9,210 research outputs found
Advanced Langmuir Probe (LP)
The dynamic response of the MK-2 version of the Langmuir probe amplifier was studied. The settling time of the step response is increased by: (1) stray node-to-ground capacitance at series connections between high value feedback resistors; and (2) input capacitance due to the input cable, FET switches, and input source follower. The stray node-to-ground capacitances can be reduced to tolerable levels by elevating the string of feedback resistors above the printing board. A new feedback network was considered, with promising results. The design uses resistances having much lower nominal values, thereby minimizing the effect of stray capacitances. Faster settling times can be achieved by using an operational amplifier having a higher gain-bandwidth product
New physics, the cosmic ray spectrum knee, and cross section measurements
We explore the possibility that a new physics interaction can provide an
explanation for the knee just above GeV in the cosmic ray spectrum. We
model the new physics modifications to the total proton-proton cross section
with an incoherent term that allows for missing energy above the scale of new
physics. We add the constraint that the new physics must also be consistent
with published cross section measurements, using cosmic ray observations,
an order of magnitude and more above the knee. We find that the rise in cross
section required at energies above the knee is radical. The increase in cross
section suggests that it may be more appropriate to treat the scattering
process in the black disc limit at such high energies. In this case there may
be no clean separation between the standard model and new physics contributions
to the total cross section. We model the missing energy in this limit and find
a good fit to the Tibet III cosmic ray flux data. We comment on testing the new
physics proposal for the cosmic ray knee at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
A Dust-Penetrated Classification Scheme for Bars as Inferred from their Gravitational Force Fields
The division of galaxies into ``barred'' (SB) and ``normal'' (S) spirals is a
fundamental aspect of the Hubble galaxy classification system. This ``tuning
fork'' view was revised by de Vaucouleurs, whose classification volume
recognized apparent ``bar strength'' (SA, SAB, SB) as a continuous property of
galaxies called the ``family''. However, the SA, SAB, and SB families are
purely visual judgments that can have little bearing on the actual bar strength
in a given galaxy. Until very recently, published bar judgments were based
exclusively on blue light images, where internal extinction or star formation
can either mask a bar completely or give the false impression of a bar in a
nonbarred galaxy. Near-infrared camera arrays, which principally trace the old
stellar populations in both normal and barred galaxies, now facilitate a
quantification of bar strength in terms of their gravitational potentials and
force fields. In this paper, we show that the maximum value, Qb, of the ratio
of the tangential force to the mean radial force is a quantitative measure of
the strength of a bar. Qb does not measure bar ellipticity or bar shape, but
rather depends on the actual forcing due to the bar embedded in its disk. We
show that a wide range of true bar strengths characterizes the category ``SB'',
while de Vaucouleurs category ``SAB'' corresponds to a much narrower range of
bar strengths. We present Qb values for 36 galaxies, and we incorporate our bar
classes into a dust-penetrated classification system for spiral galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (LaTex, 30
pages + 3 figures); Figs. 1 and 3 are in color and are also available at
http://bama.ua.edu/~rbuta/bars
Analytic models and forward scattering from accelerator to cosmic-ray energies
Analytic models for hadron-hadron scattering are characterized by analytical
parametrizations for the forward amplitudes and the use of dispersion relation
techniques to study the total cross section and the
parameter. In this paper we investigate four aspects related to the application
of the model to and scattering, from accelerator to cosmic-ray
energies: 1) the effect of different estimations for from
cosmic-ray experiments; 2) the differences between individual and global
(simultaneous) fits to and ; 3) the role of the
subtraction constant in the dispersion relations; 4) the effect of distinct
asymptotic inputs from different analytic models. This is done by using as a
framework the single Pomeron and the maximal Odderon parametrizations for the
total cross section. Our main conclusions are the following: 1) Despite the
small influence from different cosmic-ray estimations, the results allow us to
extract an upper bound for the soft pomeron intercept: ;
2) although global fits present good statistical results, in general, this
procedure constrains the rise of ; 3) the subtraction constant as
a free parameter affects the fit results at both low and high energies; 4)
independently of the cosmic-ray information used and the subtraction constant,
global fits with the odderon parametrization predict that, above GeV, becomes greater than , and
this result is in complete agreement with all the data presently available. In
particular, we infer at GeV and
at 500 GeV (BNL RHIC energies).Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, aps-revtex, wording changes, corrected typos, to
appear in Physical Review
Self-Consistent Response of a Galactic Disk to an Elliptical Perturbation Halo Potential
We calculate the self-consistent response of an axisymmetric galactic disk
perturbed by an elliptical halo potential of harmonic number m = 2, and obtain
the net disk ellipticity. Such a potential is commonly expected to arise due to
a galactic tidal encounter and also during the galaxy formation process. The
self-gravitational potential corresponding to the self-consistent,
non-axisymmetric density response of the disk is obtained by inversion of
Poisson equation for a thin disk. This response potential is shown to oppose
the perturbation potential, because physically the disk self-gravity resists
the imposed potential. This results in a reduction in the net ellipticity of
the perturbation halo potential in the disk plane. The reduction factor
denoting this decrease is independent of the strength of the perturbation
potential, and has a typical minimum value of 0.75 - 0.9 for a wide range of
galaxy parameters. The reduction is negligible at all radii for higher
harmonics (m > or = 3) of the halo potential. (abridged).Comment: 26 pages (LaTex- aastex style), 3 .eps figures. To appear in the
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 542, Oct. 20, 200
Semi-Analytical Models for Lensing by Dark Halos: I. Splitting Angles
We use the semi-analytical approach to analyze gravitational lensing of
quasars by dark halos in various cold dark matter (CDM) cosmologies, in order
to determine the sensitivity of the prediction probabilities of images
separations to the input assumptions regarding halos and cosmologies. The mass
function of dark halos is assumed to be given by the Press-Schechter function.
