329 research outputs found
Chandra Multiwavelength Project: Normal Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
(abridged) We have investigated 136 Chandra extragalactic sources without
broad optical emission lines, including 93 galaxies with narrow emission lines
(NELG) and 43 with only absorption lines (ALG). Based on fx/fo, Lx, X-ray
spectral hardness and optical emission line diagnostics, we have conservatively
classified 36 normal galaxies (20 spirals and 16 ellipticals) and 71 AGNs. We
found no statistically significant evolution in Lx/LB, within the limited z
range. We have built log(N)-log(S), after correcting for completeness based on
a series of simulations. The best-fit slope is -1.5 for both S and B energy
bands, which is considerably steeper than that of the AGN-dominated cosmic
background sources, but slightly flatter than the previous estimate, indicating
normal galaxies will not exceed the AGN population until fx ~ 2 x 10-18 erg s-1
cm-2 (a factor of ~5 lower than the previous estimate). A group of NELGs appear
to be heavily obscured in X-rays, i.e., a typical type 2 AGN. After correcting
for intrinsic absorption, their X-ray luminosities could be Lx > 10^44 erg s-1,
making them type 2 quasar candidates. While most X-ray luminous ALGs (XBONG -
X-ray bright, optically normal galaxy candidates) do not appear to be
significantly absorbed, we found two heavily obscured objects, which could be
as luminous as an unobscured broad-line quasar. Among 43 ALGs, we found two E+A
galaxy candidates with strong Balmer absorption lines, but no [OII] line. The
X-ray spectra of both galaxies are soft and one of them has a nearby close
companion galaxy, supporting the merger/interaction scenario rather than the
dusty starburst hypothesis.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (20 June 2006,
v644), replaced with minor correction
The Red-Sequence Luminosity Function in Galaxy Clusters since z~1
We use a statistical sample of ~500 rich clusters taken from 72 square
degrees of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-1) to study the evolution of
~30,000 red-sequence galaxies in clusters over the redshift range 0.35<z<0.95.
We construct red-sequence luminosity functions (RSLFs) for a well-defined,
homogeneously selected, richness limited sample. The RSLF at higher redshifts
shows a deficit of faint red galaxies (to M_V=> -19.7) with their numbers
increasing towards the present epoch. This is consistent with the `down-sizing`
picture in which star-formation ended at earlier times for the most massive
(luminous) galaxies and more recently for less massive (fainter) galaxies. We
observe a richness dependence to the down-sizing effect in the sense that, at a
given redshift, the drop-off of faint red galaxies is greater for poorer (less
massive) clusters, suggesting that star-formation ended earlier for galaxies in
more massive clusters. The decrease in faint red-sequence galaxies is
accompanied by an increase in faint blue galaxies, implying that the process
responsible for this evolution of faint galaxies is the termination of
star-formation, possibly with little or no need for merging. At the bright end,
we also see an increase in the number of blue galaxies with increasing
redshift, suggesting that termination of star-formation in higher mass galaxies
may also be an important formation mechanism for higher mass ellipticals. By
comparing with a low-redshift Abell Cluster sample, we find that the
down-sizing trend seen within RCS-1 has continued to the local universe.Comment: ApJ accepted. 11 pages, 5 figure
The Dark Energy Survey Data Management System
The Dark Energy Survey collaboration will study cosmic acceleration with a
5000 deg2 griZY survey in the southern sky over 525 nights from 2011-2016. The
DES data management (DESDM) system will be used to process and archive these
data and the resulting science ready data products. The DESDM system consists
of an integrated archive, a processing framework, an ensemble of astronomy
codes and a data access framework. We are developing the DESDM system for
operation in the high performance computing (HPC) environments at NCSA and
Fermilab. Operating the DESDM system in an HPC environment offers both speed
and flexibility. We will employ it for our regular nightly processing needs,
and for more compute-intensive tasks such as large scale image coaddition
campaigns, extraction of weak lensing shear from the full survey dataset, and
massive seasonal reprocessing of the DES data. Data products will be available
to the Collaboration and later to the public through a virtual-observatory
compatible web portal. Our approach leverages investments in publicly available
HPC systems, greatly reducing hardware and maintenance costs to the project,
which must deploy and maintain only the storage, database platforms and
orchestration and web portal nodes that are specific to DESDM. In Fall 2007, we
tested the current DESDM system on both simulated and real survey data. We used
Teragrid to process 10 simulated DES nights (3TB of raw data), ingesting and
calibrating approximately 250 million objects into the DES Archive database. We
