Spectroscopic Study of Globular Clusters in the Halo of M31 with Xinglong 2.16m Telescope II: Dynamics, Metallicity and Age

(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.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in RA

Pluto's Light Curve in 1933-1934

We are reporting on a new accurate photographic light curve of Pluto for 1933-1934 when the heliocentric distance was 40 AU. We used 43 B-band and V-band images of Pluto on 32 plates taken on 15 nights from 19 March 1933 to 10 March 1934. Most of these plates were taken with the Mount Wilson 60" and 100" telescopes, but 7 of the plates (now at the Harvard College Observatory) were taken with the 12" and 16" Metcalf doublets at Oak Ridge. The plates were measured with an iris diaphragm photometer, which has an average one-sigma photometric error on these plates of 0.08 mag as measured by the repeatability of constant comparison stars. The modern B and V magnitudes for the comparison stars were measured with the Lowell Observatory Hall 1.1-m telescope. The magnitudes in the plate's photographic system were converted to the Johnson B- and V-system after correction with color terms, even though they are small in size. We find that the average B-band mean opposition magnitude of Pluto in 1933-1934 was 15.73 +- 0.01, and we see a roughly sinusoidal modulation on the rotational period (6.38 days) with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.11 +- 0.03 mag. With this, we show that Pluto darkened by 5% from 1933-1934 to 1953-1955. This darkening from 1933-1934 to 1953-1955 cannot be due to changing viewing geometry (as both epochs had identical sub-Earth latitudes), so our observations must record a real albedo change over the southern hemisphere. The later darkening trend from 1954 to the 1980s has been explained by changing viewing geometry (as more of the darker northern hemisphere comes into view). Thus, we now have strong evidence for albedo changes on the surface of Pluto, and these are most easily explained by the systematic sublimation of frosts from the sunward pole that led to a drop in the mean surface albedo.Comment: Icarus in press, 24 page

Globular Clusters in the Outer Halo of M31

In this paper, we present photometry of 53 globular clusters (GCs) in the M31 outer halo, including the {\sl GALEX} FUV and NUV, SDSS $ugriz$, 15 intermediate-band filters of BATC, and 2MASS $JHK_{\rm s}$ bands. By comparing the multicolour photometry with stellar population synthesis models, we determine the metallicities, ages, and masses for these GCs, aiming to probe the merging/accretion history of M31. We find no clear trend of metallicity and mass with the de-projected radius. The halo GCs with age younger than $\approx$ 8 Gyr are mostly located at the de-projected radii around 100 kpc, but this may be due to a selection effect. We also find that the halo GCs have consistent metallicities with their spatially-associated substructures, which provides further evidence of the physical association between them. Both the disk and halo GCs in M31 show a bimodal luminosity distribution. However, we should emphasize that there are more faint halo GCs which are not being seen in the disk. The bimodal luminosity function of the halo GCs may reflect different origin or evolution environment in their original hosts. The M31 halo GCs includes one intermediate metallicity group ($-1.5 <$ [Fe/H] $< -0.4$) and one metal-poor group ([Fe/H] $<-1.5$), while the disk GCs have one metal-rich group more. There are considerable differences between the halo GCs in M31 and the Milky Way (MW). The total number of M31 GCs is approximately three times more numerous than that of the MW, however, M31 has about six times the number of halo GCs in the MW. Compared to M31 halo GCs, the Galactic halo ones are mostly metal-poor. Both the numerous halo GCs and the higher-metallicity component are suggestive of an active merger history of M31.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory at Nonzero Chemical Potential and Temperature

SU(2) lattice gauge theory with four flavors of quarks is simulated at nonzero chemical potential mu and temperature T and the results are compared to the predictions of Effective Lagrangians. Simulations on 16^4 lattices indicate that at zero T the theory experiences a second order phase transition to a diquark condensate state which is well described by mean field theory. Nonzero T and mu are studied on 12^3 times 6 lattices. For low T, increasing mu takes the system through a line of second order phase transitions to a diquark condensed phase. Increasing T at high mu, the system passes through a line of first order transitions from the diquark phase to the quark-gluon plasma phase.Comment: Lattice2002(nonzerot), 3 pages, 3 figure

Large rescaling of the Higgs condensate: theoretical motivations and lattice results

In the Standard Model the Fermi constant is associated with the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field, `the condensate', usually believed to be a cutoff-independent quantity. General arguments related to the `triviality' of $\Phi^4$ theory in 4 space-time dimensions suggest, however, a dramatic renormalization effect in the continuum limit that is clearly visible on the relatively large lattices available today. The result can be crucial for the Higgs phenomenology and in any context where spontaneous symmetry breaking is induced through scalar fields.Comment: LATTICE99(Higgs) 3 pages, 3 figure