439 research outputs found
On the effectiveness of mixing in violent relaxation
Relaxation processes in collisionless dynamics lead to peculiar behavior in
systems with long-range interactions such as self-gravitating systems,
non-neutral plasmas and wave-particle systems. These systems, adequately
described by the Vlasov equation, present quasi-stationary states (QSS), i.e.
long lasting intermediate stages of the dynamics that occur after a short
significant evolution called "violent relaxation". The nature of the
relaxation, in the absence of collisions, is not yet fully understood. We
demonstrate in this article the occurrence of stretching and folding behavior
in numerical simulations of the Vlasov equation, providing a plausible
relaxation mechanism that brings the system from its initial condition into the
QSS regime. Area-preserving discrete-time maps with a mean-field coupling term
are found to display a similar behaviour in phase space as the Vlasov system.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
The Origin of the Brightest Cluster Galaxies
Most clusters and groups of galaxies contain a giant elliptical galaxy in
their centres which far outshines and outweighs normal ellipticals. The origin
of these brightest cluster galaxies is intimately related to the collapse and
formation of the cluster. Using an N-body simulation of a cluster of galaxies
in a hierarchical cosmological model, we show that galaxy merging naturally
produces a massive, central galaxy with surface brightness and velocity
dispersion profiles similar to observed BCG's. To enhance the resolution of the
simulation, 100 dark halos at are replaced with self-consistent
disk+bulge+halo galaxy models following a Tully-Fisher relation using 100000
particles for the 20 largest galaxies and 10000 particles for the remaining
ones. This technique allows us to analyze the stellar and dark matter
components independently. The central galaxy forms through the merger of
several massive galaxies along a filament early in the cluster's history.
Galactic cannibalism of smaller galaxies through dynamical friction over a
Hubble time only accounts for a small fraction of the accreted mass. The galaxy
is a flattened, triaxial object whose long axis aligns with the primordial
filament and the long axis of the cluster galaxy distribution agreeing with
observed trends for galaxy-cluster alignment.Comment: Revised and accepted in ApJ, 25 pages, 10 figures, online version
available at http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~dubinski/bcg
A dynamical origin for early mass segregation in young star clusters
Some young star clusters show a degree of mass segregation that is
inconsistent with the effects of standard two-body relaxation from an initially
unsegregated system without substructure, in virial equilibrium, and it is
unclear whether current cluster formation models can account for this degree of
initial segregation in clusters of significant mass. In this Letter we
demonstrate that mergers of small clumps that are either initially mass
segregated, or in which mass segregation can be produced by two-body relaxation
before they merge, generically lead to larger systems which inherit the
progenitor clumps' segregation. We conclude that clusters formed in this way
are naturally mass segregated, accounting for the anomalous observations and
suggesting that this process of prompt mass segregation due to initial clumping
should be taken fully into account in constructing cluster dynamical models.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ
Quasi-equilibria in one-dimensional self-gravitating many body systems
The microscopic dynamics of one-dimensional self-gravitating many-body
systems is studied. We examine two courses of the evolution which has the
isothermal and stationary water-bag distribution as initial conditions. We
investigate the evolution of the systems toward thermal equilibrium. It is
found that when the number of degrees of freedom of the system is increased,
the water-bag distribution becomes a quasi-equilibrium, and also the
stochasticity of the system reduces. This results suggest that the phase space
of the system is effectively not ergodic and the system with large degreees of
freedom approaches to the near-integrable one.Comment: 21pages + 7 figures (available upon request), revtex, submitted to
Physical Review
Hubble Space Telescope Observations of cD Galaxies and their Globular Cluster Systems
We have used WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain F450W and F814W
images of four cD galaxies (NGC 541 in Abell 194, NGC 2832 in Abell 779, NGC
4839 in Abell 1656 and NGC 7768 in Abell 2666) in the range 5400 < cz < 8100 km
s^{-1}. For NGC 541, the HST data are supplemented by ground-based B and I
images obtained with the FORS1 on the VLT. We present surface brightness and
color profiles for each of the four galaxies, confirming their classification
as cD galaxies. Isophotal analyses reveal the presence of subarcsecond-scale
dust disks in the nuclei of NGC 541 and NGC 7768. Despite the extreme nature of
these galaxies in terms of spatial extent and luminosity, our analysis of their
globular cluster systems reveals no anomalies in terms of specific frequencies,
metallicity gradients, average metallicities, or the metallicity offset between
the globulars and the host galaxy. We show that the latter offset appears
roughly constant at \Delta [Fe/H] ~ 0.8 dex for early-type galaxies spanning a
luminosity range of roughly four orders of magnitude. We combine the globular
cluster metallicity distributions with an empirical technique described in a
series of earlier papers to investigate the form of the protogalactic mass
spectrum in these cD galaxies. We find that the observed GC metallicity
distributions are consistent with those expected if cD galaxies form through
