colour-density relation at high redshift. Our data suggests that the possible higher blue fraction at extreme overdensities might be due to a lack of massive red galaxies at the highest local densities.
We present a new short-period brown dwarf candidate around the star TYC 1240-00945-1. This candidate was discovered in the first year of the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanets Large-area Survey (MARVELS), which is part of the third phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), and we designate the brown dwarf as MARVELS-1b. MARVELS uses the technique of dispersed fixed-delay interferometery to simultaneously obtain radial velocity measurements for 60 objects per field using a single, custom-built instrument that is fiber fed from the SDSS 2.5-m telescope. From our 20 radial velocity measurements spread over a ~370 d time baseline, we derive a Keplerian orbital fit with semi-amplitude K=2.533+/-0.025 km/s, period P=5.8953+/-0.0004 d, and eccentricity consistent with circular. Independent follow-up radial velocity data confirm the orbit. Adopting a mass of 1.37+/-0.11 M_Sun for the slightly evolved F9 host star, we infer that the companion has a minimum mass of 28.0+/-1.5 M_Jup, a semimajor axis 0.071+/-0.002 AU assuming an edge-on orbit, and is probably tidally synchronized. We find no evidence for coherent instrinsic variability of the host star at the period of the companion at levels greater than a few millimagnitudes. The companion has an a priori transit probability of ~14%. Although we find no evidence for transits, we cannot definitively rule them out for companion radii ~<1 R_Jup.
We analyze the oscillatory properties of resonantly damped transverse kink
oscillations in two-dimensional prominence threads. The fine structures are
modeled as cylindrically symmetric magnetic flux tubes with a dense central
part with prominence plasma properties and an evacuated part, both surrounded
by coronal plasma. The equilibrium density is allowed to vary non-uniformly in
both the transverse and the longitudinal directions. We examine the influence
of longitudinal density structuring on periods, damping times, and damping
rates for transverse kink modes computed by numerically solving the linear
resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. The relevant parameters are the
length of the dense part and the density in the evacuated part of the tube, two
quantities that are difficult to directly estimate from observations. We find
that both of them strongly influence the oscillatory periods and damping times,
and to a lesser extend
the damping ratios. This information is complemented with the analysis of the
spatial distribution of perturbations and the energy flux at the resonances
that allow us to explain the obtained damping times. Implications for
prominence seismology are discussed in connection to the fact that observations
may allow us to measure the length of the thread, while the supporting magnetic
flux tube is not even observed and the density in the evacuated part of the
tube is also difficult to estimate.
The theme of this book chapter is to discuss algorithms for identifying and reconstructing groups and clusters of galaxies out of the general galaxy distribution. I review the progress of detection techniques through time, from the very first visual-like algorithms to the most performant geometrical methods available today. This will allow readers to understand the development of the field as well as the various issues and pitfalls we are confronted with. This essay is drawn from a talk given by the author at the conference "The World a Jigsaw: Tessellations in the Sciences" held at the Lorentz Center in Leiden. It is intended for a broad audience of scientists (and so does not include full academic referencing), but it may be of interest to specialists.
We study the acceleration of heavy nuclei at SNR shocks taking into account the process of ionization. In the interstellar medium atoms heavier then hydrogen which start the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) are never fully ionized at the moment of injection. We will show that electrons in the atomic shells are stripped during the acceleration process, when the atoms already move relativistically. For typical environment around SNRs the dominant ionization process is the photo-ionization due to the background galactic radiation. The ionization has two interesting consequences. First, because the total photo-ionization time is comparable to the beginning of the Sedov-Taylor phase, the maximum energy which ions can achieve is smaller than the standard result of the DSA, which predict $E_{\max}\propto Z_N$. As a consequence the structure of the CR spectrum in the {\it knee} region can be affected. The second consequence is that electrons are stripped from atoms when they already move relativistically hence they can start the DSA without any pre-acceleration mechanism. We use the linear quasi-stationary approach to compute the spectrum of ions and electrons accelerated after being stripped. We show that the number of these secondary electrons is enough to account for the synchrotron radiation observed from young SNRs, if the amplification of the magnetic field occurs.
The Stellar Imager mission concept is a space-based UV/Optical interferometer designed to resolve surface magnetic activity and subsurface structure and flows of a population of Sun-like stars, in order to accelerate the development and validation of a predictive dynamo model for the Sun and enable accurate long-term forecasting of solar/stellar magnetic activity.
The inspiral and merger of a binary black hole system generally leads to an asymmetric distribution of emitted radiation, and hence a recoil of the remnant black hole directed opposite to the net linear momentum radiated. The recoil velocity is generally largest for comparable mass black holes and particular spin configurations, and approaches zero in the extreme mass ratio limit. It is generally believed that for extreme mass ratios eta<<1, the scaling of the recoil velocity is V {\propto} eta^2, where the proportionality coefficient depends on the spin of the larger hole and the geometry of the system (e.g. orbital inclination). Here we show that for low but nonzero inclination prograde orbits and very rapidly spinning large holes (spin parameter a*>0.9678) the inspiralling binary can pass through resonances where the orbit-averaged radiation-reaction force is nonzero. These resonance crossings lead to a new contribution to the kick (i.e. in addition to the transition/plunge kick), V {\propto} eta^{3/2}. For these configurations and sufficiently extreme mass ratios, this resonant recoil is dominant. While it seems doubtful that the resonant recoil will be astrophysically significant, its existence suggests caution when extrapolating the results of numerical kick results to extreme mass ratios and near-maximal spins.
We explore in detail the prospects of obtaining a four-dimensional de Sitter universe in classical supergravity models with warped and time-independent extra dimensions, presenting explicit cosmological solutions of the $(4+n)$-dimensional Einstein equations with and without a bulk cosmological constant term. For the first time in the literature we show that there may exist a large class of warped supergravity models with a noncompact extra dimension which lead to a finite 4D Newton constant as well as a massless 4D graviton localised on an inflating four-dimensional FLRW universe. This result helps establish that the `no-go' theorem forbidding acceleration in `standard' compactification of string/M-theory on physically compact spaces should not apply to a general class of warped supergravity models that allows at least one noncompact direction. We present solutions for which the size of the radial dimension takes a constant value in the large volume limit, providing an explicit example of spontaneous compactification.
We show that the observed Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background (DGRB), which provides one of the most conservative constraints on models of annihilating weak-scale dark matter particles, can enhance its sensitivity by a factor of 3 to 30 (95% CL) as the Fermi-LAT experiment resolves DGRB contributing blazar sources with five years of observation. For our forecasts, we employ the blazar spectral energy distribution sequence model, which we constrain by the DGRB and blazar multiplicity function.
As an alternative to the LCDM concordance model, Scalar-Tensor-Vector Modified Gravity (MOG) theory reproduces key cosmological observations without postulating the presence of an exotic dark matter component. MOG is a field theory based on an action principle, with a variable gravitational constant and a repulsive vector field with variable range. MOG yields a phenomenological acceleration law that includes strong tensorial gravity partially canceled by a repulsive massive vector force. This acceleration law can be used to model the CMB acoustic spectrum and the matter power spectrum yielding good agreement with observation. A key prediction of MOG is the presence of strong baryonic oscillations, which will be detectable by future surveys. MOG is also consistent with Type Ia supernova data. We also describe on-going research of the coupling between MOG and continuous matter, consistent with the weak equivalence principle and solar system observations.
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We derive the star formation histories of eight dwarf spheroidal (dSph) Milky Way satellite galaxies from their alpha element abundance patterns. Nearly 3000 stars from our previously published catalog (Paper II) comprise our data set. The average [alpha/Fe] ratios for all dSphs follow roughly the same path with increasing [Fe/H]. We do not observe the predicted knees in the [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] diagram, corresponding to the metallicity at which Type Ia supernovae begin to explode. Instead, we find that Type Ia supernova ejecta contribute to the abundances of all but the most metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -2.5) stars. We have also developed a chemical evolution model that tracks the star formation rate, Types II and Ia supernova explosions, and supernova feedback. Without metal enhancement in the supernova blowout, massive amounts of gas loss define the history of all dSphs except Fornax, the most luminous in our sample. All six of the best-fit model parameters correlate with dSph luminosity but not with velocity dispersion, half-light radius, or Galactocentric distance.
We use a coupled model of the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes (BH) to study the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in a cold dark matter universe. The model predicts the BH mass, spin and mass accretion history. BH mass grows via accretion triggered by discs becoming dynamically unstable or galaxy mergers (called the starburst mode) and accretion from quasi-hydrostatic hot gas haloes (called the hot-halo mode). By taking into account AGN obscuration, we obtain a very good fit to the observed luminosity functions (LF) of AGN (optical, soft and hard X-ray, and bolometric) for a wide range of redshifts (0<z<6). The model predicts a hierarchical build up of BH mass, with the typical mass of actively growing BHs increasing with decreasing redshift. Remarkably, despite this, we find downsizing in the AGN population, in terms of the differential growth with redshift of the space density of faint and bright AGN. This arises naturally from the interplay between the starburst and hot-halo accretion modes. The faint end of the LF is dominated by massive BHs experiencing quiescent accretion via a thick disc, primarily during the hot-halo mode. The bright end of the LF, on the other hand, is dominated by AGN which host BHs accreting close to or in excess of the Eddington limit during the starburst mode. The model predicts that the comoving space density of AGN peaks at z~3, similar to the star formation history. However, when taking into account obscuration, the space density of faint AGN peaks at lower redshift (z<2) than that of bright AGN (z~2-3). This implies that the cosmic evolution of AGN is shaped in part by obscuration.
Massive stellar clusters are the best available laboratories to study the mass function of stars. Based on NTT/SofI near-infrared photometry, we have investigated the properties of the massive young cluster Westerlund 1. From comparison with stellar models, we derived an extinction A_{Ks} = 0.91 +/- 0.05 mag, an age \tau = 4 +/- 0.5 Myr and a distance d = 4.0 +/- 0.2 kpc for Westerlund 1, as well as a total mass of M_{Wd1} = 4.91_{-0.49}^{+1.79} x 10^4 M_{sun}. Using spatially dependent completeness corrections we performed a 2D study of the cluster's IMF and, in addition, of the stellar density profiles of the cluster as a function of mass. From both IMF slope variations and stellar density, we find strong evidence of mass segregation. For a cluster with some 10^5 stars, this is not expected at such a young age as the result of two-body relaxation alone. We also confirm previous findings on the elongation of Westerlund 1; assuming an elliptical density profile, we found an axis ratio of a:b = 3:2. Rapid mass segregation and elongation could be well explained as the results of subclusters merging during the formation of Westerlund 1.
Most studies of Non-Gaussianity (NG) in the CMB data rely on moment based approaches that depend on the study of bispectrum or its higher order analogs of multispectra. In contrast, the studies that use the Minkowski functionals (MF) depend on morphological characteristics of the observed fields. The two approaches are complementary. We show how the topological statistics such as MFs can be computed from real data sets in the presence of a mask and inhomogeneous noise by using methods for estimation of skew-spectrum. We exploit the fact that the computation of MF at the lowest order is equivalent to the estimation of three different skewness parameters. These one-point estimates are volume averages of third order statistics of fields that are constructed from the original data. Generalizing the concept of ordinary skew-spectra we define a sets of three different skew-spectra which specify the MFs at lowest order in non-Gaussianity and can probe them as a function of harmonic number. These spectra can also be studied independently to provide a valuable check for any cross-contamination from the secondaries or foreground sources. The Pseudo-C_l (PCL) approach is employed to estimate the generalized skew-spectra associated with the MFs in the presence of mask from noisy data. The variance for such estimators is analyzed. The results presented here are generic and can be useful in analyzing data from other projected surveys such as from the weak lensing surveys or from the future Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) surveys. Generalization to 3D can be done in a straight forward way which will be useful in quantifying the topology of galaxy distributions. We also go beyond the lowest order in skew-spectra and discuss the extraction of four generalized kurtosis and the corresponding kurt-spectra that are relevant in studying the next order corrections.
