3,937 research outputs found
Anisotropic Distribution of SDSS Satellite Galaxies: Planar (not Polar) Alignment
The distribution of satellite galaxies relative to isolated host galaxies in
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is investigated. Host-satellite systems are
selected using three different methods, yielding samples of ~3300, ~1600, and
\~950 satellites. In the plane of the sky, the distributions of all three
samples show highly significant deviations from circular symmetry (> 99.99%, >
99.99%, and 99.79% confidence levels, respectively), and the degree of
anisotropy is a strong function of the projected radius, r_p, at which the
satellites are found. For r_p < 100 kpc, the SDSS satellites are aligned
preferentially with the major axes of the hosts. This is in stark contrast to
the Holmberg effect, in which satellites are aligned with the minor axes of
host galaxies. The degree of anisotropy in the distribution of the SDSS
satellites decreases with r_p and is consistent with an isotropic distribution
at of order the 1-sigma level for 250 kpc < r_p < 500 kpc.Comment: ApJ Letters (in press); Discussion section substantially revised,
SDSS DR3 included in the analysis, no significant changes to the result
Episodic Source Memory over Distribution by Quantum-Like Dynamics â A Model Exploration
In source memory studies, a decision-maker is concerned with identifying the context in which a given episodic experience occurred. A common paradigm for studying source memory is the âthree-listâ experimental paradigm, where a subject studies three lists of words and is later asked whether a given word appeared on one or more of the studied lists. Surprisingly, the sum total of the acceptance probabilities generated by asking for the source of a word separately for each list (âlist 1?â, âlist 2?â, âlist 3?â) exceeds the acceptance probability generated by asking whether that word occurred on the union of the lists (âlist 1 or 2 or 3?â). The episodic memory for a given word therefore appears over distributed on the disjoint contexts of the lists. A quantum episodic memory model [QEM] was proposed by Brainerd, Wang and Reyna [8] to explain this type of result. In this paper, we apply a Hamiltonian dynamical extension of QEM for over distribution of source memory. The Hamiltonian operators are simultaneously driven by parameters for re-allocation of gist-based and verbatim-based acceptance support as subjects are exposed to the cue word in the first temporal stage, and are attenuated for description-dependence by the querying probe in the second temporal stage. Overall, the model predicts well the choice proportions in both separate list and union list queries and the over distribution effect, suggesting that a Hamiltonian dynamics for QEM can provide a good account of the acceptance processes involved in episodic memory tasks
The Extinction Towards the GRB970228 Field
We determine the local galactic extinction towards the field of gamma-ray
burst GRB970228 using a variety of methods. We develop a maximum likelihood
method for measuring the extinction by comparing galaxy counts in the field of
interest to those in a field of known extinction, and apply this method to the
GRB970228 field. We also measure the extinction by comparing the observed
stellar spectral energy distributions of stars in the GRB970228 field to the
spectral energy distribution of library spectra of the same spectral type.
Finally we estimate the extinction using the Balmer emission line ratios of a
galaxy in the GRB970228 field, and the neutral hydrogen column density and
amount of infrared dust emission toward this field. Combining the results of
these methods, we find a best-fit galactic extinction in the optical of
, which implies a a substantial dimming and change of
the spectral slope of the intrinsic GRB970228 afterglow.Comment: 22 pages, including 7 figures. Submitted to Ap
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Mycorrhiza formation and diversity in undisturbed forest and clearcut and burned areas in three forest types in Oregon
A greenhouse bioassay was used to compare
ectomycorrhiza formation and diversity in soils from
undisturbed and clearcut and burned areas in moist mesic,
moist montane and dry montane forest types representing a
gradient of environmental harshness. It was hypothesized
that mycorrhiza diversity decreases with increasing
environmental harshness and that stability of mycorrhiza
formation following clearcutting and burning is
positively related to mycorrhiza diversity.
Soils were collected from three forest/clearcut pairs
in each forest type. Clearcut and burned areas were
well-stocked with both planted and naturally seeded
conifers. The field soils were used to inoculate
greenhouse planting media in which Douglas-fir and
ponderosa pine seedlings were grown. Douglas-fir
seedlings were grown in moist mesic and moist montane
soils and ponderosa pine seedlings were grown in dry
montane soils. Numbers of mycorrhizal root tips and
short roots by mycorrhiza type were determined and used
to calculate percent mycorrhizal colonization, mycorrhiza
type proportions, diversity indices, and branching
indices.
For undisturbed forest soils, percent mycorrhizal
colonization and diversity index of root tips increased
across the gradient from the moist mesic to the dry
montane sites. Numbers of total and mycorrhizal root
tips were significantly higher in undisturbed soils from
the dry montane type but did not differ between
undisturbed moist montane and moist mesic soils. Greater
numbers of total and mycorrhizal root tips in the dry
montane soils may be partially due to the tendency of
ponderosa pine roots to branch more than those of
Douglas-fir. Two mycorrhiza types, Rhizopogon sp. and an
unidentified brown type, dominated all soils and were
usually accompanied by several minor types, each of which
seldom comprised more than 5% of the mycorrhizal root
tips.