also used DESDM to process and calibrate over 50 nights of survey data acquired
with the Mosaic2 camera. Comparison to truth tables in the case of the
simulated data and internal crosschecks in the case of the real data indicate
that astrometric and photometric data quality is excellent.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the SPIE conference on
Astronomical Instrumentation (held in Marseille in June 2008). This preprint
is made available with the permission of SPIE. Further information together
with preprint containing full quality images is available at
http://desweb.cosmology.uiuc.edu/wik
Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on ALS Care in the UK
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare. Our aim was to identify how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) care in the UK has been affected by the pandemic by exploring the experiences of people living with ALS (plwALS), healthcare professionals (HCPs) working with plwALS, and ALS care centers. Three surveys were carried out to explore the experiences of plwALS, HCPs and ALS care centers during the pandemic. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and triangulated with the qualitative data which were analyzed thematically. Responses from 53 plwALS, 73 HCPs and 23 ALS care centers were analyzed. Five main themes were identified: keeping safe, losses, negative emotions, delivering care and alternative care delivery in a pandemic. PlwALS and HCPs felt that care was sub-optimal as a result of the pandemic. Changes to care included longer waiting times and face-to-face appointments being canceled or replaced by virtual consultations. While benefits of virtual consultations were reported, concerns were raised about incomplete clinical assessments and the disruption of provision of testing and interventions. ALS care has changed as a result of the pandemic. Patients have had a lack of face-to-face contact with HCPs and have experienced delays to investigations and treatments. PlwALS and HCPs were concerned about the impact of this change, but the long-term implications remain unclear. We propose recommendations for HCPs caring for plwALS, that will promote continuity of evidenced based care in the context of a pandemic
Twofold efficiency increase in nanocrystalline-TiO2/polymer photovoltaic devices by interfacial modification with a lithium salt
Modification of the interface of titanium dioxide/poly[2-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-5-methoxy-1,4,-phenylenevinylene] (TiO2/MEH-PPV) nanocomposite photovoltaic devices with a lithium salt, Li[CF3SO2](2)N, is shown to result in a twofold increase in device efficiency. The devices are of the type ITO/TiO2/MEH-PPV/Au. The TiO2 layer is deposited by doctor blading a colloidal anatase paste, and the polymer is then spin-coated on top followed by thermal evaporation of gold contacts. Careful control of manufacturing conditions and use of a 35 nm polymer layer leads to a device efficiency of 0.48% for un-modified devices. The increased efficiency following Li treatment is the result of a 40% increase in both the short-circuit current and fill factor, while the open-circuit voltage remains unchanged. A maximum efficiency of 1.05% has been achieved under 80% sun illumination. This represents a record efficiency for this type of cell. Photoconductivity experiments show a substantial increase in conductivity of the TiO2 layer following Li modification. Interfacial modification is done via a simple soaking procedure, and the effect of varying the concentration of Li[CF3SO2](2)N is discussed. We report investigations into optimization and the mechanism of such improvement, for example by varying processing parameters of the modification procedure or the ionic species themselves
The Luminosity Function of the NoSOCS Galaxy Cluster Sample
We present the analysis of the luminosity function of a large sample of
galaxy clusters from the Northern Sky Optical Cluster Survey, using latest data
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our global luminosity function (down to
M_r<= -16) does not show the presence of an upturn at faint magnitudes, while
we do observe a strong dependence of its shape on both richness and
cluster-centric radius, with a brightening of M^* and an increase of the dwarf
to giant ratio with richness, indicating that more massive systems are more
efficient in creating/retaining a population of dwarf satellites. This is
observed both within physical (0.5 R_200) and fixed (0.5 Mpc) apertures,
suggesting that the trend is either due to a global effect, operating at all
scales, or to a local one but operating on even smaller scales. We further
observe a decrease of the relative number of dwarf galaxies towards the cluster
center; this is most probably due to tidal collisions or collisional disruption
of the dwarfs since merging processes are inhibited by the high velocity
dispersions in cluster cores and, furthermore, we do not observe a strong
dependence of the bright end on the environment. We find indication that the
dwarf to giant ratio decreases with increasing redshift, within 0.07<z<0.2. We
