664 research outputs found
A STRINGENT CONSTRAINT ON ALTERNATIVES TO A MASSIVE BLACK HOLE AT THE CENTER OF NGC 4258
There is now dynamical evidence for massive dark objects at the center of
several galaxies, but suggestions that these are supermassive black holes are
based only on indirect astrophysical arguments. The recent unprecedented
measurement of the rotation curve of maser emission sources at the center of
NGC 4258, and the remarkable discovery that it is Keplerian to high precision,
provides us a unique opportunity for testing alternatives to a BH (e.g., a
massive cluster of stellar remnants, brown dwarfs, low-mass stars, or halo dark
matter).
We use a conservative upper limit on the systematic deviation from a
Keplerian rotation curve to constrain the mass distribution at the galaxy
center. Based on evaporation and physical collision time-scale arguments, we
show that a central cluster is ruled out, *unless* the cluster consists of
*extremely* dense objects with mass less than about 0.05 solar masses (e.g.,
low mass BHs or elementary particles). Since both of these dynamically-allowed
systems are very improbable for other astrophysical reasons, we conclude that a
central dense cluster at the center of NGC 4258 is *very* improbable, thus
leaving the alternative possibility of a massive BH. We also show that the mass
of the BH must be at least 98% of the mass enclosed within the inner edge of
the masering disk (3.6*10^7 solar masses). A substantial contribution to that
mass from a density cusp in the background mass distribution is excluded.Comment: Submitted to ApJ (Letters) on March 15, 1995. 11 pages including 1
figure; uuencoded, compressed postscript
Teaching and understanding of quantum interpretations in modern physics courses
Just as expert physicists vary in their personal stances on interpretation in
quantum mechanics, instructors vary on whether and how to teach interpretations
of quantum phenomena in introductory modern physics courses. In this paper, we
document variations in instructional approaches with respect to interpretation
in two similar modern physics courses recently taught at the University of
Colorado, and examine associated impacts on student perspectives regarding
quantum physics. We find students are more likely to prefer realist
interpretations of quantum-mechanical systems when instructors are less
explicit in addressing student ontologies. We also observe contextual
variations in student beliefs about quantum systems, indicating that
instructors who choose to address questions of ontology in quantum mechanics
should do so explicitly across a range of topics.Comment: 18 pages, references, plus 2 pages supplemental materials. 8 figures.
PACS: 01.40.Fk, 03.65.-
The Volume of some Non-spherical Horizons and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
We calculate the volumes of a large class of Einstein manifolds, namely
Sasaki-Einstein manifolds which are the bases of Ricci-flat affine cones
described by polynomial embedding relations in C^n. These volumes are important
because they allow us to extend and test the AdS/CFT correspondence. We use
these volumes to extend the central charge calculation of Gubser (1998) to the
generalized conifolds of Gubser, Shatashvili, and Nekrasov (1999). These
volumes also allow one to quantize precisely the D-brane flux of the AdS
supergravity solution. We end by demonstrating a relationship between the
volumes of these Einstein spaces and the number of holomorphic polynomials
(which correspond to chiral primary operators in the field theory dual) on the
corresponding affine cone.Comment: 25 pp, LaTeX, 1 figure, v2: refs adde
Recommended from our members
Experimental determination of the energy dependence of defect production
The damage function nu(T), i.e., the number of Frenkel pairs as a function of recoil energy is determined for Cu from electron and ion damage-rate measurements. nu(T) shows a plateau at nu = 0.54 which extends up to approx. 7xT/sub d//sup min/. Therefore, simple damage models, such as the modified Kinchin-Pease expression, are inappropriate not only at high recoil energies where stimulated recombination in cascades reduces defect production, but also in the single displacement regime. As a consequence, no simple relation between T/sub d//sup min/ and T/sub d//sup av/ is expected to exist. A procedure is suggested which uses anisotropy measurements in combination with polycrystal electron and ion irradiations to construct absolute damage functions in metals
Recommended from our members
Convergence of measures on compactifications of locally symmetric spaces
We conjecture that the set of homogeneous probability measures on the maximal Satake compactification of an arithmetic locally symmetric space S=Γ∖G/K is compact. More precisely, given a sequence of homogeneous probability measures on S, we expect that any weak limit is homogeneous with support contained in precisely one of the boundary components (including S itself). We introduce several tools to study this conjecture and we prove it in a number of cases, including when G=SL3(R) and Γ=SL3(Z)
K\"{a}hler-Einstein metrics on strictly pseudoconvex domains
The metrics of S. Y. Cheng and S.-T. Yau are considered on a strictly
pseudoconvex domains in a complex manifold. Such a manifold carries a complete
K\"{a}hler-Einstein metric if and only if its canonical bundle is positive. We
consider the restricted case in which the CR structure on is
normal. In this case M must be a domain in a resolution of the Sasaki cone over
. We give a condition on a normal CR manifold which it cannot
satisfy if it is a CR infinity of a K\"{a}hler-Einstein manifold. We are able
to mostly determine those normal CR 3-manifolds which can be CR infinities.
Many examples are given of K\"{a}hler-Einstein strictly pseudoconvex manifolds
on bundles and resolutions.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, couple corrections, improved a couple example
Giant magnetothermopower of magnon-assisted transport in ferromagnetic tunnel junctions
We present a theoretical description of the thermopower due to
magnon-assisted tunneling in a mesoscopic tunnel junction between two
ferromagnetic metals. The thermopower is generated in the course of thermal
equilibration between two baths of magnons, mediated by electrons. For a
junction between two ferromagnets with antiparallel polarizations, the ability
of magnon-assisted tunneling to create thermopower depends on the
difference between the size of the majority and
minority band Fermi surfaces and it is proportional to a temperature dependent
factor where is the magnon Debye
energy. The latter factor reflects the fractional change in the net
magnetization of the reservoirs due to thermal magnons at temperature
(Bloch's law). In contrast, the contribution of magnon-assisted
tunneling to the thermopower of a junction with parallel polarizations is
negligible. As the relative polarizations of ferromagnetic layers can be
manipulated by an external magnetic field, a large difference results in a magnetothermopower effect. This
magnetothermopower effect becomes giant in the extreme case of a junction
between two half-metallic ferromagnets, .Comment: 9 pages, 4 eps figure
Randomizing world trade. II. A weighted network analysis
Based on the misleading expectation that weighted network properties always
offer a more complete description than purely topological ones, current
economic models of the International Trade Network (ITN) generally aim at
explaining local weighted properties, not local binary ones. Here we complement
our analysis of the binary projections of the ITN by considering its weighted
representations. We show that, unlike the binary case, all possible weighted
representations of the ITN (directed/undirected, aggregated/disaggregated)
cannot be traced back to local country-specific properties, which are therefore
of limited informativeness. Our two papers show that traditional macroeconomic
approaches systematically fail to capture the key properties of the ITN. In the
binary case, they do not focus on the degree sequence and hence cannot
characterize or replicate higher-order properties. In the weighted case, they
generally focus on the strength sequence, but the knowledge of the latter is
not enough in order to understand or reproduce indirect effects.Comment: See also the companion paper (Part I): arXiv:1103.1243
[physics.soc-ph], published as Phys. Rev. E 84, 046117 (2011
- …