Many inflationary theories introduce new scalar, vector, or tensor degrees of freedom that may then affect the generation of primordial density perturbations. Here we show how to search a galaxy (or 21-cm) survey for the imprint of primordial scalar, vector, and tensor fields. These new fields induce local departures to an otherwise statistically isotropic two-point correlation function, or equivalently, nontrivial four-point correlation functions (or trispectra, in Fourier space), that can be decomposed into scalar, vector, and tensor components. We write down the optimal estimators for these various components and show how the sensitivity to these modes depends on the galaxy-survey parameters. New probes of parity-violating early-Universe physics are also presented.
In this colloquium-level account, I describe the cosmological constant problem: why is the energy of empty space at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it from the Standard Model of particle physics? I explain why the "dark energy" responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe is almost certainly vacuum energy. The second half of the paper explores a more speculative subject. The vacuum landscape of string theory leads to a multiverse in which many different three-dimensional vacua coexist, albeit in widely separated regions. This can explain both the smallness of the observed vacuum energy and the coincidence that its magnitude is comparable to the present matter density.
We investigate the impact of star formation and feedback on ram pressure stripping using high-resolution adaptive mesh simulations, building on a previous series of papers that systematically investigated stripping using a realistic model for the interstellar medium, but without star formation. We find that star formation does not significantly affect the rate at which stripping occurs, and only has a slight impact on the density and temperature distribution of the stripped gas, indicating that our previous (gas-only) results are unaffected. For our chosen (moderate) ram pressure strength, stripping acts to truncate star formation in the disk over a few hundred million years, and does not lead to a burst of star formation. Star formation in the bulge is slightly enhanced, but the resulting change in the bulge-to-disk ratio is insignificant. We find that stars do form in the tail, primarily from gas that is ablated from the disk and the cools and condenses in the turbulent wake. The star formation rate in the tail is low, and any contribution to the intracluster light is likely to be very small. We argue that star formation in the tail depends primarily on the pressure in the intracluster medium, rather than the ram pressure strength. Finally, we compare to observations of star formation in stripped tails, finding that many of the discrepancies between our simulation and observed wakes can be accounted for by different intracluster medium pressures.
We present the properties of 8 star-forming regions, or 'clumps,' in 3 galaxies at z~1.3 from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey, which are resolved with the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph. Within turbulent discs, \sigma~90 km/s, clumps are measured with average sizes of 1.5 kpc and average Jeans masses of 4.2 x 10^9 \Msolar, in total accounting for 20-30 per cent of the stellar mass of the discs. These findings lend observational support to models that predict larger clumps will form as a result of higher disc velocity dispersions driven-up by cosmological gas accretion. As a consequence of the changes in global environment, it may be predicted that star-forming regions at high redshift should not resemble star-forming regions locally. Yet despite the increased sizes and dispersions, clumps and HII regions are found to follow tight scaling relations over the range z=0-2 for size, velocity dispersion, luminosity, and mass when comparing >2000 HII regions locally and 30 clumps at z>1 (\sigma \propto r^{0.42+/-0.03}, L(H\alpha) \propto r^{2.72+/-0.04}, L(H\alpha) \propto \sigma^{4.18+/-0.21}, and L(H\alpha) \propto M_{Jeans}^{1.24+/-0.05}). We discuss these results in the context of the existing simulations of clump formation and evolution, with an emphasis on the processes that drive-up the turbulent motions in the interstellar medium. Our results indicate that while the turbulence of discs may have important implications for the size and luminosity of regions which form within them, the same processes govern their formation from high redshift to the current epoch.
The extragalactic background light (EBL), i.e., the diffuse meta-galactic photon field in the ultraviolet to infrared, is dominated by the emission from stars in galaxies. It is, therefore, intimately connected with the integrated star formation rate density (SFRD). In this paper, the SFRD is constrained using recent limits on the EBL density derived from observations of distant sources of high and very-high energy gamma-rays. The stellar EBL contribution is modeled utilizing simple stellar population spectra including dust attenuation and emission. A wide range of values for the different model parameters (SFRD(z), metallicity, dust absorption) is investigated and their impact on the resulting EBL is studied. The calculated EBL densities are compared with the specific EBL density limits and constraints on the SFRD are derived. For the fiducial model, adopting a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF), the SFRD is constrained to ~< 0.1 M_solar yr^-1 Mpc^-3 and < 0.2 M_solar yr^-1 Mpc^-3 for a redshift of z~1 and z~2, respectively. These limits are in tension with SFRD measurements derived from instantaneous star formation tracers, in particular for high values derived for a peak of the SFRD at a redshift of z~1. While the tension for the conservative fiducial model in this study is not yet overly strong, the tension increases when applying plausible changes to the model parameters, e.g., using a Salpeter instead of a Chabrier IMF or a adopting a sub-solar metallicity.
We perform a set of non-radiative hydrodynamical simulations of merging spherical halos in order to understand the angular momentum (AM) properties of the galactic halos seen in cosmological simulations. The universal shape of AM distributions seen in simulations is found to be generically produced as a result of mergers. The universal shape is such that it has an excess of low AM material and hence cannot explain the exponential structure of disk galaxies. A resolution to this is suggested by the spatial distribution of low AM material which is found to be in the centre and a conical region close to the axis of rotation. A mechanism that preferentially discards the material in the centre and prevents the material along the poles from falling onto the disc is proposed as a solution. We implement a simple geometric criteria for selective removal of low AM material and show that in order for 90% of halos to host exponential discs one has to reject at least 40% of material. Next, we explore the physical mechanisms responsible for distributing the AM within the halo during a merger. For dark matter there is an inside-out transfer of AM, whereas for gas there is an outside-in transfer, which is due to differences between collisionless and gas dynamics. We also explain the apparent high spin of dark matter halos undergoing mergers and show that a criteria stricter than what is currently used, would be required to detect such unrelaxed halos. Finally, we demonstrate that the misalignment of AM between gas and dark matter only occurs when the intrinsic spins of the merging halos are not aligned with the orbital AM of the system. The self-misalignment (orientation of AM when measured in radial shells not being constant), which could be the cause of warps and anomalous rotation in disks galaxies, also occurs under similar conditions.
We discuss the sensitivity of the neutron star equation of state to combined variations of the gravitational, strong and electroweak coupling constants in the context of unification scenarios. We find that current knowledge of the neutron star mass-radius relationship and heavy ion collisions observable measurements constrain the equation of state as described by relativistic field models of interacting matter. In particular, there are unification scenarios that would be incompatible with the existence of these objects. This provides an additional independent constraint on the allowed range of variation of fundamental dimensionless constants.
We examine the effect of circumstellar dust extinction on the near-IR contribution of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in intermediate-age clusters throughout the disk of M100. For our sample of 17 AGB-dominated clusters we extract optical-to-mid-IR SEDs and find that NIR brightness is coupled to the mid-IR dust emission in such a way that a significant reduction of AGB light, of up to 1 mag in K-band, follows from extinction by the dust shell formed during this stage. Since the dust optical depth varies with AGB chemistry (C-rich or O-rich), our results suggest that the contribution of AGB stars to the flux from their host clusters will be closely linked to the metallicity and the progenitor mass of the AGB star, to which dust chemistry and mass-loss rate are sensitive. Our sample of clusters--each the analogue of a ~1 Gyr old post-starburst galaxy--has implications within the context of mass and age estimation via SED modelling at high z: we find that the average ~0.5 mag extinction estimated here may be sufficient to reduce the AGB contribution in (rest-frame) K-band from ~70%, as predicted in the latest generation of synthesis models, to ~35%. Our technique for selecting AGB-dominated clusters in nearby galaxies promises to be effective for discriminating the uncertainties associated with AGB stars in intermediate-age populations that plague age and mass estimation in high-z galaxies.
Herschel images in six photometric bands show the thermal emission of the debris disk surrounding beta Pic. In the three PACS bands at 70 micron, 100 micron and 160 micron and in the 250 micron SPIRE band, the disk is well-resolved, and additional photometry is available in the SPIRE bands at 350 micron and 500 micron, where the disk is only marginally resolved. The SPIRE maps reveal a blob to the southwest of beta Pic, coinciding with submillimetre detection of excess emission in the disk. We investigated the nature of this blob. Our comparison of the colours, spectral energy distribution and size of the blob, the disk and the background sources shows that the blob is most likely a background source with a redshift between z =1.0 and z = 1.6.
We present Suzaku observations of the galaxy cluster Abell 2029, which exploit Suzaku's low particle background to probe the ICM to radii beyond those possible with previous observations (reaching out to the virial radius), and with better azimuthal coverage. We find significant anisotropies in the temperature and entropy profiles, with a region of lower temperature and entropy occurring to the south east, possibly the result of accretion activity in this direction. Away from this cold feature, the thermodynamic properties are consistent with an entropy profile which rises, but less steeply than the predictions of purely gravitational hierarchical structure formation. Excess emission in the northern direction can be explained due to the overlap of the emission from the outskirts of Abell 2029 and nearby Abell 2033 (which is at slightly higher redshift). These observations suggest that the assumptions of spherical symmetry and hydrostatic equilibrium break down in the outskirts of galaxy clusters, which poses challenges for modelling cluster masses at large radii and presents opportunities for studying the formation and accretion history of clusters.
We present a study of the impact of a bright quasar on the redshifted 21cm signal during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Using three different cosmological radiative transfer simulations, we investigate if quasars are capable of substantially changing the size and morphology of the H II regions they are born in. We choose stellar and quasar luminosities in a way that is favourable to seeing such an effect. We find that even the most luminous of our quasar models is not able to increase the size of its native H II region substantially beyond those of large H II regions produced by clustered stellar sources alone. However, the quasar H II region is found to be more spherical. We next investigate the prospects of detecting such H II regions in the redshifted 21cm data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) by means of a matched filter technique. We find that H II regions with radii ~ 25 comoving Mpc or larger should have a sufficiently high detection probability for 1200 hours of integration time. Although the matched filter can in principle distinguish between more and less spherical regions, we find that when including realistic system noise this distinction can no longer be made. The strong foregrounds are found not to pose a problem for the matched filter technique. We also demonstrate that when the quasar position is known, the redshifted 21cm data can still be used to set upper limits on the ionizing photon rate of the quasar. If both the quasar position and its luminosity are known, the redshifted 21 cm data can set new constrains on quasar lifetimes.
We present a detailed study of the physical properties of the nebular material in four star-forming knots of the blue compact dwarf galaxy Haro 15. Using long-slit and echelle spectroscopy obtained at Las Campanas Observatory, we study the physical conditions (electron density and temperatures), ionic and total chemical abundances of several atoms, reddening and ionization structure, for the global flux and for the different kinematical components. The latter was derived by comparing the oxygen and sulphur ionic ratios to their corresponding observed emission line ratios (the $\eta$ and $\eta$' plots) in different regions of the galaxy. Applying the direct method or empirical relationships for abundance determination, we perform a comparative analysis between these regions. The similarities found in the ionization structure of the different kinematical components implies that the effective temperatures of the ionizing radiation fields are very similar in spite of some small differences in the ionization state of the different elements. Therefore the different gaseous kinematical components identified in each star forming knot are probably ionized by the same star cluster. However, the difference in the ionizing structure of the two knots with knot A showing a lower effective temperature than knot B, suggests a different evolutionary stage for them consistent with the presence of an older and more evolved stellar population in the first.
In this investigation we quantify the metallicities of low mass galaxies by constructing the most comprehensive census to date. We use galaxies from the SDSS and DEEP2 survey and estimate metallicities from their optical emission lines. We also use two smaller samples from the literature which have metallicities determined by the direct method using the temperature sensitive [OIII]4363 line. We examine the scatter in the local mass-metallicity (MZ) relation determined from ~20,000 star-forming galaxies in the SDSS and show that it is larger at lower stellar masses, consistent with the theoretical scatter in the MZ relation determined from hydrodynamical simulations. We determine a lower limit for the scatter in metallicities of galaxies down to stellar masses of ~10^7 M_solar that is only slightly smaller than the expected scatter inferred from the SDSS MZ relation and significantly larger than what is previously established in the literature. The average metallicity of star-forming galaxies increases with stellar mass. By examining the scatter in the SDSS MZ relation, we show that this is mostly due to the lowest metallicity galaxies. The population of low mass, metal-rich galaxies have properties which are consistent with previously identified galaxies that may be transitional objects between gas-rich dwarf irregulars and gas-poor dwarf spheroidals and ellipticals.
We consider dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and revisit in detail its thermal evolution in the early universe, with a particular focus on models where the annihilation rate is enhanced by the Sommerfeld effect. After chemical decoupling, or freeze-out, dark matter no longer annihilates but is still kept in local thermal equilibrium due to scattering events with the much more abundant standard model particles. During kinetic decoupling, even these processes stop to be effective, which eventually sets the scale for a small-scale cutoff in the matter density fluctuations. Afterwards, the WIMP temperature decreases more quickly than the heat bath temperature, which causes dark matter to reenter an era of annihilation if the cross-section is enhanced by the Sommerfeld effect. Here, we give a detailed and self-consistent description of these effects. As an application, we consider the phenomenology of simple leptophilic models that have been discussed in the literature and find that the relic abundance can be affected by as much two orders of magnitude or more. We also compute the mass of the smallest dark matter subhalos in these models and find it to be in the range of about 10^{-10} to 10 solar masses; even much larger cutoff values are possible if the WIMPs couple to force carriers lighter than about 100 MeV. We point out that a precise determination of the cutoff mass allows to infer new limits on the model parameters, in particular from gamma-ray observations of galaxy clusters, that are highly complementary to existing constraints from g-2 or beam dump experiments.
