5,979 research outputs found
Helium and Iron in X-ray galaxy clusters
I discuss the role of the sedimentation of helium in galaxy cluster cores on
the observed X-ray properties and present a history of the metal accumulation
in the ICM, with new calculations with respect to my previous work following
the recent evidence of a bi-modal distribution of the delay time in Supernovae
Type Ia.Comment: 6 pages. To appear in the Proceedings of "Heating vs. Cooling in
Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies", August 2006, Garching (Germany
Detection in coincidence of gravitational wave bursts with a network of interferometric detectors (I): Geometric acceptance and timing
Detecting gravitational wave bursts (characterised by short durations and
poorly modelled waveforms) requires to have coincidences between several
interferometric detectors in order to reject non-stationary noise events. As
the wave amplitude seen in a detector depends on its location with respect to
the source direction and as the signal to noise ratio of these bursts are
expected to be low, coincidences between antennas may not be so likely. This
paper investigates this question from a statistical point of view by using a
simple model of a network of detectors; it also estimates the timing precision
of a detection in an interferometer which is an important issue for the
reconstruction of the source location, based on time delays.Comment: low resolution figure 1 due to file size problem
HST Images and Spectra of the Remnant of SN 1885 in M31
Near UV HST images of the remnant of SN 1885 (S And) in M31 show a 0"70 +-
0"05 diameter absorption disk silhouetted against M31's central bulge, at SN
1885's historically reported position. The disk's size corresponds to a linear
diameter of 2.5 +- 0.4 pc at a distance of 725 +- 70 kpc, implying an average
expansion velocity of 11000 +- 2000 km/s over 110 years. Low-dispersion FOS
spectra over 3200-4800 A; reveal that the absorption arises principally from Ca
II H & K (equivalent width ~215 A;) with weaker absorption features of Ca I
4227 A; and Fe I 3720 A;. The flux at Ca II line center indicates a foreground
starlight fraction of 0.21, which places SNR 1885 some 64 pc to the near side
of the midpoint of the M31 bulge, comparable to its projected 55 pc distance
from the nucleus. The absorption line profiles suggest an approximately
spherically symmetric, bell-shaped density distribution of supernova ejecta
freely expanding at up to 13100 +- 1500 km/s. We estimate Ca I, Ca II, and Fe I
masses of 2.9(+2.4,-0.6) x 10^-4 M_o, 0.005(+0.016,-0.002) M_o, and
0.013(+0.010,-0.005) M_o respectively. If the ionization state of iron is
similar to the observed ionization state of calcium, M_CaII/M_CaI = 16(+42,-5),
then the mass of Fe II is 0.21(+0.74,-0.08) M_o, consistent with that expected
for either normal or subluminous SN Ia.Comment: 8 pages, including 4 embedded EPS figures, emulateapj.sty style file.
Color image at http://casa.colorado.edu/~mcl/sand.shtml . Submitted to Ap
Model-independent X-ray mass determinations
A new method is introduced for making X-ray mass determinations of spherical
clusters of galaxies. Treating the distribution of gravitating matter as
piecewise constant and the cluster atmosphere as piecewise isothermal, X-ray
spectra of a hydrostatic atmosphere are determined up to a single overall
normalizing factor. In contrast to more conventional approaches, this method
relies on the minimum of assumptions, apart from the conditions of hydrostatic
equilibrium and spherical symmetry. The method has been implemented as an XSPEC
mixing model called CLMASS, which was used to determine masses for a sample of
nine relaxed X-ray clusters. Compared to conventional mass determinations,
CLMASS provides weak constraints on values of M_500, reflecting the quality of
current X-ray data for cluster regions beyond r_500. At smaller radii, where
there are high quality X-ray spectra inside and outside the radius of interest
to constrain the mass, CLMASS gives confidence ranges for M_2500 that are only
moderately less restrictive than those from more familiar mass determination
methods. The CLMASS model provides some advantages over other methods and
should prove useful for mass determinations in regions where there are high
quality X-ray data.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Time-frequency detection of Gravitational Waves
We present a time-frequency method to detect gravitational wave signals in
interferometric data. This robust method can detect signals from poorly modeled
and unmodeled sources. We evaluate the method on simulated data containing
noise and signal components. The noise component approximates initial LIGO
interferometer noise. The signal components have the time and frequency
characteristics postulated by Flanagan and Hughes for binary black hole
coalescence. The signals correspond to binaries with total masses between to and with (optimal filter) signal-to-noise ratios of 7
