Properties of the cosmological filament between two clusters: A possible detection of a large-scale accretion shock by SuzakuSuzaku

We report on the results of a $Suzaku$ observation of the plasma in the filament located between the two massive clusters of galaxies Abell 399 and Abell 401. Abell 399 ($z$=0.0724) and Abell 401 ($z$=0.0737) are expected to be in the initial phase of a cluster merger. In the region between the two clusters, we find a clear enhancement in the temperature of the filament plasma from 4 keV (expected value from a typical cluster temperature profile) to $kT\sim$6.5 keV. Our analysis also shows that filament plasma is present out to a radial distance of 15' (1.3 Mpc) from a line connecting the two clusters. The temperature profile is characterized by an almost flat radial shape with $kT\sim$6-7 keV within 10' or $\sim$0.8 Mpc. Across $r$=8'~from the axis, the temperature of the filament plasma shows a drop from 6.3 keV to 5.1 keV, indicating the presence of a shock front. The Mach number based on the temperature drop is estimated to be ${\cal M}\sim$1.3. We also successfully determined the abundance profile up to 15' (1.3 Mpc), showing an almost constant value ($Z$=0.3 solar) at the cluster outskirt. We estimated the Compton $y$-parameter to be $\sim$14.5$\pm1.3\times10^{-6}$, which is in agreement with $Planck$'s results (14-17$\times10^{-6}$ on the filament). The line of sight depth of the filament is $l\sim$1.1 Mpc, indicating that the geometry of filament is likely a pancake shape rather than cylindrical. The total mass of the filamentary structure is $\sim$7.7$\times10^{13}~\rm M_{\odot}$. We discuss a possible interpretation of the drop of X-ray emission at the rim of the filament, which was pushed out by the merging activity and formed by the accretion flow induced by the gravitational force of the filament.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Interacting Large-Scale Magnetic Fields and Ionised Gas in the W50/SS433 System

The W50/SS433 system is an unusual Galactic outflow-driven object of debatable origin. We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to observe a new 198 pointing mosaic, covering $3^\circ \times 2^\circ$, and present the highest-sensitivity full-Stokes data of W50 to date using wide-field, wide-band imaging over a 2 GHz bandwidth centred at 2.1 GHz. We also present a complementary H$\alpha$ mosaic created using the Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric H$\alpha$ Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS). The magnetic structure of W50 is found to be consistent with the prevailing hypothesis that the nebula is a reanimated shell-like supernova remnant (SNR), that has been re-energised by the jets from SS433. We observe strong depolarization effects that correlate with diffuse H$\alpha$ emission, likely due to spatially-varying Faraday rotation measure (RM) fluctuations of $\ge48$ to 61 rad m$^{-2}$ on scales $\le4.5$ to 6 pc. We also report the discovery of numerous, faint, H$\alpha$ filaments that are unambiguously associated with the central region of W50. These thin filaments are suggestive of a SNR's shock emission, and almost all have a radio counterpart. Furthermore, an RM-gradient is detected across the central region of W50, which we interpret as a loop magnetic field with a symmetry axis offset by $\approx90^{\circ}$ to the east-west jet-alignment axis, and implying that the evolutionary processes of both the jets and the SNR must be coupled. A separate RM-gradient is associated with the termination shock in the Eastern ear, which we interpret as a ring-like field located where the shock of the jet interacts with the circumstellar medium. Future optical observations will be able to use the new H$\alpha$ filaments to probe the kinematics of the shell of W50, potentially allowing for a definitive experiment on W50's formation history.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

Radio broadband visualization of global three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of spiral galaxies I. Faraday rotation at 8GHz

