Loss of mass and stability of galaxies in MOND

The self-binding energy and stability of a galaxy in MOND-based gravity are curiously decreasing functions of its center of mass acceleration towards neighbouring mass concentrations. A tentative indication of this breaking of the Strong Equivalence Principle in field galaxies is the RAVE-observed escape speed in the Milky Way. Another consequence is that satellites of field galaxies will move on nearly Keplerian orbits at large radii (100 - 500 kpc), with a declining speed below the asymptotically constant naive MOND prediction. But consequences of an environment-sensitive gravity are even more severe in clusters, where member galaxies accelerate fast: no more Dark-Halo-like potential is present to support galaxies, meaning that extended axisymmetric disks of gas and stars are likely unstable. These predicted reappearance of asymptotic Keplerian velocity curves and disappearance of "stereotypic galaxies" in clusters are falsifiable with targeted surveys.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letter

Admission to hospital following head injury in England: Incidence and socio-economic associations

BACKGROUND: Head injury in England is common. Evidence suggests that socio-economic factors may cause variation in incidence, and this variation may affect planning for services to meet the needs of those who have sustained a head injury. METHODS: Socio-economic data were obtained from the UK Office for National Statistics and merged with Hospital Episodes Statistics obtained from the Department of Health. All patients admitted for head injury with ICD-10 codes S00.0–S09.9 during 2001–2 and 2002–3 were included and collated at the level of the extant Health Authorities (HA) for 2002, and Primary Care Trust (PCT) for 2003. Incidence was determined, and cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to look at patterns and associations. Results: 112,718 patients were admitted during 2001–2 giving a hospitalised incidence rate for England of 229 per 100,000. This rate varied across the English HA's ranging from 91–419 per 100,000. The rate remained unchanged for 2002–3 with a similar magnitude of variation across PCT's. Three clusters of HA's were identified from the 2001–2 data; those typical of London, those of the Shire counties, and those of Other Urban authorities. Socio-economic factors were found to account for a high proportion of the variance in incidence for 2001–2. The same pattern emerged for 2002–3 at the PCT level. The use of public transport for travel to work is associated with a decreased incidence and lifestyle indicators, such as the numbers of young unemployed, increase the incidence. CONCLUSION: Head injury incidence in England varies by a factor of 4.6 across HA's and PCT's. Planning head injury related services at the local level thus needs to be based on local incidence figures rather than regional or national estimates. Socio-economic factors are shown to be associated with admission, including travel to work patterns and lifestyle indicators, which suggests that incidence is amenable to policy initiatives at the macro level as well as preventive programmes targeted at key groups

Resolving the timing problem of the globular clusters orbiting the Fornax dwarf galaxy

We re-investigate the old problem of the survival of the five globular clusters orbiting the Fornax dwarf galaxy in both standard and modified Newtonian dynamics. For the first time in the history of the topic, we use accurate mass models for the Fornax dwarf, obtained through Jeans modelling of the recently published line of sight velocity dispersion data, and we are also not resigned to circular orbits for the globular clusters. Previously conceived problems stem from fixing the starting distances of the globulars to be less than half the tidal radius. We relax this constraint since there is absolutely no evidence for it and show that the dark matter paradigm, with either cusped or cored dark matter profiles, has no trouble sustaining the orbits of the two least massive globular clusters for a Hubble time almost regardless of their initial distance from Fornax. The three most massive globulars can remain in orbit as long as their starting distances are marginally outside the tidal radius. The outlook for modified Newtonian dynamics is also not nearly as bleak as previously reported. Although dynamical friction inside the tidal radius is far stronger in MOND, outside dynamical friction is negligible due to the absence of stars. This allows highly radial orbits to survive, but more importantly circular orbits at distances more than 85% of Fornax's tidal radius to survive indefinitely. The probability of the globular clusters being on circular orbits at this distance compared with their current projected distances is discussed and shown to be plausible. Finally, if we ignore the presence of the most massive globular (giving it a large line of sight distance) we demonstrate that the remaining four globulars can survive within the tidal radius for the Hubble time with perfectly sensible orbits.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, MNRAS in pres

Kinematic deprojection and mass inversion of spherical systems of known velocity anisotropy

