1,709 research outputs found
Indirect Signals from Dark Matter in Split Supersymmetry
We study the possibilities for the indirect detection of dark matter in Split
Supersymmetry from gamma-rays, positrons, and antiprotons. The most promising
signal is the gamma-ray line, which may be observable at the next generation of
detectors. For certain halo profiles and a high mass neutralino, the line can
even be visible in current experiments. The continuous gamma-ray signal may be
observable, if there is a central spike in the galactic halo density. The
signals are found to be similar to those in MSSM models. These indirect signals
complement other experiments, being most easily observable for regions of
parameter space, such as heavy wino and higgsino dominated neutralinos, which
are least accessible for direct detection and accelerator searches.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; experimental sensitivities added to figure 2,
revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.
About the morphology of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and their dark matter content
The morphological properties of the Carina, Sculptor and Fornax dwarfs are
investigated using new wide field data with a total area of 29 square degrees.
The stellar density maps are derived, hinting that Sculptor possesses tidal
tails indicating interaction with the Milky Way. Contrary to previous studies
we cannot find any sign of breaks in the density profiles for the Carina and
Fornax dwarfs. The possible existence of tidal tails in Sculptor and of King
limiting radii in Fornax and Carina are used to derive global M/L ratios,
without using kinematic data. By matching those M/L ratios to kinematically
derived values we are able to constrain the orbital parameters of the three
dwarfs. Fornax cannot have M/L smaller than 3 and must be close to its
perigalacticon now. The other extreme is Sculptor that needs to be on an orbit
with an eccentricity bigger than 0.5 to be able to form tidal tails despite its
kinematic M/L.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted by A&
Star Formation-Regulated Growth of Black Holes in Protogalactic Spheroids
The observed relation between central black hole mass and spheroid velocity
dispersion is interpreted in terms of a self-regulation model that incorporates
a viscous Keplerian accretion disk to feed the black hole, embedded in a
massive, self-gravitating star forming disk that eventually populates the
spheroid. The model leads to a constant ratio between black hole mass and
spheroid mass which is equal to the inverse of the critical Reynolds number for
the onset of turbulence in the accretion disk surrounding the central black
hole. Applying the fundamental plane correlation for spheroids, we find that
the black hole mass has a power-law dependence on the spheroid velocity
dispersion with a slope in the range of 4-5. We explain the larger scatter in
the Magorrian relation with respect to the black hole mass-spheroid velocity
dispersion relationship as a result of secular evolution of the spheroid that
primarily affects its luminosity and to a much lesser extent its velocity
dispersion.Comment: 12 pages, no figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
Time-resolved infrared emission from radiation-driven central obscuring structures in Active Galactic Nuclei
The central engines of Seyfert galaxies are thought to be enshrouded by
geometrically thick gas and dust structures. In this article, we derive
observable properties for a self-consistent model of such toroidal gas and dust
distributions, where the geometrical thickness is achieved and maintained with
the help of X-ray heating and radiation pressure due to the central engine.
Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and images are obtained with the help of
dust continuum radiative transfer calculations with RADMC-3D. For the first
time, we are able to present time-resolved SEDs and images for a physical model
of the central obscurer. Temporal changes are mostly visible at shorter
wavelengths, close to the combined peak of the dust opacity as well as the
central source spectrum and are caused by variations in the column densities of
the generated outflow. Due to the three-component morphology of the
hydrodynamical models -- a thin disc with high density filaments, a surrounding
fluffy component (the obscurer) and a low density outflow along the rotation
axis -- we find dramatic differences depending on wavelength: whereas the
mid-infrared images are dominated by the elongated appearance of the outflow
cone, the long wavelength emission is mainly given by the cold and dense disc
component. Overall, we find good agreement with observed characteristics,
especially for those models, which show clear outflow cones in combination with
a geometrically thick distribution of gas and dust, as well as a geometrically
thin, but high column density disc in the equatorial plane.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Experimental determination of the effective strong coupling constant
We present a first attempt to experimentally extract an effective strong
coupling constant that we define to be a low Q2 extension of a previous
definition by S. Brodsky et al. following an initial work of G. Grunberg. Using
Jefferson Lab data and sum rules, we establish its Q2-behavior over the
complete Q2-range. The result is compared to effective coupling constants
inferred from different processes and to calculations based on Schwinger-Dyson
equations, hadron spectroscopy or lattice QCD. Although the connection between
the experimentally extracted effective coupling constants and the calculations
is not established it is interesting to note that their behaviors are similar.Comment: Published in Physics Letters B 650 4 24
A Fast Algorithm for Solving the Poisson Equation on a Nested Grid
We present a numerical method for solving the Poisson equation on a nested
grid. The nested grid consists of uniform grids having different grid spacing
and is designed to cover the space closer to the center with a finer grid. Thus
our numerical method is suitable for computing the gravity of a centrally
condensed object. It consists of two parts: the difference scheme for the
Poisson equation on the nested grid and the multi-grid iteration algorithm. It
has three advantages: accuracy, fast convergence, and scalability. First it
computes the gravitational potential of a close binary accurately up to the
quadraple moment, even when the binary is resolved only in the fine grids.
Second residual decreases by a factor of 300 or more by each iteration. We
confirmed experimentally that the iteration converges always to the exact
solution of the difference equation. Third the computation load of the
iteration is proportional to the total number of the cells in the nested grid.
Thus our method gives a good solution at the minimum expense when the nested
grid is large. The difference scheme is applicable also to the adaptive mesh
refinement in which cells of different sizes are used to cover a domain of
computation.Comment: 22 pages 21 figures. To appear in Ap
Kinematics of massive star ejecta in the Milky Way as traced by Al
Context. Massive stars form in groups and their winds and supernova explosions create superbubbles up to kpc in size. The fate of their ejecta is of vital importance for the dynamics of the interstellar medium, for chemical evolution models, and the chemical enrichment of galactic halos and the intergalactic medium. However, ejecta kinematics and the characteristic scales in space and time have not been explored in great detail beyond ~10 Ka. Aims: Through measurement of radioactive 26Al with its decay time constant at ~106 years, we aim to trace the kinematics of cumulative massive-star and supernova ejecta independent of the uncertain gas parameters over million-year time scales. Our goal is to identify the mixing time scale and the spatio-kinematics of such ejecta from the pc to kpc scale in our Milky Way. Methods: We use the SPI spectrometer on the INTEGRAL observatory and its observations along the Galactic ridge to trace the detailed line shape systematics of the 1808.63 keV gamma-ray line from 26Al decay. We determine line centroids and compare these to Doppler shift expectations from large-scale systematic rotation around the Galaxy centre, as observed in other Galactic objects. Results: We measure the radial velocities of gas traced by 26Al, averaged over the line of sight, as a function of Galactic longitude. We find substantially higher velocities than expected from Galactic rotation, the average bulk velocity being ~200 km s-1 larger than predicted from Galactic rotation. The observed radial velocity spread implies a Doppler broadening of the gamma-ray line that is consistent with our measurements of the overall line width. We can reproduce the observed characteristics with 26Al sources located along the inner spiral arms, when we add a global blow-out preference into the forward direction away from arms into the inter-arm region, as is expected when massive stars are offset towards the spiral-arm leading edge. With the known connection of superbubbles to the gaseous halo, this implies angular-momentum transfer in the disk-halo system and consequently also radial gas flows. The structure of the interstellar gas above the disk affects how ionizing radiation may escape and ionize intergalactic gas.Peer reviewe
Global Nonradial Instabilities of Dynamically Collapsing Gas Spheres
Self-similar solutions