In this paper, we propose a method to study the nature of resonant relaxation in near-Keplerian systems. Our technique is based on measuring the fractal dimension of the angular momentum trails and we use it to analyze the outcome of N-body simulations. With our method, we can reliably determine the timescale for resonant relaxation, as well as the rate of change of angular momentum in this regime. We find that growth of angular momentum is more rapid than random walk, but slower than linear growth. We also determine the presence of long term correlations, arising from the bounds on angular momentum growth. We develop a toy model that reproduces all essential properties of angular momentum evolution.
We analyze photometric data in SDSS-DR7 to infer statistical properties of faint satellites associated to isolated bright galaxies (M_r<-20.5) in the redshift range 0.03<z<0.1. The mean projected radial number density profile shows an excess of companions in the photometric sample around the primaries, that extends up to ~800 kpc. Given this overdensity signal, a suitable background subtraction method is used to study the statistical properties of the population of satellites, down to magnitude M_r=-14.5. We have also considered a colour cut consistent with the observed colours of spectroscopic satellites in nearby galaxies so that distant redshifted galaxies do not dominate the statistics. We have tested the implementation of this procedure using a mock catalogue derived from the Millenium simulation. We find that the method is effective in reproducing the true projected radial satellite number density profile and luminosity distributions, providing confidence in the results derived from SDSS data. We find that the spatial extent of satellite systems is larger for bright, red primaries. Also, we find a larger spatial distribution of blue satellites. For the different samples analyzed, we derive the average number of satellites and their luminosity distributions down to M_r=-14.5. The mean number of satellites depends very strongly on host luminosity. Bright primaries (M_r<-21.5) host on average ~7 satellites with M_r<-14.5. This number is reduced for primaries with lower luminosities (-21.5<M_r<-20.5) which have less than $2$ satellites per host. We provide Schechter fits to the luminosity distributions of satellites where the resulting faint end slopes lie in the range -1. to -1.3, consistent with the universal value. This shows that satellites of bright primaries lack an excess population of faint objects, in agreement with the results in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
Several neutral hydrogen (HI) cavities have been detected in the Milky Way and other nearby star forming galaxies. It has been suggested that at least a fraction of them may be expanding supershells driven by the combined mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae occurring in an OB association. Yet most extragalactic HI holes have neither a demonstrated expansion velocity, nor an identified OB association inside them. In this work, we report on the discovery of an unbroken expanding HI supershell in the nearby spiral galaxy M101, with an UV emitting OB association inside it. We measure its size (500 pc) and expansion velocity (20 km/s) by identifying both its approaching and receding components in the position-velocity space, using 21 cm emission spectroscopy. This provides us with an ideal system to test the theory of supershells driven by the mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae. The UV emission of the cluster inside the supershell is compared with simulated spectral energy distribution of synthetic clusters of the appropriate age (~15 Myr). The observed UV flux is found to be consistent with an association of the appropriate mass (~10^5 Solar Mass) and age required by the energy budget of the supershell. Properties of this supershell and another previously reported in the same galaxy are used to infer its neutral hydrogen scale height and mean neutral hydrogen density in the disk. The presence of another UV emitting stellar association in over-dense swept up gas is discussed in the context of propagating star formation.
Using high resolution UVES spectra of the eclipsing Post Common Envelope Binary QS Vir we detect material along the line of sight to the white dwarf at orbital phase $\phi=0.16$. We ascribe this to a stellar prominence originating from the M dwarf secondary star which passes in front of the white dwarf at this phase. This creates sharp absorption features in the hydrogen Balmer series and Ca II H and K lines. The small size of the white dwarf allows us to place tight constraints on the column density of hydrogen in the n=2 level of log_(10)(N_2) = 14.10 +/- 0.03 cm^(-2) and, assuming local thermodynamical equilibrium, the temperature of the prominence material of ~9000K. The prominence material is at least 1.5 stellar radii from the surface of the M dwarf. The location of the prominence is consistent with emission features previously interpreted as evidence for Roche lobe overflow in the system. We also detect Mg II 4481A absorption from the white dwarf. The width of the Mg II line indicates that the white dwarf is not rapidly rotating, in contrast to previous work, hence our data indicate that QS Vir is a pre-cataclysmic binary, yet to initiate mass transfer, rather than a hibernating cataclysmic variable as has been suggested.
We discuss strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves from merging of massive black hole binaries in the context of the LISA mission. Detection of multiple events would provide invaluable information on competing theories of gravity, evolution and formation of structures and, with complementary observations, constraints on H_0 and other cosmological parameters. Most of the optical depth for lensing is provided by intervening massive galactic halos, for which wave optics effects are negligible. Probabilities to observe multiple events are sizable for a broad range of formation histories. For the most optimistic models, up to 4 multiple events with a signal to noise ratio >= 8 are expected in a 5-year mission. Chances are significant even for conservative models with either light (<= 60%) or heavy (<= 40%) seeds. Due to lensing amplification, some intrinsically too faint signals are brought over threshold (<= 2 per year).
(Abridged) Approximately 1% of low redshift (z<0.3) optically-selected type 2 AGNs show a double-peaked [OIII] narrow emission line profile in their spatially-integrated spectra. Such features are usually interpreted as due either to kinematics, such as biconical outflows and/or disk rotation of the narrow line region (NLR) around single black holes, or to the relative motion of two distinct NLRs in a merging pair of AGNs. Here we report follow-up near infrared (NIR) imaging and optical slit spectroscopy of 31 double-peaked [OIII] type 2 AGNs drawn from the SDSS parent sample presented in Liu et al (2010). These data reveal a mixture of origins for the double-peaked feature. Roughly 10% of our objects are best explained by binary AGNs at (projected) kpc-scale separations, where two stellar components with spatially coincident NLRs are seen. ~50% of our objects have [OIII] emission offset by a few kpc, corresponding to the two velocity components seen in the SDSS spectra, but there are no corresponding double stellar components seen in the NIR imaging. For those objects with sufficiently high quality slit spectra, we see velocity and/or velocity dispersion gradients in [OIII] emission, suggestive of the kinematic signatures of a single NLR. The remaining ~40% of our objects are ambiguous, and will need higher spatial resolution observations to distinguish between the two scenarios. Our observations therefore favor the kinematics scenario with a single AGN for the majority of these double-peaked [OIII] type 2 AGNs. We emphasize the importance of combining imaging and slit spectroscopy in identifying kpc binary AGNs, i.e., in no cases does one of these alone allow an unambiguous identification. We estimate that ~ 0.2-1% of the z<0.3 type 2 AGNs are kpc-scale binary AGNs of comparable luminosities, with a relative orbital velocity >~150 km/s.
We report on the gamma-ray activity of the blazar Mrk 501 during the first 480 days of Fermi operation. We find that the average LAT gamma-ray spectrum of Mrk 501 can be well described by a single power-law function with a photon index of 1.78 +/- 0.03. While we observe relatively mild flux variations with the Fermi-LAT (within less than a factor of 2), we detect remarkable spectral variability where the hardest observed spectral index within the LAT energy range is 1.52 +/- 0.14, and the softest one is 2.51 +/- 0.20. These unexpected spectral changes do not correlate with the measured flux variations above 0.3GeV. In this paper, we also present the first results from the 4.5-month-long multifrequency campaign (2009 March 15 - August 1) on Mrk 501, which included the VLBA, Swift, RXTE, MAGIC and VERITAS, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign. The average spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 is well described by the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. In the framework of this model, we find that the dominant emission region is characterized by a size <~ 0.1 pc (comparable within a factor of few to the size of the partially-resolved VLBA core at 15-43 GHz), and that the total jet power (~10^{44} erg s^{-1}) constitutes only a small fraction (~10^{-3}) of the Eddington luminosity. The energy distribution of the freshly-accelerated radiating electrons required to fit the time-averaged data has a broken power-law form in the energy range 0.3GeV-10TeV, with spectral indices 2.2 and 2.7 below and above the break energy of 20GeV. We argue that such a form is consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of the energy dissipation within the dominant emission zone of Mrk 501 is due to relativistic, proton-mediated shocks.
To take full advantage of the September 2008 opposition passage of the M-type asteroid (216) Kleopatra, we have used near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the W.M. Keck II telescope to capture unprecedented high resolution images of this unusual asteroid. Our AO observations with the W.M. Keck II telescope, combined with Spitzer/IRS spectroscopic observations and past stellar occultations, confirm the value of its IRAS radiometric radius of 67.5 km as well as its dog-bone shape suggested by earlier radar observations. Our Keck AO observations revealed the presence of two small satellites in orbit about Kleopatra (see Marchis et al., 2008). Accurate measurements of the satellite orbits over a full month enabled us to determine the total mass of the system to be 4.64+/-0.02 10^18 Kg. This translates into a bulk density of 3.6 +/-0.4 g/cm3, which implies a macroscopic porosity for Kleopatra of ~ 30-50%, typical of a rubble-pile asteroid. From these physical characteristics we measured its specific angular momentum, very close to that of a spinning equilibrium dumbbell.
One of our closest neighbours, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) has been the subject of numerous large area studies across the entire spectrum, but so far full-disk radio surveys have been conducted only at low resolution. The new wide-field capabilities of the DiFX software correlator present the possibility of imaging the entire primary beam of a VLBI array, thus enabling a high resolution wide-field study of the entire galaxy. Using the VLBA and EVN, pilot observations of M31 have been carried out with the aim of using these new wide-field techniques to characterise the population of compact components at VLBI resolution both within and behind one of our nearest neighbours. This contribution describes the observations carried out, the preliminary processing and first results.
We show how pulsar observations may be used to construct a time standard that is independent of terrestrial time standards. The pulsar time scale provides a method to determine the stability of terrestrial time standards over years to decades. Here, we summarise the method, provide initial results and discuss the possibilities and limitations of our pulsar time scale.
We apply a stellar population synthesis code to the spectra of a large sample of SDSS galaxies to classify these according to their activity (using emission-line diagnostic diagrams), environment (using catalogues of isolated and cluster galaxies), and using parameters that correlate with their morphology.
This chapter describes how astronomical imaging survey data have become a vital part of modern astronomy, how these data are archived and then served to the astronomical community through on-line data access portals. The Virtual Observatory, now under development, aims to make all these data accessible through a uniform set of interfaces. This chapter also describes the scientific need for one common image processing task, that of composing individual images into large scale mosaics and introduces Montage as a tool for this task. Montage, as distributed, can be used in four ways: as a single thread/process on a single CPU, in parallel using MPI to distribute similar tasks across a parallel computer, in parallel using grid tools (Pegasus/DAGMan) to distributed tasks across a grid, or in parallel using a script-driven approach (Swift). An on-request web based Montage service is available for users who do not need to build a local version. We also introduce some work on a new scripted version of Montage, which offers ease of customization for users. Then, we discuss various ideas where Web 2.0 technologies can help the Montage community.
The aim of this study is to make a bibliometric comparison of the performance of research astronomers in the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) with astronomers elsewhere by using the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). We use various indices for bibliometric performance for a sample of NOVA astronomers to compare to samples of astronomers worldwide, and from the United States. We give much weight to normalising bibliometric measures by number of authors, and number of years since first publication. In particular we calculate the `Hirsh-index' normalized to number of authors and for first-author papers. Secondly, we consider the results of the 'Nederlands Observatorium van Wetenschap en Technologie' (NOWT; Netherlands Observatory of Science and Technology), which regularly publishes a report 'Science and Technology Indicators'. We reproduce those results using publication lists from institutions in the Netherlands, again using ADS, and examine and discuss the conclusions and indications in these reports. We find that the NOVA researchers perform much better in bibliometric measures than samples drawn from IAU or AAS membership lists. A more suitable comparison is one with the (tenured) staff of the top-15 US institutions and there the NOVA staff performs in these respects as good or almost as good as that of American top institutes. From a citation analysis through the use of ADS we conclude that the impact ratio of Dutch astronomical publications is rising which is opposite to what is reported by NOWT. This difference is most likely caused by a better separation of astronomy and physics in ADS than in World of Knowledge. ADS probably finds more citations in conference proceedings, while the inclusion of citations to articles with their pre-print identifier could also help explain the difference (especially since the citation windows in the reports are short).
