3,854 research outputs found
The effects of halo alignment and shape on the clustering of galaxies
We investigate the effects of halo shape and its alignment with larger scale
structure on the galaxy correlation function. We base our analysis on the
galaxy formation models of Guo et al., run on the Millennium Simulations. We
quantify the importance of these effects by randomizing the angular positions
of satellite galaxies within haloes, either coherently or individually, while
keeping the distance to their respective central galaxies fixed. We find that
the effect of disrupting the alignment with larger scale structure is a ~2 per
cent decrease in the galaxy correlation function around r=1.8 Mpc/h. We find
that sphericalizing the ellipsoidal distributions of galaxies within haloes
decreases the correlation function by up to 20 per cent for r<1 Mpc/h and
increases it slightly at somewhat larger radii. Similar results apply to power
spectra and redshift-space correlation functions. Models based on the Halo
Occupation Distribution, which place galaxies spherically within haloes
according to a mean radial profile, will therefore significantly underestimate
the clustering on sub-Mpc scales. In addition, we find that halo assembly bias,
in particular the dependence of clustering on halo shape, propagates to the
clustering of galaxies. We predict that this aspect of assembly bias should be
observable through the use of extensive group catalogues.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor changes
relative to v1. Note: this is an revised and considerably extended
resubmission of http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.4888; please refer to the current
version rather than the old on
A Learning Framework for Morphological Operators using Counter-Harmonic Mean
We present a novel framework for learning morphological operators using
counter-harmonic mean. It combines concepts from morphology and convolutional
neural networks. A thorough experimental validation analyzes basic
morphological operators dilation and erosion, opening and closing, as well as
the much more complex top-hat transform, for which we report a real-world
application from the steel industry. Using online learning and stochastic
gradient descent, our system learns both the structuring element and the
composition of operators. It scales well to large datasets and online settings.Comment: Submitted to ISMM'1
Lensing Corrections to Features in the Angular Two-Point Correlation Function and Power Spectrum
It is well known that magnification bias, the modulation of galaxy or quasar
source counts by gravitational lensing, can change the observed angular
correlation function. We investigate magnification-induced changes to the shape
of the observed correlation function w(\theta) and the angular power spectrum
C_{\ell}, paying special attention to the matter-radiation equality peak and
the baryon wiggles. Lensing mixes the correlation function of the source
galaxies with the matter correlation at the lower redshifts of the lenses.
Since the lenses probe structure nearer to the observer, the angular scale
dependence of the lensing terms is different from that of the sources, thus the
observed correlation function is distorted. We quantify how the lensing
corrections depend on the width of the selection function, the galaxy bias b,
and the number count slope s. The correction increases with redshift and larger
corrections are present for sources with steep number count slopes and/or broad
redshift distributions. The most drastic changes to C_{\ell} occur for
measurements at z >~1.5 and \ell <~ 100. For the source distributions we
consider, magnification bias can shift the matter-radiation equality scale by
1-6% at z ~ 1.5 and by z ~ 3.5 the shift can be as large as 30%. The baryon
bump in \theta^2w(\theta) is shifted by <~ 1% and the width is typically
increased by ~10%. Shifts of >~ 0.5% and broadening of >~ 20% occur only for
very broad selection functions and/or galaxies with (5s-2)/b>~2. However, near
the baryon bump the magnification correction is not constant but a gently
varying function which depends on the source population. Depending on how the
w(\theta) data is fitted, this correction may need to be accounted for when
using the baryon acoustic scale for precision cosmology.Comment: v2: 8 pages, 5 figures, text and figures condensed, references adde
Lymphotoxins and cytomegalovirus cooperatively induce interferon-beta, establishing host-virus détente
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related cytokines regulate cell death and survival and provide strong selective pressures for viruses, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), to evolve counterstrategies in order to persist in immune-competent hosts. Signaling by the lymphotoxin (LT)-β receptor or TNF receptor-1, but not Fas or TRAIL receptors, inhibits the cytopathicity and replication of human CMV by a nonapoptotic, reversible process that requires nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-dependent induction of interferon-β (IFN-β). Efficient induction of IFN-β requires virus infection and LT signaling, demonstrating the need for both host and viral factors in the curtailment of viral replication without cellular elimination. LTα-deficient mice and LTβR-Fc transgenic mice were profoundly susceptible to murine CMV infection. Together, these results reveal an essential and conserved role for LTs in establishing host defense to CMV
Resonances and final state interactions in the reaction pp->pK^+Lambda
A study of the strangeness production reaction pp->pK^+Lambda for excess
energies of epsilon \le 150 MeV, accessible at high-luminosity accelerator
facilities like COSY, is presented. Methods to analyze the Dalitz plot
distribution and angular spectra in the Jackson and helicity frames are worked
out and suitable observables for extracting information on low lying resonances
that couple to the K-Lambda system and for determining the Lambda-p
effective-range parameters from the final state interaction are identified and
discussed. Furthermore, the chances for identifying the reaction mechanism of
strangeness production are investigated.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure
Impact of Scale Dependent Bias and Nonlinear Structure Growth on the ISW Effect: Angular Power Spectra
We investigate the impact of nonlinear evolution of the gravitational
potentials in the LCDM model on the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) contribution
to the CMB temperature power spectrum, and on the cross-power spectrum of the
CMB and a set of biased tracers of the mass. We use an ensemble of N-body
simulations to directly follow the potentials and compare results to
perturbation theory (PT). The predictions from PT match the results to high
precision for k<0.2 h/Mpc. We compute the nonlinear corrections to the angular
power spectrum and find them to be <10% of linear theory for l<100. These
corrections are swamped by cosmic variance. On scales l>100 the departures are
more significant, however the CMB signal is more than a factor 10^3 larger at
this scale. Nonlinear ISW effects therefore play no role in shaping the CMB
power spectrum for l<1500. We analyze the CMB--density tracer cross-spectrum
using simulations and renormalized bias PT, and find good agreement. The usual
assumption is that nonlinear evolution enhances the growth of structure and
counteracts linear ISW on small scales, leading to a change in sign of the
CMB-LSS cross-spectrum at small scales. However, PT analysis suggests that this
trend reverses at late times when the logarithmic growth rate
f(a)=dlnD/dlna<0.5 or om_m(a)<0.3. Numerical results confirm these expectations
and we find no sign change in ISW-LSS cross-power for low redshifts.
Corrections due to nonlinearity and scale dependence of the bias are found to
be <10% for l<100, therefore below the S/N of the current and future
measurements. Finally, we estimate the CMB--halo cross-correlation coefficient
and show that it can be made to match that for CMB--dark matter to within 5%
for thin redshift shells, mitigating the need to model bias evolution.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figure. Hi-res. version:
http://www.itp.uzh.ch/~res/NonlinearISW.HiRes.pd
Orbital stability of periodic waves for the nonlinear Schroedinger equation
The nonlinear Schroedinger equation has several families of quasi-periodic
travelling waves, each of which can be parametrized up to symmetries by two
real numbers: the period of the modulus of the wave profile, and the variation
of its phase over a period (Floquet exponent). In the defocusing case, we show
that these travelling waves are orbitally stable within the class of solutions
having the same period and the same Floquet exponent. This generalizes a
previous work where only small amplitude solutions were considered. A similar
result is obtained in the focusing case, under a non-degeneracy condition which
can be checked numerically. The proof relies on the general approach to orbital
stability as developed by Grillakis, Shatah, and Strauss, and requires a
detailed analysis of the Hamiltonian system satisfied by the wave profile.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figure
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