When clearcut and burned soils were compared with
undisturbed forest soils within each forest type, percent mycorrhizal colonization was higher in clearcut than in
undisturbed soils from both the moist mesic and the dry
montane types. Numbers of mycorrhizal root tips were
higher in clearcut soils from the moist mesic and the dry
montane types while numbers of total root tips were
higher in clearcut soils from the dry montane type only.
Mycorrhizal diversity was consistently lower in clearcut
soils from all forest types but in no case was the
difference in diversity between forest and clearcut
significant. Type composition differed between forest
and clearcut soils from the dry montane type but not from
the moist mesic or the moist montane types.
Mycorrhiza diversity and overall stability of
mycorrhiza formation following clearcutting and burning.
Mycorrhiza formation was significantly higher in clearcut
than in forest soils at the sites with both the highest
and lowest mycorrhiza diversity
Galactic Extinction from Colors and Counts of Field Galaxies in WFPC2 Frames: An Application to GRB 970228
We develop the ``simulated extinction method'' to measure average foreground
Galactic extinction from field galaxy number-counts and colors. The method
comprises simulating extinction in suitable reference fields by changing the
isophotal detection limit. This procedure takes into account selection effects,
in particular, the change in isophotal detection limit (and hence in isophotal
magnitude completeness limit) with extinction, and the galaxy color--magnitude
relation.
We present a first application of the method to the HST WFPC2 images of the
gamma-ray burster GRB 970228. Four different WFPC2 high-latitude fields,
including the HDF, are used as reference to measure the average extinction
towards the GRB in the F606W passband. From the counts, we derive an average
extinction of A_V = 0.5 mag, but the dispersion of 0.4 mag between the
estimates from the different reference fields is significantly larger than can
be accounted by Poisson plus clustering uncertainties. Although the counts
differ, the average colors of the field galaxies agree well. The extinction
implied by the average color difference between the GRB field and the reference
galaxies is A_V = 0.6 mag, with a dispersion in the estimated extinction from
the four reference fields of only 0.1 mag. All our estimates are in good
agreement with the value of 0.81\pm0.27 mag obtained by Burstein & Heiles, and
with the extinction of 0.78\pm0.12 measured by Schlegel et al. from maps of
dust IR emission. However, the discrepancy between the widely varying counts
and the very stable colors in these high-latitude fields is worth
investigating.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures; submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
The Distribution of Satellite Galaxies in a Lambda-CDM Universe
We compute the locations of satellite galaxies with respect to their hosts
using the Lambda-CDM GIF simulation. If the major axes of the hosts' images are
perfectly aligned with the major axes of their projected mass, the satellites
are located preferentially close to the hosts' major axes. In this case, the
degree of anisotropy in the satellite locations is a good tracer of the
flattening of the hosts' halos. If all hosts have luminous circular disks, the
symmetry axes of the projected mass and light are not perfectly aligned, and
the locations of the satellites depend upon how the hosts' disks are placed
within their halos. If the disk angular momentum vectors are aligned with the
major axes of the halos, the satellites show a pronounced "Holmberg effect". If
the disk angular momentum vectors are aligned with the intermediate axes of the
local large scale structure, the distribution of satellite locations is
essentially isotropic. If the disk angular momentum vectors are aligned with
either the minor axes or with the net angular momentum vectors of the halos,
the satellites are distributed anisotropically about their hosts, with a
preference for being found nearby the hosts' major axes. This agrees well with
the observation that satellite galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey tend to
be found nearby the major axes of their hosts, and suggests that the mass and
light of SDSS host galaxies must be fairly well aligned in projection on the
sky.Comment: ApJ, in press; substantial revision of text but main results are
unchanged; revised paper includes the locations of satellites when the host
angular momentum vector is aligned with either the halo major axis or the
halo net angular momentu
Faint K Selected Galaxy Correlations and Clustering Evolution
Angular and spatial correlations are measured for K-band--selected galaxies,
248 having redshifts, 54 with z>1, in two patches of combined area 27 arcmin^2.