[Abridged]. Here, we report on the discovery of the galaxy counterpart of the z_abs=2.58 DLA on the line-of-sight to the z=3.07 quasar SDSS J091826.16+163609.0. The galaxy counterpart of the DLA is detected in the OIII 5007 and OII 3726,3729 emission lines redshifted into the NIR at an impact parameter of 16 kpc. Ly-alpha emission is not detected. The upper limit implies that Ly-alpha emission from this galaxy is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude. The DLA is amongst the most metal-rich DLAs studied so far at comparable redshifts. We find evidence for substantial depletion of refractory elements onto dust grains. Fitting the main metal line component of the DLA, which is located at z_abs=2.5832 and accounts for at least 85% of the total column density of low-ionisation species, we measure metal abundances from ZnII, SII, SiII, CrII, MnII, FeII and NiII of -0.12, -0.26, -0.46, -0.88, -0.92, -1.03 and -0.78, respectively. In addition, we detect absorption in the Lyman and Werner bands of hydrogen, which represents the first detection of H_2 molecules with X-shooter. The background quasar Q0918+1636 is amongst the reddest QSOs at redshifts 3.02<z<3.12 from the SDSS catalogue. Its UV to NIR spectrum is well fitted by a composite QSO spectrum reddened by SMC/LMC-like extinction curves at z_abs=2.58 with a significant amount of extinction given by A_V = 0.2 mag. This supports previous claims that there may be more metal-rich DLAs missing from current samples due to dust reddening of the background QSOs. The fact that there is evidence for dust both in the central emitting regions of the galaxy (as evidenced by the lack of Ly-alpha emission) and at an impact parameter of 16 kpc (as probed by the DLA) suggests that dust is widespread in this system.
We present results of a survey of Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z=6.5$ which is thought to be the final epoch of the cosmic reionization. In a $\approx530$ arcmin$^2$ deep image of the SSA22 field taken through a narrowband filter NB912 installed in the Subaru/Suprime-Cam, we have found only 14 LAE candidates with $L_{\rm Ly\alpha}\ga3\times10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Even applying the same colour selection criteria, the number density of the LAE candidates is a factor of 3 smaller than that found at the same redshift in the Subaru Deep field (SDF). Assuming the number density in the SDF is a cosmic average, the probability to have a number density equal to or smaller than that found in the SSA22 field is only 7% if we consider fluctuation by the large-scale structure (i.e. cosmic variance) and Poisson error. Therefore, the SSA22 field may be a rare void at $z=6.5$. On the other hand, we have found that the number density of $i'$-drop galaxies with $25.5<z'<26.0$ in the SSA22 field agrees well with that in the SDF. If we consider a scenario that a larger neutral fraction of intergalactic hydrogen, $x_{\rm HI}$, in the SSA22 field obscures a part of Ly$\alpha$ emission, $x_{\rm HI}$ in the SSA22 field should be about 2 times larger than that in the SDF. This can be translated into $x_{\rm HI}<0.9$ at $z=6.5$ in the SSA22 field. A much larger survey area than previous ones is required to overcome a large fluctuation reported here and to obtain a robust constraint on $x_{\rm HI}$ at the end of the reionization from LAEs.
We present first results from the ongoing radio monitoring of SN 2008iz in M82. The VLBI images reveal a shell-like structure with circular symmetry, which expands in a self-similar way. There is strong evidence of a compact component with a steep spectrum at the center of the shell. The expansion curve obtained from our VLBI observations is marginally decelerated (m = 0.89) and can be modeled simultaneously with the available radio light curves. While the results of this simultaneous fitting are not conclusive (i.e. different combinations of values of the magnetic field, CSM density profile, and electron energy distribution, provide fits to the available data with similar quality), additional observations should allow a more robust and detailed modeling.
It is proposed that the variable TeV emission observed in M87 may be produced in a starved magnetospheric region, above which the outflow associated with the VLBA jet is established. It is shown that annihilation of MeV photons emitted by the radiative inefficient flow in the vicinity of the black hole, can lead to injection of seed charges on open magnetic field lines, with a density that depends sensitively on accretion rate, $n_\pm\propto\dot{m}^{4}$. For an accretion rate that corresponds to the inferred jet power, and to a fit of the observed SED by an ADAF model, the density of injected pairs is found to be smaller than the Goldreich-Julian density by a factor of a few. It is also shown that inverse Compton scattering of ambient photons by electrons (positrons) accelerating in the gap can lead to a large multiplicity, $\sim 10^3$, while still allowing photons at energies of up to a few TeV to freely escape the system. The estimated gap width is not smaller than $0.01 r_s$ if the density of seed charges is below the Goldreich-Julian value. The VHE power radiated by the gap can easily account for the luminosity of the TeV source detected by H.E.S.S. The strong dependence of injected pair density on accretion rate should render the gap emission highly intermittent.
We report unfiltered CCD photometry of the first confirmed superoutburst of the recently discovered dwarf nova, SDSS J083931.35+282824.0 in April 2010. From a quiescence magnitude of ~19.8 it rose to 14.0, an outburst amplitude of at least 5.8 magnitudes. Only the plateau phase of the outburst was observed during which superhumps with peak-to-peak amplitude of up to 0.28 magnitudes were present, confirming this to be an SU UMa type dwarf nova. The mean superhump period was Psh = 0.07836(2) during the first 3 days and this subsequently decreased to 0.07800(3) d. Analysis of the data revealed tentative evidence for an orbital period Porb = 0.07531(25) d. The fractional superhump period excess was epsilon = 0.039(6), which is consistent with other dwarf novae of similar orbital period.
Swift X-ray observations of the ~60 day super-soft phase of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi 2006 show the progress of nuclear burning on the white dwarf in exquisite detail. First seen 26 days after the optical outburst, this phase started with extreme variability likely due to variable absorption, although intrinsic white dwarf variations are not excluded. About 32 days later, a steady decline in count-rate set in. NLTE model atmosphere spectral fits during the super-soft phase show that the effective temperature of the white dwarf increases from ~65 eV to ~90 eV during the extreme variability phase, falling slowly after about day 60 and more rapidly after day 80. The bolometric luminosity is seen to be approximately constant and close to Eddington from day 45 up to day 60, the subsequent decline possibly signalling the end of extensive nuclear burning. Before the decline, a multiply-periodic, ~35 s modulation of the soft X-rays was present and may be the signature of a nuclear fusion driven instability. Our measurements are consistent with a white dwarf mass near the Chandrasekhar limit; combined with a deduced accumulation of mass transferred from its binary companion, this leads us to suggest RS Oph is a strong candidate for a future supernova explosion. The main uncertainty now is whether the WD is the CO type necessary for a SN Ia. This may be confirmed by detailed abundance analyses of spectroscopic data from the outbursts.
For magnetized accretion flows with very low accretion rates such as that in the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center, $Sgr A^*$, the mean free path of electrons is much greater than the Larmor radius and is an appreciable fraction of the size of the system. In this case, the thermal conduction is anisotropic and dynamically important. Provided that the magnetic field is weak, magnetothermal instability (MTI) exists . It can amplify the magnetic field and align the field lines with the temperature gradient (i.e., the radial direction). If the accretion flow is differentially rotating, magnetorotational instability (MRI) also exists as well known. In this paper, we investigate the possible interaction of these two instabilities. We study a hot accretion flow around Bondi radius, where the infall timescale of gas is longer than the MTI and MRI growth timescales, thus MTI and MRI coexist. We focus on the interaction between MTI and MRI by examining the magnetic field amplification induced by the two instabilities. We find that MTI and MRI mainly amplify the radial and toroidal components of the magnetic field, respectively. Most importantly, we find that if MTI alone can amplify the magnetic field by a factor of $F_t$ and MRI alone by a factor of $F_r$, when MTI and MRI coexist, the magnetic field can be amplified by a factor of $F_t F_r$. We therefore conclude that MTI and MRI operate separately. The physical reason for the decouple of MTI and MRI is that they are two intrinsically different physical process. We also find that MTI helps to transfer angular momentum, because MTI can enhance the Maxwell stress (by amplifying the magnetic field) and Reynolds stress. Finally, we find that thermal conduction makes the temperature slope flatter by transporting energy outward. This makes the mass accretion rate smaller.
The homogeneous spectroscopic determination of the stellar parameters is a mandatory step for transit detections from space. Knowledge of which population the planet hosting stars belong to places constraints on the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. We used the FLAMES/GIRAFFE multi-fiber instrument at ESO to spectroscopically observe samples of stars in three CoRoT/Exoplanet fields, namely the LRa01, LRc01, and SRc01 fields, and characterize their stellar populations. We present accurate atmospheric parameters, Teff, logg, [M/H], and [$\alpha$/Fe]\ derived for 1227 stars in these fields using the \matisse algorithm. The latter is based on the spectral synthesis methodology and automatically provides stellar parameters for large samples of observed spectra. We trained and applied this algorithm to \flames observations covering the Mg \textsc{i} b spectral range. It was calibrated on reference stars and tested on spectroscopic samples from other studies in the literature. The barycentric radial velocities and an estimate of the Vsini values were measured using cross-correlation techniques. We corrected our samples in the LRc01 and LRa01 CoRoT fields for selection effects to characterize their FGK dwarf stars population, and compiled the first unbiased reference sample for the in-depth study of planet metallicity relationship in these CoRoT fields. We conclude that the FGK dwarf population in these fields mainly exhibit solar metallicity. We show that for transiting planet finding missions, the probability of finding planets as a function of metallicity could explain the number of planets found in the LRa01 and LRc01 CoRoT fields. This study demonstrates the potential of multi-fiber observations combined with an automated classifier such as MATISSE for massive spectral classification.
The morphology of water ice in the interstellar medium is still an open question. Although accretion of gaseous water could not be the only possible origin of the observed icy mantles covering dust grains in cold molecular clouds, it is well known that water accreted from the gas phase on surfaces kept at 10 K forms ice films that exhibit a very high porosity. It is also known that in the dark clouds H2 formation occurs on the icy surface of dust grains and that part of the energy (4.48 eV) released when adsorbed atoms react to form H2 is deposited in the ice. The experimental study described in the present work focuses on how relevant changes of the ice morphology result from atomic hydrogen exposure and subsequent recombination. Using the temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) technique and a method of inversion analysis of TPD spectra, we show that there is an exponential decrease in the porosity of the amorphous water ice sample following D-atom irradiation. This decrease is inversely proportional to the thickness of the ice and has a value of Phi_0 = 2 x 10^16 D-atoms/cm^2 per layer of H2O. We also use a model which confirms that the binding sites on the porous ice are destroyed regardless of their energy depth, and that the reduction of the porosity corresponds in fact to a reduction of the effective area. This reduction appears to be compatible with the fraction of D2 formation energy transferred to the porous ice network. Under interstellar conditions, this effect is likely to be efficient and, together with other compaction processes, provides a good argument to believe that interstellar ice is amorphous and non-porous.
Non-commutative geometry at inflation can give arise to parity violating modulations of the primordial power spectrum. We develop the statistical tools needed for investigating whether these modulations are evident in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The free parameters of the models are two directional parameters (theta,phi), the signal amplitude A*, and a tilt parameter n* that modulates correlation power on different scales. The signature of the model corresponds to a kind of hemispherical power asymmetry. When analyzing the 7-year WMAP data we find a weak signature for a preferred direction in the Q-, V-, and W bands with direction (l,b) = (-225 deg,-25 deg) +- (20 deg, 20 deg), which is close to another previously discovered hemispherical power asymmetry. Although these results are intriguing, the significance of the detection in the W-, V- and Q-bands are nonzero at about 2 sigma, suggesting that the simplest parameterization of the leading correction represents only partially the effects of the space-time non-commutativity possibly responsible for the hemispherical asymmetry. Our constraints on the presence of a dipole are independent of its physical origin and prefer a blue-tilted spectral index n* ~ 0 with the amplitude A* ~ 0.18.