to 12. The method is implementable in real time, and achieves a coincident
false alarm rate for two detectors 1 per 475 years. At this false
alarm rate, the single detector false dismissal rate for our signal model is as
low as 5.3% at an SNR of 10. We expect to obtain similar or better detection
rates with this method for any signal of similar power that satisfies certain
adiabaticity criteria. Because optimal filtering requires knowledge of the
signal waveform to high precision, we argue that this method is likely to
detect signals that are undetectable by optimal filtering, which is at present
the best developed detection method for transient sources of gravitational
waves.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, uses REVTE
Conformal blocks and generalized theta functions
Let M(r) be the moduli space of rank r vector bundles with trivial
determinant on a Riemann surface X . This space carries a natural line bundle,
the determinant line bundle L . We describe a canonical isomorphism of the
space of global sections of L^k with a space known in conformal field theory as
the ``space of conformal blocks", which is defined in terms of representations
of the Lie algebra sl(r, C((z))).Comment: 43 pages, Plain Te
Extracting galactic binary signals from the first round of Mock LISA Data Challenges
We report on the performance of an end-to-end Bayesian analysis pipeline for
detecting and characterizing galactic binary signals in simulated LISA data.
Our principal analysis tool is the Blocked-Annealed Metropolis Hasting (BAM)
algorithm, which has been optimized to search for tens of thousands of
overlapping signals across the LISA band. The BAM algorithm employs Bayesian
model selection to determine the number of resolvable sources, and provides
posterior distribution functions for all the model parameters. The BAM
algorithm performed almost flawlessly on all the Round 1 Mock LISA Data
Challenge data sets, including those with many highly overlapping sources. The
only misses were later traced to a coding error that affected high frequency
sources. In addition to the BAM algorithm we also successfully tested a Genetic
Algorithm (GA), but only on data sets with isolated signals as the GA has yet
to be optimized to handle large numbers of overlapping signals.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proceedings of GWDAW-11 (Berlin,
Dec. '06
SIMBOL-X : a new generation hard X-ray telescope
SIMBOL-X is a hard X-ray mission, operating in the 0.5-70 keV range, which is
proposed by a consortium of European laboratories for a launch around 2010.
Relying on two spacecraft in a formation flying configuration, SIMBOL-X uses a
30 m focal length X-ray mirror to achieve an unprecedented angular resolution
(30 arcsec HEW) and sensitivity (100 times better than INTEGRAL below 50 keV)
in the hard X-ray range. SIMBOL-X will allow to elucidate fundamental questions
in high energy astrophysics, such as the physics of accretion onto Black Holes,
of acceleration in quasar jets and in supernovae remnants, or the nature of the
hard X-ray diffuse emission. The scientific objectives and the baseline
concepts of the mission and hardware design are presented.Comment: 12 pages, 16 fig., Proc. SPIE conf. 5168, San Diego, Aug. 200
Fluctuation-dissipation relations in the activated regime of simple strong-glass models
We study the out-of-equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation (FD) relations in the
low temperature, finite time, physical aging regime of two simple models with
strong glass behaviour, the Fredrickson-Andersen model and the square-plaquette
interaction model. We explicitly show the existence of unique, waiting-time
independent dynamical FD relations. While in the Fredrickson-Andersen model the
FD theorem is obeyed at all times, the plaquette model displays piecewise
linear FD relations, similar to what is found in disordered mean-field models
and in simulations of supercooled liquids, and despite the fact that its static
properties are trivial. We discuss the wider implications of these results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Storage capacity of a constructive learning algorithm
Upper and lower bounds for the typical storage capacity of a constructive
algorithm, the Tilinglike Learning Algorithm for the Parity Machine [M. Biehl
and M. Opper, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 44} 6888 (1991)], are determined in the
asymptotic limit of large training set sizes. The properties of a perceptron
with threshold, learning a training set of patterns having a biased
distribution of targets, needed as an intermediate step in the capacity
calculation, are determined analytically. The lower bound for the capacity,
determined with a cavity method, is proportional to the number of hidden units.
The upper bound, obtained with the hypothesis of replica symmetry, is close to
the one predicted by Mitchinson and Durbin [Biol. Cyber. {\bf 60} 345 (1989)].Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
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