We propose a new theory of gravitation, in which the affine connection is the only dynamical variable describing the gravitational field. We construct the simplest dynamical Lagrangian density that is entirely composed from the connection, via its curvature and torsion, and is an algebraic function of its derivatives. It is given by the contraction of the Ricci tensor with a tensor which is inverse to the symmetric, contracted square of the torsion tensor, $k_{\mu\nu}=S^\rho_{\lambda\mu}S^\lambda_{\rho\nu}$. We vary the total action for the gravitational field and matter with respect to the affine connection, assuming that the matter fields couple to the connection only through $k_{\mu\nu}$. We derive the resulting field equations and show that they are identical with the Einstein equations of general relativity with a nonzero cosmological constant, if the tensor $k_{\mu\nu}$ is regarded as the metric tensor. The cosmological constant is simply a constant of proportionality between the two tensors, which together with $c$ and $G$ provides a natural system of units in gravitational physics. This theory therefore provides a physically valid construction of the metric as an algebraic function of the connection, and naturally explains the observed dark energy as an intrinsic property of spacetime.
We investigate the electromagnetic (EM) counterpart of gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) through the viscous dissipation of the GW energy in an accretion disk and stars surrounding the SMBHB. We account for the suppression of the heating rate if the forcing period is shorter than the turnover time of the largest turbulent eddies. We find that the viscous heating luminosity in 0.1 solar mass stars can be significantly higher than their intrinsic luminosity. The relative brightening is small for accretion disks.
We show that heavy supersymmetric particles around O(100) TeV to O(1) PeV naturally appear in new inflation in which the Higgs boson responsible for the breaking of U(1) B-L plays the role of inflaton. Most important, the supersymmetric breaking scale is bounded above by the inflationary dynamics, in order to suppress the Coleman-Weinberg potential which would otherwise spoil the slow-roll inflation. Our scenario has rich phenomenological and cosmological implications: the Higgs boson mass at around 125 GeV can be easily explained, non-thermal leptogenesis works automatically, the gravitino production from inflaton decay is suppressed, the dark matter is either the lightest neutralino or the QCD axion, and the upper bound on the inflation scale for the modulus stabilization can be marginally satisfied.
The scale invariance of the quantum fluctuations in de Sitter space leads to the appearance of de Sitter symmetry breaking infra-red logarithms in the graviton propagator. We investigate physical effects of soft gravitons on the local dynamics of matter fields well inside the cosmological horizon. We show that the IR logarithms do not spoil Lorentz invariance in scalar and Dirac field theory. The leading IR logarithms can be absorbed by a time dependent wave function renormalization factor in the both cases. In the interacting field theory with $\lambda \phi^4$ and Yukawa interaction, we find that the couplings become time dependent with definite scaling exponents. We argue that the relative scaling exponents of the couplings are gauge invariant and physical as we can use the evolution of a coupling as a physical time.
A Universe filled with a homogeneous scalar field exhibits `Cosmological hysteresis'. Cosmological hysteresis is caused by the asymmetry in the equation of state during expansion and contraction. This asymmetry results in the formation of a hysteresis loop: $\oint pdV$, whose value can be non-vanishing during each oscillatory cycle. For flat potentials, a negative value of the hysteresis loop leads to the increase in amplitude of consecutive cycles and to a universe with older and larger successive cycles. Such a universe appears to possess an arrow of time even though entropy production is absent and all of the equations respect time-reversal symmetry ! Cosmological hysteresis appears to be widespread and exists for a large class of scalar field potentials and mechanisms for making the universe bounce. For steep potentials, the value of the hysteresis loop can be positive as well as negative. The expansion factor in this case displays quasi-periodic behaviour in which successive cycles can be both larger as well as smaller than previous ones. This quasi-regular pattern resembles the phenomenon of BEATS displayed by acoustic systems. Remarkably, the expression relating the increase/decrease in oscillatory cycles to the quantum of hysteresis appears to be model independent. The cyclic scenario is extended to spatially anisotropic models and it is shown that the anisotropy density decreases during successive cycles if the hysteresis loop is negative.
We reconsider cosmological perturbation theory for multi-component scalars, enforcing covariance in field-space, and ensuring that phyical observations are independent of field re-definitions. We use the formalism to clarify some issues in the literature, and use pseudo-supersymmetry to derive exact expressions for terms of interest.
In light of upcoming observations modelling perturbations in dark en- ergy and modified gravity models has become an important topic of research. We develop an effective action to construct the components of the perturbed dark energy momentum tensor which appears in the perturbed generalized gravitational field equations, {\delta}G_{\mu\nu} = 8{\pi}G{\delta}T_{\mu\nu} + {\delta}U_{\mu\nu} for linearized perturbations. Our method does not require knowledge of the Lagrangian density of the dark sector to be provided, only its field content. The method is based on the fact that it is only necessary to specify the perturbed Lagrangian to quadratic order and couples this with the assumption of global statistical isotropy of spatial sections to show that the model can be specified completely in terms of a finite number of background dependent functions. We present our formalism in a coordinate independent fashion and provide explicit formulae for the perturbed conservation equation and the components of {\delta}U_{\mu\nu} for two explicit generic examples: (i) the dark sector does not contain extra fields, L = L(g_{\mu\nu}) and (ii) the dark sector contains a scalar field and its first derivative L = L(g_{\mu\nu}, {\phi}, \nabla_{\mu}{\phi}). We discuss how the formalism can be applied to modified gravity models containing derivatives of the metric, curvature tensors, higher derivatives of the scalar fields and vector fields.
The origin of spiral patterns in galaxies is still not fully understood. Similar features also develop readily in N-body simulations of isolated cool, collisionless disks, yet even here the mechanism has yet to be explained. In this series of papers, I present a detailed study of the origin of spiral activity in simulations in the hope that the mechanism that causes the patterns is also responsible for some of these features galaxies. In this first paper, I use a suite of highly idealized simulations of a linearly stable disk that employ increasing numbers of particles. While the amplitudes of initial non-axisymmetric features scale as the inverse square-root of the number of particles employed, the final amplitude of the patterns is independent of the particle number. I find that the amplitudes of non-axisymmetric disturbances grow in two distinct phases: slow growth occurs when the relative overdensity is below ~2%, but above this level the amplitude rises more rapidly. I show that all features, even of very low amplitude, scatter particles at the inner Lindblad resonance, changing the distribution of particles in the disk in such a way as to foster continued growth. Stronger scattering by larger amplitude waves provokes a vigorous instability that is a true linear mode of the modified disk.
We obtain traversable wormhole and time machine solutions of the field equations of an alternative of gravity with non-minimally curvature-matter coupling. Our solutions exhibit a non-trivial redshift function and allow for matter that satisfy the dominant energy condition.
X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and black hole binaries can be analysed by means of the power spectral density (PSD). The break observed in the power spectrum defines a characteristic variability timescale of the accreting system. The empirical variability scaling that relates characteristic timescale, black hole mass, and accretion rate ($T_B \propto M_{BH}^{2.1}/\dot{M}^{0.98}$) extends from supermassive black holes in AGN down to stellar-mass black holes in binary systems. We suggest that the PSD break timescale is associated with the cooling timescale of electrons in the Comptonisation process at the origin of the observed hard X-ray emission. We obtain that the Compton cooling timescale directly leads to the observational scaling and naturally reproduces the functional dependence on black hole mass and accretion rate ($t_C \propto M_{BH}^{2}/\dot{M}$). This result simply arises from general properties of the emission mechanism and is independent of the details of any specific accretion model.
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Model fitting is frequently used in weak lensing studies to determine the shape of galaxies and the point spread function. However, the number of parameters in the model, as well as the number of objects, are often so large as to limit the use of this technique for future large surveys. In this article, we propose a set of algorithms to speed up the fitting process. The process is divided into three distinctive steps: centroiding, ellipticity measurement, and fitting. We demonstrate that we can derive the position and ellipticity of an object analytically in the first two steps and thus leave only a small number of parameters to be derived through model fitting. We assess the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithms with simulated images.
Single-epoch virial black hole (BH) mass estimators utilizing broad emission lines have been routinely applied to high-redshift quasars to estimate their BH masses. Depending on the redshift, different line estimators (Halpha, Hbeta, MgII, CIV) are often used with optical/near-infrared spectroscopy. Here we use a homogeneous sample of 60 intermediate-redshift (z~1.5-2.2) SDSS quasars with optical and near-infrared spectra covering CIV through Halpha to investigate the consistency between different line estimators. We critically compare restframe UV line estimators (CIV, CIII], and MgII) with optical estimators (Hbeta and Halpha) in terms of correlations between line widths and between continuum/line luminosities, for the high-luminosity regime (L_5100>10^45.4 erg/s) probed by our sample. The continuum luminosities of L_1350 and L_3000, and the broad line luminosities are well correlated with L_5100. We found that the MgII FWHM correlates well with the FWHMs of the Balmer lines, and that the MgII line estimator can be calibrated to yield consistent virial mass estimates with those based on the Hbeta/Halpha estimators, thus extending earlier results on less luminous objects. The CIV FWHM is poorly correlated with the Balmer line FWHMs, and the scatter between the CIV and Hbeta FWHMs consists of an irreducible part (~0.12 dex), and a part that correlates with the blueshift of the CIV centroid relative to that of Hbeta. The CIII] FWHM is found to correlate with the CIV FWHM, and hence is also poorly correlated with the Hbeta FWHM. While the CIV and CIII] lines can be calibrated to yield consistent virial mass estimates as Hbeta on average, the scatter is substantially larger than MgII, and the usage of CIV/CIII] FWHM in the mass estimators does not improve the agreement with the Hbeta estimator. (Abridged)
We present a new model for the infrared emission of the high redshift hyperluminous infrared galaxy IRAS F10214+4724 which takes into account recent photometric data from Spitzer and Herschel that sample the peak of its spectral energy distribution. We first demonstrate that the combination of the AGN tapered disc and starburst models of Efstathiou and coworkers, while able to give an excellent fit to the average spectrum of type 2 AGN measured by Spitzer, fails to match the spectral energy distribution of IRAS F10214+4724. This is mainly due to the fact that the nuSnu distribution of the galaxy falls very steeply with increasing frequency (a characteristic of heavy absorption by dust) but shows a silicate feature in emission. We propose a model that assumes two components of emission: clouds that are associated with the narrow-line region and a highly obscured starburst. The emission from the clouds must suffer significantly stronger gravitational lensing compared to the emission from the torus to explain the observed spectral energy distribution.
We consider Cosmic Microwave Background constraints on inflation models for which the primordial power spectrum is a mixture of perturbations generated by inflaton fluctuations and fluctuations in a curvaton field. If future experiments do not detect isocurvature modes or large non-Gaussianity, it will not be possible to directly distinguish inflaton and curvaton contributions. We investigate whether current and future data can instead constrain the relative contributions of the two sources. We model the spectrum with a bimodal form consisting of a sum of two independent power laws, with different spectral indices. We quantify the ability of current and upcoming data sets to constrain the difference $\Delta n$ in spectral indices, and relative fraction $f$ of the subdominant power spectrum at a pivot scale of $k = 0.017\ {h^{-1} {\rm Mpc.}}$ Data sets selected are the WMAP 7-year data, alone and in conjunction with South Pole Telescope data, and a synthetic data set comparable to the upcoming Planck data set. We find that current data show no increase in quality of fit for a mixed inflaton/curvaton power spectrum, and a pure power-law spectrum is favored. The ability to constrain independent parameters such as the tensor/scalar ratio is not substantially affected by the additional parameters in the fit. Planck will be capable of placing significant constraints on the parameter space for a bimodal spectrum.
We analyse the evolution of turbulence and gravitational instability of a galactic disc in a quasi-steady state governed by cosmological inflow. We focus on the possibility that the coupling between the in-streaming gas and the disc is maximal, e.g., via dense clumps, and ask whether the streams could be the driver of turbulence in an unstable disc with a Toomre parameter Q~1. Our fiducial model assumes an efficiency of ~0.5 per dynamical time for the decay of turbulence energy, and ~0.02 for each of the processes that deplete the disc gas, i.e., star formation, outflow, and inflow within the disc into a central bulge. In this case, the in-streaming drives a ratio of turbulent to rotation velocity sigma/V~0.2-0.3, which at z~2 induces an instability with Q~1, both as observed. However, in conflict with observations, this model predicts that sigma/V remains constant with time, independent of the cosmological accretion rate, because mass and turbulence have the same external source. Such strongly coupled cosmological inflow thus tends to stabilize the disc at low z, with Q ~ a few. The instability could be maintained for longer, with a properly declining sigma/V, if it is self-regulated to oscillations about Q~1 by a duty cycle for disc depletion. However, the `off' phases of this duty cycle become long at low z, which may be hard to reconcile with observations. Alternatively, the coupling between the in-streaming gas and the disc may weaken in time, reflecting an evolving nature of the accretion. If, instead, that coupling is weak at all times, the likely energy source for self-regulated stirring up of the turbulence is the inflow within the disc down the potential gradient (studied in a companion paper).
We present the results of wide-field deep JHK imaging of the SSA22 field using MOIRCS instrument equipped with Subaru telescope. The observed field is 112 arcmin^2 in area, which covers the z=3.1 protocluster characterized by the overdensities of Ly Alpha emitters (LAEs) and Ly Alpha Blobs (LABs). The 5 sigma limiting magnitude is K_{AB} = 24.3. We extract the potential protocluster members from the K-selected sample by using the multi-band photometric-redshift selection as well as the simple color cut for distant red galaxies (DRGs; J-K_{AB}>1.4). The surface number density of DRGs in our observed fields shows clear excess compared with those in the blank fields, and the location of the densest area whose projected overdensity is twice the average coincides with the large-scale density peak of LAEs. We also found that K-band counterparts with z_{phot} = 3.1 are detected for 75% (15/20) of the LABs within their Ly Alpha halo, and the 40 % (8/20) of LABs have multiple components, which gives a direct evidence of the hierarchical multiple merging in galaxy formation. The stellar mass ofLABs correlates with their luminosity, isophotal area, and the Ly Alpha velocity widths, implying that the physical scale and the dynamical motion of Ly Alpha emission are closely related to their previous star-formation activities. Highly dust-obscured galaxies such as hyper extremely red objects (HEROs; J-K_{AB}>2.1) and plausible K-band counterparts of submillimeter sources are also populated in the high density region.