We present a novel numerical method that allows the calculation of nonlinear force-free magnetostatic solutions above a boundary surface on which only the distribution of the normal magnetic field component is given. The method relies on the theory of force-free electrodynamics and applies directly to the reconstruction of the solar coronal magnetic field for a given distribution of the photospheric radial field component. The method works as follows: we start with any initial magnetostatic global field configuration (e.g. zero, dipole), and along the boundary surface we create an evolving distribution of tangential (horizontal) electric fields that, via Faraday's equation, give rise to a respective normal field distribution approaching asymptotically the target distribution. At the same time, these electric fields are used as boundary condition to numerically evolve the resulting electromagnetic field above the boundary surface, modelled as a thin ideal plasma with non-reflecting, perfectly absorbing outer boundaries. The simulation relaxes to a nonlinear force-free configuration that satisfies the given normal field distribution on the boundary. This is different from existing methods relying on a fixed boundary condition - the boundary evolves toward the a priori given one, at the same time evolving the three-dimensional field solution above it. Moreover, this is the first time a nonlinear force-free solution is reached by using only the normal field component on the boundary. This solution is not unique, but depends on the initial magnetic field configuration and on the evolutionary course along the boundary surface. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the formalism of force-free electrodynamics, used very successfully in other astrophysical contexts, is applied to the global solar magnetic field.
We have studied the properties of giant star forming clumps in five z~2 massive star-forming disks with deep SINFONI AO spectroscopy at the ESO VLT. The clumps reside in disk regions where the Toomre Q-parameter is below unity, consistent with their formation from gravitational instability. Broad H{\alpha}/[NII] line wings demonstrate that the clumps are launching sites of powerful galactic winds. The inferred mass outflow rates exceed the star formation rates, in two cases by a factor of six or more. Typical clumps may lose a fraction of their original gas by feedback in a few hundred million years, but may still migrate into the center. The most active clumps may lose much of their mass and disrupt in the disk. The clumps leave a modest imprint on the gas kinematics. Velocity gradients across the clumps are 10 to 40 km/s/kpc, similar to the galactic gradients. Given beam smearing and clump sizes, these gradients may be consistent with significant rotational support in typical clumps. Extreme clumps are not rotationally supported; either they are not virialized, or they are predominantly pressure supported. The velocity dispersion is spatially rather constant and increases only weakly with star formation surface density. The most plausible driver for the large gas turbulence thus is the release of gravitational energy, either at the outer disk/accreting streams interface, and/or by the clump migration within the disk. Spatial variations in the inferred gas phase oxygen abundance are broadly consistent with inside-out growing disks, and/or with inward migration of the clumps.
We consider the amount of angular momentum that thermal photons may carry out of a standard multi-color black hole accretion disc. The timescale on which angular momentum transport via thermal emission takes place is calculated, as a function of the black hole mass M_BH, the accretion rate dM_BH/dt, distance from the black hole r, and the surface density of the disc Sigma(r). We find that this process can be an important mechanism for angular momentum transport; in particular, we estimate an effective alpha parameter for this process of alpha_eff ~ 10 (dM_BH/dt/M_Sun yr^-1)^3/4 (M_BH/10^9 M_Sun)^-1/2 (r/10r_s)^-7/4 (Sigma/10^4 g cm^-2)^-1, where r_s is the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. In the limiting case that thermal emission dominates angular momentum transport, we find a surface density profile that goes roughly as Sigma proportional to r^-3. For accretion at a given fraction of the Eddington rate, we find that angular momentum transport by this process is likely to be more important for accretion onto supermassive black holes than onto stellar mass black holes.
In the last decade we witness an advent of new types of dwarf stellar systems in cluding ultra-compact dwarfs, ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals, and exotic globular clusters, breaking the old simple paradigm for dwarf galaxies and globular clusters. These objects become more intriguing, and understanding of these new findings be comes more challenging. Recently we discovered a new type of large scale structure in the Virgo cluster of galaxies: it is composed of globular clusters. Globular clusters in Virgo are found wandering between galaxies (intracluster globular clusters) as well as in galaxies. These intracluster globular clusters fill a significant fraction in the area of the Virgo cluster and they are dominated by blue globular clusters. These intracluster globular clusters may be closely related with the first dwarf galaxies in the universe.
We present B, V and I CCD light curves for 101 variable stars belonging to the globular cluster NGC2419, 60 of which are new discoveries, based on datasets obtained at the TNG, SUBARU and HST telescopes. The sample includes 75 RR Lyrae stars (of which 38 RRab, 36 RRc and one RRd), one Population II Cepheid, 12 SX Phoenicis variables, 2 DeltaScuti stars, 3 binary systems, 5 long-period variables, and 3 variables of uncertain classification. The pulsation properties of the RR Lyrae variables are close to those of Oosterhoff type II clusters, consistent with the low metal abundance and the cluster horizontal branch morphology,disfavoring (but not totally ruling out) an extragalactic hypotesis for the origin of NGC2419. The observed properties of RR Lyrae and SX Phoenicis stars are used to estimate the cluster reddening and distance, using a number of different methods. Our final value is mo(NGC2419)=19.71+/-0.08mag (D= 87.5+/-3.3kpc), with E(B-V)=0.08+/-0.01mag, [Fe/H]=-2.1dex in the Zinn & West metallicity scale, and a value of Mv that sets mo(LMC)=18.52mag. This value is in good agreement with most recent literature estimates of the distance to NGC 2419.
Although relative errors can readily be calculated, the absolute astrometric accuracy of the source positions in the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC), Version 1.0, is a priori unknown. However, the cross-match with stellar objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) offers the opportunity to compare the apparent separations of the cross-matched pairs with the formally calculated errors. The analysis of these data allowed us to derive a value of 0.16" for the residual absolute astrometric error in CSC positions. This error will be added to the published position errors in the CSC from now on, starting with CSC, Version 1.1.
Since the discovery of brown dwarfs in 1994, and the discovery of dust cloud formation in the latest Very Low Mass Stars (VLMs) and Brown Dwarfs (BDs) in 1996, the most important challenge in modeling their atmospheres as become the understanding of cloud formation and advective mixing. For this purpose, we have developed radiation hydrodynamic 2D model atmosphere simulations to study the formation of forsterite dust in presence of advection, condensation, and sedimentation across the M-L-T VLMs to BDs sequence (Teff = 2800 K to 900 K, Freytag et al. 2010). We discovered the formation of gravity waves as a driving mechanism for the formation of clouds in these atmospheres, and derived a rule for the velocity field versus atmospheric depth and Teff , which is relatively insensitive to gravity. This rule has been used in the construction of the new model atmosphere grid, BT-Settl, to determine the microturbulence velocity, the diffusion coefficient, and the advective mixing of molecules as a function of depth. This new model grid of atmospheres and synthetic spectra has beencomputedfor100,000K>Teff >400K,5.5>logg>-0.5,and[M/H]=+0.5to -1.5, and the reference solar abundances of Asplund et al. (2009). We found that the new solar abundances allow an improved (close to perfect) reproduction of the photo- metric and spectroscopic VLMs properties, and, for the first time, a smooth transition between stellar and substellar regimes -- unlike the transition between the NextGen models from Hauschildt et al. 1999a,b, and the AMES-Dusty models from Allard et al. 2001). In the BDs regime, the BT-Settl models propose an improved explanation for the M-L-T spectral transition. In this paper, we therefore present the new BT-Settl model atmosphere grid, which explains the entire transition from the stellar to planetary mass regimes.
We extend a general-relativistic ideal magneto-hydrodynamical code to include the effects of elasticity. Using this numerical tool we analyse the magneto-elastic oscillations of highly magnetised neutron stars (magnetars). In simulations without magnetic field we are able to recover the purely crustal shear oscillations within an accuracy of about a few per cent. For dipole magnetic fields between 5 x 10^13 and 10^15 G the Alfv\'en oscillations become modified substantially by the presence of the crust. Those quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) split into three families: Lower QPOs near the equator, Edge QPOs related to the last open field line and Upper QPOs at larger distance from the equator. Edge QPOs are called so because they are related to an edge in the corresponding Alfv\'en continuum. The Upper QPOs are of the same kind, while the Lower QPOs are turning-point QPOs, related to a turning point in the continuous spectrum.
Some theoretical models propose that O-B stars form via accretion, in a similar fashion to low-mass stars. Jet-driven molecular outflows play an important role in this scenario, and their study can help to understand the process of high-mass star formation and the different evolutionary phases involved. Observations towards low-mass protostars so far favour an evolutionary picture in which jets are always associated with Class 0 objects while more evolved Class I/II objects show less evidence of powerful jets. The present study aims at checking whether an analogous picture can be found in the high-mass case. The IRAM 30-m telescope (Spain) has been used to perform single-pointing SiO(2-1) and (3-2) observations towards a sample of 57 high-mass molecular clumps in different evolutionary stages. Continuum data at different wavelengths, from mid-IR to 1.2 mm, have been gathered to build the spectral energy distributions of all the clumps and estimate their bolometric luminosities. SiO emission at high velocities, characteristic of molecular jets, is detected in 88% of our sources, a very high detection rate indicating that there is ongoing star formation activity in most of the sources of our sample. The SiO(2-1) luminosity drops with L/M, which suggests that jet activity declines as time evolves. This represents the first clear evidence of a decrease of SiO outflow luminosity with time in a homogeneous sample of high-mass molecular clumps in different evolutionary stages. The SiO(3-2) to SiO(2-1) integrated intensity ratio shows only minor changes with evolutionary state.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a kilometer-scale detector currently under construction at the South Pole. In its final configuration the detector will comprise 5160 Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) deployed on 86 strings between 1.5-2.5 km deep within the ice. While still incomplete, the detector has already recorded tens of billions of cosmic ray muons with a median energy of 20 TeV. This large sample has been used to study the arrival direction distribution of the cosmic rays. We report the observation of an anisotropy in the cosmic rays arrival direction at two different angular scales. The observed large scale anisotropy seems to be a continuation of similar structures observed in the Northern Sky by several experiments. IceCube observes also significant features on the angular scale of $20^{\circ} - 30^{\circ}$ that might be part of the larger scale structure.
V417 Cen is a D'-type symbiotic system surrounded by a faint, extended asymmetric nebula. Optical photometric observations of this object cover last 20 years. They show strong long term modulation with a period of about 1700 days and amplitude about 1.5 mag in V band, in addition to variations with shorter times-scales and much lower amplitudes. In this presentation we discuss possible reasons of these variations.
The galactic central black hole Sgr A* exhibits outbursts of radiation in the
near infrared (so-called IR flares). One model of these events consists in a
hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the hole.
These outbursts can be used as a probe of the central gravitational potential.
One main scientific goal of the second generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY is to
observe these flares astrometrically. Here, the astrometric precision of
GRAVITY is investigated in imaging mode, which consists in analysing the image
computed from the interferometric data. The capability of the instrument to put
in light the motion of a hotspot orbiting on the ISCO of our central black hole
is then discussed.
We find that GRAVITY's astrometric precision for a single star in imaging
mode is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A*. The instrument can
also demonstrate that a body orbiting on the last stable orbit of the black
hole is indeed moving. It yields a typical size of the orbit, if the source is
as bright as m_K=14.
These results show that GRAVITY allows one to study the close environment of
Sgr A*. Having access to the ISCO of the central massive black hole probably
allows constraining general relativity in its strong regime. Moreover, if the
hotspot model is appropriate, the black hole spin can be constrained.
Massive stars end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions. Identifying the progenitor star is a test of stellar evolution and explosion models. Here we show that the progenitor star of the supernova SN 2008bk has now disappeared, which provides conclusive evidence that this was the death of a red supergiant star.
We conduct a survey of numerical simulations to probe the structure and
appearance of non-radiative black hole accretion flows like the supermassive
black hole at the Galactic centre. We find a generic set of solutions, and make
specific predictions for currently feasible rotation measure (RM) observations,
which are accessible to current instruments including the EVLA, GMRT and ALMA.
The slow time variability of the RM is a key quantitative signature of this
accretion flow. The time variability of RM can be used to quantitatively
measure the nature of the accretion flow, and to differentiate models.
Sensitive measurements of RM can be achieved using RM synthesis or using
pulsars.
Our energy conserving ideal magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, which achieve
high dynamical range by means of a deformed-mesh algorithm, stretch from
several Bondi radii to about one thousandth of that radius, and continue for
tens of Bondi times. Magnetized flows which lack outward convection possess
density slopes around -1, almost independent of physical parameters, and are
more consistent with observational constraints than are strongly convective
flows We observe no tendency for the flows to become rotationally supported in
their centres, or to develop steady outflow.