Traditionally, the mass / velocity anisotropy degeneracy (MAD) inherent in the spherical, stationary, non-streaming Jeans equation has been handled by assuming a mass profile and fitting models to the observed kinematical data. Here, the opposite approach is considered: the equation of anisotropic kinematic projection is inverted for known arbitrary anisotropy to yield the space radial velocity dispersion profile in terms of an integral involving the radial profiles of anisotropy and isotropic dynamical pressure. Then, through the Jeans equation, the mass profile is derived in terms of double integrals of observable quantities. Single integral formulas for both deprojection and mass inversion are provided for several simple anisotropy models (isotropic, radial, circular, general constant, Osipkov-Merritt, Mamon-Lokas and Diemand-Moore-Stadel). Tests of the mass inversion on NFW models with these anisotropy models yield accurate results in the case of perfect observational data, and typically better than 70% (in 4 cases out of 5) accurate mass profiles for the sampling errors expected from current observational data on clusters of galaxies. For the NFW model with mildly increasing radial anisotropy, the mass is found to be insensitive to the adopted anisotropy profile at 7 scale radii and to the adopted anisotropy radius at 3 scale radii. This anisotropic mass inversion method is a useful complementary tool to analyze the mass and anisotropy profiles of spherical systems. It provides the practical means to lift the MAD in quasi-spherical systems such as globular clusters, round dwarf spheroidal and elliptical galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies, when the anisotropy of the tracer is expected to be linearly related to the slope of its density.Comment: Accepted in MNRAS. 19 pages. Minor changes from previous version: Table 1 of nomenclature, some math simplifications, paragraph in Discussion on alternative deprojection method by deconvolution. 19 pages. 6 figure

Altered splicing of the BIN1 muscle-specific exon in humans and dogs with highly progressive centronuclear myopathy

Amphiphysin 2, encoded by BIN1, is a key factor for membrane sensing and remodelling in different cell types. Homozygous BIN1 mutations in ubiquitously expressed exons are associated with autosomal recessive centronuclear myopathy (CNM), a mildly progressive muscle disorder typically showing abnormal nuclear centralization on biopsies. In addition, misregulation of BIN1 splicing partially accounts for the muscle defects in myotonic dystrophy (DM). However, the muscle-specific function of amphiphysin 2 and its pathogenicity in both muscle disorders are not well understood. In this study we identified and characterized the first mutation affecting the splicing of the muscle-specific BIN1 exon 11 in a consanguineous family with rapidly progressive and ultimately fatal centronuclear myopathy. In parallel, we discovered a mutation in the same BIN1 exon 11 acceptor splice site as the genetic cause of the canine Inherited Myopathy of Great Danes (IMGD). Analysis of RNA from patient muscle demonstrated complete skipping of exon 11 and BIN1 constructs without exon 11 were unable to promote membrane tubulation in differentiated myotubes. Comparative immunofluorescence and ultrastructural analyses of patient and canine biopsies revealed common structural defects, emphasizing the importance of amphiphysin 2 in membrane remodelling and maintenance of the skeletal muscle triad. Our data demonstrate that the alteration of the muscle-specific function of amphiphysin 2 is a common pathomechanism for centronuclear myopathy, myotonic dystrophy, and IMGD. The IMGD dog is the first faithful model for human BIN1-related CNM and represents a mammalian model available for preclinical trials of potential therapies

On the central stellar mass density and the inside-out growth of early-type galaxies

[Abridged] In this paper we derive the central stellar mass density within a fixed radius and the effective stellar mass density within the effective radius for a complete sample of 34 ETGs morphologically selected at 0.9<z_{spec}<2 and compare them with those derived for a sample of ~900 local ETGs in the same mass range. We find that the central stellar mass density of high-z ETGs spans just an order of magnitude and it is similar to the one of local ETGs as actually found in previous studies.However, we find that the effective stellar mass density of high-z ETGs spans three orders of magnitude, exactly as the local ETGs and that it is similar to the effective stellar mass density of local ETGs showing that it has not changed since z~1.5, in the last 9-10 Gyr. Thus, the wide spread of the effective stellar mass density observed up to z~1.5 must originate earlier, at z>2. Also, we show that the small scatter of the central mass density of ETGs compared to the large scatter of the effective mass density is simply a peculiar feature of the Sersic profile hence, independent of redshift and of any assembly history experienced by galaxies. Thus, it has no connection with the possible inside-out growth of ETGs. Finally, we find a tight correlation between the central stellar mass density and the total stellar mass of ETGs in the sense that the central mass density increases with mass as M^{~0.6}. This implies that the fraction of the central stellar mass of ETGs decreases with the mass of the galaxy. These correlations are valid for the whole population of ETGs considered independently of their redshift suggesting that they originate in the early-phases of their formation.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS (MNRAS version

The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: the dark matter in NGC 4494