We study the formation of low-mass and extremely metal-poor stars in the early universe. Our study is motivated by the recent discovery of a low-mass (M < 0.8 Msun) and extremely metal-poor (Z <= 4.5 x 10^{-5} Zsun) star in the Galactic halo by Caffau et al. We propose a model that early supernova (SN) explosions trigger the formation of low-mass stars via shell fragmentation. We first perform one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the evolution of an early SN remnant. We show that the shocked shell undergoes efficient radiative cooling and then becomes gravitationally unstable to fragment and collapse in about ten million years. We then follow the thermal evolution of the collapsing fragments using a one-zone code. Our one-zone calculation treats chemistry and radiative cooling self-consistently in low-metallicity gas. The collapsing gas cloud evolves roughly isothermally, until it cools rapidly by dust continuum emission at the density 10^{13}-10^{14} /cc. The cloud core then becomes thermally and gravitationally unstable and fragments. We argue that early SNe can trigger the formation of low-mass stars in the extremely metal-poor environment as Caffau et al. discovered recently.
We study the ellipticity probability distribution function (PDF) of voids in redshift space with galaxies as tracers of the shapes of voids. We find that the redshift space distortion on the shape of voids statistically increases the ellipticities of voids, and leaves a prominent feature on the ellipticity PDF as a substantial reduction in the probability of having voids with small ellipticity. The location of this characteristic cutoff of the ellipticity PDF is an explicit function of the logarithmic growth rate, and it can be used as a probe of cosmology once the radial density profile of voids is better understood. However, the biggest limiting factor for the use of ellipticity PDF as a probe of cosmology lies in the Poisson noise from a small number of galaxies to define the shape of a given void. This Poisson noise creates a significant contamination of the resulting ellipticity PDF so that the shape of the original PDF is almost washed-out. Nevertheless, there is a way to overcome the Poisson noise via the Alcock Paczynski test on the shape of stacked voids. In redshift space, since the void is elongated toward the line of sight, the stacked void has non-zero ellipticity, which can be a tell-tale of the logarithmic growth rate. Although some useful information of void ellipticity will be lost by stacking, in this way, we can see the effect of redshift space distortion as a source of anisotropy in the stacked void ellipticity. We think that the stacking analysis of the voids in redshift space is potentially a powerful tool to probe the cosmology.
We consider test planet and photon orbits of the third kind inside a black hole, which are stable, periodic and neither come out of the black hole nor terminate at the singularity. Interiors of supermassive black holes may be inhabited by advanced civilizations living on planets with the third-kind orbits. In principle, one can get information from the interiors of black holes by observing their white hole counterparts.
(Abridged) We have obtained spectra of 135 HII regions located in the inner and extended disks of the spiral galaxies NGC 1512 and NGC 3621, spanning the range of galactocentric distances 0.2-2 x R25 (from 2-3 kpc to 18-25 kpc). We find that the excitation properties of nebulae in the outer (R>R25) disks are similar to those of the inner disks, but on average younger HII regions tend to be selected in the bright inner disks. Reddening by dust is not negligible in the outer disks, and subject to significant large-scale spatial variations. For both galaxies the radial abundance gradient flattens to a constant value outside of the isophotal radius. The outer disk O/H abundance ratio is highly homogeneous, with a scatter of only ~0.06 dex. Based on the excitation and chemical (N/O ratio) analysis we find no compelling evidence for variations in the upper initial mass function of the ionizing clusters of extended disks. The O/H abundance in the outer disks of the target galaxies corresponds to 35% of the solar value (or higher, depending on the metallicity diagnostic). This conflicts with the notion that metallicities in extended disks of spiral galaxies are necessarily low. The observed metal enrichment cannot be produced with the current level of star formation. We discuss the possibility that metal transport mechanisms from the inner disks lead to metal pollution of the outer disks. Gas accretion from the intergalactic medium, enriched by outflows, offers an alternative solution.
We introduce the curvature $\Omega_k$ as a new free parameter in the Bayesian analysis using SNIa, BAO and CMB data, in a model with variable equation of state parameter $w(z)$. We compare the results using both the Constitution and Union 2 data sets, and also study possible low redshift transitions in the deceleration parameter $q(z)$. We found that, incorporating $\Omega_k$ in the analysis, it is possible to make all the three observational probes consistent using both SNIa data sets. Our results support dark energy evolution at small redshift, and show that the tension between small and large redshift probes is ameliorated. However, although the tension decreases, it is still not possible to find a consensus set of parameters that fit all the three data set using the Chevalier-Polarski-Linder CPL parametrization.
We investigate the impact of different observational effects affecting a precise and accurate measurement of the growth rate of fluctuations from the anisotropy of clustering in galaxy redshift surveys. We focus on redshift measurement errors, on the reconstruction of the underlying real-space clustering and on the apparent degeneracy existing with the geometrical distortions induced by the cosmology-dependent conversion of redshifts into distances. We use a suite of mock catalogues extracted from large N-body simulations, focusing on the analysis of intermediate, mildly non-linear scales and apply the standard linear dispersion model to fit the anisotropy of the observed correlation function. We verify that redshift errors up to ~0.2% have a negligible impact on the precision with which the specific growth rate beta can be measured. Larger redshift errors introduce a positive systematic error, which can be alleviated by adopting a Gaussian distribution function of pairwise velocities. This is, in any case, smaller than the systematic error of up to 10% due to the limitations of the linear dispersion model, which is studied in a separate paper. We then show that 50% of the statistical error budget on beta depends on the deprojection procedure through which the real-space correlation function is obtained. Finally, we demonstrate that the degeneracy with geometric distortions can in fact be circumvented. This is obtained through a modified version of the Alcock-Paczynski test in redshift-space, which successfully recovers the correct cosmology by searching for the solution that optimizes the description of dynamical redshift distortions. For a flat cosmology, we obtain largely independent, robust constraints on beta and OmegaM. In a volume of 2.4(Gpc/h)^3, the correct OmegaM is obtained with ~12% error and negligible bias, once the real-space correlation function is properly reconstructed.
In this thesis we presented a detailed spectroscopic study in a sample of Giant HII Regions in galaxies visible from Southern Hemisphere.
The DEAP-3600 detector, currently under construction at SNOLAB, has been designed to achieve extremely low background rates from all sources, including 39Ar beta decays, neutron scatters (from internal and external sources), surface alpha contamination and radon. An overview of the detector and its sensitivity are presented.
Indirect dark matter searches are briefly reviewed. Current experimental data from satellites and Cherenkov telescopes searching for antimatter and gamma rays in galactic and extragalactic regions, are compared with predictions from theoretical models of dark matter. The analysis is focused on WIMPs such as the neutralino and the sneutrino, and a superWIMP such as the gravitino, in several interesting supersymmetric models. In particular, the discussion is carried out in the context of R-parity conserving models such as the MSSM, the NMSSM, and an extended NMSSM, and the R-parity violating model $\mu\nu$SSM.
We investigate $ Y(R) F^2 $-type coupling of electromagnetic fields to gravity. After we derive field equations by a first order variational principle from the Lagrangian formulation of the non-minimally coupled theory, we look for static, spherically symmetric, magnetic monopole solutions. We point out that the solutions can provide possible geometries which may explain the flatness of the observed rotation curves of galaxies.
Translation of a popular article on MOND vs. dark matter that appeared, in Hebrew, in the Israeli magazine "Odyssea", dedicated to "thoughts and ideas in the forefront of science and philosophy".
Mirror universe is a fundamental way to restore parity symmetry in weak interactions. It naturally provides the lightest mirror nucleon as a unique GeV-scale asymmetric dark matter particle candidate. We conjecture that the mirror parity is respected by the fundamental interaction Lagrangian, and its possible soft breaking arises only from non-interaction terms in the gauge-singlet sector. We realize the spontaneous mirror parity violation by minimizing the vacuum Higgs potential, and derive the corresponding Higgs spectrum. We demonstrate that the common origin of CP violation in the visible and mirror neutrino seesaws can generate the right amount of matter and mirror dark matter via leptogenesis. We analyze the direct detections of GeV-scale mirror dark matter by TEXONO and CDEX experiments. We further study the predicted distinctive Higgs signatures at the LHC.
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We show that a conformal-invariance violating coupling of the inflaton to electromagnetism produces a cross correlation between curvature fluctuations and a spectrum of primordial magnetic fields. According to this model, in the case of power-law inflation, a primordial magnetic field is generated with a nearly flat power spectrum and rms amplitude ranging from nG to pG. We study the cross correlation, a three-point function of the curvature perturbation and two powers of the magnetic field, in real and momentum space. The cross-correlation coefficient, a dimensionless ratio of the three-point function with the curvature perturbation and magnetic field power spectra, can be several orders of magnitude larger than expected as based on the amplitude of scalar metric perturbations from inflation. In momentum space, the cross-correlation peaks for flattened triangle configurations, and is three orders of magnitude larger than the squeezed triangle configuration. These results suggest likely methods for distinguishing the observational signatures of the model.
Galactic winds are observed in many spiral galaxies with sizes from dwarfs up to the Milky Way, and they sometimes carry a mass in excess of that of newly formed stars by up to a factor of ten. Multiple driving processes of such winds have been proposed, including thermal pressure due to supernova-heating, UV radiation pressure on dust grains, or cosmic ray (CR) pressure. We here study wind formation due to CR physics using a numerical model that accounts for CR acceleration by supernovae, CR thermalization, and advective CR transport. In addition, we introduce a novel implementation of CR streaming relative to the rest frame of the gas. We find that CR streaming drives powerful and sustained winds in galaxies with virial masses M_200 < 10^{11} Msun. In dwarf galaxies (M_200 ~ 10^9 Msun) the winds reach a mass loading factor of ~5, expel ~60 per cent of the initial baryonic mass contained inside the halo's virial radius and suppress the star formation rate by a factor of ~5. In dwarfs, the winds are spherically symmetric while in larger galaxies the outflows transition to bi-conical morphologies that are aligned with the disc's angular momentum axis. We show that damping of Alfven waves excited by streaming CRs provides a means of heating the outflows to temperatures that scale with the square of the escape speed. In larger haloes (M_200 > 10^{11} Msun), CR streaming is able to drive fountain flows that excite turbulence. For halo masses M_200 > 10^{10} Msun, we predict an observable level of H-alpha and X-ray emission from the heated halo gas. We conclude that CR-driven winds should be crucial in suppressing and regulating the first epoch of galaxy formation, expelling a large fraction of baryons, and - by extension - aid in shaping the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. They should then also be responsible for much of the metal enrichment of the intergalactic medium.
Observations of star-forming galaxies at high-z have suggested discrepancies in the inferred star formation rates (SFRs) either between data and models, or between complementary measures of the SFR. These putative discrepancies could all be alleviated if the stellar IMF is systematically weighted toward more high-mass star formation in rapidly star-forming galaxies. Here, we explore how the IMF might vary under the central assumption that the turnover mass in the IMF, Mc, scales with the Jeans mass in giant molecular clouds (GMCs), M_J. We employ hydrodynamic and radiative transfer simulations of galaxies to predict how the typical GMC Jeans mass, and hence the IMF, varies with galaxy property. We then study the impact of such an IMF on the star formation law, the SFR-M* relation, submillimetre galaxies (SMGs), and the cosmic SFR density. Our main results are: The H2 mass-weighted Jeans mass in a galaxy scales with the SFR when the SFR is greater a few M_sun/yr. SPS modeling shows that this results in a nonlinear relation between SFR and Lbol, such that SFR Lbol^0.88. Using this model relation, the inferred SFR of local ULIRGs decreases by ~2, and that of high-z SMGs decreases by ~3-5. At z 2, this results in a lowered normalisation of the SFR-M* relation in better agreement with models, a reduced discrepancy between the observed cosmic SFR density and stellar mass density evolution, and SMG SFRs that are easier to accommodate in current hierarchical structure formation models. It further results in a Schmidt relation with slope of ~1.6 when utilising a physically motivated form for the CO-H2 conversion factor. While each of the discrepancies considered here could be alleviated without appealing to a varying IMF, the modest variation implied by assuming Mc M_J is a plausible solution that simultaneously addresses numerous thorny issues regarding the SFRs of high-z galaxies.
Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra indicate high-velocity outflows that may be present in all quasars and could be an important contributor to feedback to their host galaxies. Variability studies of BALs help illuminate the structure, evolution, and basic physical properties of the outflows. Here we present further results from an ongoing BAL monitoring campaign of a sample of 24 luminous quasars at redshifts 1.2 < z < 2.9. We directly compare the variabilities in the CIV 1549 and SiIV 1400 absorption to try to ascertain the cause(s) of the variability. We find that SiIV BALs are more likely to vary than CIV BALs. When looking at flow speeds >-20 000 km/s, 47 per cent of quasars exhibited SiIV variability while 31 per cent exhibited CIV variability. Furthermore, ~50 per cent of the variable SiIV regions did not have corresponding CIV variability at the same velocities. When both CIV and SiIV varied, those changes always occurred in the same sense (either getting weaker or stronger). We also include our full data set so far in this paper, which includes up to 10 epochs of data per quasar. The multi-epoch data show that the BAL changes were not generally monotonic across the full ~5 to ~8 yr time span of our observations, suggesting that the characteristic time-scale for significant line variations, and (perhaps) for structural changes in the outflows, is less than a few years. Coordinated variabilities between absorption regions at different velocities in individual quasars seems to favor changing ionization of the outflowing gas as the cause of the observed BAL variability. However, variability in limited portions of broad troughs fits naturally in a scenario where movements of individual clouds, or substructures in the flow, across our lines-of-sight cause the absorption to vary. The actual situation may be a complex mixture of changing ionization and cloud movements.