We support these conclusions with formulae which encapsulate our findings in
terms of physical and numerical parameters. We discuss the relation of these
solutions to other approaches. The main potential uncertainties are the
validity of ideal MHD and the absence of a fully relativistic inner boundary
condition. The RM variability predictions are testable with current and future
telescopes.
We discuss the thermodynamic properties of dark energy (DE) with Quintom matter in spinor scenario. (1).Using the Cardy-Verlinde formula, we investigate the conditions of validity of the Generalized Second Law of thermodynamics (GSL) in the four evolutionary phases of Spinor Quintom-B model. We also clarify its relation with three cosmological entropy bounds. (2). We take thermodynamic stability of the combination between Spinor Quintom DE and the generalized Chaplygin Gas (GCG) perfect fluid into account, and we find that in the case of $\beta>0$ and $0<T<T_0$, the system we consider is thermodynamically stable. (3) Making use of the Maxwell Relation and integrability condition, we derive all thermal quantities as functions of either entropy or volume, and present the relation with quantum perturbation stability.
In Ref. [1, 2] a formalism to deal with high-order perturbations of a general spherical background was developed. In this article, we apply it to the particular case of a perfect fluid background. We have expressed the perturbations of the energy-momentum tensor at any order in terms of the perturbed fluid's pressure, density and velocity. In general, these expressions are not linear and have sources depending on lower order perturbations. For the second-order case we make the explicit decomposition of these sources in tensor spherical harmonics. Then, a general procedure is given to evolve the perturbative equations of motions of the perfect fluid for any value of the harmonic label. Finally, with the problem of a spherical collapsing star in mind, we discuss the high-order perturbative matching conditions across a timelike surface, in particular the surface separating the perfect fluid interior from the exterior vacuum.
We discuss several issues related to a recent proposal for defining classical spatial averages to be used in the so-called cosmological backreaction problem. In the large averaging-volume limit all gauge dependence disappears and different averages can be univocally characterized by the observers associated with different scalar fields. The relation between such averaging procedure and the standard one is emphasized and a gauge invariant way to select different observers is presented. For finite averaging volumes we show that, within our proposal, a residual gauge dependence is left, but is suppressed by several effects.
E. Verlinde obtained a generalized formula for the entropy of a conformal field theory. For this we consider a (n+1) dimensional closed radiation dominated FLWR in the context of the holographic principle. In this work we construct a extension of the Cardy-Verlinde formula to positive cosmological constant spaces (dS spaces) with arbitrary topology
Gauge-invariant treatments of general-relativistic higher-order perturbations on generic background spacetime is proposed. After reviewing the general framework of the second-order gauge-invariant perturbation theory, we show the fact that the linear-order metric perturbation is decomposed into gauge-invariant and gauge-variant parts, which was the important premis of this general framework. This means that the development the higher-order gauge-invariant perturbation theory on generic background spacetime is possible. A remaining issue to be resolve is also disscussed.
We present the first stationary, axisymmetric neutron star models with meridional circulation in general relativity. For that purpose, we developed GRNS, a new code based on a fixed point iteration. We find a two-dimensional set of meridional circulation modes, which differ by the number of vortices in the stream lines of the neutron star fluid. For expected maximal meridional circulation velocities of about 1000 km/s, the vortices cause surface deformations of about a percent. The deformations depend on the shape of the vortices close to the surface and increase with the meridional circulation velocity. We also computed models of rotating neutron stars with meridional circulation, where neither the surface rotates nor does the rotation velocity exceed the circulation velocity.
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We derive the star formation histories of eight dwarf spheroidal (dSph) Milky Way satellite galaxies from their alpha element abundance patterns. Nearly 3000 stars from our previously published catalog (Paper II) comprise our data set. The average [alpha/Fe] ratios for all dSphs follow roughly the same path with increasing [Fe/H]. We do not observe the predicted knees in the [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] diagram, corresponding to the metallicity at which Type Ia supernovae begin to explode. Instead, we find that Type Ia supernova ejecta contribute to the abundances of all but the most metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -2.5) stars. We have also developed a chemical evolution model that tracks the star formation rate, Types II and Ia supernova explosions, and supernova feedback. Without metal enhancement in the supernova blowout, massive amounts of gas loss define the history of all dSphs except Fornax, the most luminous in our sample. All six of the best-fit model parameters correlate with dSph luminosity but not with velocity dispersion, half-light radius, or Galactocentric distance.
We use a coupled model of the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes (BH) to study the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in a cold dark matter universe. The model predicts the BH mass, spin and mass accretion history. BH mass grows via accretion triggered by discs becoming dynamically unstable or galaxy mergers (called the starburst mode) and accretion from quasi-hydrostatic hot gas haloes (called the hot-halo mode). By taking into account AGN obscuration, we obtain a very good fit to the observed luminosity functions (LF) of AGN (optical, soft and hard X-ray, and bolometric) for a wide range of redshifts (0<z<6). The model predicts a hierarchical build up of BH mass, with the typical mass of actively growing BHs increasing with decreasing redshift. Remarkably, despite this, we find downsizing in the AGN population, in terms of the differential growth with redshift of the space density of faint and bright AGN. This arises naturally from the interplay between the starburst and hot-halo accretion modes. The faint end of the LF is dominated by massive BHs experiencing quiescent accretion via a thick disc, primarily during the hot-halo mode. The bright end of the LF, on the other hand, is dominated by AGN which host BHs accreting close to or in excess of the Eddington limit during the starburst mode. The model predicts that the comoving space density of AGN peaks at z~3, similar to the star formation history. However, when taking into account obscuration, the space density of faint AGN peaks at lower redshift (z<2) than that of bright AGN (z~2-3). This implies that the cosmic evolution of AGN is shaped in part by obscuration.
Massive stellar clusters are the best available laboratories to study the mass function of stars. Based on NTT/SofI near-infrared photometry, we have investigated the properties of the massive young cluster Westerlund 1. From comparison with stellar models, we derived an extinction A_{Ks} = 0.91 +/- 0.05 mag, an age \tau = 4 +/- 0.5 Myr and a distance d = 4.0 +/- 0.2 kpc for Westerlund 1, as well as a total mass of M_{Wd1} = 4.91_{-0.49}^{+1.79} x 10^4 M_{sun}. Using spatially dependent completeness corrections we performed a 2D study of the cluster's IMF and, in addition, of the stellar density profiles of the cluster as a function of mass. From both IMF slope variations and stellar density, we find strong evidence of mass segregation. For a cluster with some 10^5 stars, this is not expected at such a young age as the result of two-body relaxation alone. We also confirm previous findings on the elongation of Westerlund 1; assuming an elliptical density profile, we found an axis ratio of a:b = 3:2. Rapid mass segregation and elongation could be well explained as the results of subclusters merging during the formation of Westerlund 1.
Most studies of Non-Gaussianity (NG) in the CMB data rely on moment based approaches that depend on the study of bispectrum or its higher order analogs of multispectra. In contrast, the studies that use the Minkowski functionals (MF) depend on morphological characteristics of the observed fields. The two approaches are complementary. We show how the topological statistics such as MFs can be computed from real data sets in the presence of a mask and inhomogeneous noise by using methods for estimation of skew-spectrum. We exploit the fact that the computation of MF at the lowest order is equivalent to the estimation of three different skewness parameters. These one-point estimates are volume averages of third order statistics of fields that are constructed from the original data. Generalizing the concept of ordinary skew-spectra we define a sets of three different skew-spectra which specify the MFs at lowest order in non-Gaussianity and can probe them as a function of harmonic number. These spectra can also be studied independently to provide a valuable check for any cross-contamination from the secondaries or foreground sources. The Pseudo-C_l (PCL) approach is employed to estimate the generalized skew-spectra associated with the MFs in the presence of mask from noisy data. The variance for such estimators is analyzed. The results presented here are generic and can be useful in analyzing data from other projected surveys such as from the weak lensing surveys or from the future Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) surveys. Generalization to 3D can be done in a straight forward way which will be useful in quantifying the topology of galaxy distributions. We also go beyond the lowest order in skew-spectra and discuss the extraction of four generalized kurtosis and the corresponding kurt-spectra that are relevant in studying the next order corrections.
In this paper, we propose a method to study the nature of resonant relaxation in near-Keplerian systems. Our technique is based on measuring the fractal dimension of the angular momentum trails and we use it to analyze the outcome of N-body simulations. With our method, we can reliably determine the timescale for resonant relaxation, as well as the rate of change of angular momentum in this regime. We find that growth of angular momentum is more rapid than random walk, but slower than linear growth. We also determine the presence of long term correlations, arising from the bounds on angular momentum growth. We develop a toy model that reproduces all essential properties of angular momentum evolution.
We analyze photometric data in SDSS-DR7 to infer statistical properties of faint satellites associated to isolated bright galaxies (M_r<-20.5) in the redshift range 0.03<z<0.1. The mean projected radial number density profile shows an excess of companions in the photometric sample around the primaries, that extends up to ~800 kpc. Given this overdensity signal, a suitable background subtraction method is used to study the statistical properties of the population of satellites, down to magnitude M_r=-14.5. We have also considered a colour cut consistent with the observed colours of spectroscopic satellites in nearby galaxies so that distant redshifted galaxies do not dominate the statistics. We have tested the implementation of this procedure using a mock catalogue derived from the Millenium simulation. We find that the method is effective in reproducing the true projected radial satellite number density profile and luminosity distributions, providing confidence in the results derived from SDSS data. We find that the spatial extent of satellite systems is larger for bright, red primaries. Also, we find a larger spatial distribution of blue satellites. For the different samples analyzed, we derive the average number of satellites and their luminosity distributions down to M_r=-14.5. The mean number of satellites depends very strongly on host luminosity. Bright primaries (M_r<-21.5) host on average ~7 satellites with M_r<-14.5. This number is reduced for primaries with lower luminosities (-21.5<M_r<-20.5) which have less than $2$ satellites per host. We provide Schechter fits to the luminosity distributions of satellites where the resulting faint end slopes lie in the range -1. to -1.3, consistent with the universal value. This shows that satellites of bright primaries lack an excess population of faint objects, in agreement with the results in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
Several neutral hydrogen (HI) cavities have been detected in the Milky Way and other nearby star forming galaxies. It has been suggested that at least a fraction of them may be expanding supershells driven by the combined mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae occurring in an OB association. Yet most extragalactic HI holes have neither a demonstrated expansion velocity, nor an identified OB association inside them. In this work, we report on the discovery of an unbroken expanding HI supershell in the nearby spiral galaxy M101, with an UV emitting OB association inside it. We measure its size (500 pc) and expansion velocity (20 km/s) by identifying both its approaching and receding components in the position-velocity space, using 21 cm emission spectroscopy. This provides us with an ideal system to test the theory of supershells driven by the mechanical feedback from multiple supernovae. The UV emission of the cluster inside the supershell is compared with simulated spectral energy distribution of synthetic clusters of the appropriate age (~15 Myr). The observed UV flux is found to be consistent with an association of the appropriate mass (~10^5 Solar Mass) and age required by the energy budget of the supershell. Properties of this supershell and another previously reported in the same galaxy are used to infer its neutral hydrogen scale height and mean neutral hydrogen density in the disk. The presence of another UV emitting stellar association in over-dense swept up gas is discussed in the context of propagating star formation.
Using high resolution UVES spectra of the eclipsing Post Common Envelope Binary QS Vir we detect material along the line of sight to the white dwarf at orbital phase $\phi=0.16$. We ascribe this to a stellar prominence originating from the M dwarf secondary star which passes in front of the white dwarf at this phase. This creates sharp absorption features in the hydrogen Balmer series and Ca II H and K lines. The small size of the white dwarf allows us to place tight constraints on the column density of hydrogen in the n=2 level of log_(10)(N_2) = 14.10 +/- 0.03 cm^(-2) and, assuming local thermodynamical equilibrium, the temperature of the prominence material of ~9000K. The prominence material is at least 1.5 stellar radii from the surface of the M dwarf. The location of the prominence is consistent with emission features previously interpreted as evidence for Roche lobe overflow in the system. We also detect Mg II 4481A absorption from the white dwarf. The width of the Mg II line indicates that the white dwarf is not rapidly rotating, in contrast to previous work, hence our data indicate that QS Vir is a pre-cataclysmic binary, yet to initiate mass transfer, rather than a hibernating cataclysmic variable as has been suggested.