the cannibalism of numerous galaxies and protogalactic fragments which formed
their stars and globular clusters before capture and disruption. However, the
properties of their GC systems suggest that dynamical friction is not the
primary mechanism by which these galaxies are assembled. We argue that cDs
instead form rapidly, via hierarchical merging, prior to cluster virialization.Comment: 36 pages, 20 postscript figures, uses emulateapj. Accepted for
publication in the Astronomical Journa
On the Stability of Quasi-Equilibrium Self-Gravitating Configurations in a Tidal Field
The possibility that quasi-equilibrium self-gravitating galaxy-like
configurations exist in a tidal field is analyzed in this paper. More
specifically, we address the question of how to predict initial configurations
modeling galaxies that are able to survive environmental effects in a dense
environment for a Hubble time or so, provided thay dynamical friction is
neglected. The initial quasi-equilibrium configurations have been built up
taking into account the external tidal field produced by the halo. It modifies
the escape velocity field of the configuration, compared with isolated
configurations. The survival of the configurations as they orbit inside the
halos has been studied through N-body simulations. As a general result, it has
been found out that the bulk of the models is conserved along 12.5 Gyears of
evolution, and that the low rates of mass losses they experience are consistent
with those expected when the adiabatic protection hypothesis is at work. So,
solutions for galaxy configurations in tidal quasi-equilibrium have been found,
showing that tidal stripping in quiescent phases does not seem to be very
important, unless that the density of the galaxy environment at its formation
had been much lower than that of the galaxy environment at the point of its
orbit where the tidal perturbation is maximum. (Abridged)Comment: 36 pages, 7 postscript figures, to be published in Ap
Forebrain Ptf1a Is Required for Sexual Differentiation of the Brain
The mammalian brain undergoes sexual differentiation by gonadal hormones during the perinatal critical period. However, the machinery at earlier stages has not been well studied. We found that Ptf1a is expressed in certain neuroepithelial cells and immature neurons around the third ventricle that give rise to various neurons in several hypothalamic nuclei. We show that conditional Ptf1a-deficient mice (Ptf1a cKO) exhibit abnormalities in sex-biased behaviors and reproductive organs in both sexes. Gonadal hormone administration to gonadectomized animals revealed that the abnormal behavior is caused by disorganized sexual development of the knockout brain. Accordingly, expression of sex-biased genes was severely altered in the cKO hypothalamus. In particular, Kiss1, important for sexual differentiation of the brain, was drastically reduced in the cKO hypothalamus, which may contribute to the observed phenotypes in the Ptf1a cKO. These findings suggest that forebrain Ptf1a is one of the earliest regulators for sexual differentiation of the brain
Optical polarization properties of (11–22) semi-polar InGaN LEDs with a wide spectral range
Electroluminescence polarization measurements have been performed on a series of semi-polar InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on semi-polar (11–22) templates with a high crystal quality. The emission wavelengths of these LEDs cover a wide spectral region from 443 to 555 nm. A systematic study has been carried out in order to investigate the influence of both indium content and injection current on polarization properties, where a clear polarization switching at approximately 470 nm has been observed. The shortest wavelength LED (443 nm) exhibits a positive 0.15 polarization degree, while the longest wavelength LED (555 nm) shows a negative −0.33 polarization degree. All the longer wavelength LEDs with an emission wavelength above 470 nm exhibit negative polarization degrees, and they further demonstrate that the dependence of polarization degree on injection current enhances with increasing emission wavelength. Moreover, the absolute value of the polarization degree decreases with increasing injection current. In contrast, the polarization degree of the 443 nm blue LED remains constant with changing injection current. This discrepancy can be attributed to a significant difference in the density of states (DOS) of the valence subbands
Fasting and High-Fat Diet Alter Histone Deacetylase Expression in the Medial Hypothalamus
Increasing attention is now being given to the epigenetic regulation of animal and human behaviors including the stress response and drug addiction. Epigenetic factors also influence feeding behavior and metabolic phenotypes, such as obesity and insulin sensitivity. In response to fasting and high-fat diets, the medial hypothalamus changes the expression of neuropeptides regulating feeding, metabolism, and reproductive behaviors. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are involved in the epigenetic control of gene expression and alter behavior in response to a variety of environmental factors. Here, we examined the expression of HDAC family members in the medial hypothalamus of mice in response to either fasting or a high-fat diet. In response to fasting, HDAC3 and −4 expression levels increased while HDAC10 and −11 levels decreased. Four weeks on a high-fat diet resulted in the increased expression of HDAC5 and −8. Moreover, fasting decreased the number of acetylated histone H3- and acetylated histone H4-positive cells in the ventrolateral subdivision of the ventromedial hypothalamus. Therefore, HDACs may be implicated in altered gene expression profiles in the medial hypothalamus under different metabolic states
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