We study the linear perturbation of the recently proposed model of inflation where a uniform gauge-kinetic coupling of the inflaton to multiple vector fields breaks the cosmic no-hair conjecture while maintaining the isotropy. We derive the general quadratic action for the perturbation and calculate the power spectra of scalar and tensor modes at the end of inflation by in-in formalism. It is shown that the model predicts slightly red spectra and the tensor-to-scalar ratio tends to be suppressed. The comparison with the data from WMAP 7-year does not impose strong constraints on the parameters and both weak- and strong- gauge-field regimes are consistent with the current observations.
We present the final statistical sample of lensed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Lens Search (SQLS). The well-defined statistical lens sample consists of 26 lensed quasars brighter than i=19.1 and in the redshift range of 0.6<z<2.2 selected from 50,826 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7), where we restrict the image separation range to 1"<\theta<20" and the i-band magnitude differences in two image lenses to be smaller than 1.25 mag. The SDSS DR7 quasar catalog also contains 36 additional lenses identified with various techniques. In addition to these lensed quasars, we have identified 81 pairs of quasars from follow-up spectroscopy, 26 of which are physically associated binary quasars. The statistical lens sample covers a wide range of image separations, redshifts, and magnitudes, and therefore is suitable for systematic studies of cosmological parameters and surveys of the structure and evolution of galaxies and quasars.
We present a statistical analysis of the final lens sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search (SQLS). The number distribution of a complete subsample of 19 lensed quasars selected from 50,836 source quasars is compared with theoretical expectations, with particular attention to the selection function. Assuming that the velocity function of galaxies does not evolve with redshift, the SQLS sample constrains the cosmological constant to \Omega_\Lambda=0.79^{+0.06}_{-0.07}(stat.)^{+0.06}_{-0.06}(syst.) for a flat universe. The dark energy equation of state is found to be consistent with w=-1 when the SQLS is combined with constraints from baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements or results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We also obtain simultaneous constraints on cosmological parameters and redshift evolution of the galaxy velocity function, finding no evidence for redshift evolution at z<1 in any combinations of constraints. For instance, number density evolution quantified as \nu_n=d\ln\phi_*/d\ln(1+z) and the velocity dispersion evolution \nu_\sigma=d\ln\sigma_*/d\ln(1+z) are constrained to \nu_n=1.06^{+1.36}_{-1.39}(stat.)^{+0.33}_{-0.64}(syst.) and \nu_\sigma=-0.05^{+0.19}_{-0.16}(stat.)^{+0.03}_{-0.03}(syst.) respectively when the SQLS result is combined with BAO and WMAP for flat models with a cosmological constant. We find that a significant amount of dark energy is preferred even after fully marginalizing over the galaxy evolution parameters. Thus the statistics of lensed quasars robustly confirm the accelerated cosmic expansion.
We investigate the gravitational instability of galactic discs, treating stars and cold interstellar gas as two distinct components, and taking into account the phenomenology of turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM), i.e. the Larson-type scaling relations observed in the molecular and atomic gas. Besides deriving general properties of such systems, we analyse a large sample of galaxies from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS), and show in detail how interstellar turbulence affects the discs of star-forming spirals. We find that turbulence has a significant effect on both the inner and the outer regions of the disc. In particular, it drives the inner gas disc to a regime of transition between two instability phases and makes the outer disc more prone to star-dominated instabilities.
We show that a stacking approach to galaxy clusters can improve current limits on decaying dark matter by a factor $\gtrsim 5-100$, with respect to a single source analysis, for all-sky instruments such as Fermi-LAT. Based on the largest sample of X-ray-selected galaxy clusters available to date (the MCXC meta-catalogue), we provide all the astrophysical information, in particular the astrophysical term for decaying dark matter, required to perform an analysis with current instruments.
We study mass functions of globular clusters derived from HST/ACS images of the early-type merger remnant galaxy NGC 1316 which hosts a significant population of metal-rich globular clusters of intermediate age (~3 Gyr). For the old, metal-poor (`blue') clusters, the peak mass of the mass function M_p increases with internal half-mass density rho_h as (M_p proportional to rho_h^0.44) whereas it stays approximately constant with galactocentric distance R_gal. The mass functions of these clusters are consistent with a simple scenario in which they formed with a Schechter initial mass function and evolved subsequently by internal two-body relaxation. For the intermediate-age population of metal-rich ("red") clusters, the faint end of the previously reported power-law luminosity function of the clusters with R_gal > 9 kpc is due to many of those clusters having radii larger than the theoretical maximum value imposed by the tidal field of NGC 1316 at their R_gal. This renders disruption by two-body relaxation ineffective. Only a few such diffuse clusters are found in the inner regions of NGC 1316. Completeness tests indicate that this is a physical effect. Using comparisons with star clusters in other galaxies and cluster disruption calculations using published models, we hypothesize that most red clusters in the low-rho_h tail of the initial distribution have already been destroyed in the inner regions of NGC 1316 by tidal shocking, and that several remaining low-rho_h clusters will evolve dynamically to become similar to "faint fuzzies" that exist in several lenticular galaxies. Finally, we discuss the nature of diffuse red clusters in early-type galaxies.
The preferred shape for the primordial spectrum of curvature perturbations is determined by performing a Bayesian model selection analysis of cosmological observations. We first reconstruct the spectrum modelled as piecewise linear in log k between nodes in k-space whose amplitudes and positions are allowed to vary. The number of nodes together with their positions are chosen by the Bayesian evidence, so that we can both determine the complexity supported by the data and locate any features present in the spectrum. In addition to the node-based reconstruction, we consider a set of parameterised models for the primordial spectrum: the standard power-law parameterisation, the spectrum produced from the Lasenby & Doran (LD) model and a simple variant parameterisation. By comparing the Bayesian evidence for different classes of spectra, we find the power-law parameterisation is significantly disfavoured by current cosmological observations, which show a preference for the LD model.
We report limits on annual modulation of the low-energy event rate from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. Such a modulation could be produced by interactions from Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with masses ~10 GeV/c^2. We find no evidence for annual modulation in the event rate of veto-anticoincident single-detector interactions consistent with nuclear recoils, and constrain the magnitude of any modulation to <0.06 event [keVnr kg day]^-1 in the 5-11.9 keVnr energy range at the 99% confidence level. These results disfavor an explanation for the reported modulation in the 1.2-3.2 keVee energy range in CoGeNT in terms of nuclear recoils resulting from elastic scattering of WIMPs at >98% confidence. For events consistent with electron recoils, no significant modulation is observed for either single- or multiple-detector interactions in the 3.0-7.4 keVee range.
(Abridged) We present the results from the X-ray spectral analysis of high-z AGN in the CDFS, making use of the new 4Ms data set and new X-ray spectral models from Brightman & Nandra, which account for Compton scattering and the geometry of the circumnuclear material. Our goals are to ascertain to what extent the torus paradigm of local AGN is applicable at earlier epochs and to evaluate the evolution of the Compton thick fraction (f_CT) with z, important for XRB synthesis models and understanding the accretion history of the universe. In addition to the torus models, we measure the fraction of scattered nuclear light, f_scatt known to be dependant on covering factor of the circumnuclear materal, and use this to aid in our understanding of its geometry. We find that the covering factor of the circumnuclear material is correlated with NH, and as such the most heavily obscured AGN are in fact also the most geometrically buried. We come to these conclusions from the result that f_scatt decreases as NH increases and from the prevalence of the torus model with the smallest opening angle as best fit model in the fits to the most obscured AGN. We find that a significant fraction of sources (~ 20%) in the CDFS are likely to be buried in material with close to 4 pi coverage having been best fit by the torus model with a 0\degree opening angle. Furthermore, we find 41 CTAGN in the CDFS using the new torus models, 29 of which we report here for the first time. We bin our sample by z in order to investigate the evolution of f_CT. Once we have accounted for biases and incompleteness we find a significant increase in the intrinsic f_CT, normalised to LX= 10^43.5 erg/s, from \approx 20% in the local universe to \approx 40% at z=1-4.
We present a comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light-curves of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), collecting data from more than 650 GRBs discovered by Swift and other facilities. The unprecedented sample size allows us to constrain the rest-frame X-ray properties of GRBs from a statistical perspective, with particular reference to intrinsic time scales and the energetics of the different light-curve phases, with the final aim of distinguishing between competing models. Variability episodes superimposed on smooth light-curve decays are also studied and their properties constrained. Two fundamental questions drive this effort: i) Does the X-ray emission retain any kind of "memory" of the prompt gamma-ray phase? ii) Where is the dividing line between long and short GRB X-ray properties? We show that short GRBs decay faster, are less luminous and less energetic than long GRBs in the X-rays, but are interestingly characterized by very similar intrinsic absorption. We furthermore reveal the existence of a number of statistically significant relations that link the X-ray to prompt gamma-ray parameters in long GRBs; short GRBs are outliers of the majority of these 2-parameter relations. However and more importantly, we report on the existence of a universal 3-parameter scaling that links the X-ray and the gamma-ray energy to the prompt spectral peak energy of BOTH long and short GRBs: E_X,iso \propto (E_gamma,iso)^1.06/(E_pk^0.74)
The comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light-curves, collecting data from six years of operation, revealed the existence of a universal scaling among the isotropic energy emitted in the rest frame 10-10^4 keV energy band during the prompt emission (E_{gamma,iso}), the peak of the prompt emission energy spectrum (E_{pk}), and the X-ray energy emitted in the 0.3-10 keV observed energy band (E_{X,iso}). In this paper we show that this three-parameter correlation is robust and does not depend on our definition of E_{X,iso}. It is shared by long, short, and low-energetic GRBs, differently from the well-known E_{gamma,iso}-E_{pk} correlation. We speculate that the ultimate physical property that regulates the GRB properties is the outflow Lorentz factor.
Dark matter kinetic decoupling involves elastic scattering of dark matter off of leptons and quarks in the early universe, the same process relevant for direct detection and for the capture rate of dark matter in celestial bodies; the resulting size of the smallest dark matter collapsed structures should thus correlate with quantities connected with direct detection rates and with the flux of high-energy neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun or in the Earth. In this paper we address this general question in the context of two widely studied and paradigmatic weakly-interacting particle dark matter models: the lightest neutralino of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, and the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle of Universal Extra Dimensions (UED). We argue and show that while the scalar neutralino-nucleon cross section correlates poorly with the kinetic decoupling temperature, the spin-dependent cross section exhibits a strong correlation in a wide range of models. In UED models the correlation is present for both cross sections, and is extraordinarily tight for the spin-dependent case. A strong correlation is also found, for both models, for the flux of neutrinos from the Sun, especially for fluxes large enough to be at potentially detectable levels. We provide analytic guidance and formulae that illustrate our findings.
Recently some work has been done on Lee-Wick standard model where the authors tried to tackle the hierarchy problem by using higher derivative field theory. All those theories require unusual Lee-Wick partners to the Standard model particles where these unusual fields appear with negative signs in the Lagrangian. The thermodynamics of such unusual Lee-Wick particles has also been studied. In the present article the thermodynamic results of the Lee-Wick partner infested universe have been applied in a model where there is one Lee-Wick partner to each of the standard model particle. In this model one can analytically calculate the time-temperature relation in the very early radiation dominated universe which shows interesting new physics. The article also tries to point out how a Lee-Wick particle dominated early cosmology transforms into the standard cosmological model. Based on the results of the previous analysis a brief discussion on the more realistic model, which can accommodate two Lee-Wick parters for each standard fermionic field, is presented. It has been shown that such an universe is mostly very difficult to attain but there are certain conditions where one can indeed think of such an universe which can evolve into the standard cosmological universe in a short time duration.
From time to time, and quite more frequently in recent years, claims appear
favoring a variable Initial Mass Function (IMF), one way or another, either in
time or space. In this chapter we add our two pennies of wisdom, illustrating
how the IMF affects various properties of galaxies and galaxy clusters. We
start by showing that even relatively small variations of the IMF slope have
large effects on the demography of stellar populations, moving the bulk of the
stellar mass from one end to the other of the distribution. We then point out
how the slope of the IMF in different mass ranges controls specific major
properties of galaxies and clusters. The slope of the IMF below ~1 solar mass
controls the M/L ratio of local ellipticals, whereas the slope between ~1 and
~1.4 solar masses controls the evolution with redshift of such ratio, hence of
the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies. Similarly, the slope between ~1
and ~40 solar masses drives the ratio of the global metal mass in clusters of
galaxies to their total luminosity. While we believe that it is perfectly
legitimate to entertain the notion that the IMF may not be universal, our
message is that when proposing IMF variations to ease a specific problem then
one should not neglect to explore the full consequences of the invoked
variations.
This paper is integrally reproduced from Chapter 8 of the book by L. Greggio
and A. Renzini: Stellar Populations. A User Guide from Low to High Redshift
(2011, Wiley-VHC Verlag-GmbH & Co., ISBN 9783527409181), whose index is also
appended.
A commonly encountered obstacle in indirect searches for galactic dark matter is how to disentangle possible signals from astrophysical backgrounds. Given that such signals are most likely subdominant, the search for pronounced spectral features plays a key role for indirect detection experiments; monochromatic gamma-ray lines or similar features related to internal bremsstrahlung, in particular, provide smoking gun signatures. We perform a dedicated search for the latter in the data taken by the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope during its first 43 months. To this end, we use a new adaptive procedure to select optimal target regions that takes into account both standard and contracted dark matter profiles. The behaviour of our statistical method is tested by a bootstrap analysis of the full sky data and found to reproduce the theoretical expectations very well. The limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section that we derive are stronger than what can be obtained from the observation of dwarf galaxies and, at least for the model considered here, collider searches. While these limits are still not quite strong enough to probe annihilation rates expected for thermally produced dark matter, future prospects to do so are very good. In fact, we already find a weak indication, with a significance of 3.1 sigma (4.3 sigma) when (not) taking into account the look-elsewhere effect, for an internal bremsstrahlung-like signal that would correspond to a dark matter mass of ~150 GeV; the same signal is also well fitted by a gamma-ray line at around 130 GeV. Although this would be a fascinating possibility, we caution that a much more dedicated analysis and additional data will be necessary to rule out or confirm this option.