We discuss strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves from merging of massive black hole binaries in the context of the LISA mission. Detection of multiple events would provide invaluable information on competing theories of gravity, evolution and formation of structures and, with complementary observations, constraints on H_0 and other cosmological parameters. Most of the optical depth for lensing is provided by intervening massive galactic halos, for which wave optics effects are negligible. Probabilities to observe multiple events are sizable for a broad range of formation histories. For the most optimistic models, up to 4 multiple events with a signal to noise ratio >= 8 are expected in a 5-year mission. Chances are significant even for conservative models with either light (<= 60%) or heavy (<= 40%) seeds. Due to lensing amplification, some intrinsically too faint signals are brought over threshold (<= 2 per year).
(Abridged) Approximately 1% of low redshift (z<0.3) optically-selected type 2 AGNs show a double-peaked [OIII] narrow emission line profile in their spatially-integrated spectra. Such features are usually interpreted as due either to kinematics, such as biconical outflows and/or disk rotation of the narrow line region (NLR) around single black holes, or to the relative motion of two distinct NLRs in a merging pair of AGNs. Here we report follow-up near infrared (NIR) imaging and optical slit spectroscopy of 31 double-peaked [OIII] type 2 AGNs drawn from the SDSS parent sample presented in Liu et al (2010). These data reveal a mixture of origins for the double-peaked feature. Roughly 10% of our objects are best explained by binary AGNs at (projected) kpc-scale separations, where two stellar components with spatially coincident NLRs are seen. ~50% of our objects have [OIII] emission offset by a few kpc, corresponding to the two velocity components seen in the SDSS spectra, but there are no corresponding double stellar components seen in the NIR imaging. For those objects with sufficiently high quality slit spectra, we see velocity and/or velocity dispersion gradients in [OIII] emission, suggestive of the kinematic signatures of a single NLR. The remaining ~40% of our objects are ambiguous, and will need higher spatial resolution observations to distinguish between the two scenarios. Our observations therefore favor the kinematics scenario with a single AGN for the majority of these double-peaked [OIII] type 2 AGNs. We emphasize the importance of combining imaging and slit spectroscopy in identifying kpc binary AGNs, i.e., in no cases does one of these alone allow an unambiguous identification. We estimate that ~ 0.2-1% of the z<0.3 type 2 AGNs are kpc-scale binary AGNs of comparable luminosities, with a relative orbital velocity >~150 km/s.
We report on the gamma-ray activity of the blazar Mrk 501 during the first 480 days of Fermi operation. We find that the average LAT gamma-ray spectrum of Mrk 501 can be well described by a single power-law function with a photon index of 1.78 +/- 0.03. While we observe relatively mild flux variations with the Fermi-LAT (within less than a factor of 2), we detect remarkable spectral variability where the hardest observed spectral index within the LAT energy range is 1.52 +/- 0.14, and the softest one is 2.51 +/- 0.20. These unexpected spectral changes do not correlate with the measured flux variations above 0.3GeV. In this paper, we also present the first results from the 4.5-month-long multifrequency campaign (2009 March 15 - August 1) on Mrk 501, which included the VLBA, Swift, RXTE, MAGIC and VERITAS, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign. The average spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 is well described by the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. In the framework of this model, we find that the dominant emission region is characterized by a size <~ 0.1 pc (comparable within a factor of few to the size of the partially-resolved VLBA core at 15-43 GHz), and that the total jet power (~10^{44} erg s^{-1}) constitutes only a small fraction (~10^{-3}) of the Eddington luminosity. The energy distribution of the freshly-accelerated radiating electrons required to fit the time-averaged data has a broken power-law form in the energy range 0.3GeV-10TeV, with spectral indices 2.2 and 2.7 below and above the break energy of 20GeV. We argue that such a form is consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of the energy dissipation within the dominant emission zone of Mrk 501 is due to relativistic, proton-mediated shocks.
To take full advantage of the September 2008 opposition passage of the M-type asteroid (216) Kleopatra, we have used near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the W.M. Keck II telescope to capture unprecedented high resolution images of this unusual asteroid. Our AO observations with the W.M. Keck II telescope, combined with Spitzer/IRS spectroscopic observations and past stellar occultations, confirm the value of its IRAS radiometric radius of 67.5 km as well as its dog-bone shape suggested by earlier radar observations. Our Keck AO observations revealed the presence of two small satellites in orbit about Kleopatra (see Marchis et al., 2008). Accurate measurements of the satellite orbits over a full month enabled us to determine the total mass of the system to be 4.64+/-0.02 10^18 Kg. This translates into a bulk density of 3.6 +/-0.4 g/cm3, which implies a macroscopic porosity for Kleopatra of ~ 30-50%, typical of a rubble-pile asteroid. From these physical characteristics we measured its specific angular momentum, very close to that of a spinning equilibrium dumbbell.
One of our closest neighbours, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) has been the subject of numerous large area studies across the entire spectrum, but so far full-disk radio surveys have been conducted only at low resolution. The new wide-field capabilities of the DiFX software correlator present the possibility of imaging the entire primary beam of a VLBI array, thus enabling a high resolution wide-field study of the entire galaxy. Using the VLBA and EVN, pilot observations of M31 have been carried out with the aim of using these new wide-field techniques to characterise the population of compact components at VLBI resolution both within and behind one of our nearest neighbours. This contribution describes the observations carried out, the preliminary processing and first results.
We show how pulsar observations may be used to construct a time standard that is independent of terrestrial time standards. The pulsar time scale provides a method to determine the stability of terrestrial time standards over years to decades. Here, we summarise the method, provide initial results and discuss the possibilities and limitations of our pulsar time scale.
We apply a stellar population synthesis code to the spectra of a large sample of SDSS galaxies to classify these according to their activity (using emission-line diagnostic diagrams), environment (using catalogues of isolated and cluster galaxies), and using parameters that correlate with their morphology.
This chapter describes how astronomical imaging survey data have become a vital part of modern astronomy, how these data are archived and then served to the astronomical community through on-line data access portals. The Virtual Observatory, now under development, aims to make all these data accessible through a uniform set of interfaces. This chapter also describes the scientific need for one common image processing task, that of composing individual images into large scale mosaics and introduces Montage as a tool for this task. Montage, as distributed, can be used in four ways: as a single thread/process on a single CPU, in parallel using MPI to distribute similar tasks across a parallel computer, in parallel using grid tools (Pegasus/DAGMan) to distributed tasks across a grid, or in parallel using a script-driven approach (Swift). An on-request web based Montage service is available for users who do not need to build a local version. We also introduce some work on a new scripted version of Montage, which offers ease of customization for users. Then, we discuss various ideas where Web 2.0 technologies can help the Montage community.
The aim of this study is to make a bibliometric comparison of the performance of research astronomers in the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) with astronomers elsewhere by using the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). We use various indices for bibliometric performance for a sample of NOVA astronomers to compare to samples of astronomers worldwide, and from the United States. We give much weight to normalising bibliometric measures by number of authors, and number of years since first publication. In particular we calculate the `Hirsh-index' normalized to number of authors and for first-author papers. Secondly, we consider the results of the 'Nederlands Observatorium van Wetenschap en Technologie' (NOWT; Netherlands Observatory of Science and Technology), which regularly publishes a report 'Science and Technology Indicators'. We reproduce those results using publication lists from institutions in the Netherlands, again using ADS, and examine and discuss the conclusions and indications in these reports. We find that the NOVA researchers perform much better in bibliometric measures than samples drawn from IAU or AAS membership lists. A more suitable comparison is one with the (tenured) staff of the top-15 US institutions and there the NOVA staff performs in these respects as good or almost as good as that of American top institutes. From a citation analysis through the use of ADS we conclude that the impact ratio of Dutch astronomical publications is rising which is opposite to what is reported by NOWT. This difference is most likely caused by a better separation of astronomy and physics in ADS than in World of Knowledge. ADS probably finds more citations in conference proceedings, while the inclusion of citations to articles with their pre-print identifier could also help explain the difference (especially since the citation windows in the reports are short).
[Abridged]. Here, we report on the discovery of the galaxy counterpart of the z_abs=2.58 DLA on the line-of-sight to the z=3.07 quasar SDSS J091826.16+163609.0. The galaxy counterpart of the DLA is detected in the OIII 5007 and OII 3726,3729 emission lines redshifted into the NIR at an impact parameter of 16 kpc. Ly-alpha emission is not detected. The upper limit implies that Ly-alpha emission from this galaxy is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude. The DLA is amongst the most metal-rich DLAs studied so far at comparable redshifts. We find evidence for substantial depletion of refractory elements onto dust grains. Fitting the main metal line component of the DLA, which is located at z_abs=2.5832 and accounts for at least 85% of the total column density of low-ionisation species, we measure metal abundances from ZnII, SII, SiII, CrII, MnII, FeII and NiII of -0.12, -0.26, -0.46, -0.88, -0.92, -1.03 and -0.78, respectively. In addition, we detect absorption in the Lyman and Werner bands of hydrogen, which represents the first detection of H_2 molecules with X-shooter. The background quasar Q0918+1636 is amongst the reddest QSOs at redshifts 3.02<z<3.12 from the SDSS catalogue. Its UV to NIR spectrum is well fitted by a composite QSO spectrum reddened by SMC/LMC-like extinction curves at z_abs=2.58 with a significant amount of extinction given by A_V = 0.2 mag. This supports previous claims that there may be more metal-rich DLAs missing from current samples due to dust reddening of the background QSOs. The fact that there is evidence for dust both in the central emitting regions of the galaxy (as evidenced by the lack of Ly-alpha emission) and at an impact parameter of 16 kpc (as probed by the DLA) suggests that dust is widespread in this system.
We present results of a survey of Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z=6.5$ which is thought to be the final epoch of the cosmic reionization. In a $\approx530$ arcmin$^2$ deep image of the SSA22 field taken through a narrowband filter NB912 installed in the Subaru/Suprime-Cam, we have found only 14 LAE candidates with $L_{\rm Ly\alpha}\ga3\times10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Even applying the same colour selection criteria, the number density of the LAE candidates is a factor of 3 smaller than that found at the same redshift in the Subaru Deep field (SDF). Assuming the number density in the SDF is a cosmic average, the probability to have a number density equal to or smaller than that found in the SSA22 field is only 7% if we consider fluctuation by the large-scale structure (i.e. cosmic variance) and Poisson error. Therefore, the SSA22 field may be a rare void at $z=6.5$. On the other hand, we have found that the number density of $i'$-drop galaxies with $25.5<z'<26.0$ in the SSA22 field agrees well with that in the SDF. If we consider a scenario that a larger neutral fraction of intergalactic hydrogen, $x_{\rm HI}$, in the SSA22 field obscures a part of Ly$\alpha$ emission, $x_{\rm HI}$ in the SSA22 field should be about 2 times larger than that in the SDF. This can be translated into $x_{\rm HI}<0.9$ at $z=6.5$ in the SSA22 field. A much larger survey area than previous ones is required to overcome a large fluctuation reported here and to obtain a robust constraint on $x_{\rm HI}$ at the end of the reionization from LAEs.
We present first results from the ongoing radio monitoring of SN 2008iz in M82. The VLBI images reveal a shell-like structure with circular symmetry, which expands in a self-similar way. There is strong evidence of a compact component with a steep spectrum at the center of the shell. The expansion curve obtained from our VLBI observations is marginally decelerated (m = 0.89) and can be modeled simultaneously with the available radio light curves. While the results of this simultaneous fitting are not conclusive (i.e. different combinations of values of the magnetic field, CSM density profile, and electron energy distribution, provide fits to the available data with similar quality), additional observations should allow a more robust and detailed modeling.