We present new Planetary Nebula Spectrograph observations of the ordinary elliptical galaxy NGC 4494, resulting in positions and velocities of 255 PNe out to 7 effective radii (25 kpc). We also present new wide-field surface photometry from MMT/Megacam, and long-slit stellar kinematics from VLT/FORS2. The spatial and kinematical distributions of the PNe agree with the field stars in the region of overlap. The mean rotation is relatively low, with a possible kinematic axis twist outside 1 Re. The velocity dispersion profile declines with radius, though not very steeply, down to ~70 km/s at the last data point. We have constructed spherical dynamical models of the system, including Jeans analyses with multi-component LCDM-motivated galaxies as well as logarithmic potentials. These models include special attention to orbital anisotropy, which we constrain using fourth-order velocity moments. Given several different sets of modelling methods and assumptions, we find consistent results for the mass profile within the radial range constrained by the data. Some dark matter (DM) is required by the data; our best-fit solution has a radially anisotropic stellar halo, a plausible stellar mass-to-light ratio, and a DM halo with an unexpectedly low central density. We find that this result does not substantially change with a flattened axisymmetric model. Taken together with other results for galaxy halo masses, we find suggestions for a puzzling pattern wherein most intermediate-luminosity galaxies have very low concentration halos, while some high-mass ellipticals have very high concentrations. We discuss some possible implications of these results for DM and galaxy formation.Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures. MNRAS, accepte

Results from PAMELA, ATIC and FERMI : Pulsars or Dark Matter ?

It is well known that the dark matter dominates the dynamics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Its constituents remain a mystery despite an assiduous search for them over the past three decades. Recent results from the satellite-based PAMELA experiment detect an excess in the positron fraction at energies between 10-100 GeV in the secondary cosmic ray spectrum. Other experiments namely ATIC, HESS and FERMI show an excess in the total electron (\ps + \el) spectrum for energies greater 100 GeV. These excesses in the positron fraction as well as the electron spectrum could arise in local astrophysical processes like pulsars, or can be attributed to the annihilation of the dark matter particles. The second possibility gives clues to the possible candidates for the dark matter in galaxies and other astrophysical systems. In this article, we give a report of these exciting developments.Comment: 27 Pages, extensively revised and significantly extended, to appear in Pramana as topical revie

X-ray Group and cluster mass profiles in MOND: Unexplained mass on the group scale

Although very successful in explaining the observed conspiracy between the baryonic distribution and the gravitational field in spiral galaxies without resorting to dark matter (DM), the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) paradigm still requires DM in X-ray bright systems. Here, to get a handle on the distribution and importance of this DM, and thus on its possible form, we deconstruct the mass profiles of 26 X-ray emitting systems in MOND, with temperatures ranging from 0.5 to 9 keV. Initially we compute the MOND dynamical mass as a function of radius, then subtract the known gas mass along with a component of galaxies which includes the cD galaxy with $M/L_K=1$. Next we test the compatibility of the required DM with ordinary massive neutrinos at the experimental limit of detection ($m_{\nu}=2$ eV), with density given by the Tremaine-Gunn limit. Even by considering that the neutrino density stays constant and maximal within the central 100 or 150 kpc (which is the absolute upper limit of a possible neutrino contribution there), we show that these neutrinos can never account for the required DM within this region. The natural corollary of this finding is that, whereas clusters (T \ga 3 keV) might have most of their mass accounted for if ordinary neutrinos have a 2 eV mass, groups (T \lsim 2 keV) cannot be explained by a 2 eV neutrino contribution. This means that, for instance, cluster baryonic dark matter (CBDM, Milgrom 2007) or even sterile neutrinos would present a more satisfactory solution to the problem of missing mass in MOND X-ray emitting systems.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted in MNRA

The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: a standard LCDM halo around NGC 4374?

As part of our current programme to test LCDM predictions for dark matter (DM) haloes using extended kinematical observations of early-type galaxies, we present a dynamical analysis of the bright elliptical galaxy NGC 4374 (M84) based on ~450 Planetary Nebulae (PNe) velocities from the PN.Spectrograph, along with extended long-slit stellar kinematics. This is the first such analysis of a galaxy from our survey with a radially constant velocity dispersion profile. We find that the spatial and kinematical distributions of the PNe agree with the field stars in the region of overlap. The velocity kurtosis is consistent with zero at almost all radii. We construct a series of Jeans models, fitting both velocity dispersion and kurtosis to help break the mass-anisotropy degeneracy. Our mass models include DM halos either with shallow cores or with central cusps as predicted by cosmological simulations - along with the novel introduction in this context of adiabatic halo contraction from baryon infall. Both classes of models confirm a very massive dark halo around NGC 4374, demonstrating that PN kinematics data are well able to detect such haloes when present. Considering the default cosmological mass model, we confirm earlier suggestions that bright galaxies tend to have halo concentrations higher than LCDM predictions, but this is found to be solved if either a Salpeter IMF or adiabatic contraction with a Kroupa IMF is assumed. Thus for the first time a case is found where the PN dynamics may well be consistent with a standard dark matter halo. A cored halo can also fit the data, and prefers a stellar mass consistent with a Salpeter IMF. The less dramatic dark matter content found in lower-luminosity "ordinary" ellipticals suggests a bimodality in the halo properties which may be produced by divergent baryonic effects during their assembly histories.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures. MNRAS, accepte