Recent high-quality photometry of many star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds with ages of 1$\,-\,$2 Gyr revealed main sequence turnoffs (MSTOs) that are significantly wider than can be accounted for by a simple stellar population (SSP). Such extended MSTOs (eMSTOs) are often interpreted in terms of an age spread of several $10^8$ yr, challenging the traditional view of star clusters as being formed in a single star formation episode. Li et al. and Bastian & Niederhofer recently investigated the sub-giant branches (SGBs) of NGC 1651, NGC 1806, and NGC 1846, three star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) that exhibit an eMSTO. They argued that the SGB of these star clusters can be explained only by a SSP. We study these and two other similar star clusters in the LMC, using extensive simulations of SSPs including unresolved binaries. We find that the shapes of the cross-SGB profiles of all star clusters in our sample are in fact consistent with their cross-MSTO profiles when the latter are interpreted as age distributions. Conversely, SGB morphologies of star clusters with eMSTOs are found to be inconsistent with those of simulated SSPs. Finally, we create PARSEC isochrones from tracks featuring a grid of convective overshoot levels and a very fine grid of stellar masses. A comparison of the observed photometry with these isochrones shows that the morphology of the red clump (RC) of such star clusters is also consistent with that implied by their MSTO in the age spread scenario. We conclude that the SGB and RC morphologies of star clusters featuring eMSTOs are consistent with the scenario in which the eMSTOs are caused by a distribution of stellar ages.
The freestreaming of cosmological neutrinos prior to recombination of the baryon-photon plasma alters gravitational potentials and therefore the details of the time-dependent gravitational driving of acoustic oscillations. We report here a first detection of the resulting shifts in the temporal phase of the oscillations, which we infer from their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature power spectrum. The magnitude of the shift is proportional to the fraction of the total radiation density in neutrinos. Parameterizing the shift via an effective number of neutrino species we find $1.9 < N_\nu^{\delta\phi} < 3.4$ at $68\%$ confidence, consistent with the standard model value of $N_{\nu} = 3.046$, and inconsistent with zero.
The cool white dwarf SDSS J124231.07+522626.6 exhibits photospheric absorption lines of 8 distinct heavy elements in medium resolution optical spectra, notably including oxygen. The Teff = 13000 K atmosphere is helium-dominated, but the convection zone contains significant amounts of hydrogen and oxygen. The four most common rock-forming elements (O, Mg, Si, and Fe) account for almost all the accreted mass, totalling at least 1.2e+24 g, similar to the mass of Ceres. The time-averaged accretion rate is 2e+10 g/s, one of the highest rates inferred among all known metal-polluted white dwarfs. We note a large oxygen excess, with respect to the most common metal oxides, suggesting that the white dwarf accreted planetary debris with a water content of ~38 per cent by mass. This star, together with GD 61, GD 16, and GD 362, form a small group of outliers from the known population of evolved planetary systems accreting predominantly dry, rocky debris. This result strengthens the hypothesis that, integrated over the cooling ages of white dwarfs, accretion of water-rich debris from disrupted planetesimals may significantly contribute to the build-up of trace hydrogen observed in a large fraction of helium-dominated white dwarf atmospheres.
The extended Kepler mission, K2, is now providing photometry of new fields every three months in a search for transiting planets. In a recent study, Foreman-Mackey and collaborators presented a list of 36 planet candidates orbiting 31 stars in K2 Campaign 1. In this contribution, we present stellar and planetary properties for all systems. We combine ground-based seeing-limited survey data and adaptive optics imaging with an automated transit analysis scheme to validate 18 candidates as planets and identify 6 candidates as likely false positives. Of particular interest is EPIC 201912552, a bright (K=8.9) M2 dwarf hosting a 2.24 \pm 0.25 Earth radius planet with an equilibrium temperature of 271 \pm 16 K and an orbital period of 33 days. We also present two new open-source software packages that enabled this analysis: isochrones, a flexible tool for fitting theoretical stellar models to observational data to determine stellar properties, and vespa, a new general-purpose procedure to calculate false positive probabilities and statistically validate transiting exoplanets.
In this second paper we present the first Nbody cosmological simulations of strongly coupled Dark Energy models (SCDEW), a class of models that alleviates theoretical issues related to the nature of dark energy (namely the coincidence and the fine tuning problems). SCDEW models assume a strong coupling between Dark Energy (DE) and an ancillary Cold Dark Matter (CDM) component together with the presence of an uncoupled Warm Dark Matter component. The strong coupling between CDM and DE allows us to preserve small scale fluctuations even if the warm particle is quite light (~100 eV). Our large scale simulations show that, for 1e11<M<1e14 Msun, SCDEW haloes exhibit a number density and distribution similar to a standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model, even though they have lower concentration parameters. High resolution simulation of a galactic halo (M~1e12 Msun) shows ~60% less substructures than its LCDM counterpart, but the same cuspy density profile. On the scale of galactic satellites (M~1e9 Msun) SCDEW haloes dramatically differ from LCDM. Due to the high thermal velocities of the WDM component they are almost devoid of any substructures and present strongly cored dark matter density profiles. These density cores extend for several hundreds of parsecs, in very good agreement with Milky Way satellites observations. Strongly coupled models, thanks to their ability to match observations on both large and small scales might represent a valid alternative to a simple LCDM model.
A method for improving the accuracy of hydrodynamical codes that use a moving Voronoi mesh is described. Our scheme is based on a new regularization scheme that constrains the mesh to be centroidal to high precision while still allowing the cells to move approximately with the local fluid velocity, thereby retaining the quasi-Lagrangian nature of the approach. Our regularization technique significantly reduces mesh noise that is attributed to changes in mesh topology and deviations from mesh regularity. We demonstrate the advantages of our method on various test problems, and note in particular improvements obtained in handling shear instabilities, mixing, and in angular momentum conservation. Calculations of adiabatic jets in which shear excites Kelvin Helmholtz instability show reduction of mesh noise and entropy generation. In contrast, simulations of the collapse and formation of an isolated disc galaxy are nearly unaffected, showing that numerical errors due to the choice of regularization do not impact the outcome in this case.
The first direct detection of gravitational waves (GW) by the ground-based interferometers is expected to occur within the next few years. These interferometers will detect the mergers of compact object binaries composed of neutron stars and/or black holes to a fiducial distance of ~200 Mpc and a localization region of ~100 sq. deg. To maximize the science gains from such GW detections it is essential to identify electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. The most promising such counterpart is optical/IR emission powered by the radioactive decay of r-process elements synthesized in the neutron-rich merger ejecta - a "kilonova". Here we present detailed simulated observations that encompass a range of strategies for kilonova searches during GW follow-up. We assess both the detectability of kilonovae and our ability to distinguish them from a wide range of contaminating transients. We find that if pre-existing template images for the localization region are available, then nightly observations to a depth of i=24 mag and z=23 mag are required to achieve a 95% detection rate; observations that commence within 12 hours of trigger will also capture the kilonova peak and provide stronger constraints on the ejecta properties. We also find that kilonovae can be robustly separated from other types of transients utilizing cuts on color (i-z > 0 mag) and rise time (< 4 days). In the absence of a pre-existing template the observations must reach ~1 mag deeper to achieve the same kilonova detection rate, but robust rejection of contaminants can still be achieved. Motivated by the results of our simulations we discuss the expected performance of current and future wide-field telescopes in achieving these observational goals, and find that prior to LSST the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4-m telescope and Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru 8-m telescope offer the best kilonova discovery potential.
About 1/3 of X-ray-luminous clusters show smooth, unpolarized radio emission on ~Mpc scales, known as giant radio halos. One promising model for radio halos is Fermi-II acceleration of seed relativistic electrons by turbulence of the intracluster medium (ICM); Coulomb losses prohibit acceleration from the thermal pool. However, the origin of seed electrons has never been fully explored. Here, we integrate the Fokker-Planck equation of the cosmic ray (CR) electron and proton distributions in a cosmological simulations of cluster formation. For standard assumptions, structure formation shocks lead to a seed electron population which produces too centrally concentrated radio emission. Instead, we present three realistic scenarios that each can reproduce the spatially flat radio emission observed in the Coma cluster: (1) the ratio of injected turbulent energy density to thermal energy density increase significantly with radius, as seen in cosmological simulations. This generates a flat radio profile even if the seed population of CRs is steep with radius. (2) Self-confinement of energetic CR protons can be inefficient, and CR protons may stream at the Alfven speed to the cluster outskirts when the ICM is relatively quiescent. A spatially flat CR proton distribution develops and produces the required population of secondary seed electrons. (3) The CR proton to electron acceleration efficiency K_ep ~ 0.1 is assumed to be larger than in our Galaxy (K_ep ~ 0.01), due to the magnetic geometry at the shock. The resulting primary electron population dominates. Due to their weaker density dependence compared to secondary electrons, these primaries can also reproduce radio observations. These competing non-trivial solutions provide incisive probes of non thermal processes in the high-beta ICM.
We present adaptive optics-assisted integral field spectroscopy around the Ha or Hb lines of 12 gravitationally lensed galaxies obtained with VLT/SINFONI, Keck/OSIRIS and Gemini/NIFS. We combine these data with previous observations and investigate the dynamics and star formation properties of 17 lensed galaxies at z = 1-4. Thanks to gravitational magnification of 1.4 - 90x by foreground clusters, effective spatial resolutions of 40 - 700 pc are achieved. The magnification also allows us to probe lower star formation rates and stellar masses than unlensed samples; our target galaxies feature dust-corrected SFRs derived from Ha or Hb emission of 0.8 - 40Msol/yr, and stellar masses M* ~ 4e8 - 6e10 Msol. All of the galaxies have velocity gradients, with 59% consistent with being rotating discs and a likely merger fraction of 29%, with the remaining 12% classed as 'undetermined.' We extract 50 star-forming clumps with sizes in the range 60pc - 1kpc from the Ha (or Hb) maps, and find that their surface brightnesses and their characteristic luminosities evolve to higher luminosities with redshift. We show that this evolution can be described by fragmentation on larger scales in gas-rich discs, and is likely to be driven by evolving gas fractions.
In this first paper we discuss the linear theory and the background evolution of strongly coupled (SCDEW) models. In these models, today energy density is dominated by Warm Dark Matter which, like baryons,is uncoupled. Dark Energy is a scalar field $\Phi$, whose coupling to an ancillary low-density Cold Dark Matter (CDM) component is an essential model feature. Such coupling, in fact, allows the formation of cosmic structures, in spite of very low WDM particle masses (~100 eV). SCDEW models yield Cosmic Microwave Background and linear Large Scale features substantially indistinguishable from LCDM, but thanks to the very low WDM masses they strongly alleviates LCDM issues on small scales, as confirmed via numerical simulations in the II associated paper. Moreover SCDEW cosmologies significantly ease the coincidence and fine tuning problems of LCDM, and, by using a field theory approach, we also outline possible links with inflationary models. We also discuss a possible fading of the coupling at low redshifts which prevents non linearities on the CDM component. The coupling intensity and the WDM particle mass, being extra parameters in respect to LCDM, are found to be substantially constrained a priori so that, if SCDEW is the underlying cosmology, we expect most data to fit also LCDM predictions.
We develop a formalism for calculating probabilities for the outcomes of stellar dynamical interactions, based on results from $N$-body scattering experiments. We focus here on encounters involving up to six particles and calculate probabilities for direct stellar collisions; however our method is in principle valid for larger particle numbers. Our method relies on the binomial theorem, and is applicable to encounters involving any combination of particle radii. We further demonstrate that our base model is valid to within a few percent for any combination of particle masses, provided the minimum mass ratio is within a factor of a few from unity. This method is particularly suitable for models of collisional systems involving large numbers of stars, such as globular clusters, old open clusters and galactic nuclei, where small subsets of stars may regularly have very close encounters, and the direct integration of all such encounters is computationally expensive. Variations of our method may also be used to treat other encounter outcomes, such as ejections and exchanges.
We combine a large, homogeneous sample of $\sim$3000 local mergers with the Imperial IRAS Faint Source Redshift Catalogue (IIFSCz), to perform a blind far-infrared (FIR) study of the local merger population. The IRAS-detected mergers are mostly ($98\%$) spiral-spiral systems, residing in low density environments, a median FIR luminosity of $10^{11} L_\odot$ (which translates to a median star formation rate of around 15$M_\odot yr^{-1}$). The FIR luminosity -- and therefore the star formation rate -- shows little correlation with group richness and scales with the total stellar mass of the system, with little or no dependence on the merger mass ratio. In particular, minor mergers (mass ratios $<1:3$) are capable of driving strong star formation (between 10 and $173 M_\odot yr^{-1}$) and producing systems that are classified as LIRGs, luminous infrared galaxies ($65\%$ of our LIRGs are minor mergers), with some minor-merging systems being close to the ultra luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) limit. Optical emission line ratios indicate that the AGN fraction increases with increasing FIR luminosity, with all ULIRG mergers having some form of AGN activity. Finally, we estimate that the LIRG-to-ULIRG transition along a merger sequence typically takes place over a relatively short timescale of $\sim$160 Myr.
The observation of gaseous giant planets is of high scientific interest. Although they have been the targets of several spacecraft missions, there still remains a need for continuous ground-based observations. As their atmospheres present fast dynamic environments on various time scales, the availability of time at professional telescopes is neither uniform nor of sufficient duration to assess temporal changes. However, numerous amateurs with small telescopes (of 15-40 cm) and modern hardware and software equipment can monitor these changes daily (within the 360-900nm range). Amateurs are able to trace the structure and the evolution of atmospheric features, such as major planetary-scale disturbances, vortices, and storms. Their observations provide a continuous record and it is not uncommon to trigger professional observations in cases of important events, such as sudden onset of global changes, storms and celestial impacts. For example, the continuous amateur monitoring has led to the discovery of fireballs in Jupiter's atmosphere, providing information not only on Jupiter's gravitational influence but also on the properties and populations of the impactors. Photometric monitoring of stellar occultations by the planets can reveal spatial/temporal variability in their atmospheric structure. Therefore, co-ordination and communication between professionals and amateurs is important. We present examples of such collaborations that: (i) engage systematic multi-wavelength observations and databases, (ii) examine the variability of cloud features over timescales from days to decades, (iii) provide, by ground-based professional and amateur observations, the necessary spatial and temporal resolution of features that will be studied by the interplanetary mission Juno, (iv) investigate video observations of Jupiter to identify impacts of small objects, (v) carry out stellar-occultation campaigns.
It is well-known that galaxy environment has a fundamental effect in shaping its properties. We study the environmental effects on galaxy evolution, with an emphasis on the environment defined as the local number density of galaxies. The density field is estimated with different estimators (weighted adaptive kernel smoothing, 10$^{th}$ and 5$^{th}$ nearest neighbors, Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation) for a K$_{s}<$24 sample of $\sim$190,000 galaxies in the COSMOS field at 0.1$<$z$<$3.1. The performance of each estimator is evaluated with extensive simulations. We show that overall, there is a good agreement between the estimated density fields using different methods over $\sim$2 dex in overdensity values. However, our simulations show that adaptive kernel and Voronoi tessellation outperform other methods. Using the Voronoi tessellation method, we assign surface densities to a mass complete sample of quiescent and star-forming galaxies out to z$\sim$3. We show that at a fixed stellar mass, the median color of quiescent galaxies does not depend on their host environment out to z$\sim$3. We find that the number and stellar mass density of massive ($>$10$^{11}$M$_{\odot}$) star-forming galaxies have not significantly changed since z$\sim$3, regardless of their environment. However, for massive quiescent systems at lower redshifts (z$\lesssim$1.3), we find a significant evolution in the number and stellar mass densities in denser environments compared to lower density regions. Our results suggest that the relation between stellar mass and local density is more fundamental than the color-density relation and that environment plays a significant role in quenching star formation activity in galaxies at z$\lesssim$1.
We present a series of high-resolution (20-2000 Msun, 0.1-4 pc) cosmological zoom-in simulations at z~6 from the Feedback In Realistic Environment (FIRE) project. These simulations cover halo masses 10^9-10^11 Msun and rest-frame ultraviolet magnitude Muv = -9 to -19. These simulations include explicit models of the multi-phase ISM, star formation, and stellar feedback, which produce reasonable galaxy properties at z = 0-6. We post-process the snapshots with a radiative transfer code to evaluate the escape fraction (fesc) of hydrogen ionizing photons. We find that the instantaneous fesc has large time variability (0.01%-20%), while the time-averaged fesc over long time-scales generally remains ~5%, considerably lower than the estimate in many reionization models. We find no strong dependence of fesc on galaxy mass or redshift. In our simulations, the intrinsic ionizing photon budgets are dominated by stellar populations younger than 3 Myr, which tend to be buried in dense birth clouds. The escaping photons mostly come from populations between 3-10 Myr, whose birth clouds have been largely cleared by stellar feedback. However, these populations only contribute a small fraction of intrinsic ionizing photon budgets according to standard stellar population models. We show that fesc can be boosted to high values, if stellar populations older than 3 Myr produce more ionizing photons than standard stellar population models (as motivated by, e.g., models including binaries). By contrast, runaway stars with velocities suggested by observations can enhance fesc by only a small fraction. We show that "sub-grid" star formation models, which do not explicitly resolve star formation in dense clouds with n >> 1 cm^-3, will dramatically over-predict fesc.
Lithium and beryllium are destroyed at different temperatures in stellar interiors. As such, their relative abundances offer excellent probes of the nature and extent of mixing processes within and below the convection zone. We determine Be abundances for a sample of eight solar twins for which Li abundances have previously been determined. The analyzed solar twins span a very wide range of age, 0.5-8.2 Gyr, which enables us to study secular evolution of Li and Be depletion. We gathered high-quality UVES/VLT spectra and obtained Be abundances by spectral synthesis of the Be II 313 nm doublet. The derived beryllium abundances exhibit no significant variation with age. The more fragile Li, however, exhibits a monotonically decreasing abundance with increasing age. Therefore, relatively shallow extra mixing below the convection zone is necessary to simultaneously account for the observed Li and Be behavior in the Sun and solar twins.
We present the latest development of the disk gravitational instability and fragmentation model, originally introduced by us to explain episodic accretion bursts in the early stages of star formation. Using our numerical hydrodynamics model with improved disk thermal balance and star-disk interaction, we computed the evolution of protostellar disks formed from the gravitational collapse of prestellar cores. In agreement with our previous studies, we find that cores of higher initial mass and angular momentum produce disks that are more favorable to gravitational instability and fragmentation, while a higher background irradiation and magnetic fields moderate the disk tendency to fragment. The protostellar accretion in our models is time-variable, thanks to the nonlinear interaction between different spiral modes in the gravitationally unstable disk, and can undergo episodic bursts when fragments migrate onto the star owing to the gravitational interaction with other fragments or spiral arms. Most bursts occur in the partly embedded Class I phase, with a smaller fraction taking place in the deeply embedded Class 0 phase and a few possible bursts in the optically visible Class II phase. The average burst duration and mean luminosity are found to be in good agreement with those inferred from observations of FU-Orionis-type eruptions. The model predicts the existence of two types of bursts: the isolated ones, showing well-defined luminosity peaks separated with prolonged periods (~ 10^4 yr) of quiescent accretion, and clustered ones, demonstrating several bursts occurring one after another during just a few hundred years. Finally, we estimate that 40\%--70\% of the star-forming cores can display bursts after forming a star-disk system.
With the installation of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, measurements of the metal content of the low redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) are now available. Using a new grid-based model for diffuse gas coupled to the SAGE semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we examine the impact of supernova feedback on the pollution of the IGM. We consider different assumptions for the reheating and ejection of gas by supernovae and their dependence on galaxy circular velocity and gas surface density. Where metals are present, we find the most likely metallicity to be $-1.5 < $log$_{10}$(Z/Z$_{\odot}$)$< -1.0$ at $z = 0$, consistent with both observations and more sophisticated hydrodynamic simulations. Our model predicts that the regions of the IGM with the highest metallicities will be near galaxies with M$_{\star} \sim 10^{10.5}h^{-1}$M$_{\odot}$ and in environments of densities $\sim 10 \times$ the mean. We also find that 90% of IGM metals at $z = 0$ are ejected by galaxies with stellar masses less than $10^{10.33}h^{-1}$M$_{\odot}$.
Young, fast-rotating neutron stars are promising candidate sources for the production of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The interest in this model has recently been boosted by the latest chemical composition measurements of cosmic rays, that seem to show the presence of a heavy nuclear component at the highest energies. Neutrons stars, with their metal-rich surfaces, are potentially interesting sources of such nuclei, but some open issues remain: 1) is it possible to extract these nuclei from the star's surface? 2) Do the nuclei survive the severe conditions present in the magnetosphere of the neutron star? 3) What happens to the surviving nuclei once they enter the wind that is launched outside the light cylinder? In this paper we address these issues in a quantitative way, proving that for the most reasonable range of neutron star surface temperatures ($T<10^7\,$K), a large fraction of heavy nuclei survive photo-disintegration losses. These processes, together with curvature losses and acceleration in the star's electric potential, lead to injection of nuclei with a chemical composition that is mixed, even if only iron is extracted from the surface. We show that under certain conditions the chemical composition injected into the wind region is compatible with that required in previous work based on purely phenomenological arguments (typically $\sim 50\%$ protons, $\sim 30\%$ CNO and $\sim 20\%$ Fe), and provides a reasonable explanation of the mass abundance inferred from ultra high energy data.
We investigate the nature of dissipative instability at the boundary (seen here as tangential discontinuity) between the viscous corona and the partially ionised prominence plasma in the incompressible limit. The importance of the partial ionisation is investigated in terms of the ionisation fraction. Matching the solutions for the transversal component of the velocity and total pressure at the interface between the prominence and coronal plasmas, we derive a dispersion relation whose imaginary part describes the evolution of the instability. Results are obtained in the limit of weak dissipation. Using simple analytical methods, we show that dissipative instabilities appear for flow speeds that are lower than the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability threshold. While viscosity tends to destabilise the plasma, the effect of partial ionisation (through the Cowling resistivity) will act towards stabilising the interface. For ionisation degrees closer to a neutral gas the interface will be unstable for larger values of equilibrium flow. The same principle is assumed when studying the appearance of instability at the interface between prominences and dark plumes. The unstable mode appearing in this case has a very small growth rate and dissipative instability cannot explain the appearance of flows in plumes. The present study improves our understanding of the complexity of dynamical processes at the interface of solar prominences and solar corona, and the role partial ionisation can have on the stability of the plasma. Our results clearly show that the problem of partial ionisation introduces new aspects of plasma stability with consequences on the evolution of solar prominences.
We consider the structure of the magnetic fields inside the neutron stars in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity. In order to construct the magnetic fields, we derive the relativistic Grad-Shafranov equation in EiBI, and numerically determine the magnetic distribution in such a way that the interior magnetic fields should be connected to the exterior distribution. Then, we find that the magnetic distribution inside the neutron stars in EiBI is qualitatively similar to that in general relativity, where the deviation of magnetic distribution in EiBI from that in general relativity is almost comparable to uncertainty due to the equation of state (EOS) for the neutron star matter. However, we also find that the magnetic fields in the crust region are almost independent of the coupling constant in EiBI, which suggests a possibility to obtain the information about the crust EOS independently of the gravitational theory via the observations of the phenomena associated with the crust region. In any case, since the imprint of EiBI gravity on the magnetic fields is weak, the magnetic fields could be a poor probe of gravitational theories, considering many magnetic uncertainties.
Congress mandated NASA to find 90% of near-Earth objects (NEO) with sizes over 140m that are potentially hazardous to the Earth by the year 2020. After an in-depth look at a number of alternative approaches, the National Research Council (NRC) concluded in 2010 that this goal was nearly impossible to reach by 2020. In this paper, we present a new space mission concept that is capable of addressing the challenges of this Congressional mandate. The proposed mission concept relies on two emerging technologies: the technique of synthetic tracking to detect NEOs and the new generation of small and capable interplanetary spacecraft. Synthetic tracking is a technique that de-streaks asteroid images by taking multiple fast exposures. With synthetic tracking, a 600 sec observation with a 10cm telescope, which can fit in a CubeSat, can detect a 20.5 mag moving object without losing sensitivity from streaking. Our primary science objective is to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize 90% of NEAs of H=22 mag (diameter of 140m) that could impact the Earth. We show that five 9U CubeSats equipped with a 10 cm synthetic tracking camera placed in solar orbit to form a constellation could achieve this objective in ~3 years of observing time. Furthermore, our mission will be able to address the goals of the Congressional mandate at a cost of ~10% compared to that of the space missions studied in the NRC 2010 report.
In anticipation of the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system by NASA's New Horizons mission, we propose naming conventions and example names for surface features on Pluto and its satellites (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, Styx) and names for newly discovered satellites.
We present results of a ground-based survey for Cepheid variables in NGC 4258. This galaxy plays a key role in the Extragalactic Distance Scale due to its very precise and accurate distance determination via VLBI observations of water masers. We imaged two fields within this galaxy using the Gemini North telescope and GMOS, obtaining 16 epochs of data in the SDSS gri bands over 4 years. We carried out PSF photometry and detected 94 Cepheids with periods between 7 and 127 days, as well as an additional 215 variables which may be Cepheids or Population II pulsators. We used the Cepheid sample to test the absolute calibration of theoretical gri Period-Luminosity relations and found good agreement with the maser distance to this galaxy. The expected data products from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) should enable Cepheid searches out to at least 10 Mpc.
The magnetic activity of solar-type stars generally increases with stellar rotation rate. The increase, however, saturates for fast rotation. The Babcock-Leighton mechanism of stellar dynamos saturates as well when the mean tilt-angle of active regions approaches ninety degrees. Saturation of magnetic activity may be a consequence of this property of the Babcock-Leighton mechanism. Stellar dynamo models with a tilt-angle proportional to the rotation rate are constructed to probe this idea. Two versions of the model - treating the tilt-angles globally and using Joy's law for its latitude dependence - are considered. Both models show a saturation of dynamo-generated magnetic flux at high rotation rates. The model with latitude-dependent tilt-angles shows also a change in dynamo regime in the saturation region. The new regime combines a cyclic dynamo at low latitudes with an (almost) steady polar dynamo.
To simulate the interaction of cosmic rays with the Earth atmosphere requires highly complex computational resources and several statistical techniques have been developed to simplify those calculations. It is common to implement the thinning algorithms to reduce the number of secondary particles by assigning weights to representative particles in the evolution of the cascade. However, since this is a compression method with information loss, it is required to recover the original flux of secondary particles without introduce artificial biases. In this work we present the preliminary results of our version of the de-thinning algorithm for the reconstruction of thinned simulations of extensive air showers initiated by cosmic rays and photons in the energy range $10^{15} < E/\mathrm{eV} < 10^{17}$.
Our Sun, primarily composed of ionized hydrogen and helium, has a surface temperature of 5777~K and a radius $R_\odot \approx 696,000$ km. In the outer $R_\odot/3$, energy transport is accomplished primarily by convection. Using typical convective velocities $u\sim100\,\rm{m\,s^{-1}}$ and kinematic viscosities of order $10^{-4}$ m$^{2}$s$^{-1}$, we obtain a Reynolds number $Re \sim 10^{14}$. Convection is thus turbulent, causing a vast range of scales to be excited. The Prandtl number, $Pr$, of the convecting fluid is very low, of order $10^{-7}$\,--\,$10^{-4}$, so that the Rayleigh number ($\sim Re^2 Pr$) is on the order of $10^{21}\,-\,10^{24}$. Solar convection thus lies in extraordinary regime of dynamical parameters, highly untypical of fluid flows on Earth. Convective processes in the Sun drive global fluid circulations and magnetic fields, which in turn affect its visible outer layers ("solar activity") and, more broadly, the heliosphere ("space weather"). The precise determination of the depth of solar convection zone, departures from adiabaticity of the temperature gradient, and the internal rotation rate as a function of latitude and depth are among the seminal contributions of helioseismology towards understanding convection in the Sun. Contemporary helioseismology, which is focused on inferring the properties of three-dimensional convective features, suggests that transport velocities are substantially smaller than theoretical predictions. Furthermore, helioseismology provides important constraints on the anisotropic Reynolds stresses that control the global dynamics of the solar convection zone. This review discusses the state of our understanding of convection in the Sun, with a focus on helioseismic diagnostics. We present our considerations with the interests of fluid dynamicists in mind.
We report results of the performance evaluation of a new hardware correlator in Korea, the Daejeon correlator, developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). We conducted Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations at 22~GHz with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) in Korea and the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) in Japan, and correlated the aquired data with the Daejeon correlator. For evaluating the performance of the new hardware correlator, we compared the correlation outputs from the Daejeon correlator for KVN observations with those from a software correlator, the Distributed FX (DiFX). We investigated the correlated flux densities and brightness distributions of extragalactic compact radio sources. The comparison of the two correlator outputs show that they are consistent with each other within $<8\%$, which is comparable with the amplitude calibration uncertainties of KVN observations at 22~GHz. We also found that the 8\% difference in flux density is caused mainly by (a) the difference in the way of fringe phase tracking between the DiFX software correlator and the Daejeon hardware correlator, and (b) an unusual pattern (a double-layer pattern) of the amplitude correlation output from the Daejeon correlator. The visibility amplitude loss by the double-layer pattern is as small as 3\%. We conclude that the new hardware correlator produces reasonable correlation outputs for continuum observations, which are consistent with the outputs from the DiFX software correlator.
We present the fourteen year-long light curve of the SW Sextantis nova-like variable, HS 0455+8315, from 2000 November to 2015 February which reveals two deep faint states at magnitude 19 - 20, each of which lasted about 500 and 540 days. Outside these faint states, the star spent most of the time in a normal state at a magnitude of about 15.3. The second faint state was the better observed of the two and was found to have a linear decline of 0.009 mag/day, which was soon followed by a more rapid brightening at -0.020 mag/day. Time series photometry during both the normal state and near minimum light at about magnitude 18 showed that the eclipses had very similar profiles and that outside the eclipse there were irregular modulations typical of the flickering inherent to accreting CVs. Our photometry leading up to the minimum shows that accretion was still ongoing during this time.
We investigate the cosmological effects of neutrino lumps in Growing Neutrino Quintessence. The strongly non-linear effects are resolved by means of numerical N-body simulations which include relativistic particles, non-linear scalar field equations and backreaction effects. For the investigated models with a constant coupling between the scalar field and the neutrinos the backreaction effects are so strong that a realistic cosmology is hard to realize. This points towards the necessity of a field dependent coupling in Growing Neutrino Quintessence. In this case realistic models of dynamical Dark Energy exist which are testable by the observation or non-observation of large neutrino lumps.
We present spatially-resolved properties of molecular gas and dust in a gravitationally-lensed submillimeter galaxy H-ATLAS J090311.6+003906 (SDP.81) at $z=3.042$ revealed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We identified 14 molecular clumps in the CO(5-4) line data, all with a spatial scale of $\sim$50-300 pc in the source plane. The surface density of molecular gas ($\Sigma_{\rm H_2}$) and star-formation rate ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$) of the clumps are more than three orders of magnitude higher than those found in local spiral galaxies. The clumps are placed in the `burst' sequence in the $\Sigma_{\rm H_2}$-$\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ plane, suggesting that $z \sim 3$ molecular clumps follow the star-formation law derived for local starburst galaxies. With our gravitational lens model, the positions in the source plane are derived for the molecular clumps, dust clumps, and stellar components identified in the {\sl Hubble Space Telescope} image. The molecular and dust clumps coexist in a similar region over $\sim$2 kpc, while the stellar components are offset at most by $\sim$5 kpc. The molecular clumps have a systematic velocity gradient in the north-south direction, which may indicate a rotating gas disk. One possible scenario is that the components of molecular gas, dust, and stars are distributed in a several-kpc scale rotating disk, and the stellar emission is heavily obscured by dust in the central star-forming region. Alternatively, SDP.81 can be explained by a merging system, where dusty starbursts occur in the region where the two galaxies collide, surrounded by tidal features traced in the stellar components.
A "collect and collapse" model of triggered star formation is used to estimate the parameters of ring-like structure consisted of a sequence of low-mass clumps in the W40 region. The model parameters are close to the observed ones if the density of the cloud in which the HII zone is expanding is fairly high (>~ 10^5 cm^{-3}) and the luminosity of the driving source exceeds previous estimate. Probable reasons for the scatter of the observed parameters of the clumps are discussed.
Spectral observations of the massive colliding wind binary Eta Carinae show phase-dependent variations, in intensity and velocity, of numerous helium emission and absorption lines throughout the entire 5.54-year orbit. Approaching periastron, the 3D structure of the wind-wind interaction region (WWIR) gets highly distorted due to the eccentric ($e \sim 0.9$) binary orbit. The secondary star ($\eta_{\mathrm{B}}$) at these phases is located deep within the primary's dense wind photosphere. The combination of these effects is thought to be the cause of the particularly interesting features observed in the helium lines at periastron. We perform 3D radiative transfer simulations of $\eta$ Car's interacting winds at periastron. Using the SimpleX radiative transfer algorithm, we post-process output from 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations of the inner 150 au of the $\eta$ Car system for two different primary star mass-loss rates ($\dot{M}_{\eta_{\mathrm{A}}}$). Using previous results from simulations at apastron as a guide for the initial conditions, we compute 3D helium ionization maps. We find that, for higher $\dot{M}_{\eta_{\mathrm{A}}}$, $\eta_{\mathrm{B}}$ He$^{0+}$-ionizing photons are not able to penetrate into the pre-shock primary wind. He$^{+}$ due to $\eta_{\mathrm{B}}$ is only present in a thin layer along the leading arm of the WWIR and in a small region close to the stars. Lowering $\dot{M}_{\eta_{\mathrm{A}}}$ allows $\eta_{\mathrm{B}}$'s ionizing photons to reach the expanding unshocked secondary wind on the apastron side of the system, and create a low fraction of He$^{+}$ in the pre-shock primary wind. With apastron on our side of the system, our results are qualitatively consistent with the observed variations in strength and radial velocity of $\eta$ Car's helium emission and absorption lines, which helps better constrain the regions where these lines arise.
We consider the electrodynamics of in-spiraling binary pulsars, showing that there are two distinct ways in which they may emit radiation. On the one hand, even if the pulsars do not rotate, we show that in vacuo orbital rotation generates magnetic quadrupole emission, which, in the late stages of the binary evolution becomes nearly as effective as magnetic dipole emission by a millisecond pulsar. On the other hand, we show that interactions of the two magnetic fields generate powerful induction electric fields, which cannot be screened by a suitable distribution of charges and currents like they are in isolated pulsars. We compute approximate electromotive forces for this case.
We study the combined effects of convection and radiative diffusion on the evolution of thin magnetic flux tubes in the solar interior. Radiative diffusion is the primary supplier of heat to convective motions in the lower convection zone, and it results in a heat input per unit volume of magnetic flux tubes that has been ignored by many previous thin flux tube studies. We use a thin flux tube model subject to convection taken from a rotating spherical shell of turbulent, solar-like convection as described by Weber, Fan, and Miesch (2011, Astrophys. J., 741, 11; 2013, Solar Phys., 287, 239), now taking into account the influence of radiative heating on flux tubes of large-scale active regions. Our simulations show that flux tubes of less than or equal to 60 kG subject to solar-like convective flows do not anchor in the overshoot region, but rather drift upward due to the increased buoyancy of the flux tube earlier in its evolution as a result of the inclusion of radiative diffusion. Flux tubes of magnetic field strengths ranging from 15 kG to 100 kG have rise times of less than or equal to 0.2 years, and exhibit a Joy's Law tilt-angle trend. Our results suggest that radiative heating is an effective mechanism by which flux tubes can escape from the stably stratified overshoot region, and that flux tubes do not necessarily need to be anchored in the overshoot region to produce emergence properties similar to those of active regions on the Sun.
In this paper, we investigated the issue of black hole masses and minimum timescales of jet emission for blazars. We proposed a sophisticated model that sets an upper limit to the central black hole masses $M_{\bullet}$ with the minimum timescales $\Delta t^{\rm{ob}}_{\rm{min}}$ of variations observed in blazars. The value of $\Delta t^{\rm{ob}}_{\rm{min}}$ presents an upper limit to the size of blob in jet. The blob is assumed to be generated in the jet-production region in the vicinity of black hole, and then the expanding blob travels outward along the jet. We applied the model to 32 blazars, 29 of which were detected in gamma rays by satellites, and these $\Delta t^{\rm{ob}}_{\rm{min}}$ are on the order of hours with large variability amplitudes. In general, these $M_{\bullet}$ estimated with this method are not inconsistent with those masses reported in the literatures. This model is natural to connect $M_{\bullet}$ with $\Delta t^{\rm{ob}}_{\rm{min}}$ for blazars, and seems to be applicable to constrain $M_{\bullet}$ in the central engines of blazars.
We investigate the Lema\^{i}tre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) models, whose early time evolution and bang time are homogeneous and the distance - redshift relation and local Hubble parameter are inherited from the $\Lambda$CDM model. We show that the obtained LTB models and the $\Lambda$CDM model predict different relative local expansion rates and that the Hubble functions of the models diverge increasingly with redshift. The LTB models show tension between baryon acoustic oscillation and supernova observations and including cosmic microwave background observations only accentuates the better fit of the $\Lambda$CDM model compared to the LTB model. The result indicates that additional degrees of freedom are needed to explain the observations, for example by renouncing spherical symmetry, homogeneous bang time, or the early time homogeneity assumption.