It is proposed that the variable TeV emission observed in M87 may be produced in a starved magnetospheric region, above which the outflow associated with the VLBA jet is established. It is shown that annihilation of MeV photons emitted by the radiative inefficient flow in the vicinity of the black hole, can lead to injection of seed charges on open magnetic field lines, with a density that depends sensitively on accretion rate, $n_\pm\propto\dot{m}^{4}$. For an accretion rate that corresponds to the inferred jet power, and to a fit of the observed SED by an ADAF model, the density of injected pairs is found to be smaller than the Goldreich-Julian density by a factor of a few. It is also shown that inverse Compton scattering of ambient photons by electrons (positrons) accelerating in the gap can lead to a large multiplicity, $\sim 10^3$, while still allowing photons at energies of up to a few TeV to freely escape the system. The estimated gap width is not smaller than $0.01 r_s$ if the density of seed charges is below the Goldreich-Julian value. The VHE power radiated by the gap can easily account for the luminosity of the TeV source detected by H.E.S.S. The strong dependence of injected pair density on accretion rate should render the gap emission highly intermittent.
We report unfiltered CCD photometry of the first confirmed superoutburst of the recently discovered dwarf nova, SDSS J083931.35+282824.0 in April 2010. From a quiescence magnitude of ~19.8 it rose to 14.0, an outburst amplitude of at least 5.8 magnitudes. Only the plateau phase of the outburst was observed during which superhumps with peak-to-peak amplitude of up to 0.28 magnitudes were present, confirming this to be an SU UMa type dwarf nova. The mean superhump period was Psh = 0.07836(2) during the first 3 days and this subsequently decreased to 0.07800(3) d. Analysis of the data revealed tentative evidence for an orbital period Porb = 0.07531(25) d. The fractional superhump period excess was epsilon = 0.039(6), which is consistent with other dwarf novae of similar orbital period.
Swift X-ray observations of the ~60 day super-soft phase of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi 2006 show the progress of nuclear burning on the white dwarf in exquisite detail. First seen 26 days after the optical outburst, this phase started with extreme variability likely due to variable absorption, although intrinsic white dwarf variations are not excluded. About 32 days later, a steady decline in count-rate set in. NLTE model atmosphere spectral fits during the super-soft phase show that the effective temperature of the white dwarf increases from ~65 eV to ~90 eV during the extreme variability phase, falling slowly after about day 60 and more rapidly after day 80. The bolometric luminosity is seen to be approximately constant and close to Eddington from day 45 up to day 60, the subsequent decline possibly signalling the end of extensive nuclear burning. Before the decline, a multiply-periodic, ~35 s modulation of the soft X-rays was present and may be the signature of a nuclear fusion driven instability. Our measurements are consistent with a white dwarf mass near the Chandrasekhar limit; combined with a deduced accumulation of mass transferred from its binary companion, this leads us to suggest RS Oph is a strong candidate for a future supernova explosion. The main uncertainty now is whether the WD is the CO type necessary for a SN Ia. This may be confirmed by detailed abundance analyses of spectroscopic data from the outbursts.
For magnetized accretion flows with very low accretion rates such as that in the supermassive black hole in our Galactic center, $Sgr A^*$, the mean free path of electrons is much greater than the Larmor radius and is an appreciable fraction of the size of the system. In this case, the thermal conduction is anisotropic and dynamically important. Provided that the magnetic field is weak, magnetothermal instability (MTI) exists . It can amplify the magnetic field and align the field lines with the temperature gradient (i.e., the radial direction). If the accretion flow is differentially rotating, magnetorotational instability (MRI) also exists as well known. In this paper, we investigate the possible interaction of these two instabilities. We study a hot accretion flow around Bondi radius, where the infall timescale of gas is longer than the MTI and MRI growth timescales, thus MTI and MRI coexist. We focus on the interaction between MTI and MRI by examining the magnetic field amplification induced by the two instabilities. We find that MTI and MRI mainly amplify the radial and toroidal components of the magnetic field, respectively. Most importantly, we find that if MTI alone can amplify the magnetic field by a factor of $F_t$ and MRI alone by a factor of $F_r$, when MTI and MRI coexist, the magnetic field can be amplified by a factor of $F_t F_r$. We therefore conclude that MTI and MRI operate separately. The physical reason for the decouple of MTI and MRI is that they are two intrinsically different physical process. We also find that MTI helps to transfer angular momentum, because MTI can enhance the Maxwell stress (by amplifying the magnetic field) and Reynolds stress. Finally, we find that thermal conduction makes the temperature slope flatter by transporting energy outward. This makes the mass accretion rate smaller.
The homogeneous spectroscopic determination of the stellar parameters is a mandatory step for transit detections from space. Knowledge of which population the planet hosting stars belong to places constraints on the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. We used the FLAMES/GIRAFFE multi-fiber instrument at ESO to spectroscopically observe samples of stars in three CoRoT/Exoplanet fields, namely the LRa01, LRc01, and SRc01 fields, and characterize their stellar populations. We present accurate atmospheric parameters, Teff, logg, [M/H], and [$\alpha$/Fe]\ derived for 1227 stars in these fields using the \matisse algorithm. The latter is based on the spectral synthesis methodology and automatically provides stellar parameters for large samples of observed spectra. We trained and applied this algorithm to \flames observations covering the Mg \textsc{i} b spectral range. It was calibrated on reference stars and tested on spectroscopic samples from other studies in the literature. The barycentric radial velocities and an estimate of the Vsini values were measured using cross-correlation techniques. We corrected our samples in the LRc01 and LRa01 CoRoT fields for selection effects to characterize their FGK dwarf stars population, and compiled the first unbiased reference sample for the in-depth study of planet metallicity relationship in these CoRoT fields. We conclude that the FGK dwarf population in these fields mainly exhibit solar metallicity. We show that for transiting planet finding missions, the probability of finding planets as a function of metallicity could explain the number of planets found in the LRa01 and LRc01 CoRoT fields. This study demonstrates the potential of multi-fiber observations combined with an automated classifier such as MATISSE for massive spectral classification.
The morphology of water ice in the interstellar medium is still an open question. Although accretion of gaseous water could not be the only possible origin of the observed icy mantles covering dust grains in cold molecular clouds, it is well known that water accreted from the gas phase on surfaces kept at 10 K forms ice films that exhibit a very high porosity. It is also known that in the dark clouds H2 formation occurs on the icy surface of dust grains and that part of the energy (4.48 eV) released when adsorbed atoms react to form H2 is deposited in the ice. The experimental study described in the present work focuses on how relevant changes of the ice morphology result from atomic hydrogen exposure and subsequent recombination. Using the temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) technique and a method of inversion analysis of TPD spectra, we show that there is an exponential decrease in the porosity of the amorphous water ice sample following D-atom irradiation. This decrease is inversely proportional to the thickness of the ice and has a value of Phi_0 = 2 x 10^16 D-atoms/cm^2 per layer of H2O. We also use a model which confirms that the binding sites on the porous ice are destroyed regardless of their energy depth, and that the reduction of the porosity corresponds in fact to a reduction of the effective area. This reduction appears to be compatible with the fraction of D2 formation energy transferred to the porous ice network. Under interstellar conditions, this effect is likely to be efficient and, together with other compaction processes, provides a good argument to believe that interstellar ice is amorphous and non-porous.
Non-commutative geometry at inflation can give arise to parity violating modulations of the primordial power spectrum. We develop the statistical tools needed for investigating whether these modulations are evident in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The free parameters of the models are two directional parameters (theta,phi), the signal amplitude A*, and a tilt parameter n* that modulates correlation power on different scales. The signature of the model corresponds to a kind of hemispherical power asymmetry. When analyzing the 7-year WMAP data we find a weak signature for a preferred direction in the Q-, V-, and W bands with direction (l,b) = (-225 deg,-25 deg) +- (20 deg, 20 deg), which is close to another previously discovered hemispherical power asymmetry. Although these results are intriguing, the significance of the detection in the W-, V- and Q-bands are nonzero at about 2 sigma, suggesting that the simplest parameterization of the leading correction represents only partially the effects of the space-time non-commutativity possibly responsible for the hemispherical asymmetry. Our constraints on the presence of a dipole are independent of its physical origin and prefer a blue-tilted spectral index n* ~ 0 with the amplitude A* ~ 0.18.
We present a novel numerical method that allows the calculation of nonlinear force-free magnetostatic solutions above a boundary surface on which only the distribution of the normal magnetic field component is given. The method relies on the theory of force-free electrodynamics and applies directly to the reconstruction of the solar coronal magnetic field for a given distribution of the photospheric radial field component. The method works as follows: we start with any initial magnetostatic global field configuration (e.g. zero, dipole), and along the boundary surface we create an evolving distribution of tangential (horizontal) electric fields that, via Faraday's equation, give rise to a respective normal field distribution approaching asymptotically the target distribution. At the same time, these electric fields are used as boundary condition to numerically evolve the resulting electromagnetic field above the boundary surface, modelled as a thin ideal plasma with non-reflecting, perfectly absorbing outer boundaries. The simulation relaxes to a nonlinear force-free configuration that satisfies the given normal field distribution on the boundary. This is different from existing methods relying on a fixed boundary condition - the boundary evolves toward the a priori given one, at the same time evolving the three-dimensional field solution above it. Moreover, this is the first time a nonlinear force-free solution is reached by using only the normal field component on the boundary. This solution is not unique, but depends on the initial magnetic field configuration and on the evolutionary course along the boundary surface. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the formalism of force-free electrodynamics, used very successfully in other astrophysical contexts, is applied to the global solar magnetic field.
We have studied the properties of giant star forming clumps in five z~2 massive star-forming disks with deep SINFONI AO spectroscopy at the ESO VLT. The clumps reside in disk regions where the Toomre Q-parameter is below unity, consistent with their formation from gravitational instability. Broad H{\alpha}/[NII] line wings demonstrate that the clumps are launching sites of powerful galactic winds. The inferred mass outflow rates exceed the star formation rates, in two cases by a factor of six or more. Typical clumps may lose a fraction of their original gas by feedback in a few hundred million years, but may still migrate into the center. The most active clumps may lose much of their mass and disrupt in the disk. The clumps leave a modest imprint on the gas kinematics. Velocity gradients across the clumps are 10 to 40 km/s/kpc, similar to the galactic gradients. Given beam smearing and clump sizes, these gradients may be consistent with significant rotational support in typical clumps. Extreme clumps are not rotationally supported; either they are not virialized, or they are predominantly pressure supported. The velocity dispersion is spatially rather constant and increases only weakly with star formation surface density. The most plausible driver for the large gas turbulence thus is the release of gravitational energy, either at the outer disk/accreting streams interface, and/or by the clump migration within the disk. Spatial variations in the inferred gas phase oxygen abundance are broadly consistent with inside-out growing disks, and/or with inward migration of the clumps.
We consider the amount of angular momentum that thermal photons may carry out of a standard multi-color black hole accretion disc. The timescale on which angular momentum transport via thermal emission takes place is calculated, as a function of the black hole mass M_BH, the accretion rate dM_BH/dt, distance from the black hole r, and the surface density of the disc Sigma(r). We find that this process can be an important mechanism for angular momentum transport; in particular, we estimate an effective alpha parameter for this process of alpha_eff ~ 10 (dM_BH/dt/M_Sun yr^-1)^3/4 (M_BH/10^9 M_Sun)^-1/2 (r/10r_s)^-7/4 (Sigma/10^4 g cm^-2)^-1, where r_s is the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. In the limiting case that thermal emission dominates angular momentum transport, we find a surface density profile that goes roughly as Sigma proportional to r^-3. For accretion at a given fraction of the Eddington rate, we find that angular momentum transport by this process is likely to be more important for accretion onto supermassive black holes than onto stellar mass black holes.
In the last decade we witness an advent of new types of dwarf stellar systems in cluding ultra-compact dwarfs, ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals, and exotic globular clusters, breaking the old simple paradigm for dwarf galaxies and globular clusters. These objects become more intriguing, and understanding of these new findings be comes more challenging. Recently we discovered a new type of large scale structure in the Virgo cluster of galaxies: it is composed of globular clusters. Globular clusters in Virgo are found wandering between galaxies (intracluster globular clusters) as well as in galaxies. These intracluster globular clusters fill a significant fraction in the area of the Virgo cluster and they are dominated by blue globular clusters. These intracluster globular clusters may be closely related with the first dwarf galaxies in the universe.
