48,388 research outputs found
Stellar Population Effects on the Inferred Photon Density at Reionization
The relationship between stellar populations and the ionizing flux with which
they irradiate their surroundings has profound implications for the evolution
of the intergalactic medium. We quantify the ionizing flux arising from
synthetic stellar populations which incorporate the evolution of interacting
binary stars. We determine that these show ionizing flux boosted by 60 per cent
at 0.05 < Z < 0.3 Z_sun and a more modest 10-20 per cent at near-Solar
metallicities relative to star-forming populations in which stars evolve in
isolation. The relation of ionizing flux to observables such as 1500A continuum
and ultraviolet spectral slope is sensitive to attributes of the stellar
population including age, star formation history and initial mass function. For
a galaxy forming 1 M_sun yr^{-1}, observed at > 100 Myr after the onset of star
formation, we predict a production rate of photons capable of ionizing
hydrogen, N_ion = 1.4 x 10^{53} s^{-1} at Z = Z_sun and 3.5 x 10^{53} s^{-1} at
0.1 Z_sun, assuming a Salpeter-like initial mass function. We evaluate the
impact of these issues on the ionization of the intergalactic medium, finding
that the known galaxy populations can maintain the ionization state of the
Universe back to z ~ 9, assuming that their luminosity functions continue to
M_UV = -10, and that constraints on the intergalactic medium at z ~ 2 - 5 can
be satisfied with modest Lyman continuum photon escape fractions of 4 - 24 per
cent depending on assumed metallicity.Comment: 17 pages, accepted by MNRAS. BPASS models can be found at
http://bpass.auckland.ac.nz
All-at-once preconditioning in PDE-constrained optimization
The optimization of functions subject to partial differential equations (PDE) plays an important role in many areas of science and industry. In this paper we introduce the basic concepts of PDE-constrained optimization and show how the all-at-once approach will lead to linear systems in saddle point form. We will discuss implementation details and different boundary conditions. We then show how these system can be solved efficiently and discuss methods and preconditioners also in the case when bound constraints for the control are introduced. Numerical results will illustrate the competitiveness of our techniques
The investigation of particle acceleration in colliding-wind massive binaries with SIMBOL-X
An increasing number of early-type (O and Wolf-Rayet) colliding wind binaries
(CWBs) is known to accelerate particles up to relativistic energies. In this
context, non-thermal emission processes such as inverse Compton (IC) scattering
are expected to produce a high energy spectrum, in addition to the strong
thermal emission from the shock-heated plasma. SIMBOL-X will be the ideal
observatory to investigate the hard X-ray spectrum (above 10 keV) of these
systems, i.e. where it is no longer dominated by the thermal emission. Such
observations are strongly needed to constrain the models aimed at understanding
the physics of particle acceleration in CWB. Such systems are important
laboratories for investigating the underlying physics of particle acceleration
at high Mach number shocks, and probe a different region of parameter space
than studies of supernova remnants.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the workshop
"Simbol-X: the hard X-ray universe in focus", held in Bologna, Italy (14-16
May 2007
High-energy Emission from Pulsar Outer Magnetospheres
We investigate a stationary pair production cascade in the outer
magnetosphere of an isolated, spinning neutron star. The charge depletion due
to global flows of charged particles, causes a large electric field along the
magnetic field lines. Migratory electrons and/or positrons are accelerated by
this field to radiate gamma-rays via curvature and inverse-Compton processes.