We consider the Clairaut theory of the equilibrium ellipsoidal figures for differentiated non-homogeneous bodies in non-synchronous rotation adding to it a tidal deformation due to the presence of an external gravitational force. We assume that the body is a fluid formed by $n$ homogeneous layers of ellipsoidal shape and we calculate the external polar flattenings and the mean radius of each layer, or, equivalently, their semiaxes. To first order in the flattenings, the general solution can be written as $\epsilon_k={\cal H}_k*\epsilon_h$ and $\mu_k={\cal H}_k*\mu_h$, where $\cal{H}_k$ is a characteristic coefficient for each layer which only depends on the internal structure of the body and $\epsilon_h, \mu_h$ are the flattenings of the equivalent homogeneous problem. For the continuous case, we study the Clairaut differential equation for the flattening profile, using the Radau transformation to find the boundary conditions when the tidal potential is added. Finally, the theory is applied to several examples: i) a body composed of two homogeneous layers; ii) bodies with simple polynomial density distribution laws and iii) bodies following a polytropic pressure-density law.
Counter to intuition, the images of an extended galaxy lensed by a moving
galaxy cluster should have slightly different spectra in any metric gravity
theory. This is mainly for two reasons. One relies on the gravitational
potential of a moving lens being time-dependent (the Moving Cluster Effect,
MCE). The other is due to uneven magnification across the extended, rotating
source (the Differential Magnification Effect, DME). The time delay between the
images can also cause their redshifts to differ because of cosmological
expansion. This Differential Expansion Effect is likely to be small. Using a
simple model, we derive these effects from first principles.
One application would be to the Bullet Cluster, whose large tangential
velocity may be inconsistent with the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. This velocity can
be estimated with complicated hydrodynamic models. Uncertainties with such
models can be avoided using the MCE. We argue that the MCE should be observable
with ALMA.
However, such measurements can be corrupted by the DME if typical spiral
galaxies are used as sources. Fortunately, we find that if detailed spectral
line profiles were available, then the DME and MCE could be distinguished. It
might also be feasible to calculate how much the DME should affect the mean
redshift of each image. Resolved observations of the source would be required
to do this accurately.
The DME is of order the source angular size divided by the Einstein radius
times the redshift variation across the source. Thus, it mostly affects nearly
edge-on spiral galaxies in certain orientations. This suggests that observers
should reduce the DME by careful choice of target, a possibility we discuss in
some detail.
Low luminosity galaxies may be the building blocks of more luminous systems. Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) observations of the low luminosity, early-type galaxy NGC59 are obtained and analysed. These data are used to measure the stellar population parameters in the centre and off-centre regions of this galaxy, in order to uncover its likely star formation history. We find evidence of older stars, in addition to young stars in the emission line regions. The metallicity of the stellar population is constrained to be [Z/H] ~ -1.1 to -1.6, which is extremely low, even for this low luminosity galaxy, since it is not classed as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The measured [alpha/Fe] ratio is sub-solar, which indicates an extended star formation history in NGC59. If such objects formed the building blocks of more massive, early-type galaxies, then they must have been gaseous mergers, rather than dry mergers, in order to increase the metals to observed levels in luminous, early-type galaxies.
The purpose of this document is to describe the upgrade of the CRESST dark matter search at LNGS. The proposed strategy will allow to explore a region of the parameter space for spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering corresponding to WIMP masses below 10GeV/c$^\text{2}$, that has not been covered by other experiments. These results can be achieved only with outstanding detector performances in terms of threshold and background. This proposal shows how CRESST can match these performance requirements, adding a unique piece of information to the dark matter puzzle. The results of this program will fix a new state-of-the-art in the low mass WIMP exploration, opening new perspectives of understanding the dark matter scenario.
The bispectrum of single-field inflationary trajectories in which the speed of sound of the inflationary trajectories $c_s$ is constant but not equal to the speed of light $c=1$ is explored. The trajectories are generated as random realisations of the Hubble Slow-Roll (HSR) hierarchy and the bispectra are calculated using numerical techniques that extends previous work. This method allows for out-of-slow-roll models with non-trivial time dependence and arbitrarily low $c_s$. The ensembles obtained using this method yield distributions for the shape and scale-dependence of the bispectrum and their relations with the standard inflationary parameters such as scalar spectral tilt $n_s$ and tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. The distributions demonstrate the squeezed-limit consistency relations for arbitrary single-field inflationary models.
This chapter summarizes our current understanding of the stellar population properties of bulges and outlines important future research directions.
The planetary exospheres are poorly known in their outer parts, since the neutral densities are low compared with the instruments detection capabilities. The exospheric models are thus often the main source of information at such high altitudes. We present a new way to take into account analytically the additional effect of the radiation pressure on planetary exospheres. In a series of papers, we present with an Hamiltonian approach the effect of the radiation pressure on dynamical trajectories, density profiles and escaping thermal flux. Our work is a generalization of the study by Bishop and Chamberlain (1989). In this second part of our work, we present here the density profiles of atomic Hydrogen in planetary exospheres subject to the radiation pressure. We first provide the altitude profiles of ballistic particles (the dominant exospheric population in most cases), which exhibit strong asymmetries that explain the known geotail phenomenon at Earth. The radiation pressure strongly enhances the densities compared with the pure gravity case (i.e. the Chamberlain profiles), in particular at noon and midnight. We finally show the existence of an exopause that appears naturally as the external limit for bounded particles, above which all particles are escaping.
We present new observations of the quiescent giant molecular cloud GCM0.253+0.016 in the Galactic center, using the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Observations were made at wavelengths near 1 cm, at K (24 to 26 GHz) and Ka (27 and 36 GHz) bands, with velocity resolutions of 1-3 km/s and spatial resolutions of ~0.1 pc, at the assumed 8.4 kpc distance of this cloud. The continuum observations of this cloud are the most sensitive yet made, and reveal previously undetected emission which we attribute primarily to free-free emission from external ionization of the cloud. In addition to the sensitive continuum map, we produce maps of 12 molecular lines: 8 transitions of NH3 -- (1,1),(2,2),(3,3),(4,4),(5,5),(6,6),(7,7) and (9,9), as well as the HC3N (3-2) and (4-3) lines, and CH3OH 4(-1) - 3(0) the latter of which is known to be a collisionally-excited maser. We identify 148 CH3OH 4(-1) - 3(0) (36.2 GHz) sources, of which 68 have brightness temperatures in excess of the highest temperature measured for this cloud (400 K) and can be confirmed to be masers. The majority of these masers are concentrated in the southernmost part of the cloud. We find that neither these masers nor the continuum emission in this cloud provide strong evidence for ongoing star formation in excess of that previously inferred by the presence of an H2O maser.
Observations of helium and hydrogen emission lines from metal-poor extragalactic H II regions provide an independent method for determining the primordial helium abundance, Y_p. Traditionally, the emission lines employed are in the visible wavelength range, and the number of suitable lines is limited. Furthermore, when using these lines, large systematic uncertainties in helium abundance determinations arise due to the degeneracy of physical parameters, such as temperature and density. Recently, Izotov, Thuan, & Guseva (2014) have pioneered adding the He 10830 infrared emission line in helium abundance determinations. The strong electron density dependence of He 10830 makes it ideal for better constraining density, potentially breaking the degeneracy with temperature. We revisit our analysis of the dataset published by Izotov, Thuan, & Stasinska (2007) and incorporate the newly available observations of He 10830 by scaling them using the observed-to-theoretical Paschen-gamma ratio. The solutions are better constrained, in particular for electron density, temperature, and the neutral hydrogen fraction, improving the model fit to data, with the result that more spectra now pass screening for quality and reliability, in addition to a standard 95% confidence level cut. Furthermore, the addition of He 10830 decreases the uncertainty on the helium abundance for all galaxies, with reductions in the uncertainty ranging from 10-80%. Overall, we find a reduction in the uncertainty on Y_p by over 50%. From a regression to zero metallicity, we determine Y_p = 0.2449 +/- 0.0040, consistent with the BBN result, Y_p = 0.2470 +/- 0.0002, based on the Planck determination of the baryon density. The dramatic improvement in the uncertainty from incorporating He 10830 strongly supports the case for simultaneous (thus not requiring scaling) observations of visible and infrared helium emission line spectra.
The era of the universe's first (Population III) stars is essentially unconstrained by observation. Ultra-luminous and massive stars from this time altered the chemistry of the cosmos, provided the radiative scaffolding to support the formation of the first protogalaxies, and facilitated the creation and growth of now-supermassive black holes. Unfortunately, because these stars lie literally at the edge of the observable universe, they will remain beyond the reach of even the next generation of telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Thirty-Meter Telescope. In this paper, we provide a primer to supernovae modeling and the first stars to make our discussion accessible to those new to or outside our field. We review recent work of the Los Alamos Supernova Light Curve Project and Brigham Young University to explore the possibility of probing this era through observations of the spectacular deaths of the first stars. We find that many such brilliant supernova explosions will be observable as far back as $\sim 99$% of the universe's current age, tracing primordial star formation rates and the locations of their protogalaxies on the sky. The observation of Population III supernovae will be among the most spectacular discoveries in observational astronomy in the coming decade.
We report the results obtained from the optical polarimetric study of the light scattered by Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and Comet 290P/Jager at lower phase angles. The polarimetric observations of two comets have been performed with the 1.04-metre Sampurnanand telescope of ARIES near Nainital in India on 4th \& 5th of December, 2013 and on 24th April, 2014 using R photometric band ($\lambda$ = 630 nm, $\Delta$$\lambda$ =120nm). We covered observations in both the pre and post perihelion passage of Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and Comet 290P/Jager at two phase angles $\sim$ 13$^\circ$ and 27$^\circ$. The degree of polarization changes from ($-1.4$$\pm 0.3$)\% to (+2.8$\pm 0.5$)\% for Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and ($-1.6$$\pm 0.5$)\% to (+2.5$\pm 0.5$)\% for Comet 290P/Jager at phase angles $\sim$ 13$^\circ$ and 27$^\circ$ respectively. The change in the physical properties of cometary dust is being well studied from the polarization maps obtained for both the period of observations. It is found that the aperture polarization values are comparable to those of other comets. The variation in the brightness profile of both the comets from the standard canonical nature is also being observed in both the solar and anti-solar direction during this phase which suggests the various physical evolution influencing the cometary comae.
WASP-80b is a missing link in the study of exo-atmospheres. It falls between
the warm Neptunes and the hot Jupiters and is amenable for characterisation,
thanks to its host star's properties. We observed the planet through transit
and during occultation with Warm Spitzer. Combining our mid-infrared transits
with optical time series, we find that the planet presents a transmission
spectrum indistinguishable from a horizontal line. In emission, WASP-80b is the
intrinsically faintest planet whose dayside flux has been detected in both the
3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m Spitzer channels. The depths of the occultations reveal that
WASP-80b is as bright and as red as a T4 dwarf, but that its temperature is
cooler. If planets go through the equivalent of an L-T transition, our results
would imply this happens at cooler temperatures than for brown dwarfs. Placing
WASP-80b's dayside into a colour-magnitude diagram, it falls exactly at the
junction between a blackbody model and the T-dwarf sequence; we cannot discern
which of those two interpretations is the more likely. Flux measurements on
other planets with similar equilibrium temperatures are required to establish
whether irradiated gas giants, like brown dwarfs, transition between two
spectral classes. An eventual detection of methane absorption in transmission
would also help lift that degeneracy.
We obtained a second series of high-resolution spectra during transit, using
HARPS. We reanalyse the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The data now favour an
aligned orbital solution and a stellar rotation nearly three times slower than
stellar line broadening implies. A contribution to stellar line broadening,
maybe macroturbulence, is likely to have been underestimated for cool stars,
whose rotations have therefore been systematically overestimated. [abridged]
Victoria-Regina isochrones for $-0.4 \le$ [alpha/Fe] $\le +0.4$ and a wide range in [Fe/H], along with complementary zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) loci, have been applied to the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of Carina. The color transformations that we have used have been "calibrated" so that isochrones provide excellent fits to the $[(B-V)_0,\,M_V]$-diagrams of M3 and M92, when well supported estimates of the globular cluster (GC) reddenings and metallicities are assumed. The adopted distance moduli, for both the GCs and Carina, are based on our ZAHB models, which are able to reproduce the old HB component (as well as the luminosity of the HB clump) of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy quite well --- even if it spans a range in [Fe/H] of ~ 1.5 dex, provided that [alpha/Fe] varies with [Fe/H] in approximately the way that has been derived spectroscopically. Ages derived here agree reasonably well with those found previously for the old and intermediate-age turnoff stars, as well as for the period of negligible star formation (SF) activity (~ 6-10 Gyr ago). CMD simulations have been carried out for the faintest turnoff and subgiant stars. They indicate a clear preference for SF that lasted several Gyr instead of a short burst, with some indication that ages decrease with increasing [Fe/H]. In general, stellar models that assume spectroscopic metallicities provide satisfactory fits to the observations, including the thin giant branch of Carina, though higher oxygen abundances than those implied by the adopted values of [alpha/Fe] would have favorable consequences.
We report on the first direct observation of a fast-mode wave propagating along and perpendicular to cool (171 {\AA}) arcade loops observed by the SDO/AIA. The wave was associated with an impulsive/compact flare, near the edge of a sunspot. The EUV wavefront expanded radially outward from the flare center and decelerated in the corona from 1060-760 km/s within ~3-4 minute. Part of the EUV wave propagated along a large-scale arcade of cool loops and was partially reflected back to the flare site. The phase speed of the wave was about 1450 km/s, which is interpreted as a fast-mode wave. A second overlying loop arcade, orientated perpendicular to the cool arcade, is heated and becomes visible in the AIA hot channels. These hot loops sway in time with the EUV wave, as it propagated to and fro along the lower loop arcade. We suggest that an impulsive energy release at one of the footpoints of the arcade loops causes the onset of an EUV shock wave that propagates along and perpendicular to the magnetic field.
Topic of this work are comets, small and elusive objects that may hold great secrets about the origin of the Solar System and life on Earth, being among the most primitive objects. The method of investigation addressed in this work is the visible and infrared spectrophotometry by imaging spectrometers, designed for the observation of remote planetary atmospheres and surfaces, capable to acquire hyperspectral data with high spatial and spectral resolution. The context under which this mission moves its steps is described in the first chapter. In the second chapter the performances of the VIRTS instrument, onboard Rosetta spacecraft, are analyzed in detail. In particular the modeling of the signal to noise ratio is the main argument of this chapter. The third chapter shows simulations of possible spectra of the comet's nucleus, which are useful for both a comparison with real spectra, and for a planning of the observations. Hapke's radiative transfer model is used to invert acquired data to infer physical properties. The fourth chapter introduces a method for spectral modeling. It includes the information on the instrumental noise, permitting the analysis of the goodness of the models, and an estimation of the error of the retrieved parameters. The fifth chapter presents the spectral analysis of Tempel 1 and Hartley 2 whose data are coming from Deep Impact space mission and its extended investigation. The sixth chapter shows the photometric analysis of Lutetia asteroid, which was encountered by Rosetta during its cruise phase. This work have paved the way to the analysis of the final target of Rosetta: comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The tools presented are currently used by the VIRTIS Team to produce works on the comet, that are recommended to the reader. Since a complete analysis on the comet is outside the scope of this work, just preliminary results are shown here.
We present results from a very deep (650 ks) Chandra X-ray observation of the galaxy group NGC~5813, the deepest Chandra observation of a galaxy group to date. Earlier observations showed two pairs of cavities distributed roughly collinearly, with each pair associated with an elliptical shock front. The new observations confirm a third pair of outer cavities, collinear with the other pairs, and reveal an associated outer outburst shock at ~30 kpc. This system is therefore unique in exhibiting three cavity pairs, each associated with an unambiguous AGN outburst shock front. The implied mean kinetic power is roughly the same for each outburst, demonstrating that the average AGN kinetic luminosity can remain stable over long timescales (~50 Myr). The two older outbursts have larger, roughly equal total energies as compared with the youngest outburst, implying that the youngest outburst is ongoing. We find that the radiative cooling rate and the mean shock heating rate of the gas are well balanced at each shock front, suggesting that AGN outburst shock heating alone is sufficient to offset cooling and establish AGN/ICM feedback within at least the central 30 kpc. This heating takes place roughly isotropically and most strongly at small radii, as is required for feedback to operate. We suggest that shock heating may play a significant role in AGN feedback at smaller radii in other systems, where weak shocks are more difficult to detect. We find non-zero shock front widths that are too large to be explained by particle diffusion. Instead, all measured widths are consistent with shock broadening due to propagation through a turbulent ICM with a mean turbulent speed of ~70 km/s. Finally, we place lower limits on the temperature of any volume-filling thermal gas within the cavities that would balance the internal cavity pressure with the external ICM.
We seek to obtain exact solutions of regular black holes in $f(T)$ Gravity with non-linear electrodynamics material content, with spherical symmetry in $4D$. The equations of motion provide the regaining of various solutions of General Relativity, as a particular case where the function $f(T)=T$. We developed a powerful method for finding exact solutions, where we get the first two new classes of regular black holes solutions in the $f(T)$ Theory, where all the geometrics scalars disappear at the origin of the radial coordinate.
Does the observable spectrum of cosmic fluctuations depend on detailed initial conditions? This addresses the question if the general inflationary paradigm is sufficient to predict within a given model the spectrum and amplitude of cosmic fluctuations, or if additional particular assumptions about the initial conditions are needed. The answer depends on the number of e-foldings $N_{in}$ between the beginning of inflation and horizon crossing of the observable fluctuations. We discuss an interacting inflaton field in an arbitrary homogeneous and isotropic geometry, employing the quantum effective action $\Gamma$. An exact time evolution equation for the correlation function involves the second functional derivative $\Gamma^{(2)}$. The operator formalism and quantum vacua for interacting fields are not needed. Use of the effective action also allows one to address the change of frames by field transformations (field relativity). For not too large $N_{in}$ we find that memory of the initial conditions is preserved. In this case the cosmic microwave background cannot disentangle between the initial spectrum and its processing at horizon crossing. The inflaton potential cannot be reconstructed without assumptions about the initial state of the universe. We argue that for very large $N_{in}$ a universal scaling form of the correlation functions is reached. This can be due to symmetrization and equilibration effects not yet contained in our approximation, which drive the short distance tail of the correlation function towards the Lorentz invariant propagator in flat space.
This paper presents numerical analysis a pinch-type instability in a semi-infinite planar layer of inviscid conducting liquid bounded by solid walls and carrying a uniform electric current. The instability resembles the Tayler instability in astrophysics and can presumably disrupt the operation of the recently developed liquid metal batteries (Wang et al. 2014 Nature 514, 348). We show that the instability in liquid metals, which are relatively poor conductors, significantly differs from that in a well conducting fluid. In the latter, instability is dominated by the current perturbation resulting from the advection of the magnetic field. In the former, the instability is dominated by the magnetic field perturbation resulting from the diffusion of the electric current perturbation. As a result, in liquid metals, instability develops on the magnetic response time scale, which depends on the conductivity, and is much longer than the Alfv\'en time scale, on which the instability develops in a well conducting fluid. The instability threshold in viscous fluid resulting from our model is comparable with the numerical as well as experimental results for liquid metals in cylindrical geometries.
The Planck value of the spectral index can be interpreted as $n_s = 1 - 2/N$ in terms of the number of e-foldings $N$. An appealing explanation for this phenomenological observation is provided by $\alpha$-attractors: the inflationary predictions of these supergravity models are fully determined by the curvature of the Kahler manifold. We provide a novel formulation of $\alpha$-attractors which only involves a single chiral superfield. Our construction involves a natural deformation of no-scale models, and employs these to construct a De Sitter plateau with an exponential fall-off. Finally, we show how analogous structures with a flat Kahler geometry arise as a singular limit of such $\alpha$-scale models.
We present a new model of large field inflation along a winding trajectory in the field space of two axionic fields, where the 'axions' originate from the complex structure moduli sector of a Calabi-Yau 3-fold at large complex structure. The winding trajectory arises from fixing one combination of axions by bulk fluxes and allows for a transplanckian effective field range. The inflaton potential arises from small 'instantonic' corrections to the geometry and realises natural inflation. By working in a regime of large complex structure for two complex structure moduli the inflaton potential can be made subdominant without severe tuning. We also discuss the impact of the recent 'no-go theorems' for transplanckian axion periodicities on our work. Interestingly, our setup seems to realise a loophole pointed out in arXiv:1503.04783: our construction is a candidate for a string theory model of large field inflation which is consistent with the mild form of the weak gravity conjecture for axions.
Among the direct search experiments for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter, the DAMA experiment observed an annual modulation signal interpreted as WIMP interactions with a significance of 9.2$\sigma$. Recently, Jonathan Davis claimed that the DAMA modulation may be interpreted on the basis of the neutron scattering events induced by the muons and neutrinos together. We tried to simulate the neutron backgrounds at the Gran Sasso and Yangyang laboratory with and without the polyethylene shielding to quantify the effects of the ambient neutrons on the direct detection experiments based on the crystals.
We show that effective theories of matter that classically violate the null energy condition cannot be minimally coupled to Einstein gravity without being inconsistent with both string theory and black hole thermodynamics. We argue however that they could still be either non-minimally coupled or coupled to higher-curvature theories of gravity.
We study multiple period states of a superfluid Fermi gas in an optical lattice along the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover. The existence of states whose period is a multiple of the lattice spacing is a consequence of the non-linear behavior of the gas, which is due to the presence of the order parameter associated with superfluidity. By solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations we find that, in the BCS side of the crossover, the multiple period states can be energetically favorable compared to the normal Bloch states and their survival time against dynamical instability drastically increases, suggesting that these states can be accessible in current experiments with ultracold gases. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in BECs.
We present a first English translation and analysis of a little-known review of relativistic cosmology written by Albert Einstein in late 1932. The article, which was published in 1933 in a book of Einstein papers translated into French, contains a substantial review of static and dynamic relativistic models of the cosmos, culminating in a discussion of the Einstein-de Sitter model. The article offers a valuable contemporaneous insight into Einstein's cosmology in the 1930s and confirms that his interest lay in the development of the simplest model of the cosmos that could account for observation, rather than an exploration of all possible cosmic models. The article also confirms that Einstein did not believe that simplistic relativistic models could give an accurate description of the early universe.
We study the imprint of new particles on the primordial cosmological fluctuations. New particles with masses comparable to the Hubble scale produce a distinctive signature on the non-gaussianities. This feature arises in the squeezed limit of the correlation functions of primordial fluctuations. It consists of particular power law, or oscillatory, behavior that contains information about the masses of new particles. There is an angular dependence that gives information about the spin. We also have a relative phase that crucially depends on the quantum mechanical nature of the fluctuations and can be viewed as arising from the interference between two processes. While some of these features were noted before in the context of specific inflationary scenarios, here we give a general description emphasizing the role of symmetries in determining the final result.
Identifying the inflaton with a pseudo-Goldstone boson explains the flatness of its potential. Additionally, successful Goldstone Inflation should be robust against UV corrections, such as from quantum gravity. In this paper we present the scenarios which lead to this successful model by examining the structure of Goldstone potentials arising from Coleman-Weinberg contributions. In particular, we notice that both bosonic and fermionic contributions are required to build a successful inflationary model. In single field inflation, we find that spinorial, and not fundamental, fermion representations can generate the right potential shape. This indicates that the Goldstone inflaton comes from the breaking of a $SO(N)$ global symmetry. We also evaluate the constraints from higher-derivative interactions, finding that axiomatic constraints on Goldstone boson scattering prevail over the current CMB constraints on the speed of sound. We connect inflationary constraints to the UV completions for Goldstone Inflation, finding relations in the spectrum of new resonances. Finally, we present models of hybrid inflation, where both the inflaton and the waterfall fields share a common origin as Goldstones.
The discovery that most of the energy density in the universe is stored in the form of dark energy has profound consequences for our future. In particular our current limited understanding of quantum theory of gravity indicates that some time in the future our universe will undergo a phase transition that will destroy us and everything else around us instantaneously. However the laws of gravity also suggest a way out -- some of our descendants could survive this catastrophe by riding gravity away from the danger. In this essay I describe the tale of this escape from doomsday.
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Dust plays an important role in our understanding of the Universe, but it is not obvious yet how the dust in the distant universe was formed. I derived the dust yields per asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star and per supernova (SN) required to explain dust masses of galaxies at z = 6.3-7.5 (680-850 million years after the Big Bang) for which dust emission has been detected (HFLS3 at z = 6.34, ULAS J1120+0641 at z = 7.085, and A1689-zD1 at z = 7.5), or unsuccessfully searched for. I found very high required yields, implying that AGB stars could not contribute substantially to dust production at these redshifts, and that SNe could explain these dust masses, but only if they do not destroy majority of the dust they form (which is unlikely given the upper limits on the SN dust yields derived for dust non-detected galaxies). This suggests that the grain growth in the interstellar medium is likely required at these early epochs.
We extend the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) framework to generate mock galaxy catalogs exhibiting varying levels of "galactic conformity", which has emerged as a potentially powerful probe of environmental effects in galaxy evolution. Our model correlates galaxy colours in a group with the concentration of the common parent dark halo through a "group quenching efficiency" $\rho$ which makes older, more concentrated halos $\textit{at fixed mass}$ preferentially host redder galaxies. We find that, for a specific value of $\rho$, this 1-halo conformity matches corresponding measurements in a group catalog based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our mocks also display conformity at large separations from isolated objects, potentially an imprint of halo assembly bias. A detailed study - using mocks with assembly bias erased while keeping 1-halo conformity intact - reveals a rather nuanced situation, however. At separations $\lesssim 4$Mpc, conformity is mainly a 1-halo effect dominated by the largest halos and is $\textit{not}$ a robust indicator of assembly bias. Only at very large separations ($\gtrsim 8$Mpc) does genuine 2-halo conformity, driven by the assembly bias of small halos, manifest distinctly. We explain all these trends in standard Halo Model terms. Our model opens the door to parametrized HOD analyses that self-consistently account for galactic conformity at all scales.
We present an analysis of anomaly detection for machine learning redshift estimation. Anomaly detection allows the removal of poor training examples, which can adversely influence redshift estimates. Anomalous training examples may be photometric galaxies with incorrect spectroscopic redshifts, or galaxies with one or more poorly measured photometric quantity. We select 2.5 million 'clean' SDSS DR12 galaxies with reliable spectroscopic redshifts, and 6730 'anomalous' galaxies with spectroscopic redshift measurements which are flagged as unreliable. We contaminate the clean base galaxy sample with galaxies with unreliable redshifts and attempt to recover the contaminating galaxies using the Elliptical Envelope technique. We then train four machine learning architectures for redshift analysis on both the contaminated sample and on the preprocessed 'anomaly-removed' sample and measure redshift statistics on a clean validation sample generated without any preprocessing. We find an improvement on all measured statistics of up to 80% when training on the anomaly removed sample as compared with training on the contaminated sample for each of the machine learning routines explored. We further describe a method to estimate the contamination fraction of a base data sample.
We introduce an ordinal classification algorithm for photometric redshift
estimation, which vastly improves the reconstruction of photometric redshift
probability density functions (PDFs) for individual galaxies and galaxy
samples. As a use case we apply our method to CFHTLS galaxies. The ordinal
classification algorithm treats distinct redshift bins as ordered values, which
improves the quality of photometric redshift PDFs, compared with non-ordinal
classification architectures. We also propose a new single value point estimate
of the galaxy redshift, that can be used to estimate the full redshift PDF of a
galaxy sample. This method is competitive in terms of accuracy with
contemporary algorithms, which stack the full redshift PDFs of all galaxies in
the sample, but requires orders of magnitudes less storage space.
The methods described in this paper greatly improve the log-likelihood of
individual object redshift PDFs, when compared with a popular Neural Network
code (ANNz). In our use case, this improvement reaches 50% for high redshift
objects defined as $z \geq 0.75$.
We show that using these more accurate photometric redshift PDFs will lead to
a reduction in the systematic biases by up to a factor of four, when compared
with less accurate PDFs obtained from commonly used methods. The cosmological
analyses we examine and find improvement upon are the following: Gravitational
Lensing cluster mass estimates, modelling of angular correlation functions, and
modelling of cosmic shear correlation functions.
We present a reconstructions of galaxy-cluster-scale mass distributions from simulated gravitational lensing data sets including strong lensing, weak lensing shear, and measurements of quadratic image distortions -- flexion. The lensing data is constructed to make a direct comparison between mass reconstructions with and without flexion. We show that in the absence of flexion measurements, significant galaxy-group scale substructure can remain undetected in the reconstructed mass profiles, and that the resulting profiles underestimate the aperture mass in the substructure regions by $\sim25-40\%$. When flexion is included, subhaloes down to a mass of $\sim3\times10^{12}$ M$_\odot$ can be detected at an angular resolution smaller than 10\arcsec. Aperture masses from profiles reconstructed with flexion match the input distribution values to within an error of $\sim13\%$, including both statistical error and scatter. This demonstrates the important constraint that flexion measurements place on substructure in galaxy clusters and its utility for producing high-fidelity mass reconstructions.
We report the first detection of C$^{15}$N in diffuse molecular gas from a detailed examination of CN absorption lines in archival VLT/UVES spectra of stars probing local diffuse clouds. Absorption from the C$^{15}$N isotopologue is confidently detected (at $\gtrsim4\sigma$) in three out of the four directions studied and appears as a very weak feature between the main $^{12}$CN and $^{13}$CN absorption components. Column densities for each CN isotopologue are determined through profile fitting, after accounting for weak additional line-of-sight components of $^{12}$CN, which are seen in the absorption profiles of CH and CH$^+$ as well. The weighted mean value of C$^{14}$N/C$^{15}$N for the three sight lines with detections of C$^{15}$N is $274\pm18$. Since the diffuse molecular clouds toward our target stars have relatively high gas kinetic temperatures and relatively low visual extinctions, their C$^{14}$N/C$^{15}$N ratios should not be affected by chemical fractionation. The mean C$^{14}$N/C$^{15}$N ratio that we obtain should therefore be representative of the ambient $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio in the local interstellar medium. Indeed, our mean value agrees well with that derived from millimeter-wave observations of CN, HCN, and HNC in local molecular clouds.
In order to assess whether the environment has a significant effect on galaxy sizes, we compare the mass--size relations of cluster and field galaxies in the $0.4 < z < 0.8$ redshift range from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) using HST images. We analyse two mass-selected samples, one defined using photometric redshifts ($10.2 \le \log M_\ast/M_{\odot} \le 12.0$), and a smaller more robust subsample using spectroscopic redshifts ($10.6 \le \log M_\ast/M_{\odot} \le 11.8$). We find no significant difference in the size distributions of cluster and field galaxies of a given morphology. Similarly, we find no significant difference in the size distributions of cluster and field galaxies of similar rest-frame $B-V$ colours. We rule out average size differences larger than $10$--$20$\% in both cases. Consistent conclusions are found with the spectroscopic and photometric samples. These results have important consequences for the physical process(es) responsible for the size evolution of galaxies, and in particular the effect of the environment. The remarkable growth in galaxy size observed from $z\sim2.5$ has been reported to depend on the environment at higher redshifts ($z>1$), with early-type/passive galaxies in higher density environments growing earlier. Such dependence disappears at lower redshifts. Therefore, if the reported difference at higher-$z$ is real, the growth of field galaxies has caught up with that of cluster galaxies by $z\sim1$. Any putative mechanism responsible for galaxy growth has to account for the existence of environmental differences at high redshift and their absence (or weakening) at lower redshifts.
We report the discovery of gamma-ray emission from the narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy FBQS J1644+2619 by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi satellite. The Third Fermi LAT Source catalogue reports an unidentified gamma-ray source, detected over the first four years of Fermi operation, 0.23 deg from the radio position of the NLSy1. Analysing 76 months of gamma-ray data (2008 August 4-2014 December 31) we are able to better constrain the localization of the gamma-ray source. The new position of the gamma-ray source is 0.05 deg from FBQS J1644+2619, suggesting a spatial association with the NLSy1. This is the sixth NLSy1 detected at high significance by Fermi-LAT so far. Notably, a significant increase of activity was observed in gamma-rays from FBQS J1644+2619 during 2012 July-October, and an increase of activity in V-band was detected by the Catalina Real-Time Sky Survey in the same period.
Thomson optical depth measurements from Planck provide new insights into the reionization of the universe. To obtain new model-independent constraints on the properties of the ionizing sources, we determine the empirical evolution of the ionising background. We use a simple two-parameter model to map out the evolution in this background at z>~6 from the new Planck optical depth tau measurements and from the constraints provided by quasar absorption spectra and the prevalence of Ly-alpha emission in z~7-8 galaxies. We find the redshift evolution in the ionising background N_{ion} required by the observations to be dlog_{10} N_{ion}/dz(z=8)=-0.19_{-0.11}^{+0.09}, largely independent of the assumed clumping factor C_{HII} and entirely independent of the identity of the ionizing sources. The trend in N_{ion} is well-matched by the evolution of the galaxy UV-luminosity density (dlog_{10} rho_{UV}/dz=-0.11+/-0.04) to a magnitude limit >~-13 mag, suggesting that galaxies are the sources that drive the reionization of the universe. The role of galaxies is further strengthened by the conversion from the UV luminosity density to N_{ion}(z) being possible for physically plausible values of the escape fraction f_{esc}, the Lyman-continuum photon production efficiency xi_{ion}, and faint-end cut-off M_{lim} to the LF. Lastly, we use the inferred evolution in the ionizing background to estimate the z~10 UV luminosity density, finding this luminosity density to be 12_{-7}^{+21}x lower than at z~6, consistent with current measurements at z~10. Quasars/AGN appear to match neither the redshift evolution nor normalization of the ionizing background. This new approach of contrasting the inferred evolution of the ionising background with that of the galaxy UV luminosity density adds to the growing observational evidence that galaxies are the sources that drive the reionization of the universe.
Atmospheric chemical disequilibrium has been proposed as a method for detecting extraterrestrial biospheres from exoplanet observations. Chemical disequilibrium is potentially a generalized biosignature since it makes no assumptions about particular biogenic gases or metabolisms. Here, we present the first rigorous calculations of the thermodynamic chemical disequilibrium in the atmospheres of Solar System planets, in which we quantify the difference in Gibbs free energy of an observed atmosphere compared to that of all the atmospheric gases reacted to equilibrium. The purely gas phase disequilibrium in Earth's atmosphere, as measured by this available Gibbs free energy, is not unusual by Solar System standards and smaller than that of Mars. However, Earth's atmosphere is in contact with a surface ocean, which means that gases can react with water, and so a multiphase calculation that includes aqueous species is required. We find that the disequilibrium in Earth's atmosphere-ocean system (in joules per mole of atmosphere) ranges from ~20 to 2E6 times larger than the disequilibria of other atmospheres in the Solar System depending on the celestial body being compared. Disequilibrium in other Solar System atmospheres is driven by abiotic processes, and we identify the key disequilibria in each atmosphere. Earth's thermodynamic disequilibrium is biogenic in origin, and the main contribution is the coexistence of N2, O2 and liquid water instead of more stable nitrate. In comparison, the disequilibrium between O2 and methane constitutes a negligible contribution to Earth's disequilibrium with this metric. Our metric requires minimal assumptions and could potentially be calculated using observations of exoplanet atmospheres. Our Matlab source code and associated databases for these calculations are available as open source software.
We report the discovery of an ultra-faint Milky Way satellite galaxy in the constellation of Pegasus. The concentration of stars was detected by applying our overdensity detection algorithm to the SDSS-DR 10 and confirmed with deeper photometry from the Dark Energy Camera at the 4-m Blanco telescope. Fitting model isochrones indicates that this object, Pegasus III, features an old and metal-poor stellar population ([Fe/H]$\sim-2.1$) at a heliocentric distance of $205\pm20$ kpc. The new stellar system has an estimated half-light radius of $r_h=110\pm6$ pc and a total luminosity of $M_{V}\sim-4.1\pm0.5$ that places it into the domain of dwarf galaxies on the size--luminosity plane. Pegasus III is spatially close to the MW satellite Pisces II. It is possible that the two might be physically associated, similar to the Leo IV and Leo V pair. Pegasus III is also well aligned with the Vast Polar Structure, which suggests a possible physical association.
Lobe-dominated radio-loud (LD RL) quasars occupy a restricted domain in the
4D Eigenvector 1 (4DE1) parameter space which implies restricted
geometry/physics/kinematics for this subclass compared to the radio-quiet (RQ)
majority of quasars. We discuss how this restricted domain for the LD RL parent
population supports the notion for a RQ-RL dichotomy among Type 1 sources. 3C
57 is an atypical RL quasar that shows both uncertain radio morphology and
falls in a region of 4DE1 space where RL quasars are rare.
We present new radio flux and optical spectroscopic measures designed to
verify its atypical optical/UV spectroscopic behaviour and clarify its radio
structure. The former data confirms that 3C 57 falls off the 4DE1 quasar "main
sequence" with both extreme optical FeII emission (R_{FeII} ~ 1) and a large
CIV 1549 profile blueshift (~ -1500 km/s). These parameter values are typical
of extreme Population A sources which are almost always RQ. New radio measures
show no evidence for flux change over a 50+ year timescale consistent with
compact steep-spectrum (CSS or young LD) over core-dominated morphology. In the
4DE1 context where LD RL are usually low L/L_{Edd} quasars we suggest that 3C
57 is an evolved RL quasar (i.e. large Black Hole mass) undergoing a major
accretion event leading to a rejuvenation reflected by strong FeII emission,
perhaps indicating significant heavy metal enrichment, high bolometric
luminosity for a low redshift source and resultant unusually high Eddington
ratio giving rise to the atypical CIV 1549.