We present B, V and I CCD light curves for 101 variable stars belonging to the globular cluster NGC2419, 60 of which are new discoveries, based on datasets obtained at the TNG, SUBARU and HST telescopes. The sample includes 75 RR Lyrae stars (of which 38 RRab, 36 RRc and one RRd), one Population II Cepheid, 12 SX Phoenicis variables, 2 DeltaScuti stars, 3 binary systems, 5 long-period variables, and 3 variables of uncertain classification. The pulsation properties of the RR Lyrae variables are close to those of Oosterhoff type II clusters, consistent with the low metal abundance and the cluster horizontal branch morphology,disfavoring (but not totally ruling out) an extragalactic hypotesis for the origin of NGC2419. The observed properties of RR Lyrae and SX Phoenicis stars are used to estimate the cluster reddening and distance, using a number of different methods. Our final value is mo(NGC2419)=19.71+/-0.08mag (D= 87.5+/-3.3kpc), with E(B-V)=0.08+/-0.01mag, [Fe/H]=-2.1dex in the Zinn & West metallicity scale, and a value of Mv that sets mo(LMC)=18.52mag. This value is in good agreement with most recent literature estimates of the distance to NGC 2419.
Although relative errors can readily be calculated, the absolute astrometric accuracy of the source positions in the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC), Version 1.0, is a priori unknown. However, the cross-match with stellar objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) offers the opportunity to compare the apparent separations of the cross-matched pairs with the formally calculated errors. The analysis of these data allowed us to derive a value of 0.16" for the residual absolute astrometric error in CSC positions. This error will be added to the published position errors in the CSC from now on, starting with CSC, Version 1.1.
Since the discovery of brown dwarfs in 1994, and the discovery of dust cloud formation in the latest Very Low Mass Stars (VLMs) and Brown Dwarfs (BDs) in 1996, the most important challenge in modeling their atmospheres as become the understanding of cloud formation and advective mixing. For this purpose, we have developed radiation hydrodynamic 2D model atmosphere simulations to study the formation of forsterite dust in presence of advection, condensation, and sedimentation across the M-L-T VLMs to BDs sequence (Teff = 2800 K to 900 K, Freytag et al. 2010). We discovered the formation of gravity waves as a driving mechanism for the formation of clouds in these atmospheres, and derived a rule for the velocity field versus atmospheric depth and Teff , which is relatively insensitive to gravity. This rule has been used in the construction of the new model atmosphere grid, BT-Settl, to determine the microturbulence velocity, the diffusion coefficient, and the advective mixing of molecules as a function of depth. This new model grid of atmospheres and synthetic spectra has beencomputedfor100,000K>Teff >400K,5.5>logg>-0.5,and[M/H]=+0.5to -1.5, and the reference solar abundances of Asplund et al. (2009). We found that the new solar abundances allow an improved (close to perfect) reproduction of the photo- metric and spectroscopic VLMs properties, and, for the first time, a smooth transition between stellar and substellar regimes -- unlike the transition between the NextGen models from Hauschildt et al. 1999a,b, and the AMES-Dusty models from Allard et al. 2001). In the BDs regime, the BT-Settl models propose an improved explanation for the M-L-T spectral transition. In this paper, we therefore present the new BT-Settl model atmosphere grid, which explains the entire transition from the stellar to planetary mass regimes.
We extend a general-relativistic ideal magneto-hydrodynamical code to include the effects of elasticity. Using this numerical tool we analyse the magneto-elastic oscillations of highly magnetised neutron stars (magnetars). In simulations without magnetic field we are able to recover the purely crustal shear oscillations within an accuracy of about a few per cent. For dipole magnetic fields between 5 x 10^13 and 10^15 G the Alfv\'en oscillations become modified substantially by the presence of the crust. Those quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) split into three families: Lower QPOs near the equator, Edge QPOs related to the last open field line and Upper QPOs at larger distance from the equator. Edge QPOs are called so because they are related to an edge in the corresponding Alfv\'en continuum. The Upper QPOs are of the same kind, while the Lower QPOs are turning-point QPOs, related to a turning point in the continuous spectrum.
Some theoretical models propose that O-B stars form via accretion, in a similar fashion to low-mass stars. Jet-driven molecular outflows play an important role in this scenario, and their study can help to understand the process of high-mass star formation and the different evolutionary phases involved. Observations towards low-mass protostars so far favour an evolutionary picture in which jets are always associated with Class 0 objects while more evolved Class I/II objects show less evidence of powerful jets. The present study aims at checking whether an analogous picture can be found in the high-mass case. The IRAM 30-m telescope (Spain) has been used to perform single-pointing SiO(2-1) and (3-2) observations towards a sample of 57 high-mass molecular clumps in different evolutionary stages. Continuum data at different wavelengths, from mid-IR to 1.2 mm, have been gathered to build the spectral energy distributions of all the clumps and estimate their bolometric luminosities. SiO emission at high velocities, characteristic of molecular jets, is detected in 88% of our sources, a very high detection rate indicating that there is ongoing star formation activity in most of the sources of our sample. The SiO(2-1) luminosity drops with L/M, which suggests that jet activity declines as time evolves. This represents the first clear evidence of a decrease of SiO outflow luminosity with time in a homogeneous sample of high-mass molecular clumps in different evolutionary stages. The SiO(3-2) to SiO(2-1) integrated intensity ratio shows only minor changes with evolutionary state.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a kilometer-scale detector currently under construction at the South Pole. In its final configuration the detector will comprise 5160 Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) deployed on 86 strings between 1.5-2.5 km deep within the ice. While still incomplete, the detector has already recorded tens of billions of cosmic ray muons with a median energy of 20 TeV. This large sample has been used to study the arrival direction distribution of the cosmic rays. We report the observation of an anisotropy in the cosmic rays arrival direction at two different angular scales. The observed large scale anisotropy seems to be a continuation of similar structures observed in the Northern Sky by several experiments. IceCube observes also significant features on the angular scale of $20^{\circ} - 30^{\circ}$ that might be part of the larger scale structure.
V417 Cen is a D'-type symbiotic system surrounded by a faint, extended asymmetric nebula. Optical photometric observations of this object cover last 20 years. They show strong long term modulation with a period of about 1700 days and amplitude about 1.5 mag in V band, in addition to variations with shorter times-scales and much lower amplitudes. In this presentation we discuss possible reasons of these variations.
The galactic central black hole Sgr A* exhibits outbursts of radiation in the
near infrared (so-called IR flares). One model of these events consists in a
hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the hole.
These outbursts can be used as a probe of the central gravitational potential.
One main scientific goal of the second generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY is to
observe these flares astrometrically. Here, the astrometric precision of
GRAVITY is investigated in imaging mode, which consists in analysing the image
computed from the interferometric data. The capability of the instrument to put
in light the motion of a hotspot orbiting on the ISCO of our central black hole
is then discussed.
We find that GRAVITY's astrometric precision for a single star in imaging
mode is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius of Sgr A*. The instrument can
also demonstrate that a body orbiting on the last stable orbit of the black
hole is indeed moving. It yields a typical size of the orbit, if the source is
as bright as m_K=14.
These results show that GRAVITY allows one to study the close environment of
Sgr A*. Having access to the ISCO of the central massive black hole probably
allows constraining general relativity in its strong regime. Moreover, if the
hotspot model is appropriate, the black hole spin can be constrained.
Massive stars end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions. Identifying the progenitor star is a test of stellar evolution and explosion models. Here we show that the progenitor star of the supernova SN 2008bk has now disappeared, which provides conclusive evidence that this was the death of a red supergiant star.
We conduct a survey of numerical simulations to probe the structure and
appearance of non-radiative black hole accretion flows like the supermassive
black hole at the Galactic centre. We find a generic set of solutions, and make
specific predictions for currently feasible rotation measure (RM) observations,
which are accessible to current instruments including the EVLA, GMRT and ALMA.
The slow time variability of the RM is a key quantitative signature of this
accretion flow. The time variability of RM can be used to quantitatively
measure the nature of the accretion flow, and to differentiate models.
Sensitive measurements of RM can be achieved using RM synthesis or using
pulsars.
Our energy conserving ideal magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, which achieve
high dynamical range by means of a deformed-mesh algorithm, stretch from
several Bondi radii to about one thousandth of that radius, and continue for
tens of Bondi times. Magnetized flows which lack outward convection possess
density slopes around -1, almost independent of physical parameters, and are
more consistent with observational constraints than are strongly convective
flows We observe no tendency for the flows to become rotationally supported in
their centres, or to develop steady outflow.
We support these conclusions with formulae which encapsulate our findings in
terms of physical and numerical parameters. We discuss the relation of these
solutions to other approaches. The main potential uncertainties are the
validity of ideal MHD and the absence of a fully relativistic inner boundary
condition. The RM variability predictions are testable with current and future
telescopes.
We discuss the thermodynamic properties of dark energy (DE) with Quintom matter in spinor scenario. (1).Using the Cardy-Verlinde formula, we investigate the conditions of validity of the Generalized Second Law of thermodynamics (GSL) in the four evolutionary phases of Spinor Quintom-B model. We also clarify its relation with three cosmological entropy bounds. (2). We take thermodynamic stability of the combination between Spinor Quintom DE and the generalized Chaplygin Gas (GCG) perfect fluid into account, and we find that in the case of $\beta>0$ and $0<T<T_0$, the system we consider is thermodynamically stable. (3) Making use of the Maxwell Relation and integrability condition, we derive all thermal quantities as functions of either entropy or volume, and present the relation with quantum perturbation stability.
In Ref. [1, 2] a formalism to deal with high-order perturbations of a general spherical background was developed. In this article, we apply it to the particular case of a perfect fluid background. We have expressed the perturbations of the energy-momentum tensor at any order in terms of the perturbed fluid's pressure, density and velocity. In general, these expressions are not linear and have sources depending on lower order perturbations. For the second-order case we make the explicit decomposition of these sources in tensor spherical harmonics. Then, a general procedure is given to evolve the perturbative equations of motions of the perfect fluid for any value of the harmonic label. Finally, with the problem of a spherical collapsing star in mind, we discuss the high-order perturbative matching conditions across a timelike surface, in particular the surface separating the perfect fluid interior from the exterior vacuum.
We discuss several issues related to a recent proposal for defining classical spatial averages to be used in the so-called cosmological backreaction problem. In the large averaging-volume limit all gauge dependence disappears and different averages can be univocally characterized by the observers associated with different scalar fields. The relation between such averaging procedure and the standard one is emphasized and a gauge invariant way to select different observers is presented. For finite averaging volumes we show that, within our proposal, a residual gauge dependence is left, but is suppressed by several effects.
E. Verlinde obtained a generalized formula for the entropy of a conformal field theory. For this we consider a (n+1) dimensional closed radiation dominated FLWR in the context of the holographic principle. In this work we construct a extension of the Cardy-Verlinde formula to positive cosmological constant spaces (dS spaces) with arbitrary topology
Gauge-invariant treatments of general-relativistic higher-order perturbations on generic background spacetime is proposed. After reviewing the general framework of the second-order gauge-invariant perturbation theory, we show the fact that the linear-order metric perturbation is decomposed into gauge-invariant and gauge-variant parts, which was the important premis of this general framework. This means that the development the higher-order gauge-invariant perturbation theory on generic background spacetime is possible. A remaining issue to be resolve is also disscussed.
We present the first stationary, axisymmetric neutron star models with meridional circulation in general relativity. For that purpose, we developed GRNS, a new code based on a fixed point iteration. We find a two-dimensional set of meridional circulation modes, which differ by the number of vortices in the stream lines of the neutron star fluid. For expected maximal meridional circulation velocities of about 1000 km/s, the vortices cause surface deformations of about a percent. The deformations depend on the shape of the vortices close to the surface and increase with the meridional circulation velocity. We also computed models of rotating neutron stars with meridional circulation, where neither the surface rotates nor does the rotation velocity exceed the circulation velocity.
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