The mass density profile of dark halos is alternatively taken to be the
singular isothermal sphere (SIS), the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, or the
generalized NFW profile. The cosmologies include: the Einstein-de Sitter model
(SCDM), the open model (OCDM), and the flat \Lambda-model (LCDM). As expected,
we find that the lensing probability is extremely sensitive to the mass density
profile of dark halos, and somewhat less so to the mean mass density in the
universe, and the amplitude of primordial fluctuations. NFW halos are very much
less effective in producing multiple images than SIS halos. However, none of
these models can completely explain the current observations: the SIS models
predict too many large splitting lenses, while the NFW models predict too few
small splitting lenses. This indicates that there must be at least two
populations of halos in the universe. A combination of SIS and NFW halos can
reasonably reproduce the current observations if we choose the mass for the
transition from SIS to NFW to be ~ 10^{13} solar masses. Additionally, there is
a tendency for CDM models to have too much power on small scales, i.e. too much
mass concentration; and it appears that the cures proposed for other apparent
difficulties of CDM would help here as well, an example being the warm dark
matter (WDM) variant which is shown to produce large splitting lenses fewer
than the corresponding CDM model by one order of magnitude.Comment: 46 pages, including 13 figures. Revised version with significant
improvemen
Morphological Classification of Galaxies by Shapelet Decomposition in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Multiwavelength Classification
We describe the application of the `shapelet' linear decomposition of galaxy
images to multi-wavelength morphological classification using the
and -band images of 1519 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We
utilize elliptical shapelets to remove to first-order the effect of inclination
on morphology. After decomposing the galaxies we perform a principal component
analysis on the shapelet coefficients to reduce the dimensionality of the
spectral morphological parameter space. We give a description of each of the
first ten principal component's contribution to a galaxy's spectral morphology.
We find that galaxies of different broad Hubble type separate cleanly in the
principal component space. We apply a mixture of Gaussians model to the
2-dimensional space spanned by the first two principal components and use the
results as a basis for classification. Using the mixture model, we separate
galaxies into three classes and give a description of each class's physical and
morphological properties. We find that the two dominant mixture model classes
correspond to early and late type galaxies, respectively. The third class has,
on average, a blue, extended core surrounded by a faint red halo, and typically
exhibits some asymmetry. We compare our method to a simple cut on color
and find the shapelet method to be superior in separating galaxies.
Furthermore, we find evidence that the decision boundary may not be
optimal for separation between early and late type galaxies, and suggest that
the optimal cut may be .Comment: 42 pages, 18 figs, revised version in press at AJ. Some modification
to the technique, more discussion, addition/deletion/modification of several
figures, color figures have been added. A high resolution version may be
obtained at
http://bllac.as.arizona.edu/~bkelly/shapelets/shapelets_ugriz.ps.g
Psi-floor diagrams and a Caporaso-Harris type recursion
Floor diagrams are combinatorial objects which organize the count of tropical
plane curves satisfying point conditions. In this paper we introduce Psi-floor
diagrams which count tropical curves satisfying not only point conditions but
also conditions given by Psi-classes (together with points). We then generalize
our definition to relative Psi-floor diagrams and prove a Caporaso-Harris type
formula for the corresponding numbers. This formula is shown to coincide with
the classical Caporaso-Harris formula for relative plane descendant
Gromov-Witten invariants. As a consequence, we can conclude that in our case
relative descendant Gromov-Witten invariants equal their tropical counterparts.Comment: minor changes to match the published versio
Keck spectroscopy and Spitzer Space Telescope analysis of the outer disk of the Triangulum Spiral Galaxy M33
In an earlier study of the spiral galaxy M33, we photometrically identified
arcs or outer spiral arms of intermediate age (0.6 Gyr - 2 Gyr) carbon stars
precisely at the commencement of the HI-warp. Stars in the arcs were
unresolved, but were likely thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch carbon
stars. Here we present Keck I spectroscopy of seven intrinsically bright and
red target stars in the outer, northern arc in M33. The target stars have
estimated visual magnitudes as faint as V \sim 25 mag. Absorption bands of CN
are seen in all seven spectra reported here, confirming their carbon star
status. In addition, we present Keck II spectra of a small area 0.5 degree away
from the centre of M33; the target stars there are also identified as carbon
stars. We also study the non-stellar PAH dust morphology of M33 secured using
IRAC on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer 8 micron image attests
to a change of spiral phase at the start of the HI warp. The Keck spectra
confirm that carbon stars may safely be identified on the basis of their red
J-K_s colours in the outer, low metallicity disk of M33. We propose that the
enhanced number of carbon stars in the outer arms are an indicator of recent
star formation, fueled by gas accretion from the HI-warp reservoir.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted in A&
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