Gaseous and stellar metallicities in galaxies are nowadays routinely used to constrain the evolutionary processes in galaxies. This requires the knowledge of the average yield per stellar generation, $y_{\text{Z}}$, i.e. the quantity of metals that a stellar population releases into the interstellar medium (ISM), which is generally assumed to be a fixed fiducial value. Deviations of the observed metallicity from the expected value of $y_{\text{Z}}$ are used to quantify the effect of outflows or inflows of gas, or even as evidence for biased metallicity calibrations or inaccurate metallicity diagnostics. Here we show that $\rm y_{\text{Z}}$ depends significantly on the Initial Mass Function (IMF), varying by up to a factor larger than three, for the range of IMFs typically adopted in various studies. This, along with the variation of the gas mass fraction restored into the ISM by supernovae ($R$, which also depends on the IMF), may yield to deceiving results, if not properly taken into account. In particular, metallicities that are often considered unusually high can actually be explained in terms of yield associated with commonly adopted IMFs such as the Kroupa (2001) or Chabrier (2003). Moreover, if the IMF depends on the enviroment, then $y_{\text{Z}}$ should be varied accordingly. Finally, we show that $y_{\text{Z}}$ is not substantially affected by the inital stellar metallicity as long as this is higher than $\text{Z}> 10^{-3}~\text{Z}_{\odot}$. On the other hand, $y_{\text{Z}}$ does vary significantly in primordial systems with metallicities lower than this threshold.
Integrated radio-spectrum of Cas A in continuum was analyzed with special emphasis on possible high frequency spectral curvature. We conclude that the most probable scenario is that Planck's new data reveal the imprint of non-linear particle acceleration in the case of this young Galactic supernova remnant (SNR).
The spectral features of HD 94509 are highly unusual, adding an extreme to
the zoo of Be and shell stars. The shell dominates the spectrum, showing lines
typical for spectral types mid-A to early-F, while the presence of a late/mid
B-type central star is indicated by photospheric hydrogen line wings and helium
lines. Numerous metallic absorption lines have broad wings but taper to narrow
cores. They cannot be fit by Voigt profiles.
We aim to describe and illustrate unusual spectral features of this star, and
make rough calculations to estimate physical conditions and abundances in the
shell. Furthermore, the central star is characterized.
We assume mean conditions for the shell. An electron density estimate is made
from the Inglis-Teller formula. Excitation temperatures and column densities
for Fe I and Fe II are derived from curves of growth. The neutral H column
density is estimated from high Paschen members. The column densities are
compared with calculations made with the photoionization code Cloudy.
Atmospheric parameters of the central star are constrained employing non-LTE
spectrum synthesis.
Overall chemical abundances are close to solar. Column densities of the
dominant ions of several elements, as well as excitation temperatures and the
mean electron density are well accounted for by a simple model. Several
features, including the degree of ionization, are less well described.
HD 94509 is a Be star with a stable shell, close to the terminal-age main
sequence. The dynamical state of the shell and the unusually shaped, but
symmetric line profiles, require a separate study.
Bright X-ray flares are routinely detected by the Swift satellite during the early afterglow of gamma-ray bursts, when the explosion ejecta drives a blast wave into the external medium. We suggest that the flares are produced as the reverse shock propagates into the tail of the ejecta. The ejecta is expected to contain a few dense shells formed at an earlier stage of the explosion. We show an example of how such dense shells form and describe how the reverse shock interacts with them. A new reflected shock is generated in this interaction, which produces a short-lived X-ray flare. The model provides a natural explanation for the main observed features of the X-ray flares --- the fast rise, the steep power-law decline, and the characteristic peak duration \Delta t /t= (0.1-0.3).
Energy densities of relativistic electrons and protons in extended galactic and intracluster regions are commonly determined from spectral radio and (rarely) $\gamma$-ray measurements. The time-independent particle spectral density distributions are commonly assumed to have a power-law (PL) form over the relevant energy range. A theoretical relation between energy densities of electrons and protons is usually adopted, and energy equipartition is invoked to determine the mean magnetic field strength in the emitting region. We show that for typical conditions, in both star-forming and starburst galaxies, these estimates need to be scaled down substantially due to significant energy losses that (effectively) flatten the electron spectral density distribution, resulting in a much lower energy density than deduced when the distribution is assumed to have a PL form. The steady-state electron distribution in the nuclear regions of starburst galaxies is calculated by accounting for Coulomb, bremsstrahlung, Compton, and synchrotron losses; the corresponding emission spectra of the latter two processes are calculated and compared to the respective PL spectra. We also determine the proton steady-state distribution by taking into account Coulomb and pion production losses, and briefly discuss implications of our steady-state particle spectra for estimates of proton energy densities and magnetic fields.
Taking advantage of a set of high-resolution simulations coupled with a state-of-art semi-analytic model of galaxy formation we probe the mass segregation of galaxies in groups and clusters, focusing on which physical mechanisms are driving it. We find evidence of mass segregation in groups and clusters up to the virial radius, with a trend that weakens with increasing halo mass. The physical mechanism responsible for that is found to be dynamical friction, a drag-force that brings more massive galaxies faster towards the innermost regions of the halo. We argue that the intrinsic dependence of dynamical friction timescale on halo mass explains the weakening of mass segregation from groups to clusters. At odds with observational results, we do not find the inclusion of low-mass galaxies in the samples, down to stellar mass $M_* = 10^9 \, M_{\odot}$, to change the overall trend shown by intermediate and massive galaxies. Moreover, stellar stripping as well as the growth of galaxies after their accretion, do not contribute either in shaping mass segregation or mixing the radial mass distribution. Beyond the virial radius we find an "anti-mass segregation" in groups that progressively weakens in clusters. The continuous accretion of new objects plays a different role depending on the halo mass on which accreting material is infalling to.
We performed a uniform and detailed abundance analysis of 12 refractory elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni, Co, Sc, Mn, and V) for a sample of 257 G- and K-type evolved stars from the CORALIE planet search program. To date, only one of these stars is known to harbor a planetary companion. We aimed to characterize this large sample of evolved stars in terms of chemical abundances and kinematics, thus setting a solid base for further analysis of planetary properties around giant stars. This sample, being homogeneously analyzed, can be used as a comparison sample for other planet-related studies, as well as for different type of studies related to stellar and Galaxy astrophysics. The abundances of the chemical elements were determined using an LTE abundance analysis relative to the Sun, with the spectral synthesis code MOOG and a grid of Kurucz ATLAS9 atmospheres. To separate the Galactic stellar populations both a purely kinematical approach and a chemical method were applied. We confirm the overabundance of Na in giant stars compared to the field FGK dwarfs. This enhancement might have a stellar evolutionary character, but departures from LTE may also produce a similar enhancement. Our chemical separation of stellar populations also suggests a "gap" in metallicity between the thick-disk and high-alpha metal-rich stars, as previously observed in dwarfs sample from HARPS. The present sample, as most of the giant star samples, also suffers from the B - V colour cut-off, which excludes low-log g stars with high metallicities, and high-logg star with low-[Fe/H]. For future studies of planet occurrence dependence on stellar metallicity around these evolved stars we suggest to use a sub-sample of stars in a "cut-rectangle" in the logg - [Fe/H] diagram to overcome the aforementioned issue.
The diverse properties of broad-line quasars appear to follow a well-defined main sequence along which the optical FeII strength increases. It has been suggested that this sequence is mainly driven by the Eddington ratio (L/L_Edd) of the black hole (BH) accretion. Shen & Ho demonstrated with quasar clustering analysis that the average BH mass decreases with increasing FeII strength when quasar luminosity is fixed, consistent with this suggestion. Here we perform an independent test by measuring the stellar velocity dispersion sigma* (hence the BH mass via the M-sigma* relation) from decomposed host spectra in low-redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars. We found that at fixed quasar luminosity, sigma* systematically decreases with increasing FeII strength, confirming that Eddington ratio increases with FeII strength. We also found that at fixed luminosity and FeII strength, there is little dependence of sigma* on the broad Hbeta FWHM. These new results reinforce the framework put forward by Shen & Ho that Eddington ratio and orientation govern most of the diversity seen in broad-line quasar properties.
DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor) is a small satellite aiming for a launch around 2020 with JAXA's Epsilon rocket. Its main aim is a search for warm-hot intergalactic medium with high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of redshifted emission lines from OVII and OVIII ions. The superior energy resolution of TES microcalorimeters combined with a very wide field of view (30--50 arcmin diameter) will enable us to look into gas dynamics of cosmic plasmas in a wide range of spatial scales from Earth's magnetosphere to unvirialized regions of clusters of galaxies. Mechanical and thermal design of the spacecraft and development of the TES calorimeter system are described. We also consider revising the payload design to optimize the scientific capability allowed by the boundary conditions of the small mission.
A new line list including positions and absolute intensities (in the form of Einstein $A$ values and oscillator strengths) has been produced for the OH ground X\DP\ state rovibrational (Meinel system) and pure rotational transitions. All possible transitions are included with v$\primed$ and v$\Dprimed$ up to 13, and $J$ up to between 9.5 and 59.5, depending on the band. An updated fit to determine molecular constants has been performed, which includes some new rotational data and a simultaneous fitting of all molecular constants. The absolute line intensities are based on a new dipole moment function, which is a combination of two high level ab initio calculations. The calculations show good agreement with an experimental v=1 lifetime, experimental $\mu_\mathrm{v}$ values, and $\Delta$v=2 line intensity ratios from an observed spectrum. To achieve this good agreement, an alteration in the method of converting matrix elements from Hund's case (b) to (a) was made. Partitions sums have been calculated using the new energy levels, for the temperature range 5-6000 K, which extends the previously available (in HITRAN) 70-3000 K range. The resulting absolute intensities have been used to calculate O abundances in the Sun, Arcturus, and two red giants in the Galactic open and globular clusters M67 and M71. Literature data based mainly on [O I] lines are available for the Sun and Arcturus, and excellent agreement is found.
We study the relationship between jet power and accretion for Fermi and non-Fermi blazars, respectively. We also compare the relevant parameter between them. Our main results are as follows. (i) Fermi and non-Fermi blazars have significant difference in redshift, black hole mass, and broad line luminosity. (ii) Fermi blazars have higher average core-dominance parameter than non-Fermi blazars, which suggests that Fermi blazars have strong beaming effect. (iii) We find significant correlation between broad line emission and jet power for Fermi and non-Fermi blazars, respectively, which suggests a direct tight connection between jet and accretion. (iv) The accretion and black hole mass may have a different contribution to jet power for Fermi and non-Fermi blazars, respectively.
We present predictions of centimeter and millimeter radio emission from reverse shocks in the early afterglows of gamma-ray bursts with the goal of determining their detectability with current and future radio facilities. Using a range of GRB properties, such as peak optical brightness and time, isotropic equivalent gamma-ray energy and redshift, we simulate radio light curves in a framework generalized for any circumburst medium structure and including a parametrization of the shell thickness regime that is more realistic than the simple assumption of thick- or thin-shell approximations. Building on earlier work by Mundell et al. (2007) and Melandri et al. (2010) in which the typical frequency of the reverse shock was suggested to lie at radio, rather than optical wavelengths at early times, we show that the brightest and most distinct reverse-shock radio signatures are detectable up to 0.1 -- 1 day after the burst, emphasizing the need for rapid radio follow-up. Detection is easier for bursts with later optical peaks, high isotropic energies, lower circumburst medium densities, and at observing frequencies that are less prone to synchrotron self-absorption effects - typically above a few GHz. Given recent detections of polarized prompt gamma-ray and optical reverse-shock emission, we suggest that detection of polarized radio/mm emission will unambiguously confirm the presence of low-frequency reverse shocks at early time.
We study multi-field inflation models that contain a non-trivial field-space metric and a non-minimal coupling between the gravity and inflaton sectors. In such models it is known that even in the absence of explicit interaction terms the inflaton sector can decay into matter as a result of its non-minimal coupling to gravity, thereby reheating the Universe gravitationally. Using the Bogoliubov approach we evaluate the gravitational decay rates of the inflaton fields into both scalars and fermions, and analyse the reheating dynamics. We also discuss how the interpretation of the reheating dynamics differs in the so-called Jordan and Einstein frames, highlighting that the calculation of the Bogoliubov coefficients is independent of the frame in which one starts.
Sunspots and the plethora of other phenomena occuring in the course of the 11-year cycle of solar activity are a consequence of the emergence of magnetic flux at the solar surface. The observed orientations of bipolar sunspot groups imply that they originate from toroidal (azimuthally orientated) magnetic flux in the convective envelope of the Sun. We show that the net toroidal magnetic flux generated by differential rotation within a hemisphere of the convection zone is determined by the emerged magnetic flux at the solar surface and thus can be calculated from the observed magnetic field distribution. The main source of the toroidal flux is the roughly dipolar surface magnetic field at the polar caps, which peaks around the minima of the activity cycle.
The dynamical response of edge waves under the influence of self-gravity is examined in an idealized two-dimensional model of a proto-stellar disc, characterized in steady state as a rotating vertically infinite cylinder of fluid with constant density except for a single density interface at some radius r0. The fluid in basic state is prescribed to rotate with a Keplerian profile $\Omega_k(r)\sim r^{-3/2}$ modified by some additional azimuthal sheared flow. A linear analysis shows that there are two azimuthally propagating edge waves, kin to the familiar Rossby waves and surface gravity waves in terrestrial studies, which move opposite to one another with respect to the local basic state rotation rate at the interface. Instability only occurs if the radial pressure gradient is opposite to that of the density jump (unstably stratified) where self-gravity acts as a wave stabilizer irrespective of the stratification of the system. The propagation properties of the waves are discussed in detail in the language of vorticity edge waves. The roles of both Boussinesq and non-Boussinesq effects upon the stability and propagation of these waves with and without the inclusion of self-gravity are then quantified. The dynamics involved with self-gravity non- Boussinesq effect is shown to be a source of vorticity production where there is a jump in the basic state density, in addition, self-gravity also alters the dynamics via the radial main pressure gradient, which is a Boussinesq effect . Further applications of these mechanical insights are presented in the conclusion including the ways in which multiple density jumps or gaps may or may not be stable.
We analyze the frequency dependence of the dispersion measure (DM), the column density of free electrons to a pulsar, caused by multipath scattering from small scale electron-density fluctuations. The DM is slightly different along each propagation path and the transverse spread of paths varies greatly with frequency, yielding time-of-arrival (TOA) perturbations that scale differently than the inverse square of the frequency, the expected dependence for a cold, unmagnetized plasma. We quantify DM and TOA perturbations analytically for thin phase screens and extended media and verify the results with simulations of thin screens. The rms difference between DMs across an octave band near 1.5~GHz $\sim 4\times10^{-5}\,{\rm pc\ cm^{-3}}$ for pulsars at $\sim 1$~kpc distance. TOA errors from chromatic DMs are of order a few to hundreds of nanoseconds for pulsars with DM $\lesssim 30$~pc~cm$^{-3}$ observed across an octave band but increase rapidly to microseconds or larger for larger DMs and wider frequency ranges. Frequency-dependent DMs introduce correlated noise into timing residuals whose power spectrum is `low pass' in form. The correlation time is of order the geometric mean of the refraction times for the highest and lowest radio frequencies used and thus ranges from days to years, depending on the pulsar. We discuss the implications for methodologies that use large frequency separations or wide bandwidth receivers for timing measurements. Chromatic DMs are partially mitigable by using an additional chromatic term in arrival time models. Without mitigation, our results provide an additional term in the noise model for pulsar timing; they also indicate that in combination with measurement errors from radiometer noise, an arbitrary increase in total frequency range (or bandwidth) will yield diminishing benefits and may be detrimental to overall timing precision.
Height-time plots of the leading edge of coronal mass ejections (CME) have often been used to study CME kinematics. We propose a new method to analyze the CME kinematics in more detail by determining the radial mass transport process throughout the entire CME. Thus our method is able to estimate not only the speed of the CME front but also the radial flow speed inside the CME. We have applied the method to a slow CME with an average leading edge speed about 480 km s$^{-1}$. In the Lagrangian frame, the speed of the individual CME mass elements stay almost constant within 2 and 15 R$_S$, the range over which we analyzed the CME. Hence we have no evidence of net radial forces acting on parts of the CME in this range nor of a pile-up of mass ahead of the CME. We find evidence that the leading edge trajectory obtained by tie-pointing may gradually lag behind the Lagrangian front-side trajectories derived from our analysis. Our results also allow a much more precise estimate of the CME energy. Compared with conventional estimates using the CME total mass and leading-edge motion, we find that the latter may overestimate the kinetic energy and the gravitational potential energy.
A long standing question in cosmology is whether gravitational lensing changes the distance-redshift relation $D(z)$ or the mean flux density of sources. Interest in this has been rekindled by recent studies in non-linear relativistic perturbation theory that find biases in both the area of a surface of constant redshift and in the mean distance to this surface, with a fractional bias in both cases on the order of the mean squared convergence $\langle \kappa^2 \rangle$. Any such area bias could alter CMB cosmology, and the corresponding bias in mean flux density could affect supernova cosmology. Here we show that, in an ensemble averaged sense, the perturbation to the area of a surface of constant redshift is in reality much smaller, being on the order of the cumulative bending angle squared, or roughly a part-in-a-million effect. This validates the arguments of Weinberg (1976) that the mean magnification $\mu$ of sources is unity and of Kibble \& Lieu (2005) that the mean direction-averaged inverse magnification is unity. It also validates the conventional treatment of lensing in analysis of CMB anisotropies. But the existence of a scatter in magnification will cause any non-linear function of these conserved quantities to be statistically biased. The distance $D$, for example, is proportional to $\mu^{-1/2}$ so lensing will bias $\langle D\rangle$ even if $\langle \mu \rangle=1$. The fractional bias in such quantities is generally of order $\langle \kappa^2 \rangle$, which is orders of magnitude larger than the area perturbation. Claims for large bias in area or flux density of sources appear to have resulted from misinterpretation of such effects: they do not represent a new non-Newtonian effect, nor do they invalidate standard cosmological analyses.
We apply a semi-analytic galaxy formation model to two high resolution cosmological N-body simulations to investigate analogues of the Milky Way system. We select these according to observed properties of the Milky Way rather than by halo mass as in most previous work. For disk-dominated central galaxies with stellar mass (5--7) x 10d10Msun, the median host halo mass is 1.4 x 10d12Msun, with 1 sigma dispersion in the range [0.86, 3.1] x 10d12Msun, consistent with dynamical measurements of the Milky Way halo mass. For any given halo mass, the probability of hosting a Milky Way system is low, with a maximum of ~20% in haloes of mass ~10d12Msun. The model reproduces the V-band luminosity function and radial profile of the bright (MV < -9) Milky Way satellites. Galaxy formation in low mass haloes is found to be highly stochastic, resulting in an extremely large scatter in the relation between MV (or stellar mass) for satellites and the depth of the subhalo potential well in which they live, as measured by the maximum of the rotation curve, Vmax. We conclude that the "too big to fail" problem is an artifact of selecting satellites in N-body simulations according to subhalo properties: in 10% of cases we find that three or fewer of the brightest (or most massive) satellites have Vmax > 30 km/s. Our model predicts that around half of the dark matter subhaloes with Vmax > 20 km/s host satellites fainter than MV = -9 and so may be missing from existing surveys.
We discuss recent observational, theoretical and modeling progress made in understanding the Sun's internal dynamics, including its rotation, meridional flow, convection and overshoot. Over the past few decades, substantial theoretical and observational effort has gone into appreciating these aspects of solar dynamics. A review of these observations, related helioseismic methodology and inference and computational results in relation to these problems is undertaken here.
Traditional theories, which predict the cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants of Nature, assume that the underlying fields, which give rise to this evolution, are unnaturally light. We demonstrate that massive fields, such as dark matter, also directly produce a cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants. We consider the specific model of a scalar dark matter field $\phi$, which interacts with Standard Model particles via quadratic couplings in $\phi$. In this particular model, cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants arises due to changes in $\left<\phi^2\right>$ in time and space. The most stringent constraints on the physical parameters of the present model come from measurements of the neutron-proton mass difference at the time of the weak interaction freeze-out.
We investigate signs of Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) in the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 3256 at both infrared and X-ray wavelengths. NGC 3256 has double, the Northern and Southern, nuclei (hereafter, N and S nuclei, respectively). We show that the Spitzer IRAC colors extracted at the S nucleus are AGN-like, and the Spitzer IRS spectrum is bluer at <6um than at the N nucleus. We built for the S nucleus an AGN-starburst composite model with a heavily absorbed AGN to successfully reproduce not only the IRAC and IRS specrophotometries at ~3arcsec but also the very deep silicate 9.7um absorption observed at 0.36" scale by Diaz-Santos et al. We found a 2.2um compact source at the S nucleus in a HST NICMOS image and identified its unresolved core (at 0.26" resolution) with the compact core in previous mid-infrared observations at comparable resolution. The flux of the 2.2umm core is consistent with our AGN spectral energy distribution model. We also analyzed a deeper than ever Chandra X-ray spectrum of the unresolved (at 0.5" resolution) source at the S nucleus. We found that a dual-component power-law model (for primary and scattered ones) fits an apparently very hard spectrum with a moderately large absorption on the primary component. Together with a limit on equivalent width of a fluorescent Fe-K emission line at 6.4 keV, the X-ray spectrum is consistent with a typical Compton-thin Seyfert 2. We therefore suggest that the S nucleus hosts a heavily absorbed low-luminosity AGN.
It is generally believed that the evolution of magnetic helicity has a close relationship with solar activity. Before the launch of SDO, earlier studies have mostly used MDI/SOHO line of sight magnetograms and assumed that magnetic fields are radial when calculating magnetic helicity injection rate from photospheric magnetograms. However, this assumption is not necessarily true. Here we use the vector magnetograms and line of sight magnetograms, both taken by HMI/SDO, to estimate the effects of non-radial magnetic field on measuring magnetic helicity injection rate. We find that: 1) The effect of non-radial magnetic field on estimating tangential velocity is relatively small; 2) On estimating magnetic helicity injection rate, the effect of non-radial magnetic field is strong when active regions are observed near the limb and is relatively small when active regions are close to disk center; 3) The effect of non-radial magnetic field becomes minor if the amount of accumulated magnetic helicity is the only concern.
Inspired by Barnard 68, a Bok globule, that undergoes stable oscillations, we perform multi-phase hydrodynamic simulations to analyze the stability of Bok globules. We show that a high-density soft molecular core, with an adiabatic index $\gamma$ = 0.7 embedded in a warm isothermal diffuse gas, must have a small density gradient to retain the stability. Despite being stable, the molecular core can still collapse spontaneously as it will relax to develop a sufficiently large density gradient after tens of oscillations, or a few $10^7$ years. However, during its relaxation, the core may abruptly collapse triggered by the impingement of small-amplitude, long-wavelength ($\sim$ 6 $-$ 36 pc) sound waves in the warm gas. This triggered collapse mechanism is similar to a sonoluminescence phenomenon, where underwater ultrasounds can drive air bubble coalescence. The collapse configuration is found to be different from both inside-out and outside-in models of low-mass star formation; nonetheless the mass flux is close to the prediction of the inside-out model. The condition and the efficiency for this core collapse mechanism are identified. Generally speaking, a broad-band resonance condition must be met, where the core oscillation frequency and the wave frequency should match each other within a factor of several. A consequence of our findings predicts the possibility of propagating low-mass star formation, for which collapse of cores, within a mass range short of one order of magnitude, takes place sequentially tracing the wave front across a region of few tens of pc over $10^7$ years.
We present the Spitzer Archival Far-InfraRed Extragalactic Survey (SAFIRES). This program produces refined mosaics and source lists for all far-infrared extragalactic data taken during the more than six years of the cryogenic operation of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The SAFIRES products consist of far-infrared data in two wavelength bands (70 um and 160 um) across approximately 180 square degrees of sky, with source lists containing far-infrared fluxes for almost 40,000 extragalactic point sources. Thus, SAFIRES provides a large, robust archival far-infrared data set suitable for many scientific goals.
We study the circumstellar evolution of the binary HD101584, consisting of a post-AGB star and a low-mass companion, which is most likely a post-common-envelope-evolution system. We used ALMA observations of the 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J=2-1 lines and the 1.3mm continuum to determine the morphology, kinematics, masses, and energetics of the circumstellar environment. The circumstellar medium has a bipolar hour-glass structure, seen almost pole-on, formed by an energetic jet, about 150 km/s. We conjecture that the circumstellar morphology is related to an event that took place about 500 year ago, possibly a capture event where the companion spiraled in towards the AGB star. However, the kinetic energy of the accelerated gas exceeds the released orbital energy, and, taking into account the expected energy transfer efficiency of the process, the observed phenomenon does not match current common-envelope scenarios. This suggests that another process must augment, or even dominate, the ejection process. A significant amount of material resides in an unresolved region, presumably in the equatorial plane of the binary system.
Both observation and theory reveal a close relationship between the kinematics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and the thermal energy release traced by the related soft X-ray (SXR) emission. The major problem of empirical studies of this relationship is the distortion of the CME speed by the projection effect in the coronagraphic measurements. We present a re-assessment of the statistical relationship between CME velocities and SXR parameters, using the SOHO/LASCO catalog and GOES whole Sun observations during the period 1996 to 2008. 49 events were identified where CMEs originated near the limb, at central meridian distances between 70$^\circ$ and 85$^\circ$, and had a reliably identified SXR burst, the parameters of which - peak flux and fluence - could be determined with some confidence. We find similar correlations between the logarithms of CME speed and of SXR peak flux and fluence as several earlier studies, with correlation coefficients of 0.48 and 0.58, respectively. Correlations are slightly improved over an unrestricted CME sample when only limb events are used. However, a broad scatter persists. We derive the parameters of the CME-SXR relationship and use them to predict ICME arrival times at Earth. We show that the CME speed inferred from SXR fluence measurements tends to perform better than SoHO/LASCO measurements in the prediction of ICME arrival times near 1 AU. The estimation of the CME speed from SXR observations can therefore make a valuable contribution to space weather predictions.
We present the results of a search for variable stars in a 26x39 arcmin^2 field around globular cluster M79 (NGC1904). The search was made by means of an extended version of image subtraction, which allows to analyze in a uniform manner CCD frames obtained with different telescopes and cameras of different sizes and resolutions. The search resulted in finding 20 new variable stars, among which 13 are cluster members. The members include one new RR Lyr star of subtype c, three SX Phe stars, and nine variable red giants. We also show that V7 is a W Vir star with a period of 13.985 d. Revised mean periods of RRab and RRc stars, <P_ab>=0.71 d and <P_c>=0.34 d, respectively, and relative percentage of RRc stars, N_c/(N_ab+N_c)=45 % confirm that M79 belongs to the Oosterhoff II group of globular clusters. The mean V magnitude of the horizontal branch of M79 based on ten RR Lyr stars has been estimated to be $V_HB=<V_RR>=16.11\pm0.03$ mag. In one RRc star, V9, light changes with three close frequencies were detected, indicating excitation of nonradial modes. An SX Phe star, V18, is a double-mode pulsator with two radial modes excited, fundamental and first overtone. Moreover, we have discovered two SX Phe or delta Sct stars and one W UMa type system, all likely field objects. We also studied the period -- luminosity relation for SX Phe stars. Using 62 fundamental and fundamentalized periods of radial double-mode and high-amplitude SX Phe stars known in Galactic globular clusters, we have derived the slope and zero point of this relation to be, $-3.35\pm0.24$ and $2.68\pm0.03$ mag (at log(P/d)=-1.24), respectively.
MAXI J1836-194 is a Galactic black hole candidate X-ray binary that was discovered in 2011 when it went into outburst. In this paper, we present the full radio monitoring of this system during its `failed' outburst, in which the source did not complete a full set of state changes, only transitioning as far as the hard intermediate state. Observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) show that the jet properties changed significantly during the outburst. The VLA observations detected linearly polarised emission at a level of ~1% early in the outburst, increasing to ~3% as the outburst peaked. High-resolution images with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) show a ~15 mas jet along the position angle $-21 \pm 2^\circ$, in agreement with the electric vector position angle found from our polarisation results ($-21 \pm 4^\circ$), implying that the magnetic field is perpendicular to the jet. Astrometric observations suggest that the system required an asymmetric natal kick to explain its observed space velocity. Comparing quasi-simultaneous X-ray monitoring with the 5 GHz VLA observations from the 2011 outburst shows an unusually steep hard-state radio/X-ray correlation of $L_{\rm R} \propto L_{\rm X}^{1.8\pm0.2}$, where $L_{\rm R}$ and $L_{\rm X}$ denote the radio and X-ray luminosities, respectively. With ATCA and Swift monitoring of the source during a period of re-brightening in 2012, we show that the system lay on the same steep correlation. Due to the low inclination of this system, we then investigate the possibility that the observed correlation may have been steepened by variable Doppler boosting.
We study the evolution of the luminosity-to-halo mass relation of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We select a sample of 52 000 LOWZ and CMASS LRGs from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) SDSS-DR10 in the ~450 deg^2 that overlaps with imaging data from the second Red-sequence Cluster Survey (RCS2), group them into bins of absolute magnitude and redshift and measure their weak lensing signals. The source redshift distribution has a median of 0.7, which allows us to study the lensing signal as a function of lens redshift. We interpret the lensing signal using a halo model, from which we obtain the halo masses as well as the normalisations of the mass-concentration relations. We find that the concentration of haloes that host LRGs is consistent with dark matter only simulations once we allow for miscentering or satellites in the modelling. The slope of the luminosity-to-halo mass relation has a typical value of 1.4 and does not change with redshift, but we do find evidence for a change in amplitude: the average halo mass of LOWZ galaxies increases by 25_{-14}^{+16} % between z=0.36 and 0.22 to an average value of 6.43+/-0.52 x 10^13 h70^-1 Msun. If we extend the redshift range using the CMASS galaxies and assume that they are the progenitors of the LOWZ sample, we find that the average mass of LRGs increases by 80^{+39}_{-28} % between z=0.6 and 0.2
The design, fabrication, and measurement of a coax to double-ridged waveguide launcher and horn antenna is presented. The novel launcher design employs two symmetric field probes across the ridge gap to minimize spreading inductance in the transition, and achieves better than 15 dB return loss over a 10:1 bandwidth. The aperture-matched horn uses a half-cosine transition into a linear taper for the outer waveguide dimensions and ridge width, and a power-law scaled gap in order to realize monotonically-varying cutoff frequencies, thus avoiding the appearance of trapped mode resonances. It achieves a nearly constant beamwidth in both E- and H-planes for an overall directivity of about 16.5 dB from 10-100 GHz.
We present a pedagogical review of the weak gravitational lensing measurement process and its connection to major scientific questions such as dark matter and dark energy. Then we describe common ways of parametrizing systematic errors and understanding how they affect weak lensing measurements. Finally, we discuss several instrumental systematics and how they fit into this context, and conclude with some future perspective on how progress can be made in understanding the impact of instrumental systematics on weak lensing measurements.
This study reports the bulk rare earth element (REEs, La-Lu) compositions of
41 chondrites, including 32 falls and 9 finds from carbonaceous (CI, CM, CO and
CV), enstatite (EH and EL) and ordinary (H, L and LL) groups, as well as 2
enstatite achondrites (aubrite). The CI-chondrite-normalized REE patterns and
Eu anomalies in ordinary and enstatite chondrites show more scatter in more
metamorphosed than in unequilibrated chondrites. This is due to parent-body
redistribution of the REEs in various carrier phases during metamorphism. The
dispersion in REE patterns of equilibrated ordinary chondrites is explained by
the nugget effect associated with concentration of REEs in minor phosphate
grains.
Terrestrial rocks and samples from ordinary and enstatite chondrites display
negative Tm anomalies of ~-4.5 % relative to ca chondrites. In contrast, CM, CO
and CV (except Allende) show no significant Tm anomalies. Allende CV chondrite
shows large excess Tm (~+10 %). These anomalies are similar to those found in
group II refractory inclusions in meteorites but of much smaller magnitude. The
presence of Tm anomalies in meteorites and terrestrial rocks suggests that
either (i) the material in the inner part of the solar system was formed from a
gas reservoir that had been depleted in refractory dust and carried positive Tm
anomalies or (ii) CI chondrites are enriched in refractory dust and are not
representative of solar composition for refractory elements. The observed Tm
anomalies in ordinary and enstatite chondrites and terrestrial rocks, relative
to carbonaceous chondrites, indicate that material akin to carbonaceous
chondrites must have represented a small fraction of the constituents of the
Earth.
We have modelled Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) long baseline imaging of the strong gravitational lens system H-ATLAS J090311.6+003906 (SDP.81). We have reconstructed the distribution of continuum emission in the z=3.042 source and we have determined its kinematic properties by reconstructing CO line emission. The continuum imaging reveals a highly non-uniform distribution of dust with clumps on scales of ~200pc. In contrast, the CO line emission shows a relatively smooth velocity field which resembles disk-like dynamics. Modelling the velocity field as a rotating disk indicates an inclination angle of (40 +/- 5) degrees, implying an intrinsic asymptotic rotation velocity of 320km/s and a dynamical mass of 3.5x10^{10} M_sol within 1.5kpc. We obtain similar estimates of the total molecular gas mass of 2.7x10^{10} M_sol and 1.4x10^{10} M_sol from the dust continuum emission and CO emission respectively. Our new reconstruction of the lensed HST near-infrared emission shows two objects that appear to be interacting, with the rotating disk of gas and dust revealed by ALMA distinctly offset from the near-infrared emission. The clumpy nature of the dust and the low value of the Toomre parameter of Q~0.2 we measure suggest that the disk is in a state of collapse. From our dynamical measurements, we estimate that the disk is unstable on scales from ~50pc (the Jeans length) to ~700pc (the scale on which the disk should be stabilized by shear). This agrees well with the sizes of the clumps that we observe. We estimate that stars are forming in the disk at a rate of 500 M_sol/yr, and that the star-formation efficiency in the disk is ~65 times greater than in typical low-redshift galaxies. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that the most infra-red luminous, dust obscured galaxies in the high redshift Universe represent a population of merger induced starbursts.
Catalogues of sunspots have been available with useful information about sunspots or sunspot groups for approximately the last 150 years. However, the task of merging these catalogues is not simple. In this paper, a method is suggested of converting the types of sunspot groups that were proposed by Cortie (1901) into the well-known Zurich types of sunspot groups. To achieve this, the sunspot catalogue of the Valencia University Observatory (from 1920 to 1928) was used in addition to the descriptions proposed by Cortie. To assess the quality of this conversion scheme, the Zurich type was computed from the Valencia catalogue, and the resulting contribution of each group type was compared to what can be found in other catalogues. The results show that the proposed scheme works well within the errors that are found in the different catalogues.
In this proof-of-concept study we demonstrate how a binary system can easily form an extreme ULX source with the X-ray luminosity of L_x > 10^42 erg/s. Formation efficiencies and lifetimes of such objects are high enough to potentially explain all observed extreme ULXs. These systems are not only limited to binaries with stellar-origin black hole accretors. Noteworthy, we have also identified such objects with neutron stars. Typically, a 10 Msun black hole is fed by a massive (~10 Msun) Hertzsprung gap donor with Roche lobe overflow rate of ~10^-3 Msun/yr (~2600 Mdot_Edd). For neutron star systems the typical donors are evolved low-mass (~2 Msun) helium stars with Roche lobe overflow rate of ~10^-2 Msun/yr. We base our study purely on the available Roche lobe overflow rate in a binary system and show that if only even a small fraction (>10^-3) of the overflow reaches the BH, the source will be super-Eddington. Our study does not prove that any particular extreme ULX (e.g., HLX-1) is a regular binary system with a rather low-mass compact object (a stellar-origin black hole or a neutron star). However, it demonstrates that any ULX, including the most luminous ones, may potentially be a short-lived phase in the life of a binary star.
The minimum-energy configuration for the magnetic field above the solar photosphere is curl-free (hence, by Ampere's law, also current-free), so can be represented as the gradient of a scalar potential. Since magnetic fields are divergence free, this scalar potential obeys Laplace's equation, given an appropriate boundary condition (BC). With measurements of the full magnetic vector at the photosphere, it is possible to employ either Neumann or Dirichlet BCs there. Historically, the Neumann BC was used, since available line-of-sight magnetic field measurements approximated the radial field needed for the Neumann BC. Since each BC fully determines the 3D vector magnetic field, either choice will, in general, be inconsistent with some aspect of the observed field on the boundary, due to the presence of both currents and noise in the observed field. We present a method to combine solutions from both Dirichlet and Neumann BCs to determine a hybrid potential field that minimizes the integrated square of the residual between the potential and actual fields, with the possibility of weighting by spatially uniform measurement uncertainties. This has advantages in both not overfitting the radial field used for the Neumann BC, and maximizing consistency with the observations. We show this with HMI vector magnetic field observations of AR 11158, and find that residual discrepancies between the observed and potential fields are significant, and imply nonzero horizontal photospheric currents. We also analyze potential fields for two other active regions observed with two different vector magnetographs, and find that hybrid potential fields have substantially less energy than the Neumann fields in every case --- by nearly 10^33 ergs in some cases. This has major implications for estimates of free magnetic energy in coronal field models, e.g., non-linear force-free field extrapolations.
