1,533 research outputs found
A Correlation Between Hard Gamma-ray Sources and Cosmic Voids Along the Line of Sight
We estimate the galaxy density along lines of sight to hard extragalactic
gamma-ray sources by correlating source positions on the sky with a void
catalog based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Extragalactic gamma-ray
sources that are detected at very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) or have been
highlighted as VHE-emitting candidates in the Fermi Large Area Telescope hard
source catalog (together referred to as "VHE-like" sources) are distributed
along underdense lines of sight at the 2.4 sigma level. There is also a less
suggestive correlation for the Fermi hard source population (1.7 sigma). A
correlation between 10-500 GeV flux and underdense fraction along the line of
sight for VHE-like and Fermi hard sources is found at 2.4 sigma and 2.6 sigma,
respectively. The preference for underdense sight lines is not displayed by
gamma-ray emitting galaxies within the second Fermi catalog, containing sources
detected above 100 MeV, or the SDSS DR7 quasar catalog. We investigate whether
this marginal correlation might be a result of lower extragalactic background
light (EBL) photon density within the underdense regions and find that, even in
the most extreme case of a entirely underdense sight line, the EBL photon
density is only 2% less than the nominal EBL density. Translating this into
gamma-ray attenuation along the line of sight for a highly attenuated source
with opacity tau(E,z) ~5, we estimate that the attentuation of gamma-rays
decreases no more than 10%. This decrease, although non-neglible, is unable to
account for the apparent hard source correlation with underdense lines of
sight.Comment: Accepted by MNRA
Catching GRBs with atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes
Fermi has shown GRBs to be a source of >10 GeV photons. We present an
estimate of the detection rate of GRBs with a next generation Cherenkov
telescope. Our predictions are based on the observed properties of GRBs
detected by Fermi, combined with the spectral properties and redshift
determinations for the bursts population by instruments operating at lower
energies. While detection of VHE emission from GRBs has eluded ground-based
instruments thus far, our results suggest that ground-based detection may be
within reach of the proposed Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), albeit with a low
rate, 0.25 - 0.5/yr. Such a detection would help constrain the emission
mechanism of gamma-ray emission from GRBs. Photons at these energies from
distant GRBs are affected by the UV-optical background light, and a
ground-based detection could also provide a valuable probe of the Extragalactic
Background Light (EBL) in place at high redshift.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of "Gamma Ray Bursts
2010", held Nov. 1-4, 2010 in Annapolis, M
The Implications of Galaxy Formation Models for the TeV Observations of Current Detectors
This paper represents a step toward constraining galaxy formation models via
TeV gamm a ray observations. We use semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to
predict a spectral distribution for the intergalactic infrared photon field,
which in turn yields information about the absorption of TeV gamma rays from
extra-galactic sources. By making predictions for integral flux observations at
>200 GeV for several known EGRE T sources, we directly compare our models with
current observational upper limits obtained by Whipple. In addition, our
predictions may offer a guide to the observing programs for the current
population of TeV gamma ray observatories.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 6th TeV
Workshop at Snowbird, U
Toy Models for Galaxy Formation versus Simulations
We describe simple useful toy models for key processes of galaxy formation in
its most active phase, at z > 1, and test the approximate expressions against
the typical behaviour in a suite of high-resolution hydro-cosmological
simulations of massive galaxies at z = 4-1. We address in particular the
evolution of (a) the total mass inflow rate from the cosmic web into galactic
haloes based on the EPS approximation, (b) the penetration of baryonic streams
into the inner galaxy, (c) the disc size, (d) the implied steady-state gas
content and star-formation rate (SFR) in the galaxy subject to mass
conservation and a universal star-formation law, (e) the inflow rate within the
disc to a central bulge and black hole as derived using energy conservation and
self-regulated Q ~ 1 violent disc instability (VDI), and (f) the implied steady
state in the disc and bulge. The toy models provide useful approximations for
the behaviour of the simulated galaxies. We find that (a) the inflow rate is
proportional to mass and to (1+z)^5/2, (b) the penetration to the inner halo is
~50% at z = 4-2, (c) the disc radius is ~5% of the virial radius, (d) the
galaxies reach a steady state with the SFR following the accretion rate into
the galaxy, (e) there is an intense gas inflow through the disc, comparable to
the SFR, following the predictions of VDI, and (f) the galaxies approach a
steady state with the bulge mass comparable to the disc mass, where the
draining of gas by SFR, outflows and disc inflows is replenished by fresh
accretion. Given the agreement with simulations, these toy models are useful
for understanding the complex phenomena in simple terms and for
back-of-the-envelope predictions.Comment: Resubmitted to MNRAS after responding to referee's comments; Revised
figure
Understanding the Structural Scaling Relations of Early-Type Galaxies
We use a large suite of hydrodynamical simulations of binary galaxy mergers
to construct and calibrate a physical prescription for computing the effective
radii and velocity dispersions of spheroids. We implement this prescription
within a semi-analytic model embedded in merger trees extracted from the
Bolshoi Lambda-CDM N-body simulation, accounting for spheroid growth via major
and minor mergers as well as disk instabilities. We find that without disk
instabilities, our model does not predict sufficient numbers of intermediate
mass early-type galaxies in the local universe. Spheroids also form earlier in
models with spheroid growth via disk instabilities. Our model correctly
predicts the normalization, slope, and scatter of the low-redshift size-mass
and Fundamental Plane relations for early type galaxies. It predicts a degree
of curvature in the Faber-Jackson relation that is not seen in local
observations, but this could be alleviated if higher mass spheroids have more
bottom-heavy initial mass functions. The model also correctly predicts the
observed strong evolution of the size-mass relation for spheroids out to higher
redshifts, as well as the slower evolution in the normalization of the
Faber-Jackson relation. We emphasize that these are genuine predictions of the
model since it was tuned to match hydrodynamical simulations and not these
observations.Comment: Submitted to MNRA
Constraining neutrino masses with the ISW-galaxy correlation function
Temperature anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are
affected by the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (lISW) effect caused by any
time-variation of the gravitational potential on linear scales. Dark energy is
not the only source of lISW, since massive neutrinos induce a small decay of
the potential on small scales during both matter and dark energy domination. In
this work, we study the prospect of using the cross-correlation between CMB and
galaxy density maps as a tool for constraining the neutrino mass. On the one
hand massive neutrinos reduce the cross-correlation spectrum because
free-streaming slows down structure formation; on the other hand, they enhance
it through their change in the effective linear growth. We show that in the
observable range of scales and redshifts, the first effect dominates, but the
second one is not negligible. We carry out an error forecast analysis by
fitting some mock data inspired by the Planck satellite, Dark Energy Survey
(DES) and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The inclusion of the
cross-correlation data from Planck and LSST increases the sensitivity to the
neutrino mass m_nu by 38% (and to the dark energy equation of state w by 83%)
with respect to Planck alone. The correlation between Planck and DES brings a
far less significant improvement. This method is not potentially as good for
detecting m_nu as the measurement of galaxy, cluster or cosmic shear power
spectra, but since it is independent and affected by different systematics, it
remains potentially interesting if the total neutrino mass is of the order of
0.2 eV; if instead it is close to the lower bound from atmospheric
oscillations, m_nu ~ 0.05 eV, we do not expect the ISW-galaxy correlation to be
ever sensitive to m_nu.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. References added. Accepted for publication in
Phys.Rev.
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