Blank field submm sources, failed stars, and the dark matter

I discuss the possibility that a significant fraction (possibly a third) of the faint SCUBA sources are not in fact high redshift galaxies, but actually local cold dark dusty gas clouds emitting only in the submm, with a temperature around 7K. I show that the observational constraints on such a population - dynamical limits on missing matter, the FIR-mm background, and the absence of gross high-latitude extinction features - constrains the mass of such objects to be in the range 0.1 - 10 Jupiter masses. The characteristics deduced are closely similar to those of the objects proposed by Walker and Wardle (1998) to explain halo dark matter. However, such objects, if they explain a large fraction of the SCUBA sources, cannot extend through the halo without greatly exceeding the FIR-mm background. Instead, I deduce the characteristic distance of the SCUBA sources to be around 100 pc, consistent with being drawn from a disk population with a scale height of few hundred parsecs. Regardless of the dark matter problem, the possible existence of such compact sub-stellar but non-degenerate objects is intriguing. They may be seen as "failed stars", representing an alternative end-point to brown dwarfs. It is possible that they greatly outnumber both stars and brown dwarfs. The nearest such object could be a fraction of a parsec away. Several relatively simple observations could critically test this hypothesis.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Monthly Notices of the RA

Unbounded Symmetric Homogeneous Domains in Spaces of Operators

We define the domain of a linear fractional transformation in a space of operators and show that both the affine automorphisms and the compositions of symmetries act transitively on these domains. Further, we show that Liouville's theorem holds for domains of linear fractional transformations, and, with an additional trace class condition, so does the Riemann removable singularities theorem. We also show that every biholomorphic mapping of the operator domain $I < Z^*Z$ is a linear isometry when the space of operators is a complex Jordan subalgebra of ${\cal L}(H)$ with the removable singularity property and that every biholomorphic mapping of the operator domain $I + Z_1^*Z_1 < Z_2^*Z_2$ is a linear map obtained by multiplication on the left and right by J-unitary and unitary operators, respectively. Readers interested only in the finite dimensional case may identify our spaces of operators with spaces of square and rectangular matrices

A study of the allowances, earnings, and expenditures of fifth and sixth grade pupils.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Functional structure and dynamics of the human nervous system

The status of an effort to define the directions needed to take in extending pilot models is reported. These models are needed to perform closed-loop (man-in-the-loop) feedback flight control system designs and to develop cockpit display requirements. The approach taken is to develop a hypothetical working model of the human nervous system by reviewing the current literature in neurology and psychology and to develop a computer model of this hypothetical working model