also measure a trend for stronger suppression of faint galaxies (below M^*+2)
with increasing redshift in poor systems, with respect to more massive ones,
indicating that the evolutionary stage of less massive galaxies depends more
critically on the environment. Finally we point out that the luminosity
function is far from universal; hence the uncertainties introduced by the
different methods used to build a composite function may partially explain the
variety of faint-end slopes reported in the literature as well as, in some
cases, the presence of a faint-end upturn.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
A Multiband Study of the Galaxy Populations of the First Four Sunyaev--Zeldovich Effect selected Galaxy Clusters
We present first results of an examination of the optical properties of the
galaxy populations in SZE selected galaxy clusters. Using clusters selected by
the South Pole Telescope survey and deep multiband optical data from the Blanco
Cosmology Survey, we measure the radial profile, the luminosity function, the
blue fraction and the halo occupation number of the galaxy populations of these
four clusters with redshifts ranging from 0.3 to 1. Our goal is to understand
whether there are differences among the galaxy populations of these SZE
selected clusters and previously studied clusters selected in the optical and
the X-ray. The radial distributions of galaxies in the four systems are
consistent with NFW profiles with a galaxy concentration of 3 to 6. We show
that the characteristic luminosities in bands are consistent with
passively evolving populations emerging from a single burst at redshift .
The faint end power law slope of the luminosity function is found to be on
average in griz. Halo occupation numbers (to ) for
these systems appear to be consistent with those based on X-ray selected
clusters. The blue fraction estimated to , for the three lower
redshift systems, suggests an increase with redshift, although with the current
sample the uncertainties are still large. Overall, this pilot study of the
first four clusters provides no evidence that the galaxy populations in these
systems differ significantly from those in previously studied cluster
populations selected in the X-ray or the optical.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
An extension of the SHARC survey
We report on our search for distant clusters of galaxies based on optical and
X-ray follow up observations of X-ray candidates from the SHARC survey. Based
on the assumption that the absence of bright optical or radio counterparts to
possibly extended X-ray sources could be distant clusters. We have obtained
deep optical images and redshifts for several of these objects and analyzed
archive XMM-Newton or Chandra data where applicable. In our list of candidate
clusters, two are probably galaxy structures at redshifts of z0.51 and
0.28. Seven other structures are possibly galaxy clusters between z0.3
and 1. Three sources are identified with QSOs and are thus likely to be X-ray
point sources, and six more also probably fall in this category. One X-ray
source is spurious or variable. For 17 other sources, the data are too sparse
at this time to put forward any hypothesis on their nature. We also
serendipitously detected a cluster at z=0.53 and another galaxy concentration
which is probably a structure with a redshift in the [0.15-0.6] range. We
discuss these results within the context of future space missions to
demonstrate the necessity of a wide field of view telescope optimized for the
0.5-2 keV range.Comment: Accepted in A&
The X-ray properties of high-z FRI candidates in the COSMOS field
We report the X-ray analysis of a sample of candidate high-redshift (1<z<2)
FRI sources from the sample of Chiaberge et al. (2009), observed in the Chandra
COSMOS field (C-COSMOS). Our main goals are to study their nuclear properties
by means of unresolved X-ray emission, and to constrain the presence of
clusters surrounding the FRI sources from the diffuse X-ray emission by the
associated hot plasma. Among 19 FRI candidates, 6 have an X-ray unresolved
counterpart in the C-COSMOS catalog. Two additional sources are not present in
the C-COSMOS catalog but are clearly detected in the Chandra images. X-ray
spectral analysis, when possible, or hardness ratio of the stacked emission
from X-ray detected sources, suggest that some of them have significant
intrinsic absorption (N_H~10^22 cm^-2), and high X-ray luminosities with
respect to local FRIs. From the stacking analysis of the 11 non-detected
sources, however, we find evidence for unresolved soft X-ray emission and no
detected hard emission, suggesting an unabsorbed spectrum. Therefore, the X-ray
properties vary significantly from source to source among these FRI candidates.
From the analysis of the stacked images of all 19 FRI candidates we can rule
out the presence of virialized haloes with temperatures larger than 2-3 keV;
however, the upper limit on the average extended emission is still consistent
with the presence of ~1-2 keV hot gas.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS accepted; added co-author affiliatio
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