Understanding the tsunami with a simple model

In this paper, we use the approximation of shallow water waves (Margaritondo G 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 401) to understand the behaviour of a tsunami in a variable depth. We deduce the shallow water wave equation and the continuity equation that must be satisfied when a wave encounters a discontinuity in the sea depth. A short explanation about how the tsunami hit the west coast of India is given based on the refraction phenomenon. Our procedure also includes a simple numerical calculation suitable for undergraduate students in physics and engineering

Spatial Clustering of Dark Matter Halos: Secondary Bias, Neighbor Bias, and the Influence of Massive Neighbors on Halo Properties

We explore the phenomenon commonly known as halo assembly bias, whereby dark matter halos of the same mass are found to be more or less clustered when a second halo property is considered, for halos in the mass range $3.7 \times 10^{11} \; h^{-1} \mathrm{M_{\odot}} - 5.0 \times 10^{13} \; h^{-1} \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. Using the Large Suite of Dark Matter Simulations (LasDamas) we consider nine commonly used halo properties and find that a clustering bias exists if halos are binned by mass or by any other halo property. This secondary bias implies that no single halo property encompasses all the spatial clustering information of the halo population. The mean values of some halo properties depend on their halo's distance to a more massive neighbor. Halo samples selected by having high values of one of these properties therefore inherit a neighbor bias such that they are much more likely to be close to a much more massive neighbor. This neighbor bias largely accounts for the secondary bias seen in halos binned by mass and split by concentration or age. However, halos binned by other mass-like properties still show a secondary bias even when the neighbor bias is removed. The secondary bias of halos selected by their spin behaves differently than that for other halo properties, suggesting that the origin of the spin bias is different than of other secondary biases.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX; minor revisions, and added references; results unchange

QED effective action in Krein space quantization

The one-loop effective action of QED is calculated by the Schwinger method in Krein space quantization. We show that the effective action is naturally fnite and regularized. It also coincides with the renormalized solution which was derived by Schwinger.Comment: 15 pages, Accepted for publication in Phys.Lett.

Conformally invariant wave-equations and massless fields in de Sitter spacetime

Conformally invariant wave equations in de Sitter space, for scalar and vector fields, are introduced in the present paper. Solutions of their wave equations and the related two-point functions, in the ambient space notation, have been calculated. The ``Hilbert'' space structure and the field operator, in terms of coordinate independent de Sitter plane waves, have been defined. The construction of the paper is based on the analyticity in the complexified pseudo-Riemanian manifold, presented first by Bros et al.. Minkowskian limits of these functions are analyzed. The relation between the ambient space notation and the intrinsic coordinates is then studied in the final stage.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, some details adde

The Molecular Gas Content of z<0.1 Radio Galaxies: Linking the AGN Accretion Mode to Host Galaxy Properties

One of the main achievements in modern cosmology is the so-called `unified model', which successfully describes most classes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) within a single physical scheme. However, there is a particular class of radio-luminous AGN that presently cannot be explained within this framework -- the `low-excitation' radio AGN (LERAGN). Recently, a scenario has been put forward which predicts that LERAGN, and their regular `high-excitation' radio AGN (HERAGN) counterparts represent different (red sequence vs. green valley) phases of galaxy evolution. These different evolutionary states are also expected to be reflected in their host galaxy properties, in particular their cold gas content. To test this, here we present CO(1-0) observations toward a sample of 11 of these systems conducted with CARMA. Combining our observations with literature data, we derive molecular gas masses (or upper limits) for a complete, representative, sample of 21 z<0.1 radio AGN. Our results yield that HERAGN on average have a factor of ~7 higher gas masses than LERAGN. We also infer younger stellar ages, lower stellar, halo, and central supermassive black masses, as well as higher black hole accretion efficiencies in HERAGN relative to LERAGN. These findings support the idea that high- and low-excitation radio AGN form two physically distinct populations of galaxies that reflect different stages of massive galaxy build-up.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Sussing merger trees: the influence of the halo finder

Merger tree codes are routinely used to follow the growth and merger of dark matter haloes in simulations of cosmic structure formation. Whereas in Srisawat et. al. we compared the trees built using a wide variety of such codes, here we study the influence of the underlying halo catalogue upon the resulting trees. We observe that the specifics of halo finding itself greatly influences the constructed merger trees. We find that the choices made to define the halo mass are of prime importance. For instance, amongst many potential options different finders select self-bound objects or spherical regions of defined overdensity, decide whether or not to include substructures within the mass returned and vary in their initial particle selection. The impact of these decisions is seen in tree length (the period of time a particularly halo can be traced back through the simulation), branching ratio (essentially the merger rate of subhaloes) and mass evolution. We therefore conclude that the choice of the underlying halo finder is more relevant to the process of building merger trees than the tree builder itself. We also report on some built-in features of specific merger tree codes that (sometimes) help to improve the quality of the merger trees produced

Evolution of the Stellar-to-Dark Matter relation: separating star-forming and passive galaxies from z = 1 to 0

We use measurements of the stellar mass function, galaxy clustering, and galaxy-galaxy lensing within the COSMOS survey to constrain the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) of star forming and quiescent galaxies over the redshift range z = [0.2, 1.0]. For massive galaxies, M * gsim 1010.6 M ☉, our results indicate that star-forming galaxies grow proportionately as fast as their dark matter halos while quiescent galaxies are outpaced by dark matter growth. At lower masses, there is minimal difference in the SHMRs, implying that the majority low-mass quiescent galaxies have only recently been quenched of their star formation. Our analysis also affords a breakdown of all COSMOS galaxies into the relative numbers of central and satellite galaxies for both populations. At z = 1, satellite galaxies dominate the red sequence below the knee in the stellar mass function. But the number of quiescent satellites exhibits minimal redshift evolution; all evolution in the red sequence is due to low-mass central galaxies being quenched of their star formation. At M * ~ 1010 M ☉, the fraction of central galaxies on the red sequence increases by a factor of 10 over our redshift baseline, while the fraction of quenched satellite galaxies at that mass is constant with redshift. We define a "migration rate" to the red sequence as the time derivative of the passive galaxy abundances. We find that the migration rate of central galaxies to the red sequence increases by nearly an order of magnitude from z = 1 to z = 0. These results imply that the efficiency of quenching star formation for centrals is increasing with cosmic time, while the mechanisms that quench the star formation of satellite galaxies in groups and clusters is losing efficiency