Observational study of galactic magnetic fields is hampered by the fact that the observables only probe various projections of the magnetic fields. Comparison with numerical simulations is helpful to understand the real structures, and observational visualization of numerical data is an important task. In this paper, we investigate 8~GHz radio synchrotron emission from spiral galaxies, using the data of global three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic simulations. We assume a frequency independent depolarization in our observational visualization. We find that the appearance of the global magnetic field depends on the viewing angle: a face-on view seemingly has hybrid magnetic field types combining axisymmetric modes with higer order modes; at a viewing angle of \sim 70\degr, the galaxy seems to contain a ring-like magnetic field structure; while in edge-on view, only field structure parallel to the disk can be seen. The magnetic vector seen at 8~GHz traces the global magnetic field inside the disk. These results indicate that the topology of global magnetic field obtained from the relation between azimuthal angle and Faraday depth strongly depends on the viewing anglue of the galaxy. As one of the examples, we compare our results at a viewing angle of 25\degr with the results of IC342. The relation between azimuthal angle and Faraday depth of the numerical result shows a tendency similar to IC342, such as the peak numbers of the Faraday depth.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures accepted in MNRA

Imaging Simulations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect for ALMA

We present imaging simulations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect of galaxy clusters for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) including the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). In its most compact configuration at 90GHz, ALMA will resolve the intracluster medium with an effective angular resolution of 5 arcsec. It will provide a unique probe of shock fronts and relativistic electrons produced during cluster mergers at high redshifts, that are hard to spatially resolve by current and near-future X-ray detectors. Quality of image reconstruction is poor with the 12m array alone but improved significantly by adding ACA; expected sensitivity of the 12m array based on the thermal noise is not valid for the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect mapping unless accompanied by an ACA observation of at least equal duration. The observations above 100 GHz will become excessively time-consuming owing to the narrower beam size and the higher system temperature. On the other hand, significant improvement of the observing efficiency is expected once Band 1 is implemented in the future.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ. Note added in proof is include

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect at Five Arc-seconds: RXJ1347.5-1145 Imaged by ALMA

We present the first image of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) obtained by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Combining 7-m and 12-m arrays in Band 3, we create an SZE map toward a galaxy cluster RXJ1347.5-1145 with 5 arc-second resolution (corresponding to the physical size of 20 kpc/h), the highest angular and physical spatial resolutions achieved to date for imaging the SZE, while retaining extended signals out to 40 arc-seconds. The 1-sigma statistical sensitivity of the image is 0.017 mJy/beam or 0.12 mK_CMB at the 5 arc-second full width at half maximum. The SZE image shows a good agreement with an electron pressure map reconstructed independently from the X-ray data and offers a new probe of the small-scale structure of the intracluster medium. Our results demonstrate that ALMA is a powerful instrument for imaging the SZE in compact galaxy clusters with unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity. As the first report on the detection of the SZE by ALMA, we present detailed analysis procedures including corrections for the missing flux, to provide guiding methods for analyzing and interpreting future SZE images by ALMA.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS

Why Do Only Some Galaxy Clusters Have Cool Cores?

Flux-limited X-ray samples indicate that about half of rich galaxy clusters have cool cores. Why do only some clusters have cool cores while others do not? In this paper, cosmological N-body + Eulerian hydrodynamic simulations, including radiative cooling and heating, are used to address this question as we examine the formation and evolution of cool core (CC) and non-cool core (NCC) clusters. These adaptive mesh refinement simulations produce both CC and NCC clusters in the same volume. They have a peak resolution of 15.6 h^{-1} kpc within a (256 h^{-1} Mpc)^3 box. Our simulations suggest that there are important evolutionary differences between CC clusters and their NCC counterparts. Many of the numerical CC clusters accreted mass more slowly over time and grew enhanced cool cores via hierarchical mergers; when late major mergers occurred, the CC's survived the collisions. By contrast, NCC clusters experienced major mergers early in their evolution that destroyed embryonic cool cores and produced conditions that prevented CC re-formation. As a result, our simulations predict observationally testable distinctions in the properties of CC and NCC beyond the core regions in clusters. In particular, we find differences between CC versus NCC clusters in the shapes of X-ray surface brightness profiles, between the temperatures and hardness ratios beyond the cores, between the distribution of masses, and between their supercluster environs. It also appears that CC clusters are no closer to hydrostatic equilibrium than NCC clusters, an issue important for precision cosmology measurements.Comment: 17 emulateapj pages, 17 figures, replaced with version accepted to Ap