Some of such gamma-rays collide with the X-rays to materialize as pairs in the
gap. The replenished charges partially screen the electric field, which is
self-consistently solved together with the energy distribution of particles and
gamma-rays at each point along the field lines. By solving the set of Maxwell
and Boltzmann equations, we demonstrate that an external injection of charged
particles at nearly Goldreich-Julian rate does not quench the gap but shifts
its position and that the particle energy distribution cannot be described by a
power-law. The injected particles are accelerated in the gap and escape from it
with large Lorentz factors. We show that such escaping particles migrating
outside of the gap contribute significantly to the gamma-ray luminosity for
young pulsars and that the soft gamma-ray spectrum between 100 MeV and 3 GeV
observed for the Vela pulsar can be explained by this component. We also
discuss that the luminosity of the gamma-rays emitted by the escaping particles
is naturally proportional to the square root of the spin-down luminosity.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures; to appear in the inaugural (Sep) issue of
Progress in Astrophysics Researches (a new book series
Resonant enhancements of high-order harmonic generation
Solving the one-dimensional time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for simple
model potentials, we investigate resonance-enhanced high-order harmonic
generation, with emphasis on the physical mechanism of the enhancement. By
truncating a long-range potential, we investigate the significance of the
long-range tail, the Rydberg series, and the existence of highly excited states
for the enhancements in question. We conclude that the channel closings typical
of a short-range or zero-range potential are capable of generating essentially
the same effects.Comment: 7 pages revtex, 4 figures (ps files
Closed-form expressions for correlated density matrices: application to dispersive interactions and example of (He)2
Empirically correlated density matrices of N-electron systems are
investigated. Exact closed-form expressions are derived for the one- and
two-electron reduced density matrices from a general pairwise correlated wave
function. Approximate expressions are proposed which reflect dispersive
interactions between closed-shell centro-symmetric subsystems. Said expressions
clearly illustrate the consequences of second-order correlation effects on the
reduced density matrices. Application is made to a simple example: the (He)2
system. Reduced density matrices are explicitly calculated, correct to second
order in correlation, and compared with approximations of independent electrons
and independent electron pairs. The models proposed allow for variational
calculations of interaction energies and equilibrium distance as well as a
clear interpretation of dispersive effects on electron distributions. Both
exchange and second order correlation effects are shown to play a critical role
on the quality of the results.Comment: 22 page
INTEGRAL-ISGRI observations of the CygOB2 region: earching for hard X-ray point sources in a region containing several non-thermal emitting massive stars
Aims: We analyze INTEGRAL-ISGRI data in order to probe the hard X-ray
emission (above 20 keV) from point sources in the Cyg OB2 region and to
investigate the putative non-thermal high-energy emission from early-type stars
(Wolf-Rayet and O-type stars). Among the targets located in the field of view,
we focus on the still unidentified EGRET source 3EG 2033+4118 that may be
related to massive stars known to produce non-thermal emission in the radio
domain, and on the wide colliding-wind binary WR 140. Methods: Using a large
set of data obtained with the IBIS-ISGRI imager onboard INTEGRAL, we run the
OSA software package in order to find point sources in the fully coded field of
view of the instrument. Results: Our data do not allow the detection of a
lower-energy counterpart of 3EG J2033+4118 nor of any other new point sources
in the field of view, and we derive upper limits on the high-energy flux for a
few targets: 3EG J2033+4118, TeV J2032+4130, WR140, WR146 and WR147. The
results are discussed in the context of the multiwavelength investigation of
these objects. Conclusions: The upper limits derived are valuable constraints
for models aimed at understanding the acceleration of particles in non-thermal
emitting massive stars, and of the still unidentified very-high gamma-ray
source TeV J2032+4130.Comment: 6 page, 2 figures including one figure in GIF format, accepted for
publication by A&
Moduli Stabilisation in Heterotic Models with Standard Embedding
In this note we analyse the issue of moduli stabilisation in 4d models
obtained from heterotic string compactifications on manifolds with SU(3)
structure with standard embedding. In order to deal with tractable models we
first integrate out the massive fields. We argue that one can not only
integrate out the moduli fields, but along the way one has to truncate also the
corresponding matter fields. We show that the effective models obtained in this
way do not have satisfactory solutions. We also look for stabilised vacua which
take into account the presence of the matter fields. We argue that this also
fails due to a no-go theorem for Minkowski vacua in the moduli sector which we
prove in the end. The main ingredient for this no-go theorem is the constraint
on the fluxes which comes from the Bianchi identity.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX; references adde
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