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Recent studies have identified a population of compact quiescent galaxies at z\sim2. These galaxies are very rare today and establishing the existence of a nearby analog could allow us to study its structure in greater detail than is possible at high redshift. Here we present such a local analog, NGC 5845, which has a dynamical mass of M_dyn = 4.3\pm0.6\times10^10 M_sun and an effective radius of only r_e = 0.45\pm0.05kpc. We study the structure and kinematics with HST/WFPC2 data and previously published spatially resolved kinematics. We find that NGC 5845 is similar to compact quiescent galaxies at z\sim2 in terms of size versus dynamical mass (r_e-M_dyn), effective velocity dispersion versus size (sigma_e-r_e), and effective velocity dispersion versus dynamical mass (sigma_e-M_dyn). The galaxy has a prominent rotating disk evident in both the photometry and the kinematics: it extends to well beyond \geq1/3 effective radius and contribute to \geq1/4 of the total light of the galaxy. Our results lend support to the idea that a fraction of z\sim2 compact galaxies have prominent disks and positive mass-to-light ratio gradients, although we caution that NGC 5845 may have had a different formation history than the more massive compact quiescent galaxies at z\sim2.
In recent work (arXiv:1101.0002) we have suggested that the high-redshift bright submillimetre-selected galaxy (SMG) population is heterogeneous, with major mergers contributing both at early stages, where quiescently star-forming discs are blended into one submm source (`galaxy-pair SMGs'), and late stages, where mutual tidal torques drive gas inflows and cause strong starbursts. Here we combine hydrodynamic simulations of major mergers with 3-D dust radiative transfer calculations to determine observational diagnostics that can distinguish between quiescently star-forming SMGs and starburst SMGs via integrated data alone. We fit the far-IR SEDs of the simulated galaxies with the optically thin single-temperature modified blackbody, the full form of the single-temperature modified blackbody, and a power-law temperature-distribution model. The effective dust temperature, T_dust, and power-law index of the dust emissivity in the far-IR, \beta, derived can significantly depend on the fitting form used, and the intrinsic \beta\ of the dust is not recovered. However, for all forms used here, there is a T_dust above which almost all simulated galaxies are starbursts, so a T_dust cut is very effective at selecting starbursts. Simulated merger-induced starbursts also have higher L_IR/M_gas and L_IR/L_FUV than quiescently star-forming galaxies and lie above the star formation rate-stellar mass relation. These diagnostics can be used to test our claim that the SMG population is heterogeneous and to observationally determine what star formation mode dominates a given galaxy population. We comment on applicability of these diagnostics to ULIRGs that would not be selected as SMGs. These `hot-dust ULIRGs' are typically starburst galaxies lower in mass than SMGs, but they can also simply be SMGs observed from a different viewing angle.
High resolution X-ray imaging offers a unique opportunity to probe the nature of dust in the z ~< 2 universe. Dust grains 0.1- 1 um in size will scatter soft X-rays, producing a diffuse "halo" image around an X-ray point source, with a brightness ~ few % confined to an arcminute-sized region. We derive the formulae for scattering in a cosmological context and calculate the surface brightness of the scattering halo due to (i) an IGM uniformly enriched (Omega_ d ~ 10^-5) by a power-law distribution of grain sizes, and (ii) a DLA-type (N_H ~ 10^21 cm^-2) dust screen at cosmological distances. The morphology of the surface brightness profile can distinguish between the two scenarios above, place size constraints on dusty clumps, and constrain the homogeneity of the IGM. Thus X-ray scattering can gauge the relative contribution of the first stars, dwarf galaxies, and galactic outflows to the cosmic metallicity budget and cosmic history of dust. We show that, because the amount of intergalactic scattering is overestimated for photon energies < 1 keV, the non-detection of an X-ray scattering halo by Petric et al. (2006) is consistent with `grey' intergalactic dust grains (Omega_d ~ 10^-5$) when the data is restricted to the 1-8 keV band. We also calculate the systematic offset in magnitude, delta m ~ 0.01, for such a population of graphite grains, which would affect the type of supernova survey ideal for measuring dark energy parameters within ~ 1% precision.
We report the discovery of a protocluster at z~6 containing at least eight cluster member galaxies with spectroscopic confirmations in the wide-field image of the Subaru Deep Field (SDF). The overdensity of the protocluster is significant at the 6 sigma level, based on the surface number density of i'-dropout galaxies. The overdense region covers ~36 sq. arcmin, and includes 30 i'-dropout galaxies. Follow-up spectroscopy revealed that 15 of these are real z~6 galaxies (5.7 < z < 6.3). Eight of the 15 are clustering in a narrow redshift range centered at z=6.01, corresponding to a seven-fold increase in number density over the average in redshift space. We found no significant difference in the observed properties, such as Ly-alpha luminosities and UV continuum magnitudes, between the eight protocluster members and the seven non-members. The velocity dispersion of the eight protocluster members is 647 km/s, which is about three times higher than that predicted by the standard cold dark matter model. This discrepancy could be attributed to the distinguishing three-dimensional distribution of the eight protocluster members. We discuss two possible explanations for this discrepancy: either the protocluster is already mature, with old galaxies at the center, or it is still immature and composed of three subgroups merging to become a larger cluster. In either case, this concentration of z=6.01 galaxies in the SDF may be one of the first sites of formation of a galaxy cluster in the universe.
Super star clusters --- extremely massive clusters found predominately in starburst environments --- are essential building blocks in the formation of galaxies and thought to dominate star formation in the high-redshift universe. However, the transformation from molecular gas into these ultra-compact star clusters is not well understood. To study this process, we used the Submillimeter Array and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to obtain high angular resolution (~1.5" or 160 pc) images of the Antennae overlap region in CO(2--1) to search for the molecular progenitors of the super star clusters. We resolve the molecular gas distribution into a large number of clouds, extending the differential cloud mass function down to a 5\sigma completeness limit of 3.8x10^5 M_sun. We identify a distinct break in the mass function around log M_mol/M_sun ~ 6.5, which separates the molecular clouds into two distinct populations. The smaller, less massive clouds reside in more quiescent areas in the region, while the larger, more massive clouds cluster around regions of intense star formation. A broken power-law fit to the mass function yields slopes of \alpha = -1.39+/-0.10 and \alpha = -1.44+/-0.14 for the low- and high-mass cloud population, well-matched to the mass function found for super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies. We find large velocity gradients and velocity dispersions at the locations of intense star formation, suggestive of compressive shocks. It is likely that these environmental factors contribute to the formation of the observed massive molecular clouds and super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies.
We report results from our deep Chandra X-ray observations of a nearby radio galaxy, 4C+29.30 (z=0.0647). The Chandra image resolves structures on sub-arcsec to arcsec scales, revealing complex X-ray morphology and detecting the main radio features: the nucleus, a jet, hotspots, and lobes. The nucleus is absorbed (N(H)=3.95 (+0.27/-0.33)x10^23 atoms/cm^2) with an unabsorbed luminosity of L(2-10 keV) ~ (5.08 +/-0.52) 10^43 erg/s characteristic of Type 2 AGN. Regions of soft (<2 keV) X-ray emission that trace the hot interstellar medium (ISM) are correlated with radio structures along the main radio axis indicating a strong relation between the two. The X-ray emission beyond the radio source correlates with the morphology of optical line-emitting regions. We measured the ISM temperature in several regions across the galaxy to be kT ~ 0.5 with slightly higher temperatures (of a few keV) in the center and in the vicinity of the radio hotspots. Assuming these regions were heated by weak shocks driven by the expanding radio source, we estimated the corresponding Mach number of 1.6 in the southern regions. The thermal pressure of the X-ray emitting gas in the outermost regions suggest the hot ISM is slightly under-pressured with respect to the cold optical-line emitting gas and radio-emitting plasma, which both seem to be in a rough pressure equilibrium. We conclude that 4C+29.30 displays a complex view of interactions between the jet-driven radio outflow and host galaxy environment, signaling feedback processes closely associated with the central active nucleus.
An accretion flow onto a supermassive black hole is the primary process powering quasars. However, a geometry of this flow is not well constrained. Both global MHD simulations and observations suggest that there are several emission components present in the nucleus: an accretion disk, hot plasma (corona or sphere) with electrons scattering the optical and UV photons, and an outflow (wind/jet). The relative location and size of these emission components, as well as their "interplay" affect the emerging quasar spectrum. I review briefly standard accretion disk models and the recent progress, point out discrepancies between the predicted and observed spectra and discuss some issues in fitting these models to the broad-band spectral energy distribution of quasars. I present examples of models fitted simultaneously to the optical-UV-X-ray data and possible constraints on the parameters.
Ram pressure stripping can remove significant amounts of gas from galaxies in clusters, and thus has a large impact on the evolution of cluster galaxies. Recent observations have shown that key properties of ram-pressure stripped tails of galaxies, such as their width and structure, are in conflict with predictions by simulations. To increase the realism of existing simulations, we simulated for the first time a disk galaxy exposed face-on to a uniformly magnetized wind including radiative cooling and self-gravity of the gas. We find that magnetic fields have a strong effect on the morphology of the gas in the tail of the galaxy. While in the purely hydrodynamical case the tail is very clumpy, the MHD case shows very filamentary structures in the tail. The filaments can be strongly supported by magnetic pressure and, wherever this is the case, the magnetic fields vectors tend to be aligned with the filaments. Interestingly, we observe the formation of two dominant magnetized density tails behind the galaxy resembling the double tail observed in ESO 137-001. In our simulations the double tails result from the folding of the ambient magnetic field around the galaxy. The detectability of such structures depends on the time since the beginning of the stripping process, the length scale of the magnetic field fluctuations in the ICM, the orientation of the galaxy with respect to the line-of-sight, and the relative emissivities of the tail and ambient ICM. Despite the fact that the magnetic fields strongly affect the tail morphology, magnetic draping does not suppress the rate of gas stripping, and the magnetic fields may in fact enhance it. Gravitational and shear instabilities tangle the magnetic field. In combination with the buildup of the magnetic pressure in front of the galaxy, this undoes the protective effect of this layer and allows the gas to leak out of the galaxy.
A comprehensive analysis of extended emission line region (EELR) around quasars is presented. New Subaru/Suprime-Cam observation is combined with literature search, resulting in a compilation of 81 EELR measurements for type-1 and type-2 quasars with associated active galactic nucleus (AGN) and host galaxy properties. It is found that EELR phenomenon shows clear correlation with Eddington ratio, which links EELR to the constituents of the principal component 1 (PC 1), or eigenvector 1, of the AGN emission correlations. We also find that EELR is preferentially associated with gas-rich, massive blue galaxies. It supports the idea that the primary determinant of EELR creation is the gas availability and that the gas may be brought in by galaxy merger triggering the current star formation as well as AGN activity, and also gives an explanation for the fact that most luminous EELR is found around radio-loud sources with low Eddington ratio. By combining all the observations, it is suggested that EELR quasars occupy the massive blue corner of the green valley, the AGN realm, on the galaxy color - stellar mass diagram. Once a galaxy is pushed to this corner, activated AGN would create EELR by the energy injection into the interstellar gas and eventually blow it away, leading to star-formation quenching. The results presented here provide a piece of evidence for the presence of such AGN feedback process, which may be playing a leading role in the co-evolution of galaxies and central super-massive black holes.
We present a quantitative star formation history of the nearby dwarf galaxy UGCA 92. This irregular dwarf is situated in the vicinity of the Local Group of galaxies in a zone of strong Galactic extinction (IC 342 group of galaxies). The galaxy was resolved into stars with HST/ACS including old red giant branch. We have constructed a model of the resolved stellar populations and measured the star formation rate and metallicity as function of time. The main star formation activity period occurred about 8 - 14 Gyr ago. These stars are mostly metal-poor, with a mean metallicity [Fe/H] ~ -1.5 -- -2.0 dex. About 84 per cent of the total stellar mass was formed during this event. There are also indications of recent star formation starting about 1.5 Gyr ago and continuing to the present. The star formation in this event shows moderate enhancement from ~ 200 Myr to 300 Myr ago. It is very likely that the ongoing star formation period has higher metallicity of about -0.6 -- -0.3 dex. UGCA 92 is often considered to be the companion to the starburst galaxy NGC 1569. Comparing our star formation history of UGCA 92 with that of NGC 1569 reveals no causal or temporal connection between recent star formation events in these two galaxies. We suggest that the starburst phenomenon in NGC 1569 is not related to the galaxy's closest dwarf neighbours and does not affect their star formation history.
We seek to explore the internal dynamics of the cluster Abell 1758N, which has been shown to host a radio halo and two relics, and is known to be a merging bimodal cluster. Our analysis is mainly based on new redshift data for 137 galaxies acquired at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, only four of which have redshifts previously listed in the literature. We also used photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope archive. We combined galaxy velocities and positions to select 92 cluster galaxies and analyzed the internal cluster dynamics. We estimate a cluster redshift of <z>=0.2782 and quite a high line-of-sight (LOS) velocity dispersion of ~ 1300 km/s. Our 2D analysis confirms the presence of a bimodal structure along the NW-SE direction. We add several pieces of information to the previous merging scenario: the two subclusters (here A1758N(NW) and A1758N(SE)) cannot be separated in the velocity analyses and we deduce a small LOS velocity difference of ~300 km/s in the cluster rest-frame. The velocity information successfully shows that A1758N is surrounded by two small groups and active galaxies infalling onto, or escaping from, the cluster. Removing the two groups, we estimate ~1000 km/s and ~800 km/s for the velocity dispertions of A1758N(NW) and A1758N(SE), respectively. We find that Abell 1758N is a very massive cluster with a range of M=2-3 10^15 solar masses, depending on the adopted model. As expected for clusters that host powerful, extended, diffuse radio emissions, Abell 1758N is a major cluster merger just forming a massive system.