The oscillations of a merger remnant forming after the coalescence of two neutron stars are very characteristic for the high-density equation of state. The dominant oscillation frequency occurs as a pronounced peak in the kHz range of the gravitational-wave spectrum. We describe how the dominant oscillation frequency of the remnant can be employed to infer the radii of non-rotating neutron stars.
[Abridged] We use the Planck all-sky submm and mm maps to search for rare sources distinguished by extreme brightness, a few hundreds of mJy, and their potential for being situated at high redshift. These "cold" Planck sources, selected using the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) directly from the maps and from the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS), all satisfy the criterion of having their rest-frame far-infrared peak redshifted to the frequency range 353 and 857 GHz. This colour-selection favours galaxies in the redshift range z=2-4, which we consider as cold peaks in the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We perform a dedicated Herschel-SPIRE follow-up of 234 such Planck targets, finding a significant excess of red 350 and 500um sources, in comparison to reference SPIRE fields. About 94% of the SPIRE sources in the Planck fields are consistent with being overdensities of galaxies peaking at 350um. About 3% are candidate lensed systems, all 12 of which have secure spectroscopic confirmations, placing them at redshifts z>2.2. The galaxy overdensities are detected with high significance, half of the sample showing statistical significance above 10sigma. The SPIRE photometric redshifts of galaxies in overdensities suggest a peak at z~2. Under the Td=35K assumption, we derive an infrared (IR) luminosity for each SPIRE source of about 4x10^12 Lsun, yielding star formation rates of typically 700 Msun.yr^-1. If the observed overdensities are actual gravitationally-bound structures, the total total star formation rates reaches 7x10^3 Msun.yr^-1. Taken together, these sources show the signatures of high-z (z>$) protoclusters of intensively star-forming galaxies. All these observations confirm the uniqueness of our sample and demonstrate the ability of the all-sky Planck-HFI cold sources to select populations of cosmological and astrophysical interest for structure formation studies.
The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) provides high cadence and high resolution images of the structure and morphology of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the inner heliosphere. CME directions and propagation speeds have often been estimated through the use of time-elongation maps obtained from the STEREO Heliospheric Imager (HI) data. Many of these CMEs have been identified by citizen scientists working within the SolarStormWatch project ( www.solarstormwatch.com ) as they work towards providing robust real-time identification of Earth-directed CMEs. The wide field of view of HI allows scientists to directly observe the two-dimensional (2D) structures, while the relative simplicity of time-elongation analysis means that it can be easily applied to many such events, thereby enabling a much deeper understanding of how CMEs evolve between the Sun and the Earth. For events with certain orientations, both the rear and front edges of the CME can be monitored at varying heliocentric distances (R) between the Sun and 1 AU. Here we take four example events with measurable position angle widths and identified by the citizen scientists. These events were chosen for the clarity of their structure within the HI cameras and their long track lengths in the time-elongation maps. We show a linear dependency with R for the growth of the radial width (W) and the 2D aspect ratio (X) of these CMEs, which are measured out to ~0.7 AU. We estimated the radial width from a linear best fit for the average of the four CMEs. We obtained the relationships W=0.14R+0.04 for the width and X=2.5R+0.86 for the aspect ratio (W and R in units of AU).
The Triangulum-Andromeda stellar clouds (TriAnd1 and TriAnd2) are a pair of concentric ring- or shell-like over-densities at large $R$ ($\approx$ 30 kpc) and $Z$ ($\approx$ -10 kpc) in the Galactic halo that are thought to have been formed from the accretion and disruption of a satellite galaxy. This paper critically re-examines this formation scenario by comparing the number ratio of RR Lyrae to M giant stars associated with the TriAnd clouds with other structures in the Galaxy. The current data suggest a stellar population for these over-densities ($f_{\rm RR:MG} < 0.38$ at 95% confidence) quite unlike any of the known satellites of the Milky Way ($f_{\rm RR:MG} \approx 0.5$ for the very largest and $f_{\rm RR:MG} >>1$ for the smaller satellites) and more like the population of stars born in the much deeper potential well inhabited by the Galactic disk ($f_{\rm RR:MG} < 0.01$). N-body simulations of a Milky-Way-like galaxy perturbed by the impact of a dwarf galaxy demonstrate that, in the right circumstances, concentric rings propagating outwards from that Galactic disk can plausibly produce similar over-densities. These results provide dramatic support for the recent proposal by Xu et al. (2015) that, rather than stars accreted from other galaxies, the TriAnd clouds could represent stars kicked-out from our own disk. If so, these would be the first populations of disk stars to be found in the Galactic halo and a clear signature of the importance of this second formation mechanism for stellar halos more generally. Moreover, their existence at the very extremities of the disk places strong constraints on the nature of the interaction that formed them.
In a brief note posted recently, the authors of arXiv:1503.07813 raised some concerns on our arxiv:1502.03821, recently published in Nature Physics. We thank them for the interest in our work and respond here to their criticisms.
To study the fragmentation and gravitational collapse of dense cores in infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), we have obtained submillimeter continuum and spectral line data as well as multiple inversion transitions of NH3 and H2O maser data of four massive clumps in an IRDC G28.53-0.25. Combining single dish and interferometer NH3 data, we derive the rotation temperature of G28.53. We identity 12 dense cores at 0.1 pc scale based on submillimeter continuum, and obtain their physical properties using NH3 and continuum data. By comparing the Jeans masses of cores with the core masses, we find that turbulent pressure is important in supporting the gas when 1 pc scale clumps fragment into 0.1 pc scale cores. All cores have a virial parameter smaller than 1 assuming a inverse squared radial density profile, suggesting they are gravitationally bound, and the three most promising star forming cores have a virial parameter smaller than 1 even taking magnetic field into account. We also associate the cores with star formation activities revealed by outflows, masers, or infrared sources. Unlike what previous studies suggested, MM1 turns out to harbor a few star forming cores and is likely a progenitor of high-mass star cluster. MM5 is intermediate while MM7/8 are quiescent in terms of star formation, but they also harbor gravitationally bound dense cores and have the potential of forming stars as in MM1.
We look at the question posed by Parker {\it et al.} about the effect of UV regularisation on the power spectrum for inflation. Focusing on the slow-roll $k$-inflation, we show that up to second order in the Hubble and sound flow parameters, the adiabatic regularisation of such model leads to no difference in the power spectrum apart from certain cases that violate near scale invariant power spectra. Furthermore, extending to non-minimal $k$-inflation, we establish the equivalence of the subtraction terms in the adiabatic regularisation of the power spectrum in Jordan and Einstein frames.
Tentative evidence for excess GeV-scale gamma rays from the galactic center has been corroborated by several groups, including the Fermi collaboration, on whose data the observation is based. Dark matter annihilation into standard model particles has been shown to give a good fit to the signal for a variety of final state particles, but generic models are inconsistent with constraints from direct detection. Models where the dark matter annihilates to mediators that subsequently decay are less constrained. We perform global fits of such models to recent data, allowing branching fractions to all possible fermionic final states to vary. The best fit models, including constraints from the AMS-02 experiment (and also antiproton ratio), require branching primarily to muons, with a $\sim 10-20\%$ admixture of $b$ quarks, and no other species. This suggests models in which there are two scalar mediators that mix with the Higgs, and have masses consistent with such a decay pattern. The scalar that decays to $\mu^+\mu^-$ must therefore be lighter than $2m_\tau \cong 3.6$ GeV. Such a small mass can cause Sommerfeld enhancement, which is useful to explain why the best-fit annihilation cross section is larger than the value needed for a thermal relic density. For lighter mediator masses $\sim 200$ MeV, it can also naturally lead to elastic DM self-interactions at the right level for addressing discrepancies in small structure formation as predicted by collisionless cold dark matter.
We make a critical comparison between ultra-high energy particle collisions around an extremal Kerr black hole and that around an over-spinning Kerr singularity, mainly focusing on the issue of the timescale of collisions. We show that the time required for two massive particles with the proton mass or two massless particles of GeV energies to collide around the Kerr black hole with Planck energy is several orders of magnitude longer than the age of the Universe for astro-physically relevant masses of black holes, whereas time required in the over-spinning case is of order ten million years which is much shorter than the age of the Universe. Thus from the point of view of observation of Planck scale collisions, the over-spinning Kerr geometry, subject to their occurrence, have distinct advantage over their black hole counterparts.
Descriptions of highly relativistic fermions in a gravitational field in the classical (nonquantum) and quantum approaches are discussed. The results following from the Mathisson-Papapetrou equations for a fast spinning particle in Schwarzschild's and Kerr's background are considered. Numerical estimates for electron, proton and neutrino in the gravitational field of black holes are presented.The general relativistic Dirac equation is analyzed from the point of view it is using for the adequate description of highly relativistic fermions in a gravitational field, in the linear and nonlinear spin approximation. It is necessary to have some corrected Dirac equation for a highly relativistic fermion with strong spin-gravity coupling.
We demonstrate that finite time singularities of Type IV can be consistently incorporated in the Universe's cosmological evolution, either appearing in the inflationary era, or in the late-time regime. While using only one scalar field instabilities can in principle occur at the time of the phantom-divide crossing, when two fields are involved we are able to avoid such instabilities. Additionally, the two-field scalar-tensor theories prove to be able to offer a plethora of possible viable cosmological scenarios, at which various types of cosmological singularities can be realized. Amongst others, it is possible to describe inflation with the appearance of a Type IV singularity, and phantom late-time acceleration which ends in a Big Rip. Finally, for completeness, we also present the Type IV realization in the context of suitably reconstructed $F(R)$ gravity.
We comment upon the application of Hojman's method for the determination of conservation laws in Cosmology, which has been introduced by Capozziello \& Roshan (Phys. Lett. B 726 (2013) 471 (arXiv:1308.3910)), and has been applied recently in the cosmological scenario of a nonminimally coupled scalar field by Paolella \& Capozziello (Phys. Lett. A (2015), in press (arXiv:1503.00098)). We apply the Ansatz, $\phi\left( t\right) =\phi\left( a\left( t\right) \right) $, which was introduced by the cited authors for a minimally-coupled scalar field, and we study the Lie and Noether point symmetries for the reduced equation. We show that under this Ansatz the unknown function of the model cannot be constrained by the requirement of the existence of a conservation law and that the Hojman conservation quantity which arises for the reduced equation is nothing more than the functional form of the Noether conservation law of momentum for the free particle. Finally we show that Hojman's method for Hamiltonian systems, in which the Hamiltonian function is one of the involved equations of the system, is equivalent with the application of Noether's Theorem for generalized transformations.
In this paper, we use the Cosmokinematics approach to study the accelerated expansion of the Universe. This is a model independent approach and depends only on the assumption that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic and is described by the FRW metric. We parametrize the deceleration parameter, $q(z)$, to constrain the transition redshift $z_t$ at which the expansion of the Universe goes from a decelerating to an accelerating phase. To calculate the value of $z_t$ we use three different parametrizations of $q(z)$ namely, $q_I(z)=q_{1}+q_2 z$, $q_{II} (z) = q_3 + q_4 \ln (1 + z)$ and $q_{III}(z)=1/2 +q_5/(1+z)^2$. A joint analysis of the age of galaxies and strong lensing data indicates a high value of the transition redshift i.e. $z_t>1$. Within $2\sigma$ confidence interval our results are in concordance with other observations such as SNe Ia etc.
We propose a new self-consistent dynamo mechanism for the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in natural objects. Recent computational studies have described the formation of large-scale vortices (LSVs) in rotating turbulent convection. Here we demonstrate that for magnetic Reynolds numbers below the threshold for small-scale dynamo action, such turbulent flows can sustain large-scale magnetic fields --- i.e. fields with a significant component on the scale of the system.
Weak gravitational lensing is normally assumed to have only two principle effects: a magnification of a source and a distortion of the sources shape in the form of a shear. However, further distortions are actually present owing to changes in the gravitational field across the scale of the ray bundle of light propagating to us, resulting in the familiar arcs in lensed images. This is normally called the flexion, and is approximated by Taylor expanding the shear and magnification across the image plane. However, the physical origin of this effect arises from higher-order corrections in the geodesic deviation equation governing the gravitational force between neighbouring geodesics - so involves derivatives of the Riemann tensor. We show that integrating the second-order geodesic deviation equation results in a 'Hessian map' for gravitational lensing, which is a higher-order addition to the Jacobi map. We derive the general form of the Hessian map in an arbitrary spacetime paying particular attention to the separate effects of local Ricci versus non-local Weyl curvature. We then specialise to the case of a perturbed FLRW model, and give the general form of the Hessian for the first time. This has a host of new contributions which could in principle be used as tests for modified gravity.
If the Hartle-Hawking wave function is the correct boundary condition of our universe, the history of our universe will be well approximated by an instanton. Although this instanton should be classicalized at infinity, as long as we are observing a process of each history, we may detect a non-classicalized part of field combinations. When we apply it to a dark energy model, this non-classicalized part of fields can be well embedded to a quintessence and a phantom model, i.e., a quintom model. Because of the property of complexified instantons, the phantomness will be naturally free from a big rip singularity. This phantomness does not cause perturbative instabilities, as it is an effect \textit{emergent} from the entire wave function. Our work may thus provide a theoretical basis for the quintom models, whose equation of state (EoS) can cross the cosmological constant boundary (CCB) phenomenologically.
We formulate the basic framework of thermodynamical entropic force cosmology which allows varying gravitational constant $G$ and varying speed of light $c$. Three different approaches to the formulation of the field equations are presented. Some cosmological solutions for each framework are given. In all these cases the entropic terms and the varying constants can play the role of dark energy.
The non-perturbative curvature inhomogeneities induced by relativistic viscous fluids are not conserved in the large-scale limit. However when the bulk viscosity is a function of the total energy density of the plasma (or of the trace of the extrinsic curvature) the relevant evolution equations develop a further symmetry preventing the non-linear growth of curvature perturbations. In this situation the fully inhomogeneous evolution can be solved to leading order in the gradient expansion. Over large-scales both the acceleration and the curvature inhomogeneities are determined by the bulk viscosity coefficients. Conversely the shear viscosity does not affect the evolution of the curvature and does not produce any acceleration. The curvature modes analyzed here do not depend on the choice of time hypersurfaces and are invariant for infinitesimal coordinate transformations in the perturbative regime.
We develop a new approach to building cosmological models, in which small pieces of perturbed Minkowski space are joined together at reflection-symmetric boundaries in order to form a global, dynamical space-time. Each piece of this patchwork universe is described using post-Newtonian gravitational physics, with the large-scale expansion of the universe being an emergent phenomenon. This approach to cosmology does not require any assumptions about non-local averaging processes. Our framework clarifies the relation between the weak-field limit of general relativity, and the cosmological solutions that result from solving Einstein's equations with a set of symmetry assumptions. It also allows the effects of structure formation on the large-scale expansion of the universe to be investigated in an unambiguous way. As an explicit example, we use this formalism to investigate the cosmological behaviour of a large number of regularly arranged point-like masses. In this case we find that the large-scale expansion is well modelled by a Friedmann-like equation that contains terms that take the form of dust, radiation, and spatial curvature. The radiation term, while small compared to the dust term, is purely a result of the non-linearity of Einstein's equations.
We build models where Dark Matter candidates arise as composite states of a new confining gauge force, stable thanks to accidental symmetries. Restricting to renormalizable theories compatible with SU(5) unification, we find 13 models based on SU(N) gauge theories and 9 based on SO(N). We also describe other models that require non-renormalizable interactions. The two gauge groups lead to distinctive phenomenologies: SU(N) theories give complex DM, with potentially observable electric and magnetic dipole moments that lead to peculiar spin-independent cross sections; SO(N) theories give real DM, with challenging spin-dependent cross sections or inelastic scatterings. Models with Yukawa couplings also give rise to spin-independent direct detection mediated by the Higgs boson and to electric dipole moments for the electron. In some models DM has higher spin. Each model predicts a specific set of lighter composite scalars, possibly observable at colliders.
We investigate the propagation of gravitational waves in the context of fourth order gravity nonminimally coupled to a massive scalar field. Using the damping of the orbital period of coalescing stellar binary systems, we impose constraints on the free parameters of extended gravity models. In particular, we find that the variation of the orbital period is a function of three mass scales which depend on the free parameters of the model under consideration; we can constrain these mass scales from current observational data.
This essay discusses phenomenological aspects of the diffusion time
dependence of the spectral dimension predicted by the Causal Dynamical
Triangulations (CDT) approach to quantum gravity. The deformed form of the
dispersion relation for the fields defined on the CDT space-time is
reconstructed. Using the \emph{Fermi} satellite observations of the GRB 090510
source we find that the energy scale of the dimensional reduction is $E_* > 6.7
\cdot 10^{10}$ GeV at (95 $\%$ CL).
By applying the deformed dispersion relation to the cosmological
perturbations it is shown that, for a scenario when the primordial
perturbations are formed in the UV region, the scalar power spectrum
$\mathcal{P}_S \propto k^{n_S-1}$ where $n_S-1\approx \frac{3r(d_{\rm
UV}-2)}{r+48(d_{\rm UV}-3)}$. Here, $d_{\rm UV} \approx 2$ is obtained from the
CDT value of the spectral dimension in the UV limit and $r$ is the
tensor-to-scalar ratio. We find that, the predicted deviation from the
scale-invariance ($n_S=1$) is in contradiction with the up to date
\emph{Planck} and \emph{BICEP2} results.
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The currently available Kepler light curves contain an outstanding amount of information but a detailed analysis of the individual oscillation modes in the observed power spectra, also known as peak bagging, is computationally demanding and challenging to perform on a large number of targets. Our intent is to perform for the first time a peak bagging analysis on a sample of 19 low-mass low-luminosity red giants observed by Kepler for more than four years. This allows us to provide high-quality asteroseismic measurements that can be exploited for an intensive testing of the physics used in stellar structure models, stellar evolution and pulsation codes, as well as for refining existing asteroseismic scaling relations in the red giant branch regime. For this purpose, powerful and sophisticated analysis tools are needed. We exploit the Bayesian code Diamonds, using an efficient nested sampling Monte Carlo algorithm, to perform both a fast fitting of the individual oscillation modes and a peak detection test based on the Bayesian evidence. We find good agreement for the parameters estimated in the background fitting phase with those given in the literature. We extract and characterize a total of 1618 oscillation modes, providing the largest set of detailed asteroseismic mode measurements ever published. We report on the evidence of a change in regime observed in the relation between linewidths and effective temperatures of the stars occurring at the bottom of the RGB. We show the presence of a linewidth depression or plateau around $\nu_\mathrm{max}$ for all the red giants of the sample. Lastly, we show a good agreement between our measurements of maximum mode amplitudes and existing maximum amplitudes from global analyses provided in the literature, useful as empirical tools to improve and simplify the future peak bagging analysis on a larger sample of evolved stars.
We present the local HII region metallicity near the site of the recently discovered multiply lensed supernova (SN; "SN Refsdal") at redshift 1.49. "SN Refsdal" is located at the outer spiral arm ($\sim$7 kpc) of the lensed host galaxy, which we have previously reported to exhibit a steep negative galactocentric metallicity gradient. Based on our updated near-infrared integral field spectroscopic data, the gas-phase metallicity averaged in an intrinsic radius of $\sim$ 550 pc surrounding an HII region $\sim$ 200 pc away from the SN site is 12 + log(O/H)$_{\rm PP04N2}$ $\le$ 8.67. The metallicity averaged over nine HII regions at similar galactocentric distances ($\sim$5-7 kpc) as "SN Refsdal" is constrained to be 12 + log(O/H)$_{\rm PP04N2}$ $\le$ 8.11. Given the fortuitous discovery of "SN Refsdal" in an advantageously lensed face-on spiral, this is the first observational constraint on the local metallicity environment of an SN site at redshift $z>1$.
We investigate the power of the caustic technique to identify substructures of galaxy clusters from optical redshift data alone. The caustic technique is designed to estimate the mass profile of galaxy clusters to radii well beyond the virial radius, where dynamical equilibrium does not hold. Two by-products of this technique are the identification of the cluster members and the identification of the cluster substructures. We test the caustic technique as a substructure detector on two samples of 150 mock redshift surveys of clusters; the clusters are extracted from a large cosmological $N$-body simulation of a $\Lambda$CDM model and have mass $M_{200} \sim 10^{14} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ and $M_{200} \sim 10^{15} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ in the two samples respectively. We limit our analysis to substructures identified in the simulation with mass larger than $10^{13} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$. With mock redshift surveys with 200 galaxies within $3R_{200}$, (1) the caustic technique recovers $\sim 30-50$% of the real substructures, and (2) $\sim 15-20$% of the substructures identified by the caustic technique corresponds to real substructures of the central cluster, the remaining fraction being low-mass substructures, groups or substructures of clusters in the surrounding region, or chance alignments of unrelated galaxies. These encouraging results show that the caustic technique is a promising approach to investigate the complex dynamics of galaxy clusters.
With the completion of the Planck mission, in order to continue to gather cosmological information it has become crucial to understand the Large Scale Structures (LSS) of the universe to percent accuracy. The Effective Field Theory of LSS (EFTofLSS) is a novel theoretical framework that aims to develop an analytic understanding of LSS at long distances, where inhomogeneities are small. We further develop the description of biased tracers in the EFTofLSS to account for the effect of baryonic physics and primordial non-Gaussianities, finding that new bias coefficients are required. Then, restricting to dark matter with Gaussian initial conditions, we describe the prediction of the EFTofLSS for the one-loop halo-halo and halo-matter two-point functions, and for the tree-level halo-halo-halo, matter-halo-halo and matter-matter-halo three-point functions. Several new bias coefficients are needed in the EFTofLSS, even though their contribution at a given order can be degenerate and the same parameters contribute to multiple observables. We develop a method to reduce the number of biases to an irreducible basis, and find that, at the order at which we work, seven bias parameters are enough to describe this extremely rich set of statistics. We then compare with the output of $N$-body simulations. For the lowest mass bin, we find percent level agreement up to $k\simeq 0.3\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for the one-loop two-point functions, and up to $k\simeq 0.15\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ for the tree-level three-point functions, with the $k$-reach decreasing with higher mass bins. This is consistent with the theoretical estimates, and suggests that the cosmological information in LSS amenable to analytical control is much more than previously believed.
Massive stars can be efficiently ejected from their birth clusters through encounters with other massive stars. We study how the dynamical ejection fraction of O star systems varies with the masses of very young star clusters, Mecl, by means of direct N -body calculations. We include diverse initial conditions by varying the half-mass radius, initial mass-segregation, initial binary fraction and orbital parameters of the massive binaries. The results show robustly that the ejection fraction of O star systems exhibits a maximum at a cluster mass of $10^{3.5}$ Msun for all models, even though the number of the ejected systems increases with cluster mass. We show that lower mass clusters (Mecl ~ 400 Msun ) are the dominant sources for populating the Galactic field with O stars by dynamical ejections, considering the mass function of embedded clusters. About 15 per cent (up to 38 per cent, depending on the cluster models) of O stars of which a significant fraction are binaries, and which would have formed in a 10 Myr epoch of star formation in a distribution of embedded clusters, will be dynamically ejected to the field. Individual clusters may eject 100 per cent of their original O star content. A large fraction of such O stars have velocities up to only 10 km/s. Synthesising a young star cluster mass function it follows, given the stellar-dynamical results presented here, that the observed fractions of field and runaway O stars, and the binary fractions among them can be well understood theoretically if all O stars form in embedded clusters.
We report on the discovery of a new X-ray pulsator, Swift J201424.9+152930 (Sw J2014). Owing to its X-ray modulation at 491 s, it was discovered in a systematic search for coherent signals in the archival data of the Swift X-ray Telescope. To investigate the nature of Sw J2014, we performed multi-wavelength follow-up observations with space-borne (Swift and XMM-Newton) and ground-based (the 1.5-m Loiano Telescope and the 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo) instruments. The X-ray spectrum of Sw J2014 can be described by a hard and highly absorbed power law. The optical observations made it possible to single out the optical counterpart to this source, which displays several variable emission lines and total eclipses lasting ~20 min. Total eclipses of similar length were observed also in X-rays. The study of the eclipses, allowed us to infer a second periodicity of 3.44 h, which we interpret as the orbital period of a close binary system. We also found that the period has not significantly changed over a ~7 yr timespan. Based on the timing signatures of Sw J2014, and its optical and X-ray spectral properties, we suggest that it is a close binary hosting an accreting magnetic white dwarf. The system is therefore a cataclysmic variable of the intermediate polar type and one of the very few showing deep eclipses.
We investigate the stellar populations of 25 massive, galaxies ($\log[M_\ast/M_\odot] \geq 10.9$) at $1.5 < z < 2$ using data obtained with the K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) on the ESO VLT. Targets were selected to be quiescent based on their broadband colors and redshifts using data from the 3D-HST grism survey. The mean redshift of our sample is $\bar{z} = 1.75$, where KMOS YJ-band data probe age- and metallicity-sensitive absorption features in the rest-frame optical, including the $G$ band, Fe I, and high-order Balmer lines. Fitting simple stellar population models to a stack of our KMOS spectra, we derive a mean age of $1.03^{+0.13}_{-0.08}$ Gyr. We confirm previous results suggesting a correlation between color and age for quiescent galaxies, finding mean ages of $1.22^{+0.56}_{-0.19}$ Gyr and $0.85^{+0.08}_{-0.05}$ Gyr for the reddest and bluest galaxies in our sample. Combining our KMOS measurements with those obtained from previous studies at $0.2 < z < 2$ we find evidence for a $2-3$ Gyr spread in the formation epoch of massive galaxies. At $z < 1$ the measured stellar ages are consistent with passive evolution, while at $1 < z \lesssim2$ they appear to saturate at $\sim$1 Gyr, which likely reflects changing demographics of the (mean) progenitor population. By comparing to star-formation histories inferred for "normal" star-forming galaxies, we show that the timescales required to form massive galaxies at $z \gtrsim 1.5$ are consistent with the enhanced $\alpha$-element abundances found in massive local early-type galaxies.
Intensity mapping, which images a single spectral line from unresolved galaxies across cosmological volumes, is a promising technique for probing the early universe. Here we present predictions for the intensity map and power spectrum of the CO(1-0) line from z~2.4-2.8 galaxies, based on a parameterized model for the galaxy-halo connection, and demonstrate the extent to which properties of high-redshift galaxies can be directly inferred from such observations. We find that our fiducial prediction should be detectable by a realistic experiment. Motivated by significant modeling uncertainties, we demonstrate the effect on the power spectrum of varying each parameter in our model. Using simulated observations, we infer constraints on our model parameter space with an MCMC procedure, and show corresponding constraints on the LIR-LCO relation and the CO luminosity function. These constraints would be complementary to current high-redshift galaxy observations, which can detect the brightest galaxies but not complete samples from the faint end of the luminosity function. By probing these populations in aggregate, CO intensity mapping could be a valuable tool for probing molecular gas and its relation to star formation in high-redshift galaxies.
We derive the Edgeworth streaming model (ESM) for the redshift space correlation function starting from an arbitrary distribution function for biased tracers of dark matter by considering its two-point statistics and show that it reduces to the Gaussian streaming model (GSM) when neglecting non-Gaussianities. We test the accuracy of the GSM and ESM independent of perturbation theory using the Horizon Run 2 N-body halo catalog. While the monopole of the redshift space halo correlation function is well described by the GSM, higher multipoles improve upon including the leading order non-Gaussian correction in the ESM: the GSM quadrupole breaks down on scales below 30 Mpc/h whereas the ESM stays accurate to 2% within statistical errors down to 10 Mpc/h. To predict the scale dependent functions entering the streaming model we employ Convolution Lagrangian perturbation theory (CLPT) based on the dust model and local Lagrangian bias. Since dark matter halos carry an intrinsic length scale given by their Lagrangian radius, we extend CLPT to the coarse grained dust model and consider two different smoothing approaches operating in Eulerian and Lagrangian space, respectively. The coarse-graining in Eulerian space features modified fluid dynamics different from dust while the coarse-graining in Lagrangian space is performed in the initial conditions with subsequent single streaming dust dynamics, implemented by smoothing the initial power spectrum in the spirit of the truncated Zel'dovich approximation. Finally, we compare the predictions of the different coarse-grained models for the streaming model ingredients to N-body measurements and comment on the proper choice of both the tracer distribution function and the smoothing scale. Since the perturbative methods we considered are not yet accurate enough on small scales, the GSM is sufficient when applied to perturbation theory.
T Pyxidis is the only recurrent nova surrounded by knots of material ejected in previous outbursts. Following the eruption that began on 2011 April 14.29, we obtained seven epochs (from 4 to 383 days after eruption) of Hubble Space Telescope narrowband Ha images of T Pyx . The flash of radiation from the nova event had no effect on the ejecta until at least 55 days after the eruption began. Photoionization of hydrogen located north and south of the central star was seen 132 days after the beginning of the eruption. That hydrogen recombined in the following 51 days, allowing us to determine a hydrogen atom density of at least 7e5 cm^-3 - at least an order of magnitude denser than the previously detected, unresolved [NII] knots surrounding T Pyx. Material to the northwest and southeast was photoionized between 132 and 183 days after the eruption began. 99 days later that hydrogen had recombined. Both then (282 days after outburst) and 101 days later, we detected almost no trace of hydrogen emission around T Pyx. There is a large reservoir of previously unseen, cold diffuse hydrogen overlapping the previously detected, [NII] - emitting knots of T Pyx ejecta. The mass of this newly detected hydrogen is probably an order of magnitude larger than that of the [NII] knots. We also determine that there is no significant reservoir of undetected ejecta from the outer boundaries of the previously detected ejecta out to about twice that distance, near the plane of the sky. The lack of distant ejecta is consistent with the Schaefer et al (2010) scenario for T Pyx, in which the star underwent its first eruption within five years of 1866 after many millennia of quiescence, followed by the six observed recurrent nova eruptions since 1890. This lack of distant ejecta is not consistent with scenarios in which T Pyx has been erupting continuously as a recurrent nova for many centuries or millennia.
South Africa has played a leading role in radio astronomy in Africa with the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO). It continues to make strides with the current seven-dish MeerKAT precursor array (KAT-7), leading to the 64-dish MeerKAT and the giant Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which will be used for transformational radio astronomy research. Ghana, an African partner to the SKA, has been mentored by South Africa over the past six years and will soon emerge in the field of radio astronomy. The country will soon have a science-quality 32m dish converted from a redundant satellite communication antenna. Initially, it will be fitted with 5 GHz and 6.7 GHz receivers to be followed later by a 1.4 - 1.7 GHz receiver. The telescope is being designed for use as a single dish observatory and for participation in the developing African Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (AVN) and the European VLBI Network. Ghana is earmarked to host a remote station during a possible SKA Phase 2. The location of the country on 5 degree north of the Equator gives it the distinct advantage of viewing the entire plane of the Milky Way galaxy and nearly the whole sky. In this article, we present the case of Ghana in the radio astronomy scene and the science/technology that will soon be carried out by engineers and astronomers.
We present a study of the composition of gas and dust in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, together -- the MCs) as measured by UV absorption spectroscopy. We have measured P II and Fe II along 85 sightlines toward the MCs using archival FUSE observations. For 16 of those sightlines, we have measured Si II, Cr II, and Zn II from new HST COS observations. We have combined these measurements with H I and H$_2$ column densities and reference stellar abundances from the literature to derive gas-phase abundances, depletions, and gas-to-dust ratios (GDRs). 80 of our 84 P measurements and 13 of our 16 Zn measurements are depleted by more than 0.1 decades, suggesting that P and Zn abundances are not accurate metallicity indicators at and above the metallicity of the SMC. The maximum P and Zn depletions are the same in the MW, LMC, and SMC. Si, Cr, and Fe are systematically less depleted in the SMC than in the MW or LMC. The minimum Si depletion in the SMC is consistent with zero. Our depletion-derived GDRs broadly agree with GDRs from the literature. The GDR varies from location to location within a galaxy by a factor of up to 2 in the LMC and up to 5 in the SMC. This variation is evidence of dust destruction and/or growth in the diffuse neutral phase of the interstellar medium.
At second order in perturbation theory, the $r$-modes of uniformly rotating stars include an axisymmetric part that can be identified with differential rotation of the background star. If one does not include radiation-reaction, the differential rotation is constant in time and has been computed by S\'a. It has a gauge dependence associated with the family of time-independent perturbations that add differential rotation to the unperturbed equilibrium star: For stars with a barotropic equation of state, one can add to the time-independent second-order solution arbitrary differential rotation that is stratified on cylinders (that is a function of distance $\varpi$ to the axis of rotation). We show here that the gravitational radiation-reaction force that drives the $r$-mode instability removes this gauge freedom: The expontially growing differential rotation of the unstable second-order $r$-mode is unique. We derive a general expression for this rotation law for Newtonian models and evaluate it explicitly for slowly rotating models with polytropic equations of state.
We present a 324.5MHz image of the NOAO Bo\"otes field that was made using Very Large Array (VLA) P-band observations. The image has a resolution of 5.6x5.1arcsec, a radius of $2.05^\circ$ and a central noise of ~0.2mJy\beam. Both the resolution and noise of the image are an order of magnitude better than what was previously available at this frequency and will serve as a valuable addition to the already extensive multiwavelength data that are available for this field. The final source catalogue contains 1370 sources and has a median 325 to 1400MHz spectral index of -0.72. Using a radio colour-colour diagram of the unresolved sources in our catalogue, we identify 33 megahertz peaked-spectrum (MPS) sources. Based on the turnover frequency linear size relation for the gigahertz peaked-spectrum (GPS) and compact steep-spectrum (CSS) sources, we expect that the MPS sources that are compact on scales of tens of milliarcseconds should be young radio loud active galactic nuclei at high (z>2) redshifts. Of the 33 MPS sources, we were able to determine redshifts for 24, with an average redshift of 1.3. Given that five of the sources are at z>2, that the four faint sources for which we could not find redshifts are likely at even higher redshifts and that we could only select sources that are compact on a scale of ~5arcsec, there is encouraging evidence that the MPS method can be used to search for high-redshift sources.
We present time-resolved optical spectroscopy of the counterpart to the high-inclination black hole low-mass X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933 in quiescence. Absorption features from the mass donor star were not detected. Instead the spectra display prominent broad double-peaked Halpha emission and weaker HeI emission lines. From the Halpha peak-to-peak separation we constrain the radial velocity semi-amplitude of the donor star to > 789 km/s. Further analysis through radial velocity and equivalent width measurements indicates that the Halpha line is free of variability due to S-wave components or disc eclipses. From our data and previous observations during outburst, we conclude that long-term radial velocity changes ascribed to a precessing disc were of low amplitude or not present. This implies that the centroid position of the line should closely represent the systemic radial velocity. Using the derived systemic velocity of -150 km/s and the best available limits on the source distance, we infer that the black hole is moving towards the Plane in its current Galactic orbit unless the proper motion is substantial. Finally, the depth of the central absorption in the double peaked profiles adds support for Swift J1357.2-0933 as a high-inclination system. On the other hand, we argue that the low hydrogen column density inferred from X-ray fitting suggests that the system is not seen edge-on.
The formation mechanism for blue hook (BHk) stars in globular clusters (GCs) is still unclear. Following one of the possible scenario, named late hot flash scenario, we proposed that tidally enhanced stellar wind in binary evolution may provide the huge mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) and produce BHk stars. Employing the detailed stellar evolution code, Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), we investigated the contributions of tidally enhanced stellar wind as a possible formation channel for BHk stars in GCs. We evolved the primary stars with different initial orbital periods using the binary module in MESA (version 6208) from zero age main-sequence (ZAMS) to post horizontal branch (HB) stage, and obtained their evolution parameters which are compared with the observation. The results are consistent with observation in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and the logg-Teff plane for NGC 2808, which is an example GC hosting BHk stars. However, the helium abundance in the surface for our models is higher than the one obtained in BHk stars. This discrepancy between our models and observation is possibly due to the fact that gravitational settling and radiative levitation which are common processes in hot HB stars are not considered in the models as well as the fact that the flash mixing efficiency may be overestimated in the calculations. Our results suggested that tidally enhanced stellar wind in binary evolution is able to naturally provide the huge mass loss on the RGB needed for late hot flash scenario and it is a possible and reasonable formation channel for BHk stars in GCs.
We present results of the clustering analysis between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and galaxies at redshift 0.1-1.0 for investigating properties of galaxies associated with the AGNs, revealing the nature of fueling mechanism of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We used 7916 SDSS AGNs/QSOs for which virial masses of individual SMBHs were measured, and divided them into four mass groups. Cross-correlation analysis was performed and the dark matter halo mass for each mass group was derived. The averaged color and luminosity distributions of galaxies around the AGNs/QSOs were also derived for each mass group. The galaxy color was estimated for SED constructed from a merged SDSS and UKIDSS catalog. The distributions of color and luminosity were derived by the subtraction method, which does not require redshift information of galaxies. The main results of this work are: (1) dark matter halo mass increases by one order of magnitude from the lower mass group to the highest mass group; (2) the environment around AGNs with the most massive SMBH (Mbh > 10^9 Msun) is dominated by red sequence galaxies; (3) marginal indication of decline in luminosity function at dimmer side of M > -19.5 mag is found for galaxies around AGNs with Mbh = 10^8.2 - 10^9 Msun and nearest redshift group (z=0.1-0.3). These results indicate that AGNs with the most massive SMBHs reside in haloes where large fraction of galaxies have been transited to the red sequence probably due to the AGN feedback in each galaxy. The accretion of hot halo gas can be the most plausible mechanism to fuel the SMBHs above ~10^9 Msun.