Estimating extragalactic Faraday rotation

(abridged) Observations of Faraday rotation for extragalactic sources probe magnetic fields both inside and outside the Milky Way. Building on our earlier estimate of the Galactic contribution, we set out to estimate the extragalactic contributions. We discuss the problems involved; in particular, we point out that taking the difference between the observed values and the Galactic foreground reconstruction is not a good estimate for the extragalactic contributions. We point out a degeneracy between the contributions to the observed values due to extragalactic magnetic fields and observational noise and comment on the dangers of over-interpreting an estimate without taking into account its uncertainty information. To overcome these difficulties, we develop an extended reconstruction algorithm based on the assumption that the observational uncertainties are accurately described for a subset of the data, which can overcome the degeneracy with the extragalactic contributions. We present a probabilistic derivation of the algorithm and demonstrate its performance using a simulation, yielding a high quality reconstruction of the Galactic Faraday rotation foreground, a precise estimate of the typical extragalactic contribution, and a well-defined probabilistic description of the extragalactic contribution for each data point. We then apply this reconstruction technique to a catalog of Faraday rotation observations. We vary our assumptions about the data, showing that the dispersion of extragalactic contributions to observed Faraday depths is most likely lower than 7 rad/m^2, in agreement with earlier results, and that the extragalactic contribution to an individual data point is poorly constrained by the data in most cases.Comment: 20 + 6 pages, 19 figures; minor changes after bug-fix; version accepted for publication by A&A; results are available at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/ift/faraday

Robust Digital Holography For Ultracold Atom Trapping

We have formulated and experimentally demonstrated an improved algorithm for design of arbitrary two-dimensional holographic traps for ultracold atoms. Our method builds on the best previously available algorithm, MRAF, and improves on it in two ways. First, it allows for creation of holographic atom traps with a well defined background potential. Second, we experimentally show that for creating trapping potentials free of fringing artifacts it is important to go beyond the Fourier approximation in modelling light propagation. To this end, we incorporate full Helmholtz propagation into our calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Pathological Investigation of Congenital Bicuspid Aortic Valve Stenosis, Compared with Atherosclerotic Tricuspid Aortic Valve Stenosis and Congenital Bicuspid Aortic Valve Regurgitation

Congenital bicuspid aortic valve (CBAV) is the main cause of aortic stenosis (AS) in young adults. However, the histopathological features of AS in patients with CBAV have not been fully investigated.We examined specimens of aortic valve leaflets obtained from patients who had undergone aortic valve re/placement at our institution for severe AS with CBAV (n = 24, CBAV-AS group), severe AS with tricuspid aortic valve (n = 24, TAV-AS group), and severe aortic regurgitation (AR) with CBAV (n = 24, CBAV-AR group). We compared the histopathological features among the three groups. Pathological features were classified using semi-quantitative methods (graded on a scale 0 to 3) by experienced pathologists without knowledge of the patients' backgrounds. The severity of inflammation, neovascularization, and calcium and cholesterol deposition did not differ between the CBAV-AS and TAV-AS groups, and these four parameters were less marked in the CBAV-AR group than in the CBAV-AS (all p<0.01). Meanwhile, the grade of valvular fibrosis was greater in the CBAV-AS group, compared with the TAV-AS and CBAV-AR groups (both p<0.01). In AS patients, thickness of fibrotic lesions was greater on the aortic side than on the ventricular side (both p<0.01). Meanwhile, thickness of fibrotic lesions was comparable between the aortic and ventricular sides in CBAV-AR patients (p = 0.35).Valvular fibrosis, especially on the aortic side, was greater in patients with CBAV-AS than in those without, suggesting a difference in the pathogenesis of AS between CBAV and TAV