We investigate the impact of statistical and systematic errors on measurements of linear redshift-space distortions (RSD) in future cosmological surveys, analyzing large catalogues of dark-matter halos from the BASICC simulation. These allow us to estimate the dependence of errors on typical survey properties, as volume, galaxy density and mass (i.e. bias factor) of the adopted tracer. We find that measures of the specific growth rate \beta=f/b using the Hamilton/Kaiser harmonic expansion of the redshift-space correlation function \xi(r_p,\pi) on scales larger than 3/h Mpc are typically under-estimated by up to 10% for galaxy sized halos. This is significantly larger than the corresponding statistical errors, which amount to a few percent, indicating the importance of non-linear improvements to the Kaiser model to obtain accurate measurements of the growth rate. We compare the statistical errors to predictions obtained with the Fisher information matrix, based on the usual FKP prescription for the errors on the power spectrum. We show that this produces parameter errors fairly similar to the standard deviations from the halo catalogues, but only if applied to strictly linear scales in Fourier space (k<0.2 h/Mpc). Finally, we present an accurate scaling formula describing the relative error on {\beta} as a function of the survey parameters, which closely matches the simulation results in all explored regimes. This provides a handy and plausibly more realistic alternative to the Fisher matrix approach, to quickly and accurately predict RSD statistical errors expected from future surveys.
We present a novel idea for screening the vacuum energy contribution to the overall value of the cosmological constant, thereby enabling us to choose the bare value of the vacuum curvature empirically, without any need to worry about the zero-point energy contributions of each particle. The trick is to couple matter to a metric that is really a composite of other fields, with the property that the square-root of its determinant is the integrand of a topological invariant, and/or a total derivative. This ensures that the vacuum energy contribution to the Lagrangian is non-dynamical. We then give an explicit example of a theory with this property that is free from Ostrogradski ghosts, and is consistent with solar system physics and cosmological tests.
We study timing properties of a large sample of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) detected by the Anti-Coincidence Shield (ACS) of the SPI spectrometer of INTEGRAL telescope. We identify GRB-like events in the SPI-ACS data. The data set under investigation is the history of count rate of the SPI-ACS detector recorded with a binning of 50 ms over the time span of ~10 yr. In spite of the fact that SPI-ACS does not have imaging capability, it provides high statistics signal for each GRB event, because of its large effective area. We classify all isolated excesses in the SPI-ACS count rate into three types: short spikes produced by cosmic rays, GRBs and Solar flare induced events. We find some ~1500 GRB-like events in the 10 yr exposure. A significant fraction of the GRB-like events identified in SPI-ACS occur in coincidence with triggers of other gamma-ray telescopes and could be considered as confirmed GRBs. We study the distribution of durations of the GRBs detected by SPI-ACS and find that the peak of the distribution of long GRBs is at ~ 20, i.e. somewhat shorter than for the long GRBs detected by BATSE. Contrary to the BATSE observation, the population of short GRBs does not have any characteristic time scale. Instead, the distribution of durations extends as a powerlaw to the shortest time scale accessible for SPI-ACS, < 50 ms. We also find that a large fraction of long GRBs has a characteristic variability time scale of the order of 1 s. We discuss the possible origin of this time scale.
A budget neutral strategy is proposed for NSF to lead the implementation of multimessenger astronomy and astrophysics, as outlined in the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. The emerging capabilities for simultaneous measurements of physical and astronomical data through the different windows of electromagnetic, hadronic and gravitational radiation processes call for a vigorous pursuit of new synergies. The proposed approach is aimed at the formation of new collaborations and multimessenger data-analysis, to transcend the scientific inquiries made within a single window of observations. In view of budgetary constraints, we propose to include the multimessenger dimension in the ranking of proposals submitted under existing NSF programs.
We construct cosmological models with two scalar fields, which has the structure as in the ghost condensation model or k-essence model. The models can describe the stable phantom crossing, which should be contrasted with one scalar tensor models, where the infinite instability occurs at the crossing the phantom divide. We give a general formulation of the reconstruction in terms of the e-foldings N by including the matter although in the previous two scalar models, which are extensions of the scalar tensor model, it was difficult to give a formulation of the reconstruction when we include matters. In the formulation of the reconstruction, we start with a model with some arbitrary functions, and find the functions which generates the history in the expansion of the universe. We also give general arguments for the stabilities of the models and the reconstructed solution. The viability of a model is also investigated by comparing the observational data.
The spectral libraries of hot, massive stars which are implemented in the population synthesis code Starburst99 are discussed. Hot stars pose particular challenges for generating libraries. They are rare, they have an intense radiation field and strong stellar winds, and a luminosity bias towards ultraviolet wavelengths. These properties require the utilization of theoretical libraries. Starburst99 uses static non-LTE models at 0.3 A resolution in the optical, spherically extended, expanding models at 0.4 A resolution in the satellite-ultraviolet, and blanketed, low-resolution radiation-hydrodynamical models in the extreme ultraviolet down to X-rays. I review the main features of each library, compare them to observations, and discuss their link with stellar evolution models.
In this paper, we investigate the inflation and the late-time acceleration of the universe by using the modified gravity approach which involves the non-minimal $Y(R) F^2$-type couplings of electromagnetic fields to gravity. After we derive field equations by a first order variational principle from the Lagrangian of the non-minimally coupled theory, we look for spatially flat cosmological solutions with the large-scale magnetic fields. At the end we estimate certain values according to observations for three parameters occurring in the solutions.
The analysis presented in the recent publication of the CRESST-II results finds a statistically significant excess of registered events over known background contributions in the acceptance region and attributes the excess to a possible Dark Matter signal, caused by scattering of relatively light WIMPs. We propose a mechanism which explains the excess events with ion sputtering caused by 206Pb recoils and alpha particles from 210Po decay, combined with realistic surface roughness effects.
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We report new Herschel observations of 25 z=4.8 extremely luminous optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Five of the sources have extremely large star forming (SF) luminosities, L_SF, corresponding to SF rates (SFRs) of 2800-5600 M_sol/yr assuming a Salpeter IMF. The remaining sources have only upper limits on their SFRs but stacking their Herschel images results in a mean SFR of 700 +/- 150 M_sol/yr. The higher SFRs in our sample are comparable to the highest observed values so far, at any redshift. Our sample does not contain obscured AGNs, which enables us to investigate several evolutionary scenarios connecting super-massive black holes and SF activity in the early universe. The most probable scenario is that we are witnessing the peak of SF activity in some sources and the beginning of the post-starburst decline in others. We suggest that all 25 sources, which are at their peak AGN activity, are in large mergers. AGN feedback may be responsible for diminishing the SF activity in 20 of them but is not operating efficiently in 5 others.
We present stellar kinematics and orbit superposition models for the central regions of four Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs), based upon integral-field spectroscopy at Gemini, Keck, and McDonald Observatories. Our integral-field data span radii from < 100 pc to tens of kpc. We report black hole masses, M_BH, of 2.1 +/- 1.6 x 10^10 M_Sun for NGC 4889, 9.7 + 3.0 - 2.6 x 10^9 M_Sun for NGC 3842, and 1.3 + 0.5 - 0.4 x 10^9 M_Sun for NGC 7768. For NGC 2832 we report an upper limit of M_BH < 9 x 10^9 M_Sun. Stellar orbits near the center of each galaxy are tangentially biased, on comparable spatial scales to the galaxies' photometric cores. We find possible photometric and kinematic evidence for an eccentric torus of stars in NGC 4889, with a radius of nearly 1 kpc. We compare our measurements of M_BH to the predicted black hole masses from various fits to the relations between M_BH and stellar velocity dispersion, luminosity, or stellar mass. The black holes in NGC 4889 and NGC 3842 are significantly more massive than all dispersion-based predictions and most luminosity-based predictions. The black hole in NGC 7768 is consistent with a broader range of predictions.
We model for the first time the complete orbital evolution of a pair of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) in a 1:10 galaxy merger of two disk dominated gas-rich galaxies, from the stage prior to the formation of the binary up to the onset of gravitational wave emission when the binary separation has shrunk to 1 milli parsec. The high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations used for the first phase of the evolution include star formation, accretion onto the SMBHs as well as feedback from supernovae explosions and radiative heating from the SMBHs themselves. Using the direct N-body code \phi-GPU we evolve the system further without including the effect of gas, which has been mostly consumed by star formation in the meantime. We start at the time when the separation between two SMBHs is ~ 700 pc and the two black holes are still embedded in their galaxy cusps. We use 3 million particles to study the formation and evolution of the SMBH binary till it becomes hard. After a hard binary is formed, we reduce (reselect) the particles to 1.15 million and follow the subsequent shrinking of the SMBH binary due to 3-body encounters with the stars. We find approximately constant hardening rates and that the SMBH binary rapidly develops a high eccentricity. Similar hardening rates and eccentricity values are reported in earlier studies of SMBH binary evolution in the merging of dissipation-less spherical galaxy models. The estimated coalescence time is ~ 2.9 Gyr, significantly smaller than a Hubble time. We discuss why this timescale should be regarded as an upper limit. Since 1:10 mergers are among the most common interaction events for galaxies at all cosmic epochs, we argue that several SMBH binaries should be detected with currently planned space-borne gravitational wave interferometers, whose sensitivity will be especially high for SMBHs in the mass range considered here.
We study the dependence of star-formation quenching on galaxy masses and environ- ment, in the SDSS (z ~ 0.1) and the AEGIS (z ~ 1). We address stellar mass M*, halo mass Mh, density over the nearest N neighbours deltaN, and distance to the halo centre D. Quenching is defined by low star formation rate rather than red colour, since one third of red galaxies are star forming. The fraction of quenched galaxies predominantly depends on Mh, while for satellites it also depends on D. For centrals the quenched fraction depends only weakly on deltaN and M* at low z, and somewhat more at z ~ 1, when the quenched fraction and Mh are lower. For satellites, M*-dependent quenching is noticeable at high D, reflecting a quenching dependence on sub-halo mass for recently captured satellites. At small D, where satellites likely fell in long ago, quenching strongly depends on Mh, and not on M*. The Mh-dependence of quenching is consistent with theoretical wisdom where virial shock heating in massive haloes shuts down accretion and triggers ram-pressure stripping, causing quenching. The interpretation of deltaN depends on the number of observed group members compared to N, motivating the use of D as a better measure of local environment.
Using infrared, radio, and gamma-ray data,we investigate the propagation characteristics of cosmic-ray (CR) electrons and nuclei in the 30 Doradus (30\,Dor) star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using a phenomenological model based on the radio-far-infrared correlation within galaxies. Employing a correlation analysis, we derive an average propagation length of \sim 100-140 pc for \sim 3 GeV CR electrons resident in 30 Dor from consideration of the radio and infrared data. Assuming that the observed gamma-ray emission towards 30 Dor is associated with the star-forming region, and applying the same methodology to the infrared and gamma-ray data, we estimate a \sim 20 GeV propagation length of 200-320 pc for the CR nuclei. This is approximately twice as large as for\sim 3 GeV CR electrons, corresponding to a spatial diffusion coefficient that is \sim 4 times higher, scaling as (R/GV)^{\delta} with \delta \approx 0.7-0.8 depending on the smearing kernel used in the correlation analysis. This value is in agreement with the results found by extending the correlation analysis to include \sim 70 GeV CR nuclei traced by the 3-10 GeV gamma-ray data (\delta \approx 0.66+/-0.23). Using the mean age of the stellar populations in 30 Dor and the results from our correlation analysis, we estimate a diffusion coefficient D_{R} \approx 0.9-1.0 \times10^27 (R/GV)^{0.7} cm^2 s^-1. We compare the values of the CR electron propagation length and surface brightness for 30 Dor and the LMC as a whole with those of entire disk galaxies. We find that the trend of decreasing average CR propagation distance with increasing disk-averaged star formation activity holds for the LMC, and extends down to single star-forming regions, at least for the case of 30 Dor.
We propose that the growth of supermassive black holes is associated mainly with brief episodes of highly super-Eddington infall of gas ("hyperaccretion"). This gas is not swallowed in real time, but forms an envelope of matter around the black hole that can be swallowed gradually, over a much longer timescale. However, only a small fraction of the black hole mass can be stored in the envelope at any one time. We argue that any infalling matter above a few per cent of the hole's mass is ejected as a result of the plunge in opacity at temperatures below a few thousand degrees K, corresponding to the Hayashi track. The speed of ejection of this matter, compared to the velocity dispersion (sigma) of the host galaxy's core, determines whether the ejected matter is lost forever or returns eventually to rejoin the envelope, from which it can be ultimately accreted. The threshold between matter recycling and permanent loss defines a relationship between the maximum black hole mass and sigma that resembles the empirical M_BH-sigma relation.
We study two nearby, early-type galaxies, NGC4342 and NGC4291, that host unusually massive black holes relative to their low stellar mass. The observed black hole-to-bulge mass ratios of NGC4342 and NGC4291 are ~6.9% and ~1.9%, respectively, which significantly exceed the typical observed ratio of ~0.2%. As a consequence of the exceedingly large black hole-to-bulge mass ratios, NGC4342 and NGC4291 are ~5.1 sigma and ~3.4 sigma outliers from the M_BH - M_bulge scaling relation, respectively. In this paper we explore the origin of the unusually high black hole-to-bulge mass ratio. Based on Chandra X-ray observations of the hot gas content of NGC4342 and NGC4291, we compute gravitating mass profiles, and conclude that both galaxies reside in massive dark matter halos, which extend well beyond the stellar light. The presence of dark matter halos around NGC4342 and NGC4291 and a deep optical image of the environment of NGC4342 indicate that tidal stripping, in which >90% of the stellar mass was lost, cannot explain the observed high black hole-to-bulge mass ratios. Therefore, we conclude that these galaxies formed with low stellar masses, implying that the bulge and black hole did not grow in tandem. We also find that the black hole mass correlates well with the properties of the dark matter halo, suggesting that dark matter halos may play a major role in regulating the growth of the supermassive black holes.