The basic concepts of wind braking of magnetars, and its applications to various timing events of magnetars are outlined. The case of the Galactic centre magnetar SGR J1745-2900 is especially discussed. Two predictions for SGR J1745-2900 are made (the period derivative will first increase then decrease; and possible outbursts in the near future).
We have investigated the light variability in a sample of 22 carbon-rich post-AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), based primarily on photometric data from the OGLE survey. All are found to vary. Dominant periods are found in eight of them; these periods range from 49 to 157 days, and most of these stars have F spectral types. These eight are found to be similar to the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) carbon-rich proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs) in several ways: (a) they are in the same period range of ~38 to ~160 days, (b) they have similar spectral types, (c) they are (all but one) redder when fainter, (d) they have multiple periods, closely spaced in time, with a average ratio of secondary to primary period of ~1.0, and as an ensemble, (e) they show a trend of decreasing period with increasing temperature, and (f) they show a trend of decreasing amplitude with decreasing period. However, they possibly differ in that the decreasing trend of period with temperature may be slightly offset from that of the MWG. These eight are classified as PPNs. The other 14 all show evidence of variability on shorter timescales. They are likely hotter PPNs or young planetary nebulae. However, in the MWG the numbers of PPNs peak in the F-G spectral types, while it appears that in the LMC they peak at a hotter B spectral type. One of the periodic ones shows a small, R Coronae Borealis-type light curve drop.
We are posting this 10-year-old white paper to support an upcoming survey description paper for the SDSS-III Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) led by PI Dr. Steven Majewski. The white paper presented here was a contribution to a 2005 "futures" planning process for the Astrophysical Research Consortium led by Dr. Donald York that examined both prospects for extending the work of SDSS and SDSS-II as well as enhancing the capabilities of the Apache Point 3.5-meter telescope and the overall scientific reach of the Consortium. This particular white paper describes the potential for using the Sloan 2.5-meter telescope and its fiber optic infrastructure to conduct a galactic plane chemical abundance survey in the low-extinction 1.6um H-band. The survey would target >1000 red giant stars per night selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey using a >200 fiber near-infrared spectrograph operating at spectral resolution of R~24,000 with a magnitude limit of H~12 - very close to the final APOGEE implementation. A number of features suggested in the white paper did not survive to the actual survey including an R~3000 low-resolution spectral mode emphasizing kinematics to a fainter magnitude limit of K~14, a tunable high-resolution grating (retired by using three HAWAII-2RG arrays to cover most of the H-band all at once), a refrigerated optical train (the actual APOGEE is LN2 cooled), and the use of InGaAs arrays (HgCdTe remained the most mature technology at the time of construction). The white paper also suggests making the APOGEE instrument accessible to the 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point, a project now underway.
We present a study of the evolution of the fraction of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) as a function of their host stellar mass. We make use of two samples of radio galaxies: one in the local universe, $0.01 < z < 0.3$, using a combined SDSS-NVSS sample and one at higher redshifts, $0.5 < z < 2$, constructed from the VLA-COSMOS_DEEP Radio Survey at 1.4 GHz and a K$_s$-selected catalogue of the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field. We observe an increase of more than an order of magnitude in the fraction of lower mass galaxies ($M_* < 10^{10.75}$ M$_{\odot}$) which host Radio-Loud AGN with radio powers $P_{1.4GHz} > 10^{24}$ W/Hz at z ~ 1-2 while the radio-loud fraction for higher mass galaxies ($M_* > 10^{11.25}$ M$_{\odot}$) remains the same. We argue that this increase is driven largely by the increase in cold or radiative mode accretion with increasing cold gas supply at earlier epochs. The increasing population of low mass Radio-Loud AGN can thus explain the upturn in the Radio Luminosity Function (RLF) at high redshift which is important for understanding the impact of AGN feedback in galaxy evolution.
It has been shown that the behaviour of primordial gas collapsing in a dark matter minihalo can depend on the adopted choice of 3-body H$_2$ formation rate. The uncertainties in this rate span two orders of magnitude in the current literature, and so it remains a source of uncertainty in our knowledge of population III star formation. Here we investigate how the amount of fragmentation in primordial gas depends on the adopted 3-body rate. We present the results of calculations that follow the chemical and thermal evolution of primordial gas as it collapses in two dark matter minihalos. Our results on the effect of 3-body rate on the evolution until the first protostar forms agree well with previous studies. However, our modified version of GADGET-2 SPH also includes sink particles, which allows us to follow the initial evolution of the accretion disc that builds up on the centre of each halo, and capture the fragmentation in gas as well as its dependence on the adopted 3-body H$_2$ formation rate. We find that the fragmentation behaviour of the gas is only marginally effected by the choice of 3-body rate co-efficient, and that halo-to-halo differences are of equal importance in affecting the final mass distribution of stars.
In cosmological scenarios with thermal inflation, extra eras of moduli matter domination, thermal inflation and flaton matter domination exist between primordial inflation and the radiation domination of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. During these eras, cosmological perturbations on small scales can enter and re-exit the horizon, modifying the power spectrum on those scales. The largest modified scale, $k_\mathrm{b}$, touches the horizon size when the expansion changes from deflation to inflation at the transition from moduli domination to thermal inflation. We analytically calculate the evolution of perturbations from moduli domination through thermal inflation and evaluate the curvature perturbation on the constant radiation density hypersurface at the end of thermal inflation to determine the late time curvature perturbation. Our resulting transfer function suppresses the power spectrum by a factor $\sim 50$ at $k \gg k_\mathrm{b}$, with $k_\mathrm{b}$ corresponding to anywhere from megaparsec to subparsec scales depending on the parameters of thermal inflation. Thus, thermal inflation might be constrained or detected by small scale observations such as CMB distortions or 21cm hydrogen line observations.
We investigate the interacting dark energy models by using the diagnostics of statefinder hierarchy and growth rate of structure. We wish to explore the deviations from $\Lambda$CDM and to differentiate possible degeneracies in the interacting dark energy models with the geometrical and structure growth diagnostics. We consider two interacting forms for the models, i.e., $Q_1=\beta H\rho_c$ and $Q_2=\beta H\rho_{de}$, with $\beta$ being the dimensionless coupling parameter. Our focus is the I$\Lambda$CDM model that is a one-parameter extension to $\Lambda$CDM by considering a direct coupling between the vacuum energy ($\Lambda$) and cold dark matter (CDM), with the only additional parameter $\beta$. But we begin with a more general case by considering the I$w$CDM model in which dark energy has a constant $w$ (equation-of-state parameter). For calculating the growth rate of structure, we employ the "parametrized post-Friedmann" theoretical framework for interacting dark energy to numerically obtain the $\epsilon(z)$ values for the models. We show that in both geometrical and structural diagnostics the impact of $w$ is much stronger than that of $\beta$ in the I$w$CDM model. We thus wish to have a closer look at the I$\Lambda$CDM model by combining the geometrical and structural diagnostics. We find that the evolutionary trajectories in the $S^{(1)}_3$--$\epsilon$ plane exhibit distinctive features and the departures from $\Lambda$CDM could be well measured, indicating that the composite null diagnostic $\{S^{(1)}_3, \epsilon\}$ is very powerful for investigating the interacting dark energy models.
In recent years, the Galactic Center (GC) region (200 pc in radius) has been studied in detail with spectroscopic stellar data as well as an estimate of the ongoing star formation rate. The aims of this paper are to study the chemical evolution of the GC region by means of a detailed chemical evolution model and to compare the results with high resolution spectroscopic data in order to impose constraints on the GC formation history.The chemical evolution model assumes that the GC region formed by fast infall of gas and then follows the evolution of alpha-elements and Fe. We test different initial mass functions (IMFs), efficiencies of star formation and gas infall timescales. To reproduce the currently observed star formation rate, we assume a late episode of star formation triggered by gas infall/accretion. We find that, in order to reproduce the [alpha/Fe] ratios as well as the metallicity distribution function observed in GC stars, the GC region should have experienced a main early strong burst of star formation, with a star formation efficiency as high as 25 Gyr^{-1}, occurring on a timescale in the range 0.1-0.7 Gyr, in agreement with previous models of the entire bulge. Although the small amount of data prevents us from drawing firm conclusions, we suggest that the best IMF should contain more massive stars than expected in the solar vicinity, and the last episode of star formation, which lasted several hundred million years, should have been triggered by a modest episode of gas infall/accretion, with a star formation efficiency similar to that of the previous main star formation episode. This last episode of star formation produces negligible effects on the abundance patterns and can be due to accretion of gas induced by the bar. Our results exclude an important infall event as a trigger for the last starburst.
The gas cloud G2 falling toward Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is supposed to provide valuable information on the physics of accretion flows and the environment of the black hole. We observed Sgr A* with four European stations of the Global Millimeter Very Long Baseline Interferometry Array (GMVA) at 86 GHz on 1 October 2013 when parts of G2 had already passed the pericenter. We searched for possible transient asymmetric structure -- such as jets or winds from hot accretion flows -- around Sgr A* caused by accretion of material from G2. The interferometric closure phases remained zero within errors during the observation time. We thus conclude that Sgr A* did not show significant asymmetric (in the observer frame) outflows in late 2013. Using simulations, we constrain the size of the outflows that we could have missed to ~2.5 mas along the major axis, ~0.4 mas along the minor axis of the beam, corresponding to approximately 232 and 35 Schwarzschild radii, respectively; we thus probe spatial scales on which the jets of radio galaxies are suspected to convert magnetic into kinetic energy. As probably less than 0.2 Jy of the flux from Sgr A* can be attributed to accretion from G2, one finds an effective accretion rate eta*Mdot < 1.5*10^9 kg/s ~ 7.7*10^-9 Mearth/yr for material from G2. Exploiting the kinetic jet power--accretion power relation of radio galaxies, one finds that the rate of accretion of matter that ends up in jets is limited to Mdot < 10^17 kg/s ~ 0.5 Mearth/yr, less than about 20% of the mass of G2. Accordingly, G2 appears to be largely stable against loss of angular momentum and subsequent (partial) accretion at least on time scales < 1 year.
The cosmic web contains a large fraction of the total gas mass in the universe but is difficult to detect at most wavelengths. Synchrotron emission from shock-accelerated electrons may offer the chance of imaging the cosmic web at radio wavelengths. In this work we use 3D cosmological {\enzo}-MHD simulations to produce models of the radio emission from the cosmic web. In post-processing we study the capabilities of 12 large radio surveys to detect this emission. We find that surveys by LOFAR, SKA1-LOW and MWA have a chance of detecting the cosmic web, provided that the magnetisation level of the tenuous medium in filaments is of the order of $\sim 1$\% of the thermal gas energy.
We introduce a radiative transfer code module for the magnetohydrodynamical adaptive mesh refinement code FLASH 4. It is coupled to an efficient chemical network which explicitly tracks the three hydrogen species H, H_2, H+ as well as C+ and CO. The module is geared towards modeling all relevant thermal feedback processes of massive stars, and is able to follow the non-equilibrium time-dependent thermal and chemical state of the present-day interstellar medium as well as that of dense molecular clouds. We describe in detail the implementation of all relevant thermal stellar feedback mechanisms, i.e. photoelectric, photoionization and H_2 dissociation heating as well as pumping of molecular hydrogen by UV photons. All included radiative feedback processes are extensively tested. We also compare our module to dedicated photon-dominated region (PDR) codes and find good agreement in our modeled hydrogen species once our radiative transfer solution reaches equilibrium. In addition, we show that the implemented radiative feedback physics is insensitive to the spatial resolution of the code and show under which conditions it is possible to obtain well-converged evolution in time. Finally, we briefly explore the robustness of our scheme for treating combined ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.
A certain degree of linear polarization has been measured in several GRB afterglows. More surprisingly, circular polarization has been recently measured in GRB121024A. For synchrotron emission, the polarization level depends on: (i) the local magnetic field orientation (ii) the geometry of the emitting region with respect to the line of sight and (iii) the electron pitch-angle distribution. For this reason, polarization measurements are a valuable tool to probe afterglow micro-physics. We present numerical estimates of linear and circular polarization for different configurations (i.e., magnetic fields, geometries and pitch-angle distributions). For each different scenario, we study the conditions for reaching the maximum and minimum linear and circular polarization and provide their values. We discuss the implication of our results to the micro-physics of GRB afterglows in view of recent polarization measurements.
We consider an inhomogeneous model and independently an anisotropic model of primordial power spectrum in order to describe the observed hemispherical anisotropy in Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. This anisotropy can be parametrized in terms of the dipole modulation model of the temperature field. Both the models lead to correlations between spherical harmonic coefficients corresponding to multipoles, l and l \pm 1. We obtain the model parameters by making a fit to TT correlations in CMBR data. Using these parameters we predict the signature of our models for correlations among different multipoles for the case of the TE and EE modes. These predictions can be used to test whether the observed hemispherical anisotropy can be correctly described in terms of a primordial power spectrum. Furthermore these may also allow us to distinguish between an inhomogeneous and an anisotropic model.
Time-distance helioseismology uses cross-covariances of wave motions on the solar surface to determine the travel times of wave packets moving from one surface location to another. We review the methodology to interpret travel-time measurements in terms of small, localized perturbations to a horizontally homogeneous reference solar model. Using the first Born approximation, we derive and compute 3D travel-time sensitivity (Fr\'echet) kernels for perturbations in sound-speed, density, pressure, and vector flows. While kernels for sound speed and flows had been computed previously, here we extend the calculation to kernels for density and pressure, hence providing a complete description of the effects of solar dynamics and structure on travel times. We treat three thermodynamic quantities as independent and do not assume hydrostatic equilibrium. We present a convenient approach to computing damped Green's functions using a normal-mode summation. The Green's function must be computed on a wavenumber grid that has sufficient resolution to resolve the longest lived modes. The typical kernel calculations used in this paper are computer intensive and require on the order of 600 CPU hours per kernel. Kernels are validated by computing the travel-time perturbation that results from horizontally-invariant perturbations using two independent approaches. At fixed sound-speed, the density and pressure kernels are approximately related through a negative multiplicative factor, therefore implying that perturbations in density and pressure are difficult to disentangle. Mean travel-times are not only sensitive to sound-speed, density and pressure perturbations, but also to flows, especially vertical flows. Accurate sensitivity kernels are needed to interpret complex flow patterns such as convection.
We present an analysis of BeppoSAX observations of the unique transient bursting X-ray pulsar GRO J1744-28. The observations took place in March 1997 during the decay phase of the outburst. We find that the persistent broadband X-ray continuum of the source is consistent with a cutoff power law typical for the accreting pulsars. We also detect the fluorescence iron line at 6.7 keV and an absorption feature at ~4.5 keV, which we interpret as a cyclotron line. The corresponding magnetic field strength in the line forming region is ~3.7 x 10^11 G. Neither line is detected in the spectra of the bursts. However, additional soft thermal component with kT ~2 keV was required to describe the burst spectrum. We briefly discuss the nature of this component and argue that among other possibilities it might be connected with thermonuclear flashes at the neutron star surface which accompany the accretion-powered bursts in the source.
We present a detailed statistical treatment of the energy calibration of hybrid air-shower detectors, which combine a surface detector array and a fluorescence detector, to obtain an unbiased estimate of the calibration curve. The special features of calibration data from air showers prevent unbiased results, if a standard least-squares fit is applied to the problem. We develop a general maximum-likelihood approach, based on the detailed statistical model, to solve the problem. Our approach was developed for the Pierre Auger Observatory, but the applied principles are general and can be transferred to other air-shower experiments, even to the cross-calibration of other observables. Since our general likelihood function is expensive to compute, we derive two approximations with significantly smaller computational cost. In the recent years both have been used to calibrate data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We demonstrate that these approximations introduce negligible bias when they are applied to simulated toy experiments, which mimic realistic experimental conditions.
Infrared Dark Clouds are ideal laboratories to study the initial processes of high-mass star and star cluster formation. We investigated star formation activity of an unexplored filamentary dark cloud (~5.7pc x 1.9pc), which itself is part of a large filament (~20pc) located in the S254-S258 OB complex at a distance of 2.5kpc. Using MIPS Spitzer 24 micron data, we uncover 49 sources with SNR greater than 5. We identified 45 sources as candidate YSOs of Class I, Flat-spectrum & Class II nature. Additional 17 candidate YSOs (9 Class I & 8 Class II) are also identified using JHK and WISE photometry. We find that the protostar to Class II sources ratio (~2) and the protostar fraction (~70%) of the region are high. When the protostar fraction compared to other young clusters, it suggests that the star formation in the dark cloud was possibly started only 1 Myr ago. Combining the NIR photometry of the YSO candidates with the theoretical evolutionary models, we infer that most of the candidate YSOs formed in the dark cloud are low-mass (<2 Msolar) in nature. We examine the spatial distribution of the YSOs and find that majority of them are linearly aligned along the highest column density line (N(H2) ~1 x 10^22 cm^-2) of the dark cloud along its long axis at mean nearest neighbor separation of ~0.2pc. Using observed properties of the YSOs, physical conditions of the cloud and a simple cylindrical model, we explore the possible star formation process of this filamentary dark cloud and suggest that gravitational fragmentation within the filament should have played a dominant role in the formation of the YSOs. From the total mass of the YSOs, gaseous mass associated with the dark cloud, and surrounding environment, we infer that the region is presently forming stars at an efficiency ~3% and a rate ~30 Msolar Myr^-1, and may emerge to a richer cluster.
We measure rotation periods for 12151 stars in the Kepler field, based on the photometric variability caused by stellar activity. Our analysis returns stable rotation periods over at least six out of eight quarters of Kepler data. This large sample of stars enables us to study the rotation periods as a function of spectral type. We find good agreement with previous studies and vsini measurements for F, G and K stars. Combining rotation periods, B-V color, and gyrochronology relations, we find that the cool stars in our sample are predominantly younger than ~1Gyr.
We present new proper motion and parallax measurements obtained with the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 5$\,$GHz for the three isolated pulsars B1929+10, B2020+28, and B2021+51. For B1929+10 we combined our data with earlier VLBI measurements and confirm the robustness of the astrometric parameters of this pulsar. For pulsars B2020+28 and B2021+51 our observations indicate that both stars are almost a factor of two closer to the solar system than previously thought, placing them at a distance of $1.39_{-0.06}^{+0.05}$ and $1.25_{-0.17}^{+0.14}\,$kpc. Using our new astrometry, we simulated the orbits of all three pulsars in the Galactic potential with the aim to confirm or reject previously proposed birth locations. Our observations ultimately rule out a claimed binary origin of B1929+10 and the runaway star $\zeta$ Ophiuchi in Upper Scorpius. A putative common binary origin of B2020+28 and B2021+51 in the Cygnus Superbubble is also very unlikely.
The dynamical system studied in previous papers of this series, namely a bound time-like geodesic motion in the exact static and axially symmetric space-time of an (originally) Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by a thin disc or ring, is considered to test whether the often employed "pseudo-Newtonian" approach (resorting to Newtonian dynamics in gravitational potentials modified to mimic the black-hole field) can reproduce phase-space properties observed in the relativistic treatment. By plotting Poincar\'e surfaces of section and using two recurrence methods for similar situations as in the relativistic case, we find similar tendencies in the evolution of the phase portrait with parameters (mainly with mass of the disc/ring and with energy of the orbiters), namely those characteristic to weakly non-integrable systems. More specifically, this is true for the Paczy\'nski--Wiita and a newly suggested logarithmic potential, whereas the Nowak--Wagoner potential leads to a different picture. The potentials and the exact relativistic system clearly differ in delimitation of the phase-space domain accessible to a given set of particles, though this mainly affects the chaotic sea whereas not so much the occurrence and succession of discrete dynamical features (resonances). In the pseudo-Newtonian systems, the particular dynamical features generally occur for slightly smaller values of the perturbation parameters than in the relativistic system, so one may say that the pseudo-Newtonian systems are slightly more prone to instability. We also add remarks on numerics (a different code is used than in previous papers), on the resemblance of dependence of the dynamics on perturbing mass and on orbital energy, on the difference between the Newtonian and relativistic Bach--Weyl rings, and on the relation between Poincar\'e sections and orbital shapes within the meridional plane.
We present the results of deep \chandra\ imaging of the central region of the Extended Groth Strip, the AEGIS-X Deep (AEGIS-XD) survey. When combined with previous \chandra\ observations of a wider area of the strip, AEGIS-X Wide (AEGIS-XW; Laird et~al. 2009), these provide data to a nominal exposure depth of 800ks in the three central ACIS-I fields, a region of approximately $0.29$~deg$^{2}$. This is currently the third deepest X-ray survey in existence, a factor $\sim 2-3$ shallower than the Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs) but over an area $\sim 3$ times greater than each CDF. We present a catalogue of 937 point sources detected in the deep \chandra\ observations. We present identifications of our X-ray sources from deep ground-based, Spitzer, GALEX and HST imaging. Using a likelihood ratio analysis, we associate multi band counterparts for 929/937 of our X-ray sources, with an estimated 95~\% reliability, making the identification completeness approximately 94~\% in a statistical sense. Reliable spectroscopic redshifts for 353 of our X-ray sources are provided predominantly from Keck (DEEP2/3) and MMT Hectospec, so the current spectroscopic completeness is $\sim 38$~per cent. For the remainder of the X-ray sources, we compute photometric redshifts based on multi-band photometry in up to 35 bands from the UV to mid-IR. Particular attention is given to the fact that the vast majority the X-ray sources are AGN and require hybrid templates. Our photometric redshifts have mean accuracy of $\sigma=0.04$ and an outlier fraction of approximately 5\%, reaching $\sigma=0.03$ with less than 4\% outliers in the area covered by CANDELS . The X-ray, multi-wavelength photometry and redshift catalogues are made publicly available.
With recent advances in asteroseismology it is now possible to peer into the cores of red giants, potentially providing a way to study processes such as nuclear burning and mixing through their imprint as sharp structural variations -- glitches -- in the stellar cores. Here we show how such core glitches can affect the oscillations we observe in red giants. We derive an analytical expression describing the expected frequency pattern in the presence of a glitch. This formulation also accounts for the coupling between acoustic and gravity waves. From an extensive set of canonical stellar models we find glitch-induced variation in the period spacing and inertia of non-radial modes during several phases of red-giant evolution. Significant changes are seen in the appearance of mode amplitude and frequency patterns in asteroseismic diagrams such as the power spectrum and the \'echelle diagram. Interestingly, along the red-giant branch glitch-induced variation occurs only at the luminosity bump, potentially providing a direct seismic indicator of stars in that particular evolution stage. Similarly, we find the variation at only certain post-helium-ignition evolution stages, namely, in the early phases of helium-core burning and at the beginning of helium-shell burning signifying the asymptotic-giant-branch bump. Based on our results, we note that assuming stars to be glitch-free, while they are not, can result in an incorrect estimate of the period spacing. We further note that including diffusion and mixing beyond classical Schwarzschild, could affect the characteristics of the glitches, potentially providing a way to study these physical processes.
We find the Green's functions for the accretion disk with the fixed outer radius and time-independent viscosity. With the Green's functions, a viscous evolution of the disk with any initial conditions can be described. Two types of the inner boundary conditions are considered: the zero stress tensor and the zero accretion rate. The variable mass inflow at the outer radius can also be included. The well-known exponential decline of the accretion rate is a part of the solution with the inner zero stress tensor. The solution with the zero central accretion rate is applicable to the disks around stars with the magnetosphere's boundary exceeding the corotation radius. Using the solution, the viscous evolution of disks in some binary systems can be studied. We apply the solution with zero inner stress tensor to outbursts of short-period X-ray transients during the time around the peak. It is found that for the Kramers' regime of opacity and the initial surface density proportional to the radius, the rise time to the peak is t_rise ~ 0.15 r_out^2/nu_out and the e-folding time of the decay is t_exp ~ 0.45 r_out^2/nu_out. Comparison to non-stationary alpha-disks shows that both models with the same value of viscosity at the outer radius produce similar behaviour on the viscous time-scale. For six bursts in X-ray novae, which exhibit fast-rise-exponential-decay (FRED) and are fitted by the model, we find a way to restrict the turbulent parameter alpha.
Young supernova remnants show a characteristic ejecta-dominated X-ray emission that allows us to probe the products of the explosive nucleosynthesis processes and to ascertain important information about the physics of the supernova explosions. Hard X-ray observations have recently revealed the radioactive decay lines of 44Ti at ~67.9 keV and ~78.4 keV in the Tycho's SNR. We here analyze the set of XMM-Newton archive observations of the Tycho's SNR. We produce equivalent width maps of the Fe K and Ca XIX emission lines and find indications for a stratification of the abundances of these elements and significant anisotropies. We then perform a spatially resolved spectral analysis by identifying five different regions characterized by high/low values of the Fe K equivalent width. We find that the spatial distribution of the Fe K emission is correlated with that of the Cr XXII. We also detect the Ti K-line complex in the spectra extracted from the two regions with the highest values of the Fe and Cr equivalent widths. The Ti line emissions remains undetected in regions where the Fe and Cr equivalent widths are low. Our results indicate that the post-shock Ti is spatially co-located with other iron-peak nuclei in Tycho's SNR, in agreement with the predictions of multi-D models of Type Ia supernovae.
The ARGO-YBJ experiment has been in stable data taking for 5 years at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Observatory (Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l., 606 g/cm$^2$). With a duty-cycle greater than 86\% the detector collected about 5$\times $10$^{11}$ events in a wide energy range, from few hundreds GeV up to about 10 PeV. A number of open problems in cosmic ray physics has been faced exploiting different analyses. In this paper we summarize the latest results in cosmic ray physics and in gamma-ray astronomy.
The highly dynamic atmosphere above sunspots exhibits a wealth of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. Recent studies suggest a coupled nature of the most prominent phenomena: umbral flashes (UFs) and running penumbral waves (RPWs). From an observational point of view, we perform a height-dependent study of RPWs, compare their wave characteristics and aim to track down these so far only chromospherically observed phenomena to photospheric layers to prove the upward propagating field-guided nature of RPWs. We analyze a time series (58\,min) of multi-wavelength observations of an isolated circular sunspot (NOAA11823) taken at high spatial and temporal resolution in spectroscopic mode with the Interferometric BIdimensional Spectro-polarimeter (IBIS/DST). By means of a multi-layer intensity sampling, velocity comparisons, wavelet power analysis and sectorial studies of time-slices, we retrieve the power distribution, characteristic periodicities and propagation characteristics of sunspot waves at photospheric and chromospheric levels. Signatures of RPWs are found at photospheric layers. Those continuous oscillations occur preferably at periods between 4-6\,min starting at the inner penumbral boundary. The photospheric oscillations all have a slightly delayed, more defined chromospheric counterpart with larger relative velocities (which are linked to preceding UF events). In all layers the power of RPWs follows a filamentary fine-structure and shows a typical ring-shaped power distribution increasing in radius for larger wave periods. The analysis of time-slices reveals apparent horizontal velocities for RPWs at photospheric layers of $\approx50\,\rm{km/s}$ which decrease to $\approx30\,\rm{km/s}$ at chromospheric heights. The observations strongly support the scenario of RPWs being upward propagating slow-mode waves guided by the magnetic field lines.
Isolated pulsars are rotating neutron stars with accurately measured angular velocities $\Omega$, and their time derivatives which show unambiguously that the pulsars are slowing down. Although the exact mechanism of the spin-down is a question of debate, the commonly accepted view is that it arises either through emission of magnetic dipole radiation (MDR) from a rotating magnetized body, through emission of a relativistic particle wind, or via higher order magnetic multipole or gravitational quadrupole radiation. The calculated energy loss by a rotating pulsar is model dependent and leads to the power law $\dot{\Omega}$ = -K $\Omega^{\rm n}$ where $n$ is called the braking index. The theoretical value for braking index is $n = 1, 3, 5$ for wind, MDR, quadrupole radiation respectively. The accepted view is that pulsar braking is strongly dominated by MDR. Highly precise observations of isolated pulsars yield braking index values in the range $1 < n < 2.8$ which are consistently less than the value predicted from the MDR model. We discuss possible ways to bring theory closer to observation for the MDR, and also consider how the other mechanisms may play a role in future study of the braking index problem.
Previous studies suggest that tidal interactions may be responsible for discrepancies between the ages of exoplanet host stars estimated using stellar models (isochronal ages) and age estimates based on the stars' rotation periods (gyrochronological ages). We have compiled a sample of 28 transiting exoplanet host stars with measured rotation periods. We use a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method to determine the joint posterior distribution for the mass and age of each star in the sample, and extend this method to include a calculation of the posterior distribution of the gyrochronological age. The gyrochronological age ($\tau_{\rm gyro}$) is significantly less than the isochronal age for about half of the stars in our sample. Tidal interactions between the star and planet are a reasonable explanation for this discrepancy in some cases, but not all. The distribution of $\tau_{\rm gyro}$ values is evenly spread from very young ages up to a maximum value of a few Gyr. There is no clear correlation between $\tau_{\rm gyro}$ and the strength of the tidal force on the star due to the innermost planet. There is clear evidence that the isochronal ages for some K-type stars are too large, and this may also be the case for some G-type stars. This may be the result of magnetic inhibition of convection. There is currently no satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy between the young age for CoRoT-2 estimated from either gyrochronology or its high lithium abundance, and the extremely old age for its K-type stellar companion inferred from its very low X-ray flux. There is now strong evidence that the gyrochronological ages of some transiting exoplanet host stars are significantly less than their isochronal ages, but it is not always clear that this is good evidence for tidal interactions between the star and the planet.
We present new light curves covering 14 to 19 years of observations of four bright proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs), all O-rich and of F spectral type. They each display cyclical light curves with significant variations in amplitude. All four were previously known to vary in light. Our data were combined with published data and searched for periodicity. The results are as follows: IRAS 19475+3119 (HD 331319; 41.0 days), 17436+5003 (HD 161796; 45.2 days), 19386+0155 (101.8 days), and 18095+2704 (113.3 days). The two longer periods are in agreement with previous studies while the two shorter periods each reveal for the first time reveal a dominant period over these long observing intervals. Multiple periods were also found for each object. The secondary periods were all close to the dominant periods, with P2/P1 ranging from 0.86 to 1.06. The variations in color reveal maximum variations in T(eff) of 400 to 770 K. These variations are due to pulsations in these post-AGB objects. Maximum seasonal light variations are all less than 0.23 mag (V), consistent for their temperatures and periods with the results of Hrivnak et al. (2010) for 12 C-rich PPNs. For all of these PPNs, there is an inverse relationship between period and temperature; however, there is a suggestion that the period-temperature relationship may be somewhat steeper for the O-rich than for the C-rich PPNs.
Isolated pulsars are rotating neutron stars with accurately measured angular
velocities $\Omega$, and their time derivatives which show unambiguously that
the pulsars are slowing down. Although the exact mechanism of the spin-down is
a question of debate in detail, the commonly accepted view is that it arises
through emission of magnetic dipole radiation (MDR) from a rotating magnetized
body. Other processes, including the emission of gravitational radiation, and
of relativistic particles (pulsar wind), are also being considered. The
calculated energy loss by a rotating pulsar with a constant moment of inertia
is assumed proportional to a model dependent power of $\Omega$. This relation
leads to the power law $\dot{\Omega}$ = -K $\Omega^{\rm n}$ where $n$ is called
the braking index. The MDR model predicts $n$ exactly equal to 3. Selected
observations of isolated pulsars provide rather precise values of $n$,
individually accurate to a few percent or better, in the range 1$ <$ n $ < $
2.8, which is consistently less than the predictions of the MDR model. In spite
of an extensive investigation of various modifications of the MDR model, no
satisfactory explanation of observation has been found as yet.
We employ four physically realistic equations of state, and two computational
codes, to model the dynamical effects of rotation on the braking index in the
MDR model. In addition to this we simulate an effect on moment of inertia where
we assume a certain amount of superfluid matter has manifest between the crust
and core region of the star thus essentially eliminating momentum transfer
between the two regions. We find that the effects of rotation on braking index
are significant at high frequencies, but have little effect at frequencies
consistent with the most accurately measured pulsars to-date.
We statistically quantify the amount of substructure in the Milky Way stellar halo using a sample of 4568 halo K giant stars at Galactocentric distances ranging over 5-125 kpc. These stars have been selected photometrically and confirmed spectroscopically as K giants from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's SEGUE project. We use a position-velocity clustering estimator (the 4distance) and a smooth stellar halo model to quantify the amount of substructure in the halo. Overall, we find that the halo as a whole is highly structured, and confirm earlier work using BHB stars which showed that there is an increasing amount of substructure with increasing Galactocentric radius. In addition, we find that the amount of substructure in the halo increases with increasing metallicity, and that the K giant sample shows significantly stronger substructure than the BHB stars, which only sample the most metal poor stars. Using a friends-of-friends algorithm to identify groups, we find that a large fraction ($\sim 33\%$) of the stars in groups in our sample are associated with Sgr. We also identify stars belonging to other halo star streams, including the Orphan Stream, the Cetus Polar Stream, and others, including previously unknown substructures. However, a large fraction of stars in our sample (more than 50\%) are not grouped into any substructure. We find also that the Sgr stream strongly dominates groups in the outer halo for all except the most metal-poor stars, and suggest that this is the source of the increase of substructure with Galactocentric radius and metallicity.
The treatment of the inelastic collisions with electrons and hydrogen atoms are the main source of uncertainties in non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) spectral line computations. We report, in this research note, quantum mechanical data for 369 collisional transitions of \ion{Mg}{I} with electrons for temperatures comprised between 500 and 20000~K. We give the quantum mechanical data in terms of effective collision strengths, more practical for non-LTE studies.
The results obtained after the first decade of operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory are reviewed.
We present updates to \textsc{prism}, a photometric transit-starspot model, and \textsc{gemc}, a hybrid optimisation code combining MCMC and a genetic algorithm. We then present high-precision photometry of four transits in the WASP-6 planetary system, two of which contain a starspot anomaly. All four transits were modelled using \textsc{prism} and \textsc{gemc}, and the physical properties of the system calculated. We find the mass and radius of the host star to be $0.836\pm 0.063\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and $0.864\pm0.024\,{\rm R}_\odot$, respectively. For the planet we find a mass of $0.485\pm 0.027\,{\rm M}_{\rm Jup}$, a radius of $1.230\pm0.035\,{\rm R}_{\rm Jup}$ and a density of $0.244\pm0.014\,\rho_{\rm Jup}$. These values are consistent with those found in the literature. In the likely hypothesis that the two spot anomalies are caused by the same starspot or starspot complex, we measure the stars rotation period and velocity to be $23.80 \pm 0.15$\,d and $1.78 \pm 0.20$\,km\,s$^{-1}$, respectively, at a co-latitude of 75.8$^\circ$. We find that the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis is $\lambda = 7.2^{\circ} \pm 3.7^{\circ}$, indicating axial alignment. Our results are consistent with and more precise than published spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. These results suggest that WASP-6\,b formed at a much greater distance from its host star and suffered orbital decay through tidal interactions with the protoplanetary disc.
We propose to investigate a secluded WIMP dark matter model consisting of neutral fermions as the dark matter candidate and a Proca-Wentzel (PW) field as a mediator. In the model that we consider here, dark matter WIMPs interact with standard model (SM) particles only through the PW field of ~ MeV -- multi-GeV mass particles. The interactions occur via an U(1)' mediator, V_{\mu}', which couples to the SM by kinetic mixing with U(1) hypercharge bosons, B_{\mu}. One important difference between our model and other such models in the literature is the absence of an extra singlet scalar, so that the parameter with dimension of mass M^2_V is not related to a spontaneous symmetry breaking. The mass scale of the mediator and the absence of the singlet scalar can lead to interesting astrophysical signatures. We show that the GeV-energy gamma-ray excess in the galactic center region, as derived from Fermi-LAT Gamma-ray Space Telescope data, can be attributed to such secluded dark matter WIMPs, given parameters of the model that are consistent with the cosmological dark matter density.
Rotating small AdS black holes exhibit the superradiant instability to low-frequency scalar perturbations, which is amenable to a complete analytic description in four dimensions. In this paper, we extend this description to all higher dimensions, focusing on slowly rotating charged AdS black holes with a single angular momentum. We divide the spacetime of these black holes into the near-horizon and far regions and find solutions to the scalar wave equation in each of these regions. Next, we perform the matching of these solutions in the overlap between the regions, by employing the idea that the orbital quantum number $ \ell $ can be thought of as an approximate integer. Thus, we obtain the complete low-frequency solution that allows us to calculate the complex frequency spectrum of quasinormal modes, whose imaginary part is determined by a small damping parameter. Finally, we find a remarkably instructive expression for the damping parameter, which appears to be a complex quantity in general. We show that the real part of the damping parameter can be used to give a {\it universal} analytic description of the superradiant instability for slowly rotating charged AdS black holes in all spacetime dimensions.
We discuss phenomenological aspects of no-scale supergravity inflationary models motivated by compactified string models, in which the inflaton may be identified either as a K\"ahler modulus or an untwisted matter field, focusing on models that make predictions for the scalar spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ that are similar to the Starobinsky model. We discuss possible patterns of soft supersymmetry breaking, exhibiting examples of the pure no-scale type $m_0 = B_0 = A_0 = 0$, of the CMSSM type with universal $A_0$ and $m_0 \ne 0$ at a high scale, and of the mSUGRA type with $A_0 = B_0 + m_0$ boundary conditions at the high input scale. These may be combined with a non-trivial gauge kinetic function that generates gaugino masses $m_{1/2} \ne 0$, or one may have a pure gravity mediation scenario where trilinear terms and gaugino masses are generated through anomalies. We also discuss inflaton decays and reheating, showing possible decay channels for the inflaton when it is either an untwisted matter field or a K\"ahler modulus. Reheating is very efficient if a matter field inflaton is directly coupled to MSSM fields, and both candidates lead to sufficient reheating in the presence of a non-trivial gauge kinetic function.