The angular correlation for K<=21.5 mag is (theta/1.4+/-0.19 arcsec
e^{+/-0.1})^{-0.8}. From the redshift sample we find that the real-space
correlation, calculated with q_0=0.1, of M_K<=-23.5 mag galaxies (k-corrected)
is \xi(r) = (r/2.9e^{+/-0.12}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at a mean z= 0.34,
(r/2.0e^{+/-0.15}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at z= 0.62, (r/1.4e^{+/-0.15}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8}
at z= 0.97, and (r/1.0e^{+/-0.2}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at z= 1.39, the last being a
formal upper limit for a blue-biased sample. In general, these are more
correlated than optically selected samples in the same redshift ranges. Over
the interval 0.32 AB
mag, have \xi(r)=(r/2.4e^{+/-0.14}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} whereas bluer galaxies, which
have a mean B of 23.7 mag and mean [OII] equivalent width W_{eq} = 41=\AA, are
very weakly correlated, with \xi(r)=(r/0.9e^{+/-0.22}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8}. For our
measured growth rate of clustering, this blue population, if non-merging, can
grow only into a low-redshift population less luminous than 0.4L_\ast. The
cross-correlation of low- and high-luminosity galaxies at z=0.6 appears to have
an excess in the correlation amplitude within 100/h kpc. The slow redshift
evolution is consistent with these galaxies tracing the mass clustering in low
density, Omega= 0.2, relatively unbiased, sigma_8=0.8, universe, but cannot yet
exclude other possibilities.Comment: to be published in the Aug 1 ApJ, 20 pages as a uuencoded postscript
file Postscript with all figures is available at
http://manaslu.astro.utoronto.ca/~carlberg/paper
Targeted disruption of ATM leads to growth retardation, chromosomal fragmentation during meiosis, immune defects, and thymic lymphoma
ATM, the gene mutated in the inherited human disease ataxia-telangiectasia, is a member of a family of kinases involved in DNA metabolism and cell-cycle checkpoint control. To help clarify the physiological roles of the ATM protein, we disrupted the ATM gene in mice through homologous recombination. Initial evaluation of the ATM knockout animals indicates that inactivation of the mouse ATM gene recreates much of the phenotype of ataxia-telangiectasia. The homozygous mutant (ATM-/-) mice are viable, growth-retarded, and infertile. The infertility of ATM-/- mice results from meiotic failure. Meiosis is arrested at the zygotene/pachytene stage of prophase I as a result of abnormal chromosomal synapsis and subsequent chromosome fragmentation. Immune defects also are evident in ATM-/- mice, including reduced numbers of B220+CD43- pre-B cells, thymocytes, and peripheral T cells, as well as functional impairment of T-cell-dependent immune responses. The cerebella of ATM-/- mice appear normal by histologic examination at 3 to 4 months and the mice have no gross behavioral abnormalities. The majority of mutant mice rapidly develop thymic lymphomas and die before 4 months of age. These findings indicate that the ATM gene product plays an essential role in a diverse group of cellular processes, including meiosis, the normal growth of somatic tissues, immune development, and tumor suppression
Galaxy Clustering Evolution in the UH8K Weak Lensing Fields
We present measurements of the two-point galaxy angular correlation function
as a function of apparent magnitude, color, and morphology. We present new
galaxy number counts to limiting magnitudes of I=24.0 and V=25.0. We find
to be well described by a power-law of slope -0.8. We find the
amplitude of the correlation function to decrease monotonically with
increasingly faint apparent magnitude. We compare with predictions utilizing
redshift distributions based on deep spectroscopic observations. We conclude
that simple redshift-dependent models which characterize evolution by means of
the epsilon parameter inadequately describe the observations. We find a strong
clustering dependence on V-I color because galaxies of extreme color lie at
similar redshifts and the angular correlation functions for these samples are
minimally diluted by chance projections.
We then present the first attempt to investigate the redshift evolution of
clustering, utilizing a population of galaxies of the same morphological type
and absolute luminosity. We study the dependence of on
redshift for Lstar early-type galaxies in the redshift range 0.2<z<0.9.
Although uncertainties are large, we find the evolution in the clustering of
these galaxies to be consistent with stable clustering [epsilon=0]. We find
Lstar early-type galaxies to cluster slightly more strongly (rnought =
5.25\pm0.28 \hMpc assuming epsilon=0) than the local full field population.
This is in good agreement with the 2dFGRS value for Lstar early-type galaxies
in the local universe (abridged).Comment: 41 pages, including 12 figs, 10 tables, to appear in Ap
The Opacity of Nearby Galaxies from Counts of Background Galaxies: II. Limits of the Synthetic Field Method
Recently, we have developed and calibrated the Synthetic Field Method (SFM)
to derive the total extinction through disk galaxies. The method is based on
the number counts and colors of distant background field galaxies that can be
seen through the foreground object, and has been successfully applied to NGC
4536 and NGC 3664, two late-type galaxies located, respectively, at 16 and 11
Mpc. Here, we study the applicability of the SFM to HST images of galaxies in
the Local Group, and show that background galaxies cannot be easily identified
through these nearby objects, even with the best resolution available today. In
the case of M 31, each pixel in the HST images contains 50 to 100 stars, and
the background galaxies cannot be seen because of the intrinsic granularity due
to strong surface brightness fluctuations. In the LMC, on the other hand, there
is only about one star every six linear pixels, and the lack of detectable
background galaxies results from a ``secondary'' granularity, introduced by
structure in the wings of the point spread function. The success of the SFM in
NGC 4536 and NGC 3664 is a natural consequence of the reduction of the
intensity of surface brightness fluctuations with distance. When the dominant
confusion factor is structure in the PSF wings, as is the case of HST images of
the LMC, and would happen in M 31 images obtained with a 10-m diffraction-
limited optical telescope, it becomes in principle possible to improve the
detectability of background galaxies by subtracting the stars in the foreground
object. However, a much better characterization of optical PSFs than is
currently available would be required for an adequate subtraction of the wings.
Given the importance of determining the dust content of Local Group galaxies,
efforts should be made in that direction.Comment: 45 pages, 10 Postscript figure
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