We present the Advanced Camera for Surveys General Catalog (ACS-GC), a photometric and morphological database using publicly available data obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The goal of the ACS-GC database is to provide a large statistical sample of galaxies with reliable structural and distance measurements to probe the evolution of galaxies over a wide range of look-back times. The ACS-GC includes over 490,000 astronomical sources (stars + galaxies) derived from the AEGIS, COSMOS, GEMS, and GOODS surveys. Galapagos was used to construct photometric (SExtractor) and morphological (Galfit) catalogs. The analysis assumes a single S\'ersic model for each object to derive quantitative structural parameters. We include publicly available redshifts from the DEEP2, COMBO-17, TKRS, PEARS, ACES, CFHTLS,and zCOSMOS surveys to supply redshifts (spectroscopic and photometric) for a considerable fraction (~71%) of the imaging sample. The ACS-GC includes color postage stamps, Galfit residual images, and photometry, structural parameters, and redshifts combined into a single catalog.
{abridged} We present imaging and spectroscopy of Abell 1689 (z=0.183) from GEMINI/GMOS-N and HST/ACS. We measure integrated photometry from the GMOS g' and r' images (for 531 galaxies) and surface photometry from the HST F625W image (for 43 galaxies) as well as velocities and velocity dispersions from the GMOS spectra (for 71 galaxies). We construct the Kormendy relation (KR), Faber-Jackson relation (FJR) and colour-magnitude relation (CMR) for early-type galaxies in Abell 1689 using this data and compare them to those of the Coma cluster. We measure the intrinsic scatter of the CMR in Abell 1689 to be 0.054 \pm 0.004 mag which places degenerate constraints on the ratio of the assembly timescale to the time available (beta) and the age of the population. Making the assumption that galaxies in Abell 1689 will evolve into those of Coma over an interval of 2.26 Gyr breaks this degeneracy and limits beta to be > 0.6 and the age of the red sequence to be > 5.5 Gyr (formed at z > 0.55). Without corrections for size evolution but accounting for magnitude cuts and selection effects, the KR & FJR are inconsistent and disagree at the 2 sigma level regarding the amount of luminosity evolution in the last 2.26 Gyr. However, after correcting for size evolution the KR & FJR show similar changes in luminosity (0.22 \pm 0.11 mag) that are consistent with the passive evolution of the stellar populations from a single burst of star formation 10.2 \pm 3.3 Gyr ago (z = 1.8+inf-0.9). Thus the changes in the KR, FJR & CMR of Abell 1689 relative to Coma all agree and suggest old galaxy populations with little or no synchronisation in the star formation histories. Furthermore, the weak evidence for size evolution in the cluster environment in the last 2.26 Gyr places interesting constraints on the possible mechanisms at work, favouring harassment or secular processes over merger scenarios.
(Abridged) We performed the spectroscopic observations of 11 confirmed GCs in M31 with the Xinglong 2.16m telescope and we mainly focus on the fits method and the metallicity gradient for the M31 GC sample. We analyzed and discussed more about the dynamics, metallicity and age, and their distributions as well as the relationships between these parameters. Eight more confirmed GCs in the halo of M31 were observed, most of which lack the spectroscopic information before. These star clusters are located far from the galactic center at a projected radius of ~14 to ~117 kpc. The Lick absorption-line indices and the radial velocities have been measured and ages, metallicities [Fe/H] and alpha-element [alpha/Fe] have also been fitted by comparing the observed spectral feature indices and Thomas et al.SSP model. Our results show that most of the star clusters of our sample are older than 10 Gyr except B290 ~5.5 Gyr, and most of them are metal-poor with the metallicity [Fe/H]<-1, suggesting that these clusters were born at the early stage of the galaxy's formation. We find that the metallicity gradient for the outer halo clusters with r_p>25 kpc may not exist with a slope of -0.005+-0.005 dex kpc^-1. We also find that the metallicity is not a function of age for the GCs with age < 7 Gyr while for the old GCs with age >7 Gyr there seems to be a trend that the older ones have lower metallicity. Besides, We plot metallicity distributions with the largest sample of M31 GCs so far and it shows the bimodality is not significant and the number of the metal-poor and metal-rich groups becomes comparable. The spatial distributions shows that the metal-rich group is more centrally concentrated while the metal-poor group is occupy a more extended halo and the young population is centrally concentrated while the old population is more extended spatially to the outer halo.
A series of new radio-continuum (lambda=20 cm) mosaic images focused on the NGC 300 galactic system were produced using archived observational data from the VLA and/or ATCA. These new images are both very sensitive (rms=60 microJy) and feature high angular resolution (<10"). The most prominent new feature is the galaxy's extended radio-continuum emission, which does not match its optical appearance. Using these newly created images a number of previously unidentified discrete sources have been discovered. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a joint deconvolution approach to imaging this complete data-set is inferior when compared to an immerge approach.
We investigate the connection between the presence of bars and AGN activity, using a volume-limited sample of $\sim$9,000 late-type galaxies with axis ratio $b/a>0.6$ and $M_{r} < -19.5+5{\rm log}h$ at low redshift ($0.02\le z\lesssim 0.055$), selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. We find that the bar fraction in AGN-host galaxies (42.6%) is $\sim$2.5 times higher than in non-AGN galaxies (15.6%), and that the AGN fraction is a factor of two higher in strong-barred galaxies (34.5%) than in non-barred galaxies (15.0%). However, these trends are simply caused by the fact that AGN-host galaxies are on average more massive and redder than non-AGN galaxies because the fraction of strong-barred galaxies ($\bfrsbo$) increases with $u-r$ color and stellar velocity dispersion. When $u-r$ color and velocity dispersion (or stellar mass) are fixed, both the excess of $\bfrsbo$ in AGN-host galaxies and the enhanced AGN fraction in strong-barred galaxies disappears. Among AGN-host galaxies we find no strong difference of the Eddington ratio distributions between barred and non-barred systems. These results indicate that AGN activity is not dominated by the presence of bars, and that AGN power is not enhanced by bars. In conclusion we do not find a clear evidence that bars trigger AGN activity.
We investigate a new approach to confront small-scale non-linearities in the power spectrum of matter fluctuations. This ever-present and pernicious uncertainty is often the Achilles' heel in cosmological studies and must be reduced if we are to see the advent of precision cosmology in the late-time Universe. We show that an optimally trained Artificial Neural Network (ANN), when presented with a set of cosmological parameters ($\Omega_{\rm m} h^2, \Omega_{\rm b} h^2, n_s, w_0, \sigma_8, \sum m_\nu$ and redshift $z$), can provide a worst case accuracy ($\leq1%$ error for $z\leq2$) fit to the non-linear matter power spectrum deduced through $\it{N}$-Body simulations, for modes upto $k\leq0.7\,h\textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. Our power spectrum predictor is accurate over the $\it{entire}$ parameter space for $z\leq2$. This is a significant improvement over some of the current matter power spectrum calculators. In this paper, we detail how an accurate prediction of the matter power spectrum is achievable with only a sparsely sampled grid of cosmological parameters. Unlike large-scale $\it{N}$-Body simulations which are computationally expensive and/or infeasible, a well-trained ANN can be an extremely quick and reliable tool in interpreting cosmological observations and parameter estimation. This paper is the first in a series. In this method paper, we generate the non-linear matter power spectra using {\sc halofit} and use them as mock observations to train the ANN. This work sets the foundation for Paper II, where a suite of $\it{N}$-Body simulations will be used to compute the non-linear matter power spectra at sub percent accuracy, in the quasi non-linear regime $(0.1\,h \textrm{Mpc}^{-1} \leq k \leq 0.9\,h \textrm{Mpc}^{-1})$ for redshifts between $z=0$ and $z=2$. A trained ANN based on this $\it{N}$-Body suite will be released for the scientific community.
We report Suzaku observations of the northern half of the Hydra A cluster out to ~1.4 Mpc, reaching the virial radius. This is the first Suzaku observations of a medium size (kT ~3 keV) cluster out to the virial radius. Two observations were conducted, north-west and north-east offsets, which continue into a filament and a void of the large-scale structure of the Universe, respectively. The X-ray emission and distribution of galaxies elongate towards the filament. The temperature profiles toward the two directions are mostly consistent within error bars and drop to 1.5 keV at 1.5r_500. As observed by Suzaku in hot clusters, the entropy profile becomes flatter beyond r_500 and disagrees with the r^1.1 relation that is expected from accretion shock-heating models. When scaled with average intracluster medium (ICM) temperature, the entropy profiles of clusters observed with Suzaku are universal without dependence on system mass. The hydrostatic mass values toward the void and the filament agree well, and the Navarro, Frenk, and White (NFW) universal mass profile represents the obtained hydrostatic mass distribution up to ~ 2r_500. Beyond r_500, the ratio of gas mass to hydrostatic mass exceeds the WMAP result, and at r_100, these ratios toward the filament and void directions reach 0.4 and 0.3, respectively. We discussed about possible deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium at cluster outskirts. The iron-massto- light ratio (IMLR) profile is larger than within r500 by a factor of 2, which was observed in other clusters with Suzaku, and becomes flatter from r_500 to 2 r_500.
A new parameterization for the dark energy equation of state(EoS) is proposed and some of its cosmological consequences are also investigated. This new parameterization is the modification of Efstathiou' dark energy EoS parameterization. $w (z)$ is a well behaved function for $z\gg1$ and has same behavior in $z$ at low redshifts with Efstathiou' parameterization. In this parameterization there are two free parameter $w_0$ and $w_a$. We discuss the constraints on this model's parameters from current observational data. The best fit values of the cosmological parameters with $1\sigma$ confidence-level regions are: $\Omega_m=0.2735^{+0.0171}_{-0.0163}$, $w_0=-1.0537^{+0.1432}_{-0.1511}$ and $w_a=0.2738^{+0.8018}_{-0.8288}$.
Filaments, forming in the context of cosmological structure formation, are not only supposed to host the majority of the baryons at low redshifts in the form of the WHIM, but also to supply forming galaxies at higher redshifts with a substantial amount of cold gas via cold steams. In order to get insight into the hydro- and thermodynamical characteristics of these structures, we performed a series of hydrodynamical simulations. Instead of analyzing extensive simulations of cosmological structure formation, we simulate certain well-defined structures and study the impact of different physical processes as well as of the scale dependencies. In this paper, we continue our work from Klar & M\"ucket (2010), and extend our simulations into three dimensions. Instead of a pancake structure, we now obtain a configuration consisting of well-defined sheets, filaments, and a gaseous halo. We use a set of simulations, parametrized by the length of the initial perturbation L, to obtain detailed information on the state of the gas and its evolution inside the filament. For L > 4 Mpc, we obtain filaments which are fully confined by an accretion shock. Additionally, they exhibit an isothermal core, which temperature is balanced by radiative cooling and heating due to the UV background. This indicates on a multiphase structure for the medium temperature WHIM. We obtain scaling relations for the main quantities of this core. In the vicinity of the halo, the filament's core can be attributed to the cold streams found in cosmological hydro-simulations. Thermal conduction can lead to a complete evaporation of the cold stream for L > 6 Mpc/h. This corresponds to halos more massive than M_halo = 10^13 M_Sun, and implies that star-formation in more massive galaxies can not be supplied by cold streams. For perturbations on scales L > 6 Mpc/h the filament does not longer exhibit a cold core.
We study the power of PLANCK data to constrain deviations of the Cosmic Microwave Background black body temperature from adiabatic evolution using the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich anisotropy induced by clusters of galaxies. We consider two types of data sets: the cosmological signal is removed in the Time Ordered Information or is removed from the final maps; and two different statistical estimators, based on the ratio of temperature anisotropies at two different frequencies and on a fit to the spectral variation of the cluster signal with frequency. To test for systematics, we construct a template from clusters drawn from a hydro-simulation included in the pre-launch Planck Sky Model. We demonstrate that, using a proprietary catalog of X-ray selected clusters with measured redshifts, electron densities and X-ray temperatures, we can constrain deviations of adiabatic evolution, measured by the parameter $\alpha$ in the redshift scaling $T(z)=T_0(1+z)^{1-\alpha}$, with an accuracy of $\sigma_\alpha=0.011$ in the most optimal case and with $\sigma_\alpha=0.016$ for a less optimal case. These results represent a factor 2-3 improvement over similar measurements carried out using quasar spectral lines and a factor 6-20 with respect to earlier results using smaller cluster samples.
We present results based on a set of N-Body/SPH simulations of isolated dwarf
galaxies. The simulations take into account star formation, stellar feedback,
radiative cooling and metal enrichment. The dark matter halo initially has a
cusped profile, but, at least in these simulations, starting from idealised,
spherically symmetric initial conditions, a natural conversion to a core is
observed due to gas dynamics and stellar feedback.
A degeneracy between the efficiency with which the interstellar medium
absorbs energy feedback from supernovae and stellar winds on the one hand, and
the density threshold for star formation on the other, is found. We performed a
parameter survey to determine, with the aid of the observed kinematic and
photometric scaling relations, which combinations of these two parameters
produce simulated galaxies that are in agreement with the observations.
With the implemented physics we are unable to reproduce the relation between
the stellar mass and the halo mass as determined by Guo et al. (2010), however
we do reproduce the slope of this relation.
NGC 1316 (Fornax A) is a prominent merger remnant in the outskirts of the Fornax cluster. The cluster system has not yet been studied in its entirety. We therefore present a wide-field study of the globular cluster system of NGC 1316, investigating its properties in relation to the global morphology of NGC 1316. We used the MOSAIC II camera at the 4-m Blanco telescope at CTIO in the filters Washington C and Harris R. We identify globular cluster candidates and study their color distribution and the structural properties of the system. In an appendix, we also make morphological remarks, present color maps, and present new models for the brightness and color profiles of the galaxy. The cluster system is well confined to the optically visible outer contours of NGC 1316. The color distribution of the entire sample is unimodal, but the color distribution of bright subsamples in the bulge shows two peaks that, by comparison with theoretical Washington colors with solar metallicity, correspond to ages of about 2 Gyr and 0.8 Gyr, respectively. We also find a significant population of clusters in the color range 0.8 < C-R < 1.1 which must be populated by clusters younger than 0.8 Gyr, unless they are very metal-poor. The color interval 1.3 < C-R < 1.6 hosts the bulk of intermediate-age clusters which show a surface density profile with a sharp decline at about 4 arcmin. The outer cluster population shows an unimodal color distribution with a peak at C-R=1.1, indicating a larger contribution of old, metal-poor clusters. Their luminosity function does not show the expected turn-over, so the fraction of younger clusters is still significant. Cluster formation in NGC 1316 has continued after an initial burst, presumably related to the main merger. A toy model with two bursts of ages 2 Gyr and 0.8 Gyr is consistent with photometric properties and dynamical M/L-values.