In this talk, I present a novel and minimal alternative to thermal leptogenesis, which builds upon the assumption that the electroweak gauge bosons are coupled to an axion-like scalar field, as it is, for instance, the case in certain string compactifications. The motion of this axion-like field after the end of inflation generates an effective chemical potential for leptons and antileptons, which, in the presence of lepton number-violating scatterings mediated by heavy Majorana neutrinos, provides an opportunity for baryogenesis via leptogenesis. In contrast to thermal leptogenesis, the final baryon asymmetry turns out to be insensitive to the masses and CP-violating phases in the heavy neutrino sector. Moreover, the proposed scenario requires a reheating temperature of at least O(10^12) GeV and it is, in particular, consistent with heavy neutrino masses close the scale of grand unification. This talk was given in February 2015 at HPNP 2015 at Toyama University and is based on recent work (arXiv:1412.2043 [hep-ph]) in collaboration with A. Kusenko and T. T. Yanagida.
I review the ideas leading to the QCD axion and also comment on the Jarlskog determinant describing the observed weak CP violation, and the axion-related Kim-Nilles-Peloso inflation. All of these use pseudoscalars, and the underlying principle is the discrete gauge symmetry either in the bottom-up or top-down approaches. Here, the effects of gravity are required to be unimportant in the low energy effective theory. String compactification is safe from the gravity spoil of global symmetries and some examples from string compactification are commented.
A large international effort is under way to assess the presence of a shadow in the radio emission from the compact source at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$). If detected, this shadow would provide the first direct evidence of the existence of black holes and that Sgr A$^*$ is a supermassive black hole. In addition, the shape of the shadow could be used to learn about extreme gravity near the event horizon and to determine which theory of gravity better describes the observations. The mathematical description of the shadow has so far used a number of simplifying assumptions that are unlikely to be met by the real observational data. We here provide a general formalism to describe the shadow as an arbitrary polar curve expressed in terms of a Legendre expansion. Our formalism does not presume any knowledge of the properties of the shadow, e.g., the location of its center, and offers a number of routes to characterize the distortions of the curve with respect to reference circles. These distortions can be implemented in a coordinate independent manner by different teams analyzing the same data. We show that the new formalism provides an accurate and robust description of noisy observational data, with smaller error variances when compared to previous measurements of the distortion.
We introduce a two flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model with 8-quark interactions in the scalar and the vector channel. With the lower density region described by the density-dependent relativistic mean field model we construct a hybrid equation of state. We especially focus on the 4-quark vector couplings and the 8-quark vector NJL couplings and allocate a region in this parameter subspace where hybrid stars with masses larger than $2M_\odot$ exist.
Signature change at high density has been obtained as a possible consequence of deformed space-time structures in models of loop quantum gravity. This article provides a conceptual discussion of implications for cosmological scenarios, based on an application of mathematical results for mixed-type partial differential equations (the Tricomi problem). While the effective equations from which signature change has been derived are shown to be locally regular and therefore reliable, the underlying theory of loop quantum gravity may face several global problems in its semiclassical solutions.
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In this study, we conduct a pilot program aimed at the red supergiant population of the Magellanic Clouds. We intend to extend the current known sample to the unexplored low end of the brightness distribution of these stars, building a more representative dataset with which to extrapolate their behaviour to other Galactic and extra-galactic environments. We select candidates using only near infrared photometry, and with medium resolution multi-object spectroscopy, we perform spectral classification and derive their line-of-sight velocities, confirming the nature of the candidates and their membership to the clouds. Around two hundred new RSGs have been detected, hinting at a yet to be observed large population. Using near and mid infrared photometry we study the brightness distribution of these stars, the onset of mass-loss and the effect of dust in their atmospheres. Based on this sample, new a priori classification criteria are investigated, combining mid and near infrared photometry to improve the observational efficiency of similar programs as this.
We fit the upper main sequence of the Praesepe and Hyades open clusters using stellar models with and without rotation. When neglecting rotation, we find that no single isochrone can fit the entire upper main sequence at the clusters' spectroscopic metallicity: more massive stars appear, at high significance, to be younger than less massive stars. This discrepancy is consistent with earlier studies, but vanishes when including stellar rotation. The entire upper main sequence of both clusters is very well-fit by a distribution of 800 Myr-old stars with the spectroscopically measured [Fe/H]=0.12. The increase over the consensus age of ~600-650 Myr is due both to the revised Solar metallicity (from $Z_\odot \approx 0.02$ to $Z_\odot \approx 0.014$) and to the lengthening of main sequence lifetimes and increase in luminosities with rapid rotation. Our results show that rotation can remove the need for large age spreads in intermediate age clusters, and that these clusters may be significantly older than is commonly accepted. A Hyades/Praesepe age of ~800 Myr would also require a recalibration of rotation/activity age indicators.
Recent observations have shown that the characteristic luminosity of the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function does not significantly evolve at 4 < z < 7 and is approximately M*_UV ~ -21. We investigate this apparent non-evolution by examining a sample of 190 bright, M_UV < -21 galaxies at z=4 to 7, analyzing their stellar populations and host halo masses. Including deep Spitzer/IRAC imaging to constrain the rest-frame optical light, we find that M*_UV galaxies at z=4-7 have similar stellar masses of log(M/Msol)=9.8-9.9 and are thus relatively massive for these high redshifts. However, bright galaxies at z=4-7 are less massive and have younger inferred ages than similarly bright galaxies at z=2-3, even though the two populations have similar star formation rates and levels of dust attenuation. We match the abundances of these bright z=4-7 galaxies to halo mass functions from the Bolshoi Lambda-CDM simulation to estimate the halo masses. We find that the typical halo masses in ~M*_UV galaxies decrease from log(M_h/Msol)=11.9 at z=4 to log(M_h/Msol)=11.4 at z=7. Thus, although we are studying galaxies at a similar mass across multiple redshifts, these galaxies live in lower mass halos at higher redshift. The stellar baryon fraction in units of the cosmic mean Omega_b/Omega_m rises from 6% at z=4 to 16% at z=7; this evolution is significant at the 3.6-sigma level. This rise does not agree with simple expectations of how galaxies grow, and implies that some effect, perhaps a diminishing efficiency of feedback, is allowing a higher fraction of available baryons to be converted into stars at high redshifts.
We apply simple analyses techniques developed for the study of complex networks to the study of the cosmic web, the large scale galaxy distribution. In this paper, we measure three network centralities (ranks of topological importance), Degree Centrality (DC), Closeness Centrality (CL), and Betweenness Centrality (BC) from a network built from the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) catalog. We define 8 galaxy populations according to the centrality measures; Void, Wall, and Cluster by DC, Main Branch and Dangling Leaf by BC, and Kernel, Backbone, and Fracture by CL. We also define three populations by voronoi tessellation density to compare these with the DC selection. We apply the topological selections to galaxies in the (photometric) redshift range $0.91<z<0.94$ from the COSMOS survey, and explore whether the red and blue galaxy populations show differences in color, star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass in the different topological regions. Despite the limitations and uncertainties associated with using photometric redshift and indirect measurements of galactic parameters, the preliminary results illustrate the potential of network analysis. The coming future surveys will provide better statistical samples to test and improve this "network cosmology".
We present a method for modeling the evolution of detached double white dwarf (DWD) binaries hosting helium donors from the end of the common envelope (CE) phase to the onset of Roche Lobe overflow (RLOF). This is achieved by combining detailed stellar evolution calculations of extremely low mass (ELM) helium WDs possessing hydrogen envelopes with the the orbital shrinking of the binary driven by gravitational radiation. We show that the consideration of hydrogen fusion in these systems is crucial, as a significant fraction ($\approx$50%) of future donors are expected to still be burning when mass transfer commences. We apply our method to two detached eclipsing DWD systems, SDSS J0651+2844 and NLTT-11748, in order to demonstrate the effect that carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) flashes have on constraining the evolutionary history of such systems. We find that when CNO flashes are absent on the low mass WD ($M_{2}$ < $0.18 M_{\odot}$), such as in NLTT-11748, we are able to self consistently solve for the donor conditions at CE detachment given a reliable cooling age from the massive WD companion. When CNO flashes occur (0.18 $M_{\odot}$ < $M_{2}$ < 0.36 $M_{\odot}$), such as in SDSS J0651+2844, the evolutionary history is eradicated and we are unable to comment on the detachment conditions. We find that for any donor mass our models are able to predict the conditions at reattachment and comment on the stabilizing effects of hydrogen envelopes. This method can be applied to a population of detached DWDs with measured donor radii and masses.
We study the evolution of streams in a time-dependent spherical gravitational potential. Our goal is to establish what are the imprints of this time evolution on the properties of streams as well as their observability. To this end, we have performed a suite of numerical experiments for a host system that doubles its mass during the integration time and for a variety of initial conditions. In these experiments we found that the most striking imprint is a misalignment of 10 degrees in the angular location of the apocentres of the streams compared to the static case (and to the orbit of the centre of mass), which only becomes apparent for sufficiently long streams. We have also developed an analytic model using action-angle variables which allows us to explain this behaviour and to identify the most important signature of time evolution, namely a difference in the slope defined by the distribution of particles along a stream in frequency and in angle space. Although a difference in slope can arise when the present-day potential is not correctly modelled, this shortcoming can be by-passed because in this case, streams are no longer straight lines in angle space, but depict a wiggly appearance and an implausible energy gradient. The difference in slope due to time-evolution is small, typically ~10^-2 and its amplitude depends on the growth rate of the potential, but nonetheless we find that it could be observable if accurate full-space information for nearby long streams is available.
We study the imprints of boxy/peanut structures on the 2D line-of-sight kinematics of simulated disk galaxies. The models under study belong to a family with varying initial gas fraction and halo triaxiality, plus few other control runs with different structural parameters; the kinematic information was extracted using the Voronoi-binning technique and parametrised up to the fourth order of a Gauss-Hermite series. Building on a previous work for the long-slit case, we investigate the 2D kinematic behaviour in the edge-on projection as a function of the boxy/peanut strength and position angle; we find that for the strongest structures the highest moments show characteristic features away from the midplane in a range of position angles. We also discuss the masking effect of a classical bulge and the ambiguity in discriminating kinematically this spherically-symmetric component from a boxy/peanut bulge seen end-on. Regarding the face-on case, we extend existing results to encompass the effect of a second buckling and find that this phenomenon spurs an additional set of even deeper minima in the fourth moment. Finally, we show how the results evolve when inclining the disk away from perfectly edge-on and face-on. The behaviour of stars born during the course of the simulations is discussed and confronted to that of the pre-existing disk. The general aim of our study is providing a handle to identify boxy/peanut structure and their properties in latest generation IFU observations of nearby disk galaxies.
We have observed a sample of 14 nearby ($z \sim 0.03$) star-forming blue compact galaxies in the rest-frame far-UV ($\sim1150-2200 \AA$) using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We have also generated a grid of stellar population synthesis models using the Starburst99 evolutionary synthesis code, allowing us to compare observations and theoretical predictions for the SiIV_1400 and CIV_1550 UV indices; both are comprised of a blend of stellar wind and interstellar lines and have been proposed as metallicity diagnostics in the UV. Our models and observations both demonstrate that there is a positive linear correlation with metallicity for both indices, and we find generally good agreement between our observations and the predictions of the Starburst99 models. By combining the rest-frame UV observations with pre-existing rest-frame optical spectrophotometry of our blue compact galaxy sample, we also directly compare the predictions of metallicity and extinction diagnostics across both wavelength regimes. This comparison reveals a correlation between the UV absorption and optical strong-line diagnostics, offering the first means of directly comparing ISM properties determined across different rest-frame regimes. Finally, using our Starburst99 model grid we determine theoretical values for the short-wavelength UV continuum slope, $\beta_{18}$, that can be used for determining extinction in rest-frame UV spectra of star-forming galaxies. We consider the implications of these results and discuss future work aimed at parameterizing these and other environmental diagnostics in the UV as well as the development of robust comparisons between ISM diagnostics across a broad wavelength baseline.
Recent observational and theoretical progress has favored merging and helium-accreting sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs in the double-degenerate and the double-detonation channels, respectively, as the most promising progenitors of normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Thus the fate of rapidly-accreting Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs in the single-degenerate channel remains more mysterious then ever. In this paper, we clarify the nature of ignition in Chandrasekhar-mass single-degenerate SNe Ia by analytically deriving the existence of a characteristic length scale which establishes a transition from central ignitions to buoyancy-driven ignitions. Using this criterion, combined with data from three-dimensional simulations of convection and ignition, we demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of ignition events within Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs in the single-degenerate channel are buoyancy-driven, and consequently lack a vigorous deflagration phase. We thus infer that single-degenerate SNe Ia are generally expected to lead to overluminous 1991T-like SNe Ia events. We establish that the rates predicted from both the population of supersoft X-ray sources and binary population synthesis models of the single-degenerate channel are broadly consistent with the observed rates of overluminous SNe Ia, and suggest that the population of supersoft X-ray sources are the dominant stellar progenitors of SNe 1991T-like events. We further demonstrate that the single-degenerate channel contribution to the normal and failed 2002cx-like rates is not likely to exceed 1% of the total SNe Ia rate. We conclude with a range of observational tests of overluminous SNe Ia which will either support or strongly constrain the single-degenerate scenario.
Classifying transients based on multi band light curves is a challenging but crucial problem in the era of GAIA and LSST since the sheer volume of transients will make spectroscopic classification unfeasible. Here we present a nonparametric classifier that uses the transient's light curve measurements to predict its class given training data. It implements two novel components: the first is the use of the BAGIDIS wavelet methodology - a characterization of functional data using hierarchical wavelet coefficients. The second novelty is the introduction of a ranked probability classifier on the wavelet coefficients that handles both the heteroscedasticity of the data in addition to the potential non-representativity of the training set. The ranked classifier is simple and quick to implement while a major advantage of the BAGIDIS wavelets is that they are translation invariant, hence they do not need the light curves to be aligned to extract features. Further, BAGIDIS is nonparametric so it can be used for blind searches for new objects. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our ranked wavelet classifier against the well-tested Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge dataset in which the challenge is to correctly classify light curves as Type Ia or non-Ia supernovae. We train our ranked probability classifier on the spectroscopically-confirmed subsample (which is not representative) and show that it gives good results for all supernova with observed light curve timespans greater than 100 days (roughly 55% of the dataset). For such data, we obtain a Ia efficiency of 80.5% and a purity of 82.4% yielding a highly competitive score of 0.49 whilst implementing a truly "model-blind" approach to supernova classification. Consequently this approach may be particularly suitable for the classification of astronomical transients in the era of large synoptic sky surveys.
We investigate how the imprint of Faraday rotation on radio spectra can be used to determine the geometry of radio sources and the strength and structure of the surrounding magnetic fields. We model spectra of Stokes Q and U for frequencies between 200 MHz and 10 GHz for Faraday screens with large-scale or small-scale magnetic fields external to the source. These sources can be uniform or 2D Gaussians on the sky with transverse linear gradients in rotation measure (RM), or cylinders or spheroids with an azimuthal magnetic field. At high frequencies the spectra of all these models can be approximated by the spectrum of a Gaussian source; this is independent of whether the magnetic field is large-scale or small-scale. A sinc spectrum in polarized flux density is not a unique signature of a volume where synchrotron emission and Faraday rotation are mixed. A turbulent Faraday screen with a large field coherence length produces a spectrum which is similar to the spectrum of a partial coverage model. At low and intermediate frequencies, such a Faraday screen produces a significantly higher polarized signal than the depolarization model by Burn, as shown by a random walk model of the polarization vectors. We calculate RM spectra for four frequency windows. Sources are strongly depolarized at low frequencies, but RMs can be determined accurately if the sensitivity of the observations is sufficient. Finally, we show that RM spectra can be used to differentiate between turbulent foreground models and partial coverage models.
The growth of a supermassive black hole (BH) is determined by how much gas the host galaxy is able to feed it, which in turn is controlled by the cosmic environment, through galaxy mergers and accretion of cosmic flows that time how galaxies obtain their gas, but also by internal processes in the galaxy, such as star formation and feedback from stars and the BH itself. In this paper, we study the growth of a 10^12 Msun halo at z=2, which is the progenitor of an archetypical group of galaxies at z=0, and of its central BH by means of a high-resolution zoomed cosmological simulation, the Seth simulation. We study the evolution of the BH driven by the accretion of cold gas in the galaxy, and explore the efficiency of the feedback from supernovae (SNe). For a relatively inefficient energy input from SNe, the BH grows at the Eddington rate from early times, and reaches self-regulation once it is massive enough. We find that at early cosmic times z>3.5, efficient feedback from SNe forbids the formation of a settled disc as well as the accumulation of dense cold gas in the vicinity of the BH and starves the central compact object. As the galaxy and its halo accumulate mass, they become able to confine the nuclear inflows provided by major mergers and the BH grows at a sustained near-to-Eddington accretion rate. We argue that this mechanism should be ubiquitous amongst low-mass galaxies, corresponding to galaxies with a stellar mass below <10^9 Msun in our simulations.
The origin of the Galactic halo stellar structure known as the Monoceros ring is still under debate. In this work, we study that halo substructure using deep CFHT wide-field photometry obtained for the globular clusters NGC2419 and Koposov2, where the presence of Monoceros becomes significant because of their coincident projected position. Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry and spectroscopy in the area surrounding these globulars and beyond, where the same Monoceros population is detected, we conclude that a second feature, not likely to be associated with Milky Way disk stars along the line-of-sight, is present as foreground population. Our analysis suggests that the Monoceros ring might be composed of an old stellar population of age t ~ 9Gyr and a new component ~ 4Gyr younger at the same heliocentric distance. Alternatively, this detection might be associated with a second wrap of Monoceros in that direction of the sky and also indicate a metallicity spread in the ring. The detection of such a low-density feature in other sections of this halo substructure will shed light on its nature.
The X-ray transient XTE J1701-462 was the first source seen to evolve through all known subclasses of low-magnetic-field neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS-LMXBs), as a result of large changes in its mass accretion rate. To investigate to what extent similar evolution is seen in other NS-LMXBs we have performed a detailed study of the color-color and hardness-intensity diagrams (CDs and HIDs) of Cyg X-2, Cir X-1, and GX 13+1 -- three luminous X-ray binaries, containing weakly magnetized neutron stars, known to exhibit strong secular changes in their CD/HID tracks. Using the full set of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array data collected for the sources over the 16-year duration of the mission, we show that Cyg X-2 and Cir X-1 display CD/HID evolution with close similarities to XTE J1701-462. Although GX 13+1 shows behavior that is in some ways unique, it also exhibits similarities to XTE J1701-462, and we conclude that its overall CD/HID properties strongly indicate that it should be classified as a Z source, rather than as an atoll source. We conjecture that the secular evolution of Cyg X-2, Cir X-1, and GX 13+1 -- illustrated by sequences of CD/HID tracks we construct -- arises from changes in the mass accretion rate. Our results strengthen previous suggestions that within single sources Cyg-like Z behavior takes place at higher luminosities and mass accretion rates than Sco-like Z behavior, and lend support to the notion that the mass accretion rate is the primary physical parameter distinguishing the various NS-LMXB subclasses.
We present the first broadband 0.3-25.0 kev X-ray observations of the extreme ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg II X-1, performed by NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Suzaku in September 2013. The NuSTAR data provide the first observations of Holmberg II X-1 above 10 keV, and reveal a very steep high-energy spectrum, similar to other ULXs observed by NuSTAR to date. This implies that Holmberg II X-1 accretes at a high fraction of its Eddington accretion rate, and possibly exceeds it. The soft X-ray spectrum (E<10 keV) appears to be dominated by two blackbody-like emission components, the hotter of which may be associated with an accretion disk. However, all such models under-predict the NuSTAR data above ~10 keV, implying the presence of an additional emission component at the highest energies probed. We investigate plausible physical origins for this component, and favor a scenario in which the excess arises from Compton scattering in a hot corona of electrons with some properties similar to the very-high state seen in Galactic binaries. The observed broadband 0.3-25.0 keV luminosity inferred from these epochs is Lx = (8.1+/-0.1)e39 erg/s, typical for Holmberg II X-1, with the majority of the flux (~90%) emitted below 10 keV.
We describe systematic ranging, an orbit determination technique especially suitable to assess the near-term Earth impact hazard posed by newly discovered asteroids. For these late warning cases, the time interval covered by the observations is generally short, perhaps a few hours or even less, which leads to severe degeneracies in the orbit estimation process. The systematic ranging approach gets around these degeneracies by performing a raster scan in the poorly-constrained space of topocentric range and range rate, while the plane of sky position and motion are directly tied to the recorded observations. This scan allows us to identify regions corresponding to collision solutions, as well as potential impact times and locations. From the probability distribution of the observation errors, we obtain a probability distribution in the orbital space and then estimate the probability of an Earth impact. We show how this technique is effective for a number of examples, including 2008 TC3 and 2014 AA, the only two asteroids to date discovered prior to impact.
Very. Indeed, it is shown here that in a flat, cold dark matter (CDM) dominated Universe with positive cosmological constant ($\Lambda$), modelled in terms of a Newtonian and collisionless fluid, particle trajectories are analytical in time (representable by a convergent Taylor series) until at least a finite time after decoupling. The time variable used for this statement is the cosmic scale factor, i.e., the "$a$-time", and not the cosmic time. For this, a Lagrangian-coordinates formulation of the Euler-Poisson equations is employed, originally used by Cauchy for 3-D incompressible flow. Temporal analyticity for $\Lambda$CDM is found to be a consequence of novel explicit all-order recursion relations for the $a$-time Taylor coefficients of the Lagrangian displacement field, from which we derive the convergence of the $a$-time Taylor series. A lower bound for the $a$-time where analyticity is guaranteed and shell-crossing is ruled out is obtained, whose value depends only on $\Lambda$ and on the initial spatial smoothness of the density field. The largest time interval is achieved when $\Lambda$ vanishes, i.e., for an Einstein-de Sitter universe. Analyticity holds also if, instead of the $a$-time, one uses the linear structure growth $D$-time, but no simple recursion relations are then obtained. The analyticity result also holds when a curvature term is included in the Friedmann equation for the background, but inclusion of a radiation term arising from the primordial era spoils analyticity.
In the past decade, the number of known binary near-Earth asteroids has more than quadrupled and the number of known large main belt asteroids with satellites has doubled. Half a dozen triple asteroids have been discovered, and the previously unrecognized populations of asteroid pairs and small main belt binaries have been identified. The current observational evidence confirms that small (<20 km) binaries form by rotational fission and establishes that the YORP effect powers the spin-up process. A unifying paradigm based on rotational fission and post-fission dynamics can explain the formation of small binaries, triples, and pairs. Large (>20 km) binaries with small satellites are most likely created during large collisions.
The GJ876 system was among the earliest multi-planetary detections outside of the Solar System, and has long been known to harbor a resonant pair of giant planets. Subsequent characterization of the system revealed the presence of an additional Neptune mass object on an external orbit, locked in a three body Laplace mean motion resonance with the previously known planets. While this system is currently the only known extrasolar example of a Laplace resonance, it differs from the Galilean satellites in that the orbital motion of the planets is known to be chaotic. In this work, we present a simple perturbative model that illuminates the origins of stochasticity inherent to this system and derive analytic estimates of the Lyapunov time as well as the chaotic diffusion coefficient. We then address the formation of the multi-resonant structure within a protoplanetary disk and show that modest turbulent forcing in addition to dissipative effects is required to reproduce the observed chaotic configuration. Accordingly, this work places important constraints on the typical formation environments of planetary systems and informs the attributes of representative orbital architectures that arise from extended disk-driven evolution.
We present the rest-frame optical spectral properties of 155 luminous quasars at 3.3<z<6.4 taken with the AKARI space telescope, including the first detection of H$\alpha$ emission line as far out as z~6. We extend the scaling relation between the rest-frame optical continuum and line luminosity of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the high luminosity, high redshift regime that has rarely been probed before. Remarkably, we find that a single log-linear relation can be applied to the 5100${\rm \AA}$ and H$\alpha$ AGN luminosities over a wide range of luminosity (10$^{42}$<$L_{5100}$<10$^{47}$ergs/s) or redshift (0<z<6), suggesting that the physical mechanism governing this relation is unchanged from z=0 to 6, over five decades in luminosity. Similar scaling relations are found between the optical and the UV continuum luminosities or line widths. Applying the scaling relations to the H$\beta$ black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) estimator of local AGNs, we derive the $M_{\rm BH}$ estimators based on H$\alpha$, MgII, and CIV lines, finding that the UV-line based masses are overall consistent with the Balmer-line based, but with a large intrinsic scatter of 0.40dex for the CIV estimates. Our 43 $M_{\rm BH}$ estimates from H$\alpha$ confirm the existence of BHs as massive as ~10$^{10}M_{\odot}$ out to z~5, and provide a secure footing for previous MgII-line based studies that a rapid $M_{\rm BH}$ growth has occurred in the early universe.
The outer (>30 AU) regions of the dusty circumstellar disk orbiting the ~2-5 Myr-old, actively accreting solar analog LkCa 15 are known to be chemically rich, and the inner disk may host a young protoplanet within its central cavity. To obtain a complete census of the brightest molecular line emission emanating from the LkCa 15 disk over the 210-270 GHz (1.4 - 1.1 mm) range, we have conducted an unbiased radio spectroscopic survey with the Institute de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) 30 meter telescope. The survey demonstrates that, in this spectral region, the most readily detectable lines are those of CO and its isotopologues 13CO and C18O, as well as HCO+, HCN, CN, C2H, CS, and H2CO. All of these species had been previously detected in the LkCa 15 disk; however, the present survey includes the first complete coverage of the CN (2-1) and C2H (3-2) hyperfine complexes. Modeling of these emission complexes indicates that the CN and C2H either reside in the coldest regions of the disk or are subthermally excited, and that their abundances are enhanced relative to molecular clouds and young stellar object environments. These results highlight the value of unbiased single-dish line surveys in guiding future high resolution interferometric imaging of disks.
Recent observations of gaps and non-axisymmetric features in the dust distributions of transition disks have been interpreted as evidence of embedded massive protoplanets. However, comparing the predictions of planet-disk interaction models to the observed features has shown far from perfect agreement. This may be due to the strong approximations used for the predictions. For example, spiral arm fitting typically uses results that are based on low-mass planets in an isothermal gas. In this work, we describe two-dimensional, global, hydrodynamical simulations of disks with embedded protoplanets, with and without the assumption of local isothermality, for a range of planet-to-star mass ratios 1-10 M_jup for a 1 M_sun star. We use the Pencil Code in polar coordinates for our models. We find that the inner and outer spiral wakes of massive protoplanets (M>5 M_jup) produce significant shock heating that can trigger buoyant instabilities. These drive sustained turbulence throughout the disk when they occur. The strength of this effect depends strongly on the mass of the planet and the thermal relaxation timescale; for a 10 M_jup planet embedded in a thin, purely adiabatic disk, the spirals, gaps, and vortices typically associated with planet-disk interactions are disrupted. We find that the effect is only weakly dependent on the initial radial temperature profile. The spirals that form in disks heated by the effects we have described may fit the spiral structures observed in transition disks better than the spirals predicted by linear isothermal theory.
We use the "Dark Energy and Massive Neutrino Universe" (DEMNUni) simulations to compare the constraining power of "sufficient statistics" with the standard matter power spectrum on the sum of neutrino masses, $M_\nu \equiv \sum m_\nu$. In general, the power spectrum, even supplemented with higher moments of the distribution, captures only a fraction of the available cosmological information due to correlations between the Fourier modes. In contrast, the non-linear transform of sufficient statistics, approximated by a logarithmic mapping A=ln(1+\delta), was designed to capture all the available cosmological information contained in the matter clustering; in this sense it is an optimal observable. Our analysis takes advantage of the recent analytical model developed by Carron et al. 2014 to estimate both the matter power spectrum and the A-power spectrum covariance matrices. Using a Fisher information approach, we find that using sufficient statistics increases up to 8 times the available information on the total neutrino mass at z=0, thus tightening the constraints by almost a factor of 3 compared to the matter power spectrum.
We searched for superflares on solar-type stars using Kepler data with 1 min sampling in order to detect superflares with short duration. We found 187 superflares on 23 solar-type stars whose bolometric energy ranges from the order of $10^{32}$ erg to $10^{36}$ erg. Some superflares show multiple peaks with the peak separation of the order of $100$-$1000$ seconds which is comparable to the periods of quasi-periodic pulsations in solar and stellar flares. Using these new data combined with the results from the data with 30 min sampling, we found the occurrence frequency ($dN/dE$) of superflares as a function of flare energy ($E$) shows the power-law distribution ($dN/dE \propto E^{-\alpha}$) with $\alpha \sim -1.5$ for $10^{33}<E<10^{36}$ erg which is consistent with the previous results. The average occurrence rate of superflares with the energy of $10^{33}$ erg which is equivalent to X100 solar flares is about once in 500-600 years. The upper limit of energy released by superflares is basically comparable to a fraction of the magnetic energy stored near starspots which is estimated from the photometry. We also found that the duration of superflares ($\tau$) increases with the flare energy ($E$) as $\tau \propto E^{0.39\pm 0.03}$. This can be explained if we assume the time-scale of flares is determined by the Alfv$\acute{\rm e}$n time.
We study the total mass-density profile for a sample of 14 fast-rotator early-type galaxies (stellar masses $10.2<\log M_\ast/M_\odot<11.7$). We combine observations from the SLUGGS and Atlas3D surveys to map out the stellar kinematics in two-dimensions, out to a median radius for the sample of four half-light radii $R_e$ (or 10 kpc), and a maximum radius of 2.0-6.2 $R_e$ (or 4-21 kpc). We use axisymmetric dynamical models based on the Jeans equations, which allow for a spatially varying anisotropy, and employ quite general profiles for the dark halos, and in particular do not place any restriction on the profile slope. This is made possible by the availability of spatially extended two-dimensional kinematics. We find that our relatively simple models provide a remarkably good description of the observed kinematics. The resulting total density profiles are well described by a nearly-isothermal power law $\rho_{\rm tot}(r)\propto r^{-\gamma}$ from $R_e$/10 to at least 4$R_e$, the largest average deviation being 11%. The average logarithmic slope is $\langle\gamma\rangle=2.19\pm0.03$ with observed rms scatter of just $\sigma_\gamma=0.11$. This scatter out to large radii, where dark matter dominates, is as small as previously reported by lensing studies around $r\approx R_e/2$, where the stars dominate. Our bulge-halo conspiracy places much tighter constraints on galaxy formation models. It illustrates the power of two-dimensional stellar kinematics observations at large radii. It would now be important to test the generality of our results for different galaxy types and larger samples.
The bridge effect of void filaments is a phrase coined by Park & Lee (2009b) to explain the correlations found in a numerical experiment between the luminosity of the void galaxies and the degree of the straightness of their host filaments. Their numerical finding implies that a straight void filament provides a narrow channel for the efficient transportation of gas and matter particles from the surroundings into the void galaxies. To observationally confirm the presence of the bridge effect of void filaments, we identify the filamentary structures from the Sloan void catalog and determine the specific size of each void filament as a measure of its straightness. Using both classical and Bayesian statistics, we indeed detect a strong tendency that the void galaxies located in the more straight filaments are on average more luminous, which is in agreement with the numerical prediction. It is also shown that the strength of correlation increases with the spatial extent of the void filaments, which can be physically understood on the grounds that the more stretched filaments can connect the dense surroundings even to the galaxies located deep in the central parts of the voids. This observational evidence may provide a key clue to the puzzling issue of why the void galaxies have higher specific star formation rates and bluer colours than their wall counterparts.
We imaged circumstellar disks around 22 Herbig Ae/Be stars at 25 \mu m using Subaru/COMICS and Gemini/T-ReCS. Our sample consists of equal numbers of objects belonging to the two categories defined by Meeus et al. (2001); 11 group I (flaring disk) and II (at disk) sources. We find that group I sources tend to show more extended emission than group II sources. Previous studies have shown that the continuous disk is hard to be resolved with 8 meter class telescopes in Q-band due to the strong emission from the unresolved innermost region of the disk. It indicates that the resolved Q-band sources require a hole or gap in the disk material distribution to suppress the contribution from the innermost region of the disk. As many group I sources are resolved at 25 \mu m, we suggest that many, not all, group I Herbig Ae/Be disks have a hole or gap and are (pre-)transitional disks. On the other hand, the unresolved nature of many group II sources at 25 \mu m supports that group II disks have continuous at disk geometry. It has been inferred that group I disks may evolve into group II through settling of dust grains to the mid-plane of the proto-planetary disk. However, considering growing evidence for the presence of a hole or gaps in the disk of group I sources, such an evolutionary scenario is unlikely. The difference between groups I and II may reflect different evolutionary pathways of protoplanetary disks.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been suggested as possible sources of the high-energy neutrino flux recently detected by the IceCube telescope. We revisit the fireball emission model and elaborate an analytical prescription to estimate the high-energy neutrino prompt emission from pion and kaon decays, assuming that the leading mechanism for the neutrino production is lepto-hadronic. To this purpose, we include hadronic, radiative and adiabatic cooling effects and discuss their relevance for long- (including high- and low-luminosity) and short-duration GRBs. The expected diffuse neutrino background is derived, by requiring that the GRB high-energy neutrino counterparts follow up-to-date gamma-ray luminosity functions and redshift evolutions of the long and short GRBs. Although dedicated stacking searches have been unsuccessful up to now, we find that the GRBs could contribute up to a few percents to the observed IceCube high-energy neutrino flux for sub-PeV energies, assuming that the latter has a diffuse origin. The high-luminosity component gives the dominant contribution to the diffuse neutrino emission, while the fluxes from both the low-luminosity and the short-duration GRBs are significantly smaller. Our findings confirm the most-recent IceCube results on the GRB searches and suggest that larger exposure is mandatory to detect high-energy neutrinos from GRBs in the near future.
Some of the most obviously correct physical theories - namely string theory and the multiverse - make no testable predictions, leading many to question whether we should accept something as scientific even if it makes no testable predictions and hence is not refutable. However, some far-thinking physicists have proposed instead that we should give up on the notion of Falsifiability itself. We endorse this suggestion but think it does not go nearly far enough. We believe that we should also dispense with other outdated ideas, such as Fidelity, Frugality, Factuality and other "F" words. And we quote a lot of famous people to support this view.
The construction of catalogues of galaxies and the posterior study of galaxy properties in relation to their environment, have been hampered by the scarce redshift information. The new 3-dimensional (3D) surveys permits to distinguish small, faint, physically bound satellites from a background projected galaxy population, giving a more comprehensive 3D picture of the surroundings. We aim to provide representative samples of isolated galaxies, isolated pairs, and isolated triplets for testing galaxy evolution and secular processes in low density regions of the local Universe, as well as to characterise their local and large-scale environments. We use spectroscopic data from the SDSS to automatically and homogeneously compile catalogues of 3,702 isolated galaxies, 1,240 isolated pairs, and 315 isolated triplets in the local Universe. To quantify the effects of their local and large-scale environments, we compute the projected density and the tidal strength for the brightest galaxy in each sample. We find evidence of isolated pairs and isolated triplets physically bound at projected separation up to $d~\leq~450$ kpc with radial velocity difference $\Delta\,v~\leq~160$ km s$^{-1}$ , where the effect of the companion typically accounts for more than 98% of the total tidal strength affecting the central galaxy. For galaxies in the catalogues, we provide their positions, redshifts, and degrees of relation with their physical and large-scale environments. The catalogues are publicly available to the scientific community. For isolated galaxies, isolated pairs, and isolated triplets there is no difference in their degree of interaction with the large-scale structure, which may suggest that they have a common origin in their formation and evolution. We find that most of them belong to the outer parts of filaments, walls, and clusters, and generally differ from the void population of galaxies.
Superbubbles and supershells are the channels for transferring mass and energy from the Galactic disk to the halo. Magnetic fields are believed to play a vital role in their evolution. We study the radio continuum and polarized emission properties of the W4 superbubble to determine its magnetic field strength. New sensitive radio continuum observations were made at 6 cm, 11 cm, and 21 cm. The total intensity measurements were used to derive the radio spectrum of the W4 superbubble. The linear polarization data were analysed to determine the magnetic field properties within the bubble shells. The observations show a multi-shell structure of the W4 superbubble. A flat radio continuum spectrum that stems from optically thin thermal emission is derived from 1.4 GHz to 4.8 GHz. By fitting a passive Faraday screen model and considering the filling factor fne , we obtain the thermal electron density ne = 1.0/\sqrt{fne} (\pm5%) cm^-3 and the strength of the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field B// = -5.0/\sqrt{fne} (\pm10%) {\mu}G (i.e. pointing away from us) within the western shell of the W4 superbubble. When the known tilted geometry of the W4 superbubble is considered, the total magnetic field Btot in its western shell is greater than 12 {\mu}G. The electron density and the magnetic field are lower and weaker in the high-latitude parts of the superbubble. The rotation measure is found to be positive in the eastern shell but negative in the western shell of the W4 superbubble, which is consistent with the case that the magnetic field in the Perseus arm is lifted up from the plane towards high latitudes. The magnetic field strength and the electron density we derived for the W4 superbubble are important parameters for evolution models of superbubbles breaking out of the Galactic plane.