(Abridged) Long gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies might open a short-cut to the characteristics of typical star-forming galaxies throughout the history of the Universe. Due to the absence of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, however, detailed investigations, specifically a determination of the gas-phase metallicity of gamma-ray burst hosts, was largely limited to redshifts z < 1 to date. Here, we report observations of the galaxy hosting GRB 080605 at z = 1.64. We avail of VLT/X-shooter optical/NIR spectroscopy to measure the metallicity, electron density, star-formation rate (SFR), and reddening of the host. Specifically, we use different strong-line diagnostics based on [N II] to robustly measure the gas-phase metallicity for the first time for a GRB host at this redshift. The host of the energetic (E_iso ~ 2 x 10^53 erg) GRB 080605 is a vigorously star-forming galaxy with an H\alpha-derived SFR of 34 M_sun/yr. Its ISM is significantly enriched with metals with an oxygen abundance between 8.3 and 8.7 depending on the adopted strong-line calibrator. This corresponds to values in the range of 0.4-1.1 times the solar value. For its measured stellar mass of 5 x 10^9 M_sun and SFR this value is fully consistent with the fundamental metallicity relation defined by star-forming field galaxies. Our observations directly illustrate that GRB hosts are not necessarily metal-poor, both on absolute scales as well as relative to their stellar mass and SFR. GRB hosts could thus be fair tracers of the population of ordinary star-forming galaxies as a whole at z > 1.
Existence of a mirror world in the universe is a fundamental way to restore the observed parity violation in weak interactions and provides the lightest mirror nucleon as a unique GeV-scale dark matter particle candidate. The visible and mirror worlds share the same spacetime of the universe and are connected by a unique space-inversion symmetry -- the mirror parity (P). We conjecture that the mirror parity is respected by the fundamental interaction Lagrangian, and study its spontaneous breaking from minimizing the Higgs vacuum potential. The domain wall problem is resolved by a unique soft breaking linear-term from the P-odd weak-singlet Higgs field. We also derive constraint from the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis. We then analyze the neutrino seesaw for both visible and mirror worlds, and demonstrate that the desired amounts of visible matter and mirror dark matter in the universe arise from a common origin of CP violation in the neutrino sector via leptogenesis. We derive the Higgs mass-spectrum and Higgs couplings with gauge bosons and fermions. We show their consistency with the direct Higgs searches and the indirect precision constraints. We further study the distinctive signatures of the predicted non-standard Higgs bosons at the LHC. Finally, we analyze the direct detections of GeV-scale mirror dark matter by TEXONO and CDEX experiments.
We investigate the validity of effective field theory methods and the decoupling of heavy fields during inflation. Considering models of inflation in which the inflaton is coupled to a heavy (super-Hubble) degree of freedom initially in its vacuum state, we find that violations of decoupling are absent unless there is a breakdown of the slow-roll conditions. Next we allow for a temporary departure from inflation resulting in a period of non-adiabaticity during which effective field theory methods are known to fail. We find that the locality of the event and energy conservation lead to a tight bound on the size of the effects of the heavy field. We discuss the implications for the power spectrum and non-gaussianity, and comment on the connection with recent studies of the dynamics of multi-field inflation models. Our results further motivate the use of effective field theory methods to characterize cosmic inflation, and focus the question of observability of additional degrees of freedom during inflation to near the Hubble scale or below - as anticipated from the Wilsonian notions of decoupling and naturalness.
Chandra X-ray observations of NGC4342, a low stellar mass (M_K=-22.79 mag) early-type galaxy, show luminous, diffuse X-ray emission originating from hot gas with temperature of kT~0.56 keV. The observed 0.5-2 keV band luminosity of the diffuse X-ray emission within the D_25 ellipse is L_0.5-2keV = 2.7 x 10^39 erg/s. The hot gas has a significantly broader distribution than the stellar light, and shows strong hydrodynamic disturbances with a sharp surface brightness edge to the northeast and a trailing tail. We identify the edge as a cold front and conclude that the distorted morphology of the hot gas is produced by ram pressure as NGC4342 moves through external gas. From the thermal pressure ratios inside and outside the cold front, we estimate the velocity of NGC4342 and find that it moves supersonically (M~2.6) towards the northeast. We also resolve eight bright (L_0.5-8keV > 3 x 10^37 erg/s) point sources within the D_25 ellipse of the galaxy, most of them being low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The luminosity of the brightest source is L_0.5-8keV = 2.6 x 10^39 erg/s and it is located in the center of NGC4342, hence we associate it with the supermassive black hole of NGC4342. Outside the optical extent of the galaxy we detect ~17 luminous excess X-ray sources. The origin of these sources is uncertain. However, a likely interpretation is that they are LMXBs located in metal-poor globular clusters in the extended dark matter halo of NGC4342. Based on the number of excess sources and the average frequency of bright LMXBs in globular clusters, we estimate that NGC4342 may host roughly 850-1700 globular clusters.
With the goal of investigating the degree to which theMIR luminosity in theWidefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) traces the SFR, we analyze 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 {\mu}m data in a sample of {\guillemotright} 140,000 star-forming galaxies or star-forming regions covering a wide range in metallicity 7.66 < 12 + log(O/H) < 9.46, with redshift z < 0.4. These star-forming galaxies or star-forming regions are selected by matching the WISE Preliminary Release Catalog with the star-forming galaxy Catalog in SDSS DR8 provided by JHU/MPA 1.We study the relationship between the luminosity at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 {\mu}m from WISE and H\alpha luminosity in SDSS DR8. From these comparisons, we derive reference SFR indicators for use in our analysis. Linear correlations between SFR and the 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 {\mu}m luminosity are found, and calibrations of SFRs based on L(3.4), L(4.6), L(12) and L(22) are proposed. The calibrations hold for galaxies with verified spectral observations. The dispersion in the relation between 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 {\mu}m luminosity and SFR relates to the galaxy's properties, such as 4000 {\deg}A break and galaxy color.
We conducted a Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 28 Luminous (11 < log(LIR/L_odot) < 12, LIRGs) and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (log(LIR/L_odot) > 12, ULIRGs). Many of these galaxies are found in pairs or associations and are powered by either nuclear activity or starformation (Sanders & Mirabel 1996). Our main goal is to understand the relative importance of starbursts and AGNs in interacting systems. Is the frequency of AGN and starbursts in these interacting galaxies related to their luminosities? What is the importance of the merger stage and the frequency of AGNs? We present our conclusions and diagnostic diagrams based in the observed near infrared lines and compare to studies based solely in optical data.
The measurement of the average depth of the shower maximum is the most commonly used observable for the possible inference of the primary cosmic-ray mass composition. Currently, different experimental Collaborations process and present their data not in the same way, leading to problems in the comparability and interpretation of the results. Whereas <Xmax> is expected to be proportional to <ln A> in ideal conditions, we demonstrate that the finite field-of-view of fluorescence telescopes plus the attenuation in the atmosphere can introduce a non-linearity into this relation, which is specific for each particular detector setup.
Einstein's equation, in its standard form, breaks down at the Big Bang singularity. A new version, equivalent to Einstein's whenever the latter is defined, but applicable in wider situations, is proposed. The new equation remains smooth at the Big Bang singularity of the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker model. It is a tensor equation defined in terms of the Ricci part of the Riemann curvature. It is obtained by taking the Kulkarni-Nomizu product between Einstein's equation and the metric tensor.
To automate source detection, two-dimensional light-profile Sersic modelling and catalogue compilation in large survey applications, we introduce a new code GALAPAGOS, Galaxy Analysis over Large Areas: Parameter Assessment by GALFITting Objects from SExtractor. Based on a single setup, GALAPAGOS can process a complete set of survey images. It detects sources in the data, estimates a local sky background, cuts postage stamp images for all sources, prepares object masks, performs Sersic fitting including neighbours and compiles all objects in a final output catalogue. For the initial source detection GALAPAGOS applies SExtractor, while GALFIT is incorporated for modelling Sersic profiles. It measures the background sky involved in the Sersic fitting by means of a flux growth curve. GALAPAGOS determines postage stamp sizes based on SExtractor shape parameters. In order to obtain precise model parameters GALAPAGOS incorporates a complex sorting mechanism and makes use of modern CPU's multiplexing capabilities. It combines SExtractor and GALFIT data in a single output table. When incorporating information from overlapping tiles, GALAPAGOS automatically removes multiple entries from identical sources. GALAPAGOS is programmed in the Interactive Data Language, IDL. We test the stability and the ability to properly recover structural parameters extensively with artificial image simulations. Moreover, we apply GALAPAGOS successfully to the STAGES data set. For one-orbit HST data, a single 2.2 GHz CPU processes about 1000 primary sources per 24 hours. Note that GALAPAGOS results depend critically on the user-defined parameter setup. This paper provides useful guidelines to help the user make sensible choices.
We identify a total of 120 early-type Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) at 0.1<z<0.4 in two recent large cluster catalogues selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). They are selected with strong emission lines in their optical spectra, with both H{\alpha} and [O II]{\lambda}3727 line emission, which indicates significant ongoing star formation. They constitute about ~ 0.5% of the largest, optically-selected, low-redshift BCG sample, and the fraction is a strong function of cluster richness. Their star formation history can be well described by a recent minor and short starburst superimposed on an old stellar component, with the recent episode of star formation contributing on average only less than 1 percent of the total stellar mass. We show that the more massive star-forming BCGs in richer clusters tend to have higher star formation rate (SFR) and specific SFR (SFR per unit galaxy stellar mass). We also compare their statistical properties with a control sample selected from X-ray luminous clusters, and show that the fraction of star-forming BCGs in X-ray luminous clusters is almost one order of magnitude larger than that in optically-selected clusters. BCGs with star formation in cooling flow clusters usually have very flat optical spectra and show the most active star formation, which may be connected with cooling flows.
We investigate the utility of the Tunable Filters (TFs) for obtaining flux calibrated emission line maps of extended objects such as galactic nebulae and nearby galaxies, using the OSIRIS instrument at the 10.4-m GTC. Despite a relatively large field of view of OSIRIS (8'x8'), the change in the wavelength across the field (~80 Ang) and the long-tail of Tunable Filter (TF) spectral response function, are hindrances for obtaining accurate flux calibrated emission-line maps of extended sources. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that emission-line maps useful for diagnostics of nebula can be generated over the entire field of view of OSIRIS, if we make use of theoretically well-understood characteristics of TFs. We have successfully generated the flux-calibrated images of the nearby, large late-type spiral galaxy M101 in the emission lines of Halpha, [NII]6583, [SII]6716 and [SII]6731. We find that the present uncertainty in setting the central wavelength of TFs (~1 Ang), is the biggest source of error in the emission-line fluxes. By comparing the Halpha fluxes of HII regions in our images with the fluxes derived from Halpha images obtained using narrow-band filters, we estimate an error of ~13% in our fluxes. The flux calibration of the images was carried out by fitting the SDSS griz magnitudes of in-frame stars with the stellar spectra from the SDSS spectral database. This method resulted in an accuracy of 3% in flux calibration of any narrow-band image, which is as good as, if not better, to that is feasible using the observations of spectrophotometric standard stars. Thus time-consuming calibration images need not be taken. In an appendix, we give guidelines for selecting optimal parameters for obtaining emission line maps useful for nebular diagnostic purposes.
Mass and spin are often referred to as the two `hairs' of astrophysical black holes, as they are the only two parameters needed to completely characterize them in General Relativity. The interaction between black holes and their environment is where complexity lies, as the relevant physical processes occur over a large range of scales. This is particularly relevant in the case of super-massive black holes (SMBHs), hosted in galaxy centers and surrounded by swirling gas and various generations of stars, that compete with the SMBH for gas consumption, and affect the thermodynamics of the gas itself. How dynamics and thermodynamics in such fiery environment affect the angular momentum of the gas accreted onto SMBHs, and hence black hole spins is uncertain. We explore the interaction between SMBHs and their environment during active phases through simulations of circum-nuclear discs (CND) around black holes in quasars hosted in the remnants of galaxy mergers. These are the first 3D (sub-)parsec resolution simulations that study the evolution of the SMBH spin explicitly including the effects of star formation, stellar winds, supernova feedback, and radiative transfer. This approach is crucial to investigate the angular momentum of the material that is accreted by the hole. We find that maximally rotating black holes are slightly spun down, and slow-rotating holes are spun up, leading to upper-intermediate equilibrium values of the spin parameter (~0.7-0.9). Our results suggest that, when quasar activity is driven by mergers of galaxies of similar sizes, stellar feedback does not induce strong chaos in the gas inflow, and that most SMBHs at the end of the quasar epoch have substantial spins.
We discuss the possibility that inflation is driven by the sgoldstino, the superpartner of the goldstino. Unlike in generic supergravity scenarios, the sgoldstino decouples from all other fields in the theory, which allows for a simple and robust inflationary model. We argue that the two-field model given by this single complex scalar correctly captures the full multifield inflationary phenomenology. On the other hand, the assumption of stability, along the entire inflationary trajectory, of the supersymmetry-preserving sector that is integrated out leads to supplementary constraints on the parent supergravity. We investigate small field, large field and hybrid sgoldstino inflation scenarios and provide some working examples. They are subject to the usual fine-tuning issues that are common to all supergravity models of inflation. We comment on some other recently proposed sgoldstino inflation models.
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