The ultrarelativistic jets responsible for prompt and afterglow emission in gamma ray bursts are presumably driven by a central engine that consists of a dense accretion disk around a spinning black hole. We consider such engine, composed of free nucleons, electron-positron pairs, Helium nuclei, and cooled by neutrino emission. A significant number density of neutrons in the disk provide conditions for neutron rich plasma in the outflows and jets. Heavy nuclei are also formed in the accretion flow, at the distances 150-250 gravitational radii from the black hole. We study the process of nucleosynthesis in the GRB engine, depending on its physical properties. Our results may have important observational implications for the jet deceleration process and heavy elements observed in the spectra of GRB afterglows.
Axion production due to photon-axion mixing in tangled magnetic field(s) prior to recombination epoch and magnetic field damping can generate cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions. In particular, contribution of both processes to CMB $\mu$ distortion in the case of resonant photon-axion mixing is studied. Assuming that magnetic field power spectrum is approximated by a power law $P_B(k)\propto k^n$ with spectral index $n$, it is shown that for magnetic field cut-off scales $172.5$ pc $\leq \lambda_B\leq 4\times 10^3$ pc, axion contribution to CMB $\mu$ distortion is subdominant in comparison with magnetic field damping in the cosmological plasma. Using COBE upper limit on $\mu$ and for magnetic field scale $\lambda_B\simeq 415$ pc, weaker limit in comparison with other studies on the magnetic field strength ($B_0\leq 8.5\times 10^{-8}$ G) up to a factor 10 for the DFSZ axion model and axion mass $m_a\geq 2.6\times 10^{-6}$ eV is found. A forecast for the expected sensitivity of PIXIE/PRISM on $\mu$ is also presented.
Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in active cool stars but they are in general complex and weak. Current Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) studies of cool star magnetic fields chiefly employ circular polarization observations because linear polarization is difficult to detect and requires a more sophisticated radiative transfer modeling to interpret. But it has been shown in previous theoretical studies, and in the observational analyses of magnetic Ap stars, that including linear polarization in the magnetic inversion process makes it possible to correctly recover many otherwise lost or misinterpreted magnetic features. We have obtained phase-resolved observations in all four Stokes parameters of the RS CVn star II Peg at two separate epochs. Here we present temperature and magnetic field maps reconstructed for this star using all four Stokes parameters. This is the very first such ZDI study of a cool active star. Our magnetic inversions reveal a highly structured magnetic field topology for both epochs. The strength of some surface features is doubled or even quadrupled when linear polarization is taken into account. The total magnetic energy of the reconstructed field map also becomes about 2.1-3.5 times higher. The overall complexity is also increased as the field energy is shifted towards higher harmonic modes when four Stokes parameters are used. As a consequence, the potential field extrapolation of the four Stokes parameter ZDI results indicates that magnetic field becomes weaker at a distance of several stellar radii due to a decrease of the large-scale field component.
We have studied the 27-day variations and their harmonics of the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) intensity, solar wind velocity, and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) components in the recent prolonged solar minimum 23 24. The time evolution of the quasi-periodicity in these parameters connected with the Suns rotation reveals that their synodic period is stable and is aprox 26-27 days. This means that the changes in the solar wind speed and IMF are related to the Suns near equatorial regions in considering the differential rotation of the Sun. However, the solar wind parameters observed near the Earths orbit provide only the conditions in the limited local vicinity of the equatorial region in the heliosphere (within in latitude). We also demonstrate that the observed period of the GCR intensity connected with the Suns rotation increased up to aprox 33-36 days in 2009. This means that the process driving the 27-day variations of the GCR intensity takes place not only in the limited local surroundings of the equatorial region but in the global 3-D space of the heliosphere, covering also higher latitude regions. A relatively long period ( aprox 34 days) found for 2009 in the GCR intensity gives possible evidence of the onset of cycle 24 due to active regions at higher latitudes and rotating slowly because of the Suns differential rotation. We also discuss the effect of differential rotation on the theoretical model of the 27-day variations of the GCR intensity.
In this work the dynamics of self-gravitating systems composed by dark and baryonic matter was analyzed. Searching for a description of this dynamics, a system of Boltzmann equations for the two constituents and the Poisson equation for the gravitational field were employed. Through the solution of these equations the collapse criterion is determined from a dispersion relation. The collapse occurs in an unstable region where the solutions grow exponentially with time. Two cases were analyzed: (a) collisionless dark and baryonic matter and (b) collisionless baryons with self-interacting dark matter. For the former case it was shown that the unstable region becomes larger if the dispersion velocity of dark matter becomes larger than the one of the baryonic matter. For the later case it was shown that the unstable region becomes smaller by increasing the collision frequency of the self-interacting dark matter. The results obtained were also compared with the case where only the dark matter is present. The models of the present work have proven to have a higher limit instability and therefore, exhibited an advantage in the structure formation.
Fast radio bursts show large dispersion measures, much larger than the Galactic dispersion measure foreground. Therefore, they are evidently of extragalactic origin. We investigate the possible dispersion measure contributions from host galaxies. We simulate the spatial distribution of FRBs and calculate the dispersion measures along the sightlines from fast radio bursts to the edge of host galaxies by using the scaled NE2001 model for thermal electron density distributions. We find that the dispersion measure contributions of fast radio bursts in a galaxy follow a skew Gaussian distribution. The peak and the width at half maximum of the dispersion measure distribution increase with the inclination angle of a spiral galaxy, to large values when the inclination angle is over 70$^{\circ}$. The largest dispersion measure produced by an edge-on spiral galaxy can reach a few thousand cm$^{-3}$ pc, while the dispersion measures from dwarf galaxies and elliptical galaxies is only a few tens cm$^{-3}$ pc in maximum. Notice, however, that additional dispersion measures of tens to hundreds of cm$^{-3}$ pc can be produced by high density clumps in host galaxies. Simulations to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Andromeda Galaxy are shown as the examples to demonstrate how to extract the disperison measure from intergalactic medium.
Recently, spectral retrieval has proven to be a powerful tool for constraining the physical properties and atmospheric compositions of extrasolar planet atmospheres from observed spectra, primarily for transiting objects but also increasingly for directly imaged planets and brown dwarfs. Despite its strengths, this approach has been applied to only about a dozen targets. Determining the abundances of the main carbon and oxygen-bearing compounds in a planetary atmosphere can lead to the C/O ratio of the object, which is crucial in understanding its formation and migration history. We present a retrieval analysis on the published near-infrared spectrum of {\kappa} And b, a directly imaged substellar companion to a young B9 star. We fit the emission spectrum model utilizing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. We estimate the abundance of water vapor, and its uncertainty, in the atmosphere of the object. We also place upper limits on the abundances of carbon dioxide and methane and constrain the pressure-temperature profile of the atmosphere. We compare our results to studies that have applied model retrieval on multiband photometry and emission spectroscopy of hot Jupiters (extrasolar giant planets with orbital periods of several days) and the directly imaged giant planet HR 8799b. We find that the water abundances of the hot Jupiters and the two directly imaged planets inhabit overlapping regions of parameter space and that their P-T profiles are qualitatively similar, despite the wide range of effective temperatures and incident stellar fluxes for these objects.
Flow vorticity is a fundamental property of turbulent convection in rotating systems. Solar supergranules exhibit a preferred sense of rotation, which depends on the hemisphere. This is due to the Coriolis force acting on the diverging horizontal flows. We aim to spatially resolve the vertical flow vorticity of the average supergranule at different latitudes, both for outflow and inflow regions. To measure the vertical vorticity, we use two independent techniques: time-distance helioseismology (TD) and local correlation tracking of granules in intensity images (LCT) using data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Both maps are corrected for center-to-limb systematic errors. We find that 8-h TD and LCT maps of vertical vorticity are highly correlated at large spatial scales. Associated with the average supergranule outflow, we find tangential (vortical) flows that reach about 10 m/s in the clockwise direction at 40{\deg} latitude. In average inflow regions, the tangential flow reaches the same magnitude, but in the anti-clockwise direction. These tangential velocities are much smaller than the radial (diverging) flow component (300 m/s for the average outflow and 200 m/s for the average inflow). The results for TD and LCT as measured from HMI are in excellent agreement for latitudes between $-$60{\deg} and 60{\deg}. From HMI LCT, we measure the vorticity peak of the average supergranule to have a full width at half maximum of about 13 Mm for outflows and 8 Mm for inflows. This is larger than the spatial resolution of the LCT measurements (about 3 Mm). On the other hand, the vorticity peak in outflows is about half the value measured at inflows (e.g. 4/(10^6 s) clockwise compared to 8/(10^6 s) anti-clockwise at 40{\deg} latitude). Results from MDI/SOHO obtained in 2010 are biased compared to the HMI/SDO results for the same period.
In this Letter we propose a novel interpretation of the anomalous TeV gamma-ray diffuse emission observed by Milagro in the inner Galactic plane consistent with the signal reported by H.E.S.S. in the Galactic ridge; remarkably, our picture also accounts for a relevant portion of the neutrino flux measured by IceCube. Our scenario is based on a recently proposed phenomenological model characterized by radially-dependent cosmic-ray (CR) transport properties. Designed to reproduce both Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data and local CR observables, this model offers for the first time a self-consistent picture of both the GeV and the TeV sky.
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectra of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV), the optically thick emission from the innermost accretion flow onto the central supermassive black hole, indicate that RLQs tend to be EUV weak compared to the radio quiet quasars (RQQs); yet the remainder of the optically thick thermal continuum is indistinguishable. The deficit of EUV emission in RLQs has a straightforward interpretation as a missing or a suppressed innermost region of local energy dissipation in the accretion flow. This article is an examination of the evidence for a distribution of magnetic flux tubes in the innermost accretion flow that results in magnetically arrested accretion (MAA) and creates the EUV deficit. These same flux tubes and possibly the interior magnetic flux that they encircle are the source of the jet power as well. In the MAA scenario, islands of large scale magnetic vertical flux perforate the innermost accretion flow of RLQs. The first prediction of the theory that is supported by the HST data is that the strength of the (large scale poloidal magnetic fields) jets in the MAA region is regulated by the ram pressure of the accretion flow in the quasar environment. The second prediction that is supported by the HST data is that the rotating magnetic islands remove energy from the accretion flow as a Poynting flux dominated jet in proportion to the square of the fraction of the EUV emitting gas that is displaced by these islands.
(Abridged) We aim to study the evolution of dust attenuation in galaxies selected in the IR in the redshift range in which they are known to dominate the star formation activity in the universe. The comparison with other measurements of dust attenuation in samples selected using different criteria will give us a global picture of the attenuation at work in star-forming galaxies and its evolution with redshift. Using multiple filters of IRC instrument, we selected more than 4000 galaxies from their rest-frame emission at 8 microns, from z~0.2 to 2$. We built SEDs from the rest-frame UV to the far-IR by adding data in the optical-NIR and from GALEX and Herschel surveys. We fit SEDs with the physically-motivated code CIGALE. We test different templates for AGNs and recipes for dust attenuation and estimate stellar masses, SFRs, amount of dust attenuation, and AGN contribution to the total IR luminosity. The AGN contribution to the total IR luminosity is found to be on average approximately 10% with a slight increase with redshift. Dust attenuation in galaxies dominating the IR luminosity function is found to increase from z=0 to z=1 and to remain almost constant from z=1 to z=1.5. Conversely, when galaxies are selected at a fixed IR luminosity, their dust attenuation slightly decreases as redshift increases but with a large dispersion. The attenuation in our mid-IR selected sample is found ~ 2 mag higher than that found globally in the universe or in UV and Halpha line selections in the same redshift range. This difference is well explained by an increase of dust attenuation with the stellar mass, in global agreement with other recent studies. Starbursting galaxies do not systematically exhibit a high attenuation
We have used pointed RXTE data to examine the long-term X-ray light curves of six transient black hole X-ray binaries during their decay from outburst to quiescence. In most cases there is a period of exponential decay as the source approaches the soft-to-hard state transition, and another period of exponential decay following this transition as the source decays in the hard state. The e-folding times change around the time of the state transition, from typically approx 12 days at the end of the soft state to approx 7 days at the beginning of the hard state. This factor ~2 change in the decay timescale is expected if there is a change from radiatively efficient emission in the soft state to radiatively inefficient emission in the hard state, overlying an exponential decay in the mass accretion rate. This adds support to the idea that the X-ray emitting region is governed by radiatively inefficient accretion (such as an advection-dominated or jet-dominated accretion flow) during the fading hard state.
We want to understand the kinematic and thermal properties of young massive gas clumps prior to and at the earliest evolutionary stages of high-mass star formation. Do we find signatures of gravitational collapse? Do we find temperature gradients in the vicinity or absence of infrared emission sources? Do we find coherent velocity structures toward the center of the dense and cold gas clumps? To determine kinematics and gas temperatures, we used ammonia, because it is known to be a good tracer and thermometer of dense gas. We observed the NH$_3$(1,1) and (2,2) lines within seven very young high-mass star-forming regions with the VLA and the Effelsberg 100m telescope. This allows us to study velocity structures, linewidths, and gas temperatures at high spatial resolution of 3-5$"$, corresponding to $\sim$0.05 pc. We find on average cold gas clumps with temperatures in the range between 10 K and 30 K. The observations do not reveal a clear correlation between infrared emission peaks and ammonia temperature peaks. We report an upper limit for the linewidth of $\sim$1.3 km s$^{-1}$, at the spectral resolution limit of our VLA observation. This indicates a relatively low level of turbulence on the scale of the observations. Velocity gradients are present in almost all regions with typical velocity differences of 1 to 2 km s$^{-1}$ and gradients of 5 to 10 km s$^{-1}$ pc$^{-1}$. These velocity gradients are smooth in most cases, but there is one exceptional source (ISOSS23053), for which we find several velocity components with a steep velocity gradient toward the clump centers that is larger than 30 km s$^{-1}$ pc$^{-1}$. This steep velocity gradient is consistent with recent models of cloud collapse. Furthermore, we report a spatial correlation of ammonia and cold dust, but we also find decreasing ammonia emission close to infrared emission sources.
Supermassive black holes are not only common in the present-day galaxies, but billion solar masses black holes also powered $z\geq 6$ quasars. One efficient way to form such black holes is the collapse of a massive primordial gas cloud into a so-called direct collapse black hole. The main requirement for this scenario is the presence of large accretion rates of $\rm \geq 0.1~M_{\odot}/yr$ to form a supermassive star. The prime aim of the present work is to determine how and under what conditions such accretion rates can be obtained. We perform high resolution cosmological simulations for three primordial halos of a few times $\rm 10^7~M_{\odot}$ illuminated by an external UV flux, $\rm J_{21}=100-1000$. We find that a rotationally supported structure of about parsec size is assembled, with an aspect ratio between $\rm 0.25 - 1$ depending upon the thermodynamical properties. Rotational support, however, does not halt collapse, and mass inflow rates of $\rm \sim 0.1~M_{\odot}/yr$ can be obtained in the presence of even a moderate UV background flux of strength $\rm J_{21} \geq 100$. To assess whether such large accretion rates can be maintained over longer time scales, we employed sink particles, confirming the persistence of accretion rates of $\rm \sim 0.1~M_{\odot}/yr$. We propose that complete isothermal collapse and molecular hydrogen suppression may not always be necessary to form supermassive stars, precursors of black hole seeds. Sufficiently high inflow rates can be obtained for UV flux $\rm J_{21}=500-1000$, at least for some cases. This value brings the estimate of the abundance of direct collapse black hole seeds closer to that high redshift quasars.
Aims. We study the coherency of solar spicules intensity oscillations with increasing height above the solar limb in quiet Sun, active Sun and active region using observations from HINODE/SOT. Existence of coherency up to transition region strengthens the theory of the coronal heating and solar wind through energy transport and photospheric oscillations. Methods. Using time sequences from the HINODE/SOT in Ca II H line, we investigate oscillations found in intensity profiles at different heights above the solar limb. We use the Fourier and wavelet analysis to measure dominant frequency peaks of intensity at the heights, and phase difference between oscillations at two certain heights, to find evidence for the coherency of the oscillations. Finally, we can calculate the energy and the mass transported by spicules providing energy equilibrium, according to density values of spicules at different heights. To extend this work, we can also consider coherent oscillations at different latitudes and suggest to study of oscillations which may be obtained from observations of other satellites.
We have developed Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKID) sensitive in the frequency band from 80 to 120~GHz. In this work, we take advantage of the so-called proximity effect to reduce the superconducting gap of Aluminium, otherwise strongly suppressing the LEKID response for frequencies smaller than 100~GHz. We have designed, produced and optically tested various fully multiplexed arrays based on multi-layers combinations of Aluminium (Al) and Titanium (Ti). Their sensitivities have been measured using a dedicated closed-circle 100 mK dilution cryostat and a sky simulator allowing to reproduce realistic observation conditions. The spectral response has been characterised with a Martin-Puplett interferometer up to THz frequencies, and with a resolution of 3~GHz. We demonstrate that Ti-Al LEKID can reach an optical sensitivity of about $1.4$ $10^{-17}$~$W/Hz^{0.5}$ (best pixel), or $2.2$ $10^{-17}$~$W/Hz^{0.5}$ when averaged over the whole array. The optical background was set to roughly 0.4~pW per pixel, typical for future space observatories in this particular band. The performance is close to a sensitivity of twice the CMB photon noise limit at 100~GHz which drove the design of the Planck HFI instrument. This figure remains the baseline for the next generation of millimetre-wave space satellites.
We present the discovery of a relationship between the maximum ratio of the flare flux (namely, 0.5-4 Ang to the 1-8 Ang flux) and non-flare background (namely, the 1-8 Ang background flux), which clearly separates flares into classes by peak flux level. We established this relationship based on an analysis of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) X-ray observations of ~ 50,000 X, M, C, and B flares derived from the NOAA/SWPC flares catalog. Employing a combination of machine learning techniques (K-nearest neighbors and nearest-centroid algorithms) we show a separation of the observed parameters for the different peak flaring energies. This analysis is validated by successfully predicting the flare classes for 100% of the X-class flares, 76% of the M-class flares, 80% of the C-class flares and 81% of the B-class flares for solar cycle 24, based on the training of the parametric extracts for solar flares in cycles 22-23.
The non-linear hydrodynamic equations for axion/scalar field dark matter (DM) in the non-relativistic Madelung-Shcr\"{o}dinger form are derived in a simple manner, including the effects of universal expansion and Hubble drag. The hydrodynamic equations are used to investigate the relative velocity between axion DM and baryons, and the moving-background perturbation theory (MBPT) derived. Axions massive enough to be all of the DM do not affect the coherence length of the relative velocity, but the MBPT equations are modified by the inclusion of the axion effective sound speed. These MBPT equations are necessary for accurately modelling the effects of axion DM on the formation of the first cosmic structures, and suggest that the 21cm power spectrum could improve constraints on axion mass by up to four orders of magnitude with respect to the current best constraints. A further application of these results uses the "quantum force" analogy to model scalar field gradient energy in a smoothed-particle hydrodynamics model of axion DM. Such a model can treat axion DM in the non-linear regime and could be incorporated into existing N-body codes.
We consider the evolution of a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) surrounded by a retrograde accretion disk. Assuming the disk is exactly in the binary plane and transfers energy and angular momentum to the binary via direct gas accretion, we calculate the time evolution of the binary's semi-major axis $a$ and eccentricity $e$. Because the gas is predominantly transferred when the binary is at apocenter, we find the eccentricity grows rapidly while maintaining constant $a(1+e)$. After accreting only a fraction of the secondary's mass, the eccentricity grows to nearly unity; from then on, gravitational wave emission dominates the evolution, preserving constant $a(1-e)$. The high-eccentricity waveforms redistribute the peak gravitational wave power from the nHz to $\mu$Hz bands, substantially affecting the signal that might be detected with pulsar timing arrays. We also estimate the torque coupling binaries of arbitrary eccentricity with obliquely aligned circumbinary disks. If the outer edge of the disk is not an extremely large multiple of the binary separation, retrograde accretion can drive the binary into the gravitational wave-dominated state before these torques align the binary with the angular momentum of the mass supply.
The statistics of large-scale structure in our Universe can discriminate between different scenarios for the origin of primordial density perturbations. Primordial non-Gaussianity can lead to a scale-dependent bias in the density of collapsed halos relative to the underlying matter density. The galaxy power spectrum already provides constraints on local-type primordial non-Gaussianity complementary to those from the cosmic microwave background, while the bispectrum contains additional shape information and has the potential to outperform CMB constraints in future. We develop the bias model for the halo density contrast in the presence of local-type primordial non-Gaussianity, deriving a bivariate expansion up to second order in terms of the local linear matter density contrast and the local gravitational potential in Lagrangian coordinates. We show how the evolution from linear to non-linear matter density introduces the non-local, tidal term in the halo model, while the presence of local-type non-Gaussianity in the Lagrangian frame generically leads to a novel non-local convective term in the Eulerian frame proportional to the displacement field, when going beyond the spherical collapse approximation. We use an extended Press-Schechter approach to evaluate the halo mass function and thus the halo bispectrum including these non-local terms and show that they can lead to corrections of up to $25\%$ with respect to previous work for some configurations, on large scales or at high redshift.
High-energy neutrinos generated in collimated jets inside the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been related with the events detected by IceCube. These neutrinos, produced by hadronic interactions of Fermi-accelerated protons with thermal photons and hadrons in internal shocks, are the only signature when jet has not broken out or failed. Taking into account that the photon field is thermalized at keV energies and the standard assumption that the magnetic field maintains a steady value throughout the shock region (with a width of $10^{10} - 10^{11}$ cm in the observed frame), we study the effect of thermal and magnetized plasma generated in internal shocks on the neutrino oscillations. We calculate the neutrino effective potential generated by this plasma, the effects of the envelope of the star, and the vacuum on the path to Earth. By considering these three effects, the two (solar, atmospheric and accelerator parameters) and three neutrino mixing, we show that although GeV - TeV neutrinos can oscillate resonantly from one flavor to another, a nonsignificant deviation of the standard flavor ratio (1:1:1) could be expected on Earth.
Despite its importance for modeling the homogeneous hot early universe very little is experimentally known about the magnitude of the reheating temperature, leaving an uncertainty of remarkable 18 orders of magnitude. In this work we consider a general class of polynomial inflaton potentials up to fourth order. Employing a Monte Carlo scan and imposing theoretical and experimental constraints we derive a robust lower limit on the energy scale at the end of inflation, $V_\text{end}^{1/4} > 3 \times 10^{15}$ GeV for sizable tensor modes, $r \geq 10^{-3}$. If the reheating phase is matter dominated, this translates into a lower bound on the reheating temperature, yielding $T_\text{rh} > 3 \times 10^8 \; (7 \times 10^2)$ GeV for gravitational inflaton decay through a generic dimension five (six) operator.
The separate universe conjecture states that in General Relativity a density perturbation behaves locally (i.e. on scales much smaller than the wavelength of the mode) as a separate universe with different background density and curvature. We prove this conjecture for a spherical compensated tophat density perturbation of arbitrary amplitude and radius in $\Lambda$CDM. We then use Conformal Fermi Coordinates to generalize this result to scalar perturbations of arbitrary configuration and scale in a general cosmology with a mixture of fluids, but to linear order in perturbations. In this case, the separate universe conjecture holds for the isotropic part of the perturbations. The anisotropic part on the other hand is exactly captured by a tidal field in the Newtonian form. We show that the separate universe picture is restricted to scales larger than the sound horizons of all fluid components. We then derive an expression for the locally measured matter bispectrum induced by a long-wavelength mode of arbitrary wavelength, a new result which in standard perturbation theory is equivalent to a relativistic second-order calculation. We show that nonlinear gravitational dynamics does not generate observable contributions that scale like local-type non-Gaussianity $f^{\rm loc}_{\rm NL}$; rather, the locally measurable long-short mode coupling assumes a form essentially identical to subhorizon perturbation theory results, once the long-mode density perturbation is replaced by the synchronous-comoving gauge density perturbation. $f^{\rm loc}_{\rm NL}$-type contributions only enter through projection effects on photon propagation, which depend on the specific large-scale structure tracer and observable considered, and are in principle distinguishable from the local mode coupling induced by gravity.
It is shown that highly-charged Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes in the charge interval $8/9<{(Q/M)}^2<1$ are stable to charged scalar perturbations.
We study the influence of the fluctuations of a Lorentz invariant and conserved vacuum on cosmological metric perturbations, and show that they generically blow up in the IR. We compute this effect using the K\"{a}ll\'{e}n-Lehmann spectral representation of stress correlators in generic quantum field theories, as well as the holographic bound on their entanglement entropy, both leading to an IR cut-off that scales as the fifth power of the highest UV scale (in Planck units). One may view this as analogous to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is imposed on the phase space of gravitational theories by the Einstein constraint equations. The leading effect on cosmological observables come from anisotropic vacuum stresses which imply: i) any extension of the standard model of particle physics can only have masses (or resonances) $\lesssim$ 24 TeV, and ii) perturbative quantum field theory or quantum gravity becomes strongly coupled beyond a cut-off scale of $\Lambda\lesssim1$ PeV. Such a low cut-off is independently motivated by the Higgs hierarchy problem. This result, which we dub the cosmological non-constant problem, can be viewed as an extension of the cosmological constant (CC) problem, demonstrating the non-trivial UV-IR coupling and (yet another) limitation of effective field theory in gravity. However, it is more severe than the old CC problem, as vacuum fluctuations cannot be tuned to cancel due to the positivity of spectral densities or entropy. We thus predict that future advances in cosmological observations and collider technology will sandwich from above and below, and eventually discover, new (non-perturbative) physics beyond the Standard Model within the TeV-PeV energy range.
A search for hidden photon cold dark matter (HP CDM) using a new technique with a dish antenna is reported. From the result of the measurement, we found no evidence for the existence of HP CDM and set an upper limit on the photon-HP mixing parameter $\chi$ of $\sim 6\times 10^{-12}$ for the hidden photon mass $m_\gamma = 3.1 \pm 1.2$ eV.
In the present paper we study impact of the photospheric 5-minute oscillations on the ion cyclotron waves in the solar wind. We proceed from the assumption that the ion cyclotron waves in solar wind are experiencing modulation with a characteristic period of 5 minutes under the influence of Alfven waves driven by photospheric motions. The theory presented in our paper predicts a deep frequency modulation of the ion cyclotron waves. The frequency modulation is expected mainly from variations in orientation of the IMF lines. In turn, the variations in orientation are caused by the Alfven waves, propagating from the Sun. To test the theoretical predictions we have analyzed records of the ultra-low-frequency (ULF) geoelectromagnetic waves in order to find the permanent quasi-monochromatic oscillations of natural origin in the Pc1-2 frequency band (0.1-5 Hz), the carrier frequency of which varies with time in a wide range. As a result we found the so-called "serpentine emission" (SE), which was observed in Antarctic at the Vostok station near the South Geomagnetic Pole. The permanency, range of frequencies, and the deep frequency modulation of SE correspond to the qualitative properties of ion cyclotron waves in the solar wind. Clearly expressed 5-minute modulation of the carrier frequency is particularly important feature of the SE in the context of this work. We believe that we have found non-trivial manifestation of the solar 5-min oscillations on the Earth.
Here we explore how a recently developed analytical black-hole binary spacetime can be extended using numerical simulations to include the merger proper. The analytic spacetime solves the Einstein field equations approximately, with the approximation error becoming progressively smaller the more separated the binary. Importantly, the analytic spacetime encodes the past history of the binary in the radiation zone and the tidal fields distorting each black hole. To continue the spacetime through merger, we need to smoothly transition from the analytical spacetime to a numerically derived spacetime. We do this by using the analytical spacetime for an equal-mass, nonspinning black hole binary as initial data for a subsequent numerical evolution of the metric, and experiment with how this transition can be accomplished. We test our procedure for an equal-mass binary at a separation of D=20M, and evolve for six orbits. We find that small constraint violations can have large dynamical effects, but these can be removed by using a constraint damping system like the conformal covariant formulation of the Z4 system. We find agreement between the subsequent numerical spacetime and the predictions of post-Newtonian theory for the waveform and inspiral rate that is within the post-Newtonian truncation error.
We study a general class of gravitational theories formulated in the Palatini approach and derive the equations governing the evolution of tensor perturbations. In the absence of torsion, the connection can be solved as the Christoffel symbols of an auxiliary metric which is non-trivially related to the space-time metric. We then consider background solutions corresponding to a perfect fluid and show that the tensor perturbations equations (including anisotropic stresses) for the auxiliary metric around such a background take an Einstein-like form. This facilitates the study in a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological scenario where we explicitly establish the relation between the auxiliary metric and the space-time metric tensor perturbations. As a general result, we show that both tensor perturbations coincide in the absence of anisotropic stresses.
We introduce a new paradigm in Composite Dark Sectors, where the full Standard Model (including the Higgs boson) is extended with a strongly-interacting composite sector with global symmetry group $\mathcal{G}$ spontaneously broken to $\mathcal{H}\subset \mathcal{G}$. We show that, under well-motivated conditions, the lightest neutral pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons are natural dark matter candidates for they are protected by a parity symmetry not even broken in the electroweak phase. These models are characterized by only two free parameters, namely the typical coupling $g_D$ and the scale $f_D$ of the composite sector, and are therefore very predictive. We consider in detail two minimal scenarios, $SU(3)/[SU(2)\times U(1)]$ and $[SU(2)^2\times U(1)]/[SU(2)\times U(1)]$, which provide a dynamical realization of the Inert Doublet and Triplet models, respectively. We show that the radiatively-induced potential can be computed in a five-dimensional description with modified boundary conditions with respect to Composite Higgs models. Finally, the dark matter candidates are shown to be compatible, in a large region of the parameter space, with current bounds from dark matter searches as well as electroweak and collider constraints on new resonances.
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The study of off-equatorial orbits in razor-thin disks is still in its beginnings. Contrary to what was presented in the literature in recent publications, the vertical stability criterion for equatorial circular orbits cannot be based on the vertical epicyclic frequency, because of the discontinuity in the gravitational field on the equatorial plane. We present a rigorous criterion for the vertical stability of circular orbits in systems composed by a razor-thin disk surrounded by a smooth axially symmetric distribution of matter, the latter representing additional structures such as thick disk, bulge and (dark matter) halo. This criterion is satisfied once the mass surface density of the thin disk is positive. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of nearly equatorial orbits are presented. In particular, the analysis of nearly equatorial orbits allows us to construct an approximate analytical third integral of motion in this region of phase-space, which describes the shape of these orbits in the meridional plane.
The standard model of spin-powered black hole jets is the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) model. Unfortunately, the BZ jet power depends on an arbitrary function, $\Omega_F(\theta)$, which controls the angular distribution of field line velocities at the horizon. In practice, this function is fixed by finding exact solutions of force-free electrodynamics (FFE) and reading off $\Omega_F(\theta)$. We prove that all stationary, axisymmetric solutions of FFE with roughly uniform distributions of field lines at the horizon and at infinity have $\Omega_F/\Omega_H\approx 0.5$, where $\Omega_H$ is the angular velocity of the horizon. We derive a formula for $\Omega_F(\theta)$ that depends only on the angular distribution of field lines at the horizon and at infinity (the full FFE solution is not needed). We give a physical interpretation of our results using the black hole membrane paradigm and a recent extension which treats future null infinity as a resistive membrane. We show that $\Omega_F/\Omega_H$ is controlled by impedance matching between the membrane at the horizon and the membrane at infinity. Both membranes have the same surface resistivity, $377 \Omega$. This universality ultimately explains the universality of $\Omega_F/\Omega_H\approx 0.5$ and fixes the ambiguity in the BZ jet power prediction.
We present the full public release of all data from the Illustris simulation project. Illustris is a suite of large volume, cosmological hydrodynamical simulations run with the moving-mesh code Arepo and including a comprehensive set of physical models critical for following the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Each simulates a volume of (106.5 Mpc)^3 and self-consistently evolves five different types of resolution elements from a starting redshift of z=127 to the present day, z=0. These components are: dark matter particles, gas cells, passive gas tracers, stars and stellar wind particles, and supermassive black holes. This data release includes the snapshots at all 136 available redshifts, halo and subhalo catalogs at each snapshot, and two distinct merger trees. Six primary realizations of the Illustris volume are released, including the flagship Illustris-1 run. These include three resolution levels with the fiducial "full" baryonic physics model, and a dark matter only analog for each. In addition, we provide four distinct, high time resolution, smaller volume "subboxes". The total data volume is ~265 TB, including ~800 full volume snapshots and ~30,000 subbox snapshots. This paper describes the released data products as well as tools we have developed for their analysis. All data may be directly downloaded in its native HDF5 format. Additionally, we release a comprehensive, web-based API which allows programmatic access to search and data processing tasks. In both cases we provide example scripts and a getting-started guide in several languages: currently, IDL, Python, and Matlab. Finally, this paper addresses scientific issues relevant for the interpretation of the simulations, serves as a pointer to published and on-line documentation of the project, describes planned future additional data releases, and comments on technical aspects of the release.
Black hole accretion and jet formation have long been thought to be scale invariant. One empirical relation suggesting scale invariance is the Fundamental Plane of Black Hole activity, which is a plane in the space given by black hole mass and the radio/X-ray luminosities. We search for an alternative version of this plane using the luminosity of [OIII] emission line instead of X-ray luminosity. We use a complete sample of 39 supermassive black holes selected from the Palomar Spectroscopic Survey with available radio and optical measurements and information on black hole mass. A sample of stellar mass X-ray binaries has also been included to examine if physical processes behind accretion is universal across the entire range of black hole mass. We present the results of multivariate regression analysis performed on the AGN sample and show that the sample stretches out as a plane in the 3D logarithmic space created by bolometric luminosity, radio luminosity and black hole mass. We reproduce the established Fundamental Plane of Black Hole activity in X-rays. We show that this plane can be obtained with the supermassive black hole sample alone and the X-ray binaries agrees to the found relation. We also discuss radio loudness of various classes of low-luminosity AGN in view of our fundamental plane.
The thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z < 6 constrains the nature and timing of cosmic reionization events, but its inference from the Ly-alpha forest is degenerate with the 3-D structure of the IGM on ~100 kpc scales, where, analogous to the classical Jeans argument, the pressure of the T~$10^4$ K gas supports it against gravity. We simulate the IGM using smoothed particle hydrodynamics, and find that, at z < 6, the gas density power spectrum does not exhibit the expected Jeans filtering cutoff, because dense gas in collapsed halos dominates the small-scale power masking pressure smoothing effects. We introduce a new statistic, the real-space Ly-alpha flux, $F_\mathrm{real}$, which naturally suppresses dense gas, and is thus robust against the poorly understood physics of galaxy formation, revealing pressure smoothing in the diffuse IGM. The $F_\mathrm{real}$ power spectrum is accurately described by a simple fitting function with cutoff at $\lambda_F$, allowing us to rigorously quantify the filtering scale for the first time: we find $\lambda_F$ = 79 kpc (comoving) at z=3 for our fiducial thermal model. This statistic has the added advantage that it directly relates to observations of correlated Ly-alpha forest absorption in close quasar pairs, recently proposed as a method to measure the filtering scale. Our results enable one to quantify the filtering scale in simulations, and ask meaningful questions about its dependence on reionization and thermal history. Accordingly, the standard description of the IGM in terms of the amplitude $T_0$ and slope $\gamma$ of the temperature-density relation $T = T_0\Delta^{\gamma-1}$ should be augmented with a third filtering scale parameter $\lambda_F$.
Very-high energy observations of blazars can be used to constrain the strength of the intergalactic magnetic field. A simplifying assumption which is often made is that of a magnetic field of constant strength composed by randomly oriented and identical cells. In this paper, we demonstrate that a more realistic description of the structure of the intergalactic magnetic field is indeed needed. If such a description is adopted, the observational bounds on the field strength are significantly affected in the limit of short field correlation lengths: in particular, they acquire a dependence on the magnetic field power spectrum. In the case of intergalactic magnetic fields which are generated causally, for which the magnetic field large scale spectral index is $n_B\geq 2$ and even, the observational lower bound becomes more constraining by about a factor 3. If instead $-3<n_B<-2$, the lower bound is significantly relaxed. Such magnetic fields with very red spectra can in principle be produced during inflation, but remain up to now speculative.
Hybrid sources that present FR I - like jet on the one side of the radio core and FR II - like on the other are rare class of objects that may posses key to understanding the origin of FR division. We presents information connected with the new high resolution VLBA follow-up observations of 5 recently discovered hybrid sources. We believe that sources which exhibit two different morphologies at the opposite side of the radio core are FR II type objects evolving in non-uniform high-density environment.
Martin et al. (2014b) showed that a substantially misaligned accretion disk around one component of a binary system can undergo global damped Kozai-Lidov oscillations. During these oscillations, the inclination and eccentricity of the disk are periodically exchanged. However, the robustness of this mechanism and its dependence on the system parameters were unexplored. In this paper, we use three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to analyze how various binary and disk parameters affect the Kozai-Lidov mechanism in hydrodynamical disks. The simulations include the effect of gas pressure and viscosity, but ignore the effects of disk self-gravity. We describe results for different numerical resolutions, binary mass ratios and orbital eccentricities, initial disk sizes, initial disk surface density profiles, disk sound speeds, and disk viscosities. We show that the Kozai-Lidov mechanism can operate for a wide range of binary-disk parameters. We discuss the applications of our results to astrophysical disks in various accreting systems.
The case for a much warmer climate on the early Earth than now is presented. The oxygen isotope record in sedimentary chert and the compelling case for a near constant isotopic oxygen composition of seawater over geologic time support thermophilic surface temperatures prevailing in the Archean, with some support for hot conditions lasting until about 1.5 billion years ago, aside from lower temperatures including glacial episodes at 2.1-2.4 Ga and possibly an earlier one at 2.9 Ga. Other evidence includes the following: 1) Melting temperatures of proteins resurrected from sequences inferred from robust molecular phylogenies give paleotemperatures at emergence consistent with a very warm early climate. 2) High atmospheric pCO2 levels in the Archean are consistent with high climatic temperatures near the triple point of primary iron minerals in banded iron formations, the formation of Mn-bicarbonate clusters leading to oxygenic photosynthesis and generally higher weathering intensities on land. These higher weathering intensities would not have occurred if seafloor weathering dominated the carbon sink, pulling down the temperature, hence this empirical evidence supports a hot climate and high carbon dioxide levels. 3) The inferred viscosity of seawater at 2.7 Ga is consistent with a hot Archean climate. 5) A cold Archean is hard to explain taking into account the higher outgassing rates of carbon dioxide, significantly smaller land areas and weaker biotic enhancement of weathering than present in the context of the long-term carbon cycle, taking into account the fainter Archean sun in climate modeling. This evidence points to an important conclusion regarding biological evolution, namely to the critical role of a temperature constraint holding back the emergence of major organismal groups, starting with phototrophs, culminating with metazoans in the latest Precambrian.
The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is a large wide-field spectroscopic stellar survey of the Milky Way. Over the period 2003-2013, 574,630 spectra for 483,330 stars have been amassed at a resolution of R=7500 in the Ca-triplet region of 8410-8795\AA. Wavelength coverage and resolution are thus comparable to that anticipated from the Gaia RVS. Derived data products of RAVE include radial velocities, stellar parameters, chemicals abundances for Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, and Ni, and absorption measures based on the diffuse interstellar bands (DIB) at 8620\AA. Since more than 290000 RAVE targets are drawn from the Tycho-2 catalogue, RAVE will be an interesting prototype for the anticipated full Gaia data releases, in particular when combined with the early Gaia data releases, which contain astrometry but not yet stellar parameters and abundances.
The trajectory design for the Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE) mission con-cept involves launching the DARE spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) as a secondary payload. From GTO, the spacecraft then transfers to a lunar orbit that is stable (i.e., no station-keeping maneuvers are required with minimum perilune altitude always above 40 km) and allows for more than 1,000 cumulative hours for science measurements in the radio-quiet region located on the lunar farside.
Aiming at providing a firm mean distance estimate to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and thus to place it within the internally consistent Local Group distance framework we recently established, we compiled the current-largest database of published distance estimates to the galaxy. Based on careful statistical analysis, we derive mean distance estimates to the SMC using eclipsing binary systems, variable stars, stellar population tracers, and star cluster properties. Their weighted mean leads to a final recommendation for the mean SMC distance of $(m-M)_0^{\rm SMC} = 18.96 \pm 0.02$ mag, where the uncertainty represents the formal error. Systematic effects related to lingering uncertainties in extinction corrections, our physical understanding of the stellar tracers used, and the SMC's complex geometry---including its significant line-of-sight depth, its irregular appearance which renders definition of the galaxy's center uncertain, as well as its high inclination and possibly warped disk---may contribute additional uncertainties possibly exceeding 0.15--0.20 mag.
Babcock-Leighton type solar dynamo models with single-celled meridional circulation are successful in reproducing many solar cycle features. Recent observations and theoretical models of meridional circulation do not indicate a single-celled flow pattern. We examine the role of complex multi-cellular circulation patterns in a Babcock-Leighton solar dynamo in advection- and diffusion-dominated regimes. We show from simulations that presence of a weak, second, high-latitude reverse cell speeds up the cycle and slightly enhances the poleward branch in butterfly diagram, whereas the presence of a second cell in depth reverses the tilt of butterfly wing to an anti-solar type. A butterfly diagram constructed from middle of convection zone yields a solar-like pattern, but this may be difficult to realize in the Sun because of magnetic buoyancy effects. Each of the above cases behaves similarly in higher and lower magnetic diffusivity regimes. However, our dynamo with a meridional circulation containing four cells in latitude behaves distinctly differently in the two regimes, producing solar-like butterfly diagrams with fast cycles in the higher diffusivity regime, and complex branches in butterfly diagrams in the lower diffusivity regime. We also find that dynamo solutions for a four-celled pattern, two in radius and two in latitude, prefer to quickly relax to quadrupolar parity if the bottom flow-speed is strong enough, of similar order of magnitude as the surface flow-speed.
Thermal X-ray emission from young supernova remnants (SNRs) is usually dominated by the emission lines of the supernova (SN) ejecta, which are widely believed being crossed and thus heated by the inwards propagating reverse shock (RS). Previous works using imaging X-ray data have shown that the ejecta are heated by the RS by locating the peak emission region of the most recently ionized matter, which is found well separated towards the inside from the outermost boundary. Here we report the discovery of a systematic increase of the Sulfur (S) to Silicon (Si) K$\alpha$ line flux ratio with radius in Tycho's SNR. This allows us, for the first time, to present continuous radial profiles of the ionization age and, furthermore, the elapsed ionization time since the onset of the ionization, which tells the propagation history of the ionization front into the SNR ejecta.
Massive star-forming regions with observed infall motions are good sites for studying the birth of massive stars. In this paper, 405 compact sources have been extracted from the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) compact sources that also have been observed in the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) survey during Years 1 and 2. These observations are complemented with Spitzer GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL mid-IR survey data to help classify the elected star-forming clumps into three evolutionary stages: pre-stellar, proto-stellar and UCHII regions. The results suggest that 0.05 g cm$^{-2}$ is a reliable empirical lower bound for the clump surface densities required for massive-star formation to occur. The optically thick HCO$^{+}$(1-0) and HNC(1-0) lines, as well as the optically thin N$_{2}$H$^{+}$(1-0) line were used to search for infall motions toward these sources. By analyzing the asymmetries of the optically thick HCO$^{+}$(1-0) and HNC(1-0) lines and the mapping observations of HCO$^{+}$(1-0), a total of 131 reliable infall candidates have been identified. The HCO$^{+}$(1-0) line shows the highest occurrence of obvious asymmetric features, suggesting that it may be a better infall motion tracer than other lines such as HNC(1-0). The detection rates of infall candidates toward pre-stellar, proto-stellar and UCHII clumps are 0.3452, 0.3861 and 0.2152, respectively. The relatively high detection rate of infall candidates toward UCHII clumps indicates that many UCHII regions are still accreting matter. The peak column densities and masses of the infall candidates, in general, display a increasing trend with progressing evolutionary stages. However, the rough estimates of the mass infall rate show no obvious variation with evolutionary stage.
We calculate the electron acceleration in random superluminal strong waves (SLSWs) and radiation from them by using numerical methods in the context of the termination shock of the pulsar wind nebulae. We pursue the electrons by solving the equation of motion in the analytically expressed electromagnetic turbulences. These consist of primary SLSW and isotropically distributed secondary electromagnetic waves. Under the dominance of the secondary waves, all electrons gain nearly equal energy. On the other hand, when the primary wave is dominant, selective acceleration occurs. The phase of the primary wave felt by the electrons moving nearly along the wavevector changes very slowly compared to the oscillation of the wave, which is called "phase locked", and such electrons are continuously accelerated. This acceleration by SLSWs may play a crucial role in the pre-acceleration for the shock acceleration. In general, the radiation from the phase-locked population is different from the synchro-Compton radiation. However, when the amplitude of the secondary waves is not extremely weaker than that of the primary wave, the typical frequency can be estimated from the synchro-Compton theory by using the secondary waves. The primary wave does not contribute to the radiation, because the SLSW accelerates electrons almost linearly. This radiation can be observed as a radio knot at the upstream of the termination shock of the pulsar wind nebulae without counter parts in higher frequency range.
We present extensive ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared observations of the type IIP supernova (SN IIP) 2013ej in the nearby spiral galaxy M74. The multicolor light curves, spanning from $\sim$ 8--185 days after explosion, show that it has a higher peak luminosity (i.e., M$_{V}$ $\sim$$-$17.83 mag at maximum light), a faster post-peak decline, and a shorter plateau phase (i.e., $\sim$ 50 days) compared to the normal type IIP SN 1999em. The mass of $^{56}$Ni is estimated as 0.02$\pm$0.01 M$_{\odot}$ from the radioactive tail of the bolometric light curve. The spectral evolution of SN 2013ej is similar to that of SN 2004et and SN 2007od, but shows a larger expansion velocity (i.e., $v_{Fe II} \sim$ 4600 km s$^{-1}$ at t $\sim$ 50 days) and broader line profiles. In the nebular phase, the emission of H$\alpha$ line displays a double-peak structure, perhaps due to the asymmetric distribution of $^{56}$Ni produced in the explosion. With the constraints from the main observables such as bolometric light curve, expansion velocity and photospheric temperature of SN 2013ej, we performed hydrodynamical simulations of the explosion parameters, yielding the total explosion energy as $\sim$0.7$\times$ 10$^{51}$ erg, the radius of the progenitor as $\sim$600 R$_{\odot}$, and the ejected mass as $\sim$10.6 M$_{\odot}$. These results suggest that SN 2013ej likely arose from a red supergiant with a mass of 12--13 M$_{\odot}$ immediately before the explosion.
Neutron stars feature extremely high magnetic fields with deduced field strengths of $10^{15}$ G in the case of magnetars and potentially much higher values inside of the star. In this context we consider the appearance of $\rho^-$ meson condensation taking into account the effect of the magnetic field. The results show that, depending on parameters, such a condensation in magnetized neutron stars might (just) occur.
Based on a recent photometric redshift galaxy catalogue, we have searched for galaxy clusters in the Stripe~82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by applying the Adami & MAzure Cluster FInder (AMACFI). Extensive tests were made to fine-tune the AMACFI parameters and make the cluster detection as reliable as possible. The same method was applied to the Millennium simulation to estimate our detection efficiency and the approximate masses of the detected clusters. Considering all the cluster galaxies (i.e. within a 1 Mpc radius of the cluster to which they belong and with a photoz differing by less than 0.05 from that of the cluster), we stacked clusters in various redshift bins to derive colour-magnitude diagrams and galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs). For each galaxy with absolute magnitude brighter than -19.0 in the r band, we computed the disk and spheroid components by applying SExtractor, and by stacking clusters we determined how the disk-to-spheroid flux ratio varies with cluster redshift and mass. We detected 3663 clusters in the redshift range 0.15<z<0.70, with estimated mean masses between 10^13 and a few 10^{14 solar masses. By stacking the cluster galaxies in various redshift bins, we find a clear red sequence in the (g'-r') versus r' colour-magnitude diagrams, and the GLFs are typical of clusters, though with a possible contamination from field galaxies. The morphological analysis of the cluster galaxies shows that the fraction of late-type to early-type galaxies shows an increase with redshift (particularly in high mass clusters) and a decrease with detection level, i.e. cluster mass. From the properties of the cluster galaxies, the majority of the candidate clusters detected here seem to be real clusters with typical cluster properties.
The Kepler mission has discovered about a dozen circumbinary planetary systems, all containing planets on ~ 1 AU orbits. We place bounds on the locations in the circumbinary protoplanetary disk, where these planets could have formed through collisional agglomeration starting from small (km-sized or less) planetesimals. We first present a model of secular planetesimal dynamics that accounts for the (1) perturbation due to the eccentric precessing binary, as well as the (2) gravity and (3) gas drag from a precessing eccentric disk. Their simultaneous action leads to rich dynamics, with (multiple) secular resonances emerging in the disk. We derive analytic results for size-dependent planetesimal eccentricity, and demonstrate the key role of the disk gravity for circumbinary dynamics. We then combine these results with a simple model for collisional outcomes and find that in systems like Kepler 16, planetesimal growth starting with 10-100 m planetesimals is possible outside a few AU. The exact location exterior to which this happens is sensitive to disk eccentricity, density and precession rate, as well as to the size of the first generation of planetesimals. Strong perturbations from the binary in the inner part of the disk, combined with a secular resonance at a few AU inhibit the growth of km-sized planetesimals within 2 - 4 AU of the binary. In situ planetesimal growth in the Kepler circumbinary systems is possible only starting from large (few-km-sized) bodies in a low-mass disk with surface density less than 500 g/cm^2 at 1 AU.
We analyse the full shock formation process in electron-ion plasmas in theory and simulations. It is accepted that electromagnetic shocks in initially unmagnetised relativistic plasmas are triggered by the filamentation instability. However, the transition from the first unstable phase to the quasi-steady shock is still missing. We derive a theoretical model for the shock formation time, taking into account the filament merging in the non-linear phase of the filamentation instability. This process is much slower than in electron-positron pair shocks, so that the shock formation is longer by a factor proportional to sqrt(m_i/m_e) ln(m_i/m_e).
SU Uma stars after their long superoutbursts often show single or multiple rebrightenings. We show how this phenomenon can be understood as repeated reflections of transition waves which mediate changes between the hot and the cool state of the accretion disk and travel back and forth in the outer disk region, leaving an inner part permanently hot. This points to a temporarily increased viscosity, possibly related to the formation of large-scale and longer persisting magnetic fields by the dynamo operation during the long superoutburst. The 'mini-rebrightenings' in the early post-outburst light curve of V585 Lyr discovered by Kato and Osaki in Kepler observations seem to be understandable as a small limit cycle of low luminosity changes originating from a wiggle-feature in the thermal equilibrium curve of the cool optically thick disk.
The jets of compact accreting objects are composed of electrons and a mixture of positrons and ions. These outflows impinge on the interstellar or intergalactic medium and both plasmas interact via collisionless processes. Filamentation (beam-Weibel) instabilities give rise to the growth of strong electromagnetic fields. These fields thermalize the interpenetrating plasmas. Hitherto, the effects imposed by a spatial non-uniformity on filamentation instabilities have remained unexplored. We examine the interaction between spatially uniform background electrons and a minuscule cloud of electrons and positrons. A square micro-cloud of equally dense electrons and positrons impinges in our particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation on a spatially uniform plasma at rest. The mean speed of the micro-cloud corresponds to a relativistic factor of 15, which is relevant for laboratory experiments and for relativistic astrophysical outflows. The spatial distributions of the leptons and of the electromagnetic fields are examined at several times. A filamentation instability develops between the magnetic field carried by the micro-cloud and the background electrons. The electromagnetic fields, which grow from noise levels, redistribute the electrons and positrons within the cloud, which boosts the peak magnetic field amplitude. The current density and the moduli of the electromagnetic fields grow aperiodically in time and steadily along the direction that is anti-parallel to the cloud's velocity vector. The micro-cloud remains conjoined during the simulation. The instability induces an electrostatic wakefield in the background plasma.
We explore the possibility that Milgrom's Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is a manifestation of the modification of inertia at small accelerations. Consistent with the Tully-Fisher relation, dynamics in the small acceleration domain may originate from a quartic (cubic) velocity-dependence of energy (momentum) whereas gravitational potentials remain linear with respect to mass. The natural framework for this interpretation is Finsler geometry. The simplest static isotropic Finsler metric of a gravitating mass that incorporates the Tully-Fisher relation at small acceleration is associated with a spacetime interval that is either a homogeneous quartic root of polynomials of local displacements or a simple root of a rational fraction thereof. We determine the low energy gravitational equation and find that Finsler spacetimes that produce a Tully-Fisher relation require that the gravitational potential be modified. For an isolated mass, Newton's potential $Mr^{-1}$ is replaced by $Ma_0\log (r/r_0)$ where $a_0$ is MOND's acceleration scale and $r_0$ is a yet undetermined distance scale. Orbital energy is linear with respect to mass but angular momentum is proportional to $ M^{3/4}$. Asymptotic light deflection resulting from time curvature is similar to that of a singular isothermal sphere implying that space curvature must be the main source of deflection in static Finsler spacetimes possibly through the presence of the distance scale $r_0$ that appears in the asymptotic form of the gravitational potential. The quartic nature of the Finsler metric hints at the existence of an underlying area-metric that describes the effective structure of spacetime.
We discuss the unique opportunities for maser astrometry with the inclusion of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) networks. The first phase of the SKA will enable observations of hydroxyl and methanol masers, positioning the latter to an accuracy of 5 microarcseconds, and the second phase may allow water maser observations. These observations will provide trigonometric distances with errors as small as 1%. The unrivalled sensitivity of the SKA will enable large-scale surveys and, through joint operations, will turn any VLBI network into a fast astrometry device. Both evolved stars and high mass star formation regions will be accessible throughout the (Southern) Milky Way, completing our understanding of the content, dynamics and history of our Galaxy. Maser velocities and proper motions will be measurable in the Local Group of galaxies and beyond, providing new insights into their kinematics and evolution.
Aims. We observed the $\tau$ Boo system with the HARPS-N spectrograph to test a new observational strategy aimed at jointly studying asteroseismology, the planetary orbit, and star-planet magnetic interaction. Methods. We collected high-cadence observations on 11 nearly consecutive nights and for each night averaged the raw FITS files using a dedicated software. In this way we obtained spectra with a high signal-to-noise ratio, used to study the variation of the CaII H&K lines and to have radial velocity values free from stellar oscillations, without losing the oscillations information. We developed a dedicated software to build a new custom mask that we used to refine the radial velocity determination with the HARPS-N pipeline and perform the spectroscopic analysis. Results. We updated the planetary ephemeris and showed the acceleration caused by the stellar binary companion. Our results on the stellar activity variation suggest the presence of a high-latitude plage during the time span of our observations. The correlation between the chromospheric activity and the planetary orbital phase remains unclear. Solar-like oscillations are detected in the radial velocity time series: we estimated asteroseismic quantities and found that they agree well with theoretical predictions. Our stellar model yields an age of $0.9\pm0.5$ Gyr for $\tau$ Boo and further constrains the value of the stellar mass to $1.38\pm0.05$ M$_\odot$.
SKA is a new technology radio-telescope array, about two orders of magnitude more sensitive and rapid in sky surveys than present instruments. It will probe the dark age of the universe, just afer recombination, and during the epoch of reionisation (z=6-15); it will be the unique instrument to map the atomic gas in high redshift galaxies, and determine the amount and distribution of dark matter in the early universe. Not only it will detect and measure the redshifts of billions of galaxies up to z=2, but also it will discover and monitor around 20 000 pulsars in our milky Way. The timing of pulsars will trace the stretching of space, able to detect gravitational waves. Binary pulsars will help to test gravity in strong fields, and probe general relativity. These exciting perspectives will become real beyond 2020.
We present the first detection of a rotationally affected series consisting of 36 consecutive high-order sectoral dipole gravity modes in a slowly pulsating B (SPB) star. The results are based on the analysis of four years of virtually uninterrupted photometric data assembled with the Kepler Mission, and high-resolution spectra acquired using the HERMES spectrograph at the 1.2 meter Mercator Telescope. The spectroscopic measurements place KIC7760680 inside the SPB instability strip, near the cool edge. The photometric analysis reveals the longest unambiguous series of gravity modes of the same degree l with consecutive radial order n, that carries clear signatures of chemical mixing and rotation. With such exceptional observational constraints, this star should be considered as the Rosetta Stone of SPBs for future modelling, and bring us a step closer to the much needed seismic calibration of stellar structure models of massive stars.
We identify 3 Kepler transiting planet systems, Kepler-7, Kepler-12, and Kepler-41, whose orbital phase-folded light curves are dominated by planetary atmospheric processes including thermal emission and reflected light, while the impact of non-atmospheric (i.e. gravitational) processes, including beaming (Doppler boosting) and tidal ellipsoidal distortion, is negligible. Therefore, those systems allow a direct view of their atmospheres without being hampered by the approximations used in the inclusion of both atmospheric and non-atmospheric processes when modeling the phase curve shape. Here we analyze Kepler-12b and Kepler-41b atmosphere based on their Kepler phase curve, while the analysis of Kepler-7b was presented elsewhere. The model we used efficiently computes reflection and thermal emission contributions to the phase curve, including inhomogeneous atmospheric reflection due to longitudinally varying cloud coverage. We confirm Kepler-12b and Kepler-41b show a westward phase shift between the brightest region on the planetary surface and the substellar point, similar to Kepler-7b. We find that reflective clouds located on the west side of the substellar point can explain the phase shift. The existence of inhomogeneous atmospheric reflection in all 3 of our targets, selected due to their atmosphere-dominated Kepler phase curve, suggests this phenomenon is common. Therefore it is likely to be present also in planetary phase curves that do not allow a direct view of the planetary atmosphere as they contain additional orbital processes. We discuss the implications of a bright-spot shift on the analysis of phase curves where both atmospheric and gravitational processes appear. We also discuss the potential detection of non-transiting but otherwise similar planets, whose mass is too small to show a gravitational photometric signal but their atmospheric signal is detectable. (abridged)
We investigate how uncertainties in the chemical and cooling rate coefficients relevant for a metal-free gas influence our ability to determine the critical ultraviolet field strength required to suppress H2 cooling in high-redshift atomic cooling halos. The suppression of H2 cooling is a necessary prerequisite for the gas to undergo direct collapse and form an intermediate mass black hole. These black holes can then act as seeds for the growth of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) observed at redshifts $z \sim 6$. The viability of this model for SMBH formation depends on the critical ultraviolet field strength, Jcrit: if this is too large, then too few seeds will form to explain the observed number density of SMBHs. We show in this paper that there are five key chemical reactions whose rate coefficients are uncertain enough to significantly affect Jcrit. The most important of these is the collisional ionization of hydrogen by collisions with other hydrogen atoms, as the rate for this process is very poorly constrained at the low energies relevant for direct collapse. The total uncertainty introduced into Jcrit by this and the other four reactions could in the worst case approach a factor of five. We also show that the use of outdated or inappropriate values for the rates of some chemical reactions in previous studies of the direct collapse mechanism may have significantly affected the values of Jcrit determined by these studies.
We investigate the sequence of events leading to the solar X1 flare SOL2014-03-29T17:48. Because of the unprecedented joint observations of an X-flare with the ground-based Dunn Solar Telescope and the spacecraft IRIS, Hinode, RHESSI, STEREO, and SDO, we can sample many solar layers from the photosphere to the corona. A filament eruption was observed above a region of previous flux emergence, which possibly led to a change in magnetic field configuration, causing the X-flare. This was concluded from the timing and location of the hard X-ray emission, which started to increase slightly less than a minute after the filament accelerated. The filament showed Doppler velocities of $\sim$2-5 km s$^{-1}$ at chromospheric temperatures for at least one hour before the flare occurred, mostly blueshifts, but also redshifts near its footpoints. 15 minutes before the flare, its chromospheric Doppler shifts increased to $\sim$6-10 km s$^{-1}$ and plasma heating could be observed, before it lifted off with at least 600 km s$^{-1}$, as seen in IRIS data. Compared to previous studies, this acceleration ($\sim$3-5 km s$^{-2}$) is very fast, while the velocities are in the common range for coronal mass ejections. An interesting feature was a low-lying twisted second filament near the erupting filament, which did not seem to participate in the eruption. After the flare ribbons started on each of the second filament's sides, it seems to have untangled and vanished during the flare. These observations are some of the highest resolution data of an X-class flare to date and reveal some small-scale features yet to be explained.
We analyze 3 epochs of ultraviolet (UV), optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations of the Taurus transitional disk GM Aur using the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Infrared Telescope Facility SpeX spectrograph. Observations were separated by one week and 3 months in order to study variability over multiple timescales. We calculate accretion rates for each epoch of observations using the STIS spectra and find that those separated by one week had similar accretion rates (~1E-8 solar masses/yr) while the epoch obtained 3 months later had a substantially lower accretion rate (~4E-9 solar masses/yr). We find that the decline in accretion rate is caused by lower densities of material in the accretion flows, as opposed to a lower surface coverage of the accretion columns. During the low accretion rate epoch we also observe lower fluxes at both far UV (FUV) and IR wavelengths, which trace molecular gas and dust in the disk, respectively. We find that this can be explained by a lower dust and gas mass in the inner disk. We attribute the observed variability to inhomogeneities in the inner disk, near the corotation radius, where gas and dust may co-exist near the footprints of the magnetospheric flows. These FUV--NIR data offer a new perspective on the structure of the inner disk, the stellar magnetosphere, and their interaction.
Infrared radiation emitted from an asteroid surface causes a torque that can significantly affect rotational state of the asteroid. The influence of small topographic features on this phenomenon, called the YORP effect, seems to be of utmost importance. In this work, we show that a lateral heat diffusion in boulders of suitable sizes leads to an emergence of a local YORP effect which magnitude is comparable to the YORP effect due to the global shape. We solve a three-dimensional heat diffusion equation in a boulder and its surroundings by the finite element method, using the FreeFem++ code. The contribution to the total torque is inferred from the computed temperature distribution. Our general approach allows us to compute the torque induced by a realistic irregular boulder. For an idealized boulder, our result is consistent with an existing one-dimensional model. We also estimated (and extrapolated) a size distribution of boulders on (25143) Itokawa from close-up images of its surface. We realized that topographic features on Itokawa can potentially induce a torque corresponding to a rotational acceleration of the order 10^-7 rad day^-2 and can therefore explain the observed phase shift in light curves.
The Chandra X-ray observatory has discovered dozens of resolved, kiloparsec-scale jets associated with powerful quasars in which the X-ray fluxes are observed to be much higher than the expected level based on the radio-optical synchrotron spectrum. The most popular explanation for the anomalously high and hard X-ray fluxes is that these jets do not decelerate significantly by the kiloparsec scale, but rather remain highly relativistic (Lorentz factors $\Gamma\approx$10). By adopting a small angle to the line-of-sight, the X-rays can thus be explained by inverse Compton upscattering of CMB photons (IC/CMB), where the observed emission is strongly Doppler boosted. Using over six years of Fermi monitoring data, we show that the expected hard, steady gamma-ray emission implied by the IC/CMB model is not seen in PKS 0637-752, the prototype jet for which this model was first proposed. IC/CMB emission is thus ruled out as the source of the X-rays, joining recent results for the jets in 3C 273 (using the same method; Meyer et al. 2014) and PKS 1136-135 (using UV polarization; Cara et al., 2013). We further show that the Fermi observations give an upper limit of $\delta<$6.5 for the four brightest X-ray knots of PKS 0637-752, and derive an updated limit of $\delta<$7.8 for knots A and B1 of 3C 273 (assuming equipartition). Finally, we discuss the fact that high levels of synchrotron X-ray emission in a slow jet will unavoidably lead to a level of angle-integrated TeV emission which exceeds that of the TeV BL Lac class.
We present Washington system colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for 17 practically unstudied star clusters located in the bar as well as in the inner disc and outer regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Cluster sizes were estimated from star counts distributed throughout the entire observed fields. Based on the best fits of theoretical isochrones to the cleaned $(C-T_1,T_1)$ CMDs, as well as on the $\delta T_1$ parameter and the standard giant branch method, we derive ages and metallicities for the cluster sample. Four objects are found to be intermediate-age clusters (1.8-2.5 Gyr), with [Fe/H] ranging from -0.66 to -0.84. With the exception of SL263, a very young cluster ($\sim$ 16 Myr), the remaining 12 objects are aged between 0.32 and 0.89 Gyr, with their [Fe/H] values ranging from -0.19 to -0.50. We combined our results with those for other 231 clusters studied in a similar way using the Washington system. The resulting age-metallicity relationship shows a significant dispersion in metallicities, whatever age is considered. Although there is a clear tendency for the younger clusters to be more metal-rich than the intermediate ones, we believe that none of the chemical evolution models currently available in the literature reasonably well represents the recent chemical enrichment processes in the LMC clusters. The present sample of 17 clusters is part of our ongoing project of generating a database of LMC clusters homogeneously studied using the Washington photometric system and applying the same analysis procedure
As the local interstellar plasma flows past our heliosphere, it is slowed and deflected around the magnetic obstacle of the heliopause. The interstellar magnetic field, frozen into this plasma, then becomes draped around the heliopause in a characteristic manner. We derive the analytical solution for this draped magnetic field in the limit of weak field intensity, assuming an ideal potential flow around the heliopause, which we model as a Rankine half-body. We compare the structure of the model magnetic field with observed properties of the IBEX ribbon and with in situ observations at the Voyager 1 spacecraft. We find reasonable qualitative agreement, given the idealizations of the model. This agreement lends support to the secondary ENA model of the IBEX ribbon and to the interpretation that Voyager 1 has crossed the heliopause. We also predict that the magnetic field measured by Voyager 2 after it crosses the heliopause will not be significantly rotated away from the direction of the undisturbed interstellar field.
Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are usually quiescent, but many exhibit star formation. Here we exploit the opportunity provided by rest-frame UV imaging of galaxy clusters in the CLASH (Cluster Lensing and Supernovae with Hubble) Multi-Cycle Treasury Project to reveal the diversity of UV morphologies in BCGs and to compare them with recent simulations of the cool, star-forming gas structures produced by precipitation-driven feedback. All of the CLASH BCGs are detected in the rest-frame UV (280 nm), regardless of their star-formation activity, because evolved stellar populations produce a modest amount of UV light that traces the relatively smooth, symmetric, and centrally peaked stellar distribution seen in the near infrared. Ultraviolet morphologies among the BCGs with strong UV excesses exhibit distinctive knots, multiple elongated clumps, and extended filaments of emission that distinctly differ from the smooth profiles of the UV-quiet BCGs. These structures, which are similar to those seen in the few star-forming BCGs observed in the UV at low redshift, are suggestive of bi-polar streams of clumpy star formation, but not of spiral arms or large, kpc-scale disks. Based on the number of streams and lack of culprit companion galaxies, these streams are unlikely to have arisen from multiple collisions with gas-rich galaxies. These star-forming UV structures are morphologically similar to the cold-gas structures produced in simulations of precipitation-driven AGN feedback in which jets uplift low-entropy gas to greater altitudes, causing it to condense. Unobscured star-formation rates estimated from CLASH UV images using the Kennicutt relation range up to 80 solar masses per year in the most extended and highly structured systems. The circumgalactic gas-entropy threshold for star formation in CLASH BCGs at z~0.2-0.5 is indistinguishable from that for clusters at z < 0.2.
The ubiquity of filamentary structure at various scales through out the Galaxy has triggered a renewed interest in their formation, evolution, and role in star formation. The largest filaments can reach up to Galactic scale as part of the spiral arm structure. However, such large scale filaments are hard to identify systematically due to limitations in identifying methodology (i.e., as extinction features). We present a new approach to directly search for the largest, coldest, and densest filaments in the Galaxy, making use of sensitive Herschel Hi-GAL data complemented by spectral line cubes. We present a sample of the 9 most prominent Herschel filaments, including 6 identified from a pilot search field plus 3 from outside the field. These filaments measure 37-99 pc long and 0.6-3.0 pc wide with masses (0.5-8.3)$\times10^4 \, M_\odot$, and beam-averaged ($28"$, or 0.4-0.7 pc) peak H$_2$ column densities of (1.7-9.3)$\times 10^{22} \, \rm{cm^{-2}}$. The bulk of the filaments are relatively cold (17-21 K), while some local clumps have a dust temperature up to 25-47 K. All the filaments are located within <~60 pc from the Galactic mid-plane. Comparing the filaments to a recent spiral arm model incorporating the latest parallax measurements, we find that 7/9 of them reside within arms, but most are close to arm edges. These filaments are comparable in length to the Galactic scale height and therefore are not simply part of a grander turbulent cascade.
We report 21-yr timing of one of the most precise pulsars: PSR J1713+0747. The pulsar's pulse times of arrival are well modeled, with residuals having WRMS of $\sim92$ns, by a comprehensive pulsar binary model including the mass and three-dimensional orbit of its white dwarf companion and a noise model that incorporates short- and long-timescale correlated noise such as jitter and red noise. The new dataset allows us to improve previous measurements of the system properties, including the masses of the neutron star ($1.31\pm0.11$ $M_\odot$) and white dwarf ($0.286\pm0.012$ $M_\odot$) as well as their parallax distance $1.15\pm0.03$ kpc. We measured the intrinsic change in binary orbital period, $\dot{P}^{\rm Int}_{\rm b}$, is $-0.20\pm0.17$ ps s$^{-1}$, not distinguishable from zero. This result, combined with those of other pulsar binaries, can place limits on potential changes in the gravitational constant $G$ as predicted in some alternative theories of gravitation. We found that $\dot{G}/G$ is consistent with zero [$(-0.6\pm1.1)\times10^{-12}$ yr$^{-1}$, 95%CL] and changes at least a factor of 31 (99.7%CL) more slowly than the average expansion rate of the Universe. This is the best $\dot{G}/G$ limit from pulsar binary systems. The $\dot{P}^{\rm Int}_{\rm b}$ of pulsar binaries can also place limits on the putative coupling constant for dipole gravitational radiation $\kappa_D$. We found at 95% CL $\kappa_D=(-0.9\pm3.3)\times10^{-4}$, consistent with zero. Finally, the nearly circular orbit of this pulsar binary allows us to constrain statistically strong-field post-Newtonian parameters $\Delta$, which describes the violation of strong equivalence principle, and $\hat{\alpha}_3$, which describes a breaking of both Lorentz invariance in gravitation and conservation of momentum. We found at 95%CL $\Delta<0.01$ and $\hat{\alpha}_3<2\times10^{-20}$ based on PSR J1713+0747.
We carry out a detailed study of the orbital dynamics and structural evolution of over 6000 subhalos in the Via Lactea II simulation, from infall to present. By analyzing subhalos with masses down to m = 4e5 Msun, we find that lower mass subhalos, which are not strongly affected by dynamical friction, exhibit behaviors qualitatively different from those found previously for more massive ones. Furthermore, there is a clear trend of subhalos that fell into the host earlier being less concentrated. We show that the concentration at infall characterizes various aspects of subhalo evolution. In particular, tidal effects truncate the growth of less concentrated subhalos at larger distances from the host; subhalos with smaller concentrations have larger infall radii. The concentration at infall is further shown to be a determining factor for the subsequent mass loss of subhalos within the host, and also for the evolution of their internal structure in the v_max-r_max plane. Our findings raise the prospects of using the concentration to predict the tidal evolution of subhalos, which will be useful for obtaining analytic models of galaxy formation, as well as for near field cosmology.
HH 666 is an externally irradiated protostellar outflow in the Carina Nebula for which we present new near-IR [Fe II] spectra obtained with the FIRE spectrograph at Magellan Observatory. Earlier H{\alpha} and near-IR [Fe II] imaging revealed that the two emission lines trace substantially different morphologies in the inner ~40" of the outflow. H{\alpha} traces a broad cocoon that surrounds the collimated [Fe II] jet that extends throughout the parent dust pillar. New spectra show that this discrepancy extends to their kinematics. Near-IR [Fe II] emission traces steady, fast velocities of +/- 200 km/s from the eastern and western limbs of the jet. We compare this to a previously published H{\alpha} spectrum that reveals a Hubble-flow velocity structure near the jet-driving source. New, second-epoch HST/ACS H{\alpha} images reveal the lateral spreading of the H{\alpha} outflow lobe away from the jet axis. H{\alpha} proper motions also indicate a sudden increase in the mass-loss rate ~1000 yr ago, while steady [Fe II] emission throughout the inner jet suggests that the burst is ongoing. An accretion burst sustained for ~1000 yr is an order of magnitude longer than expected for FU Orionis outbursts, but represents only a small fraction of the total age of the HH 666 outflow. Altogether, available data suggests that [Fe II] traces the highly collimated protostellar jet while H{\alpha} traces the entrained and irradiated outflow. HH 666 appears to be a missing link between bare jets seen in H II regions and entrained molecular outflows seen from embedded protostars in more quiescent regions.
We study the optimisation and porting of the "Modal" code on Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors and/or Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) coprocessors using methods which should be applicable to more general compute bound codes. "Modal" is used by the Planck satellite experiment for constraining general non-Gaussian models of the early universe via the bispectrum of the cosmic microwave background. We focus on the hot-spot of the code which is the projection of bispectra from the end of inflation to spherical shell at decoupling which defines the CMB we observe. This code involves a three-dimensional inner product between two functions, one of which requires an integral, on a non-rectangular sparse domain. We show that by employing separable methods this calculation can be reduced to a one dimensional summation plus two integrations reducing the dimensionality from four to three. The introduction of separable functions also solves the issue of the domain allowing efficient vectorisation and load balancing. This method becomes unstable in certain cases and so we present a discussion of the optimisation of both approaches. By making bispectrum calculations competitive with those for the power spectrum we are now able to consider joint analysis for cosmological science exploitation of new data. We demonstrate speed-ups of over 100x, arising from a combination of algorithmic improvements and architecture-aware optimizations targeted at improving thread and vectorization behaviour. The resulting MPI/OpenMP code is capable of executing on clusters containing Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors and/or Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) coprocessors, with strong-scaling efficiency of 98.6% on up to 16 nodes. We find that a single coprocessor outperforms two processor sockets by a factor of 1.3x and that running the same code across a combination of processors and coprocessors improves performance-per-node by a factor of 3.38x.
I describe a simple class of $\alpha$-attractors, generalizing the single-field GL model of inflation in supergravity. The new class of models is defined for $0<\alpha \lesssim 1$, providing a good match to the present cosmological data. I also present a generalized version of these models which can describe not only inflation but also dark energy and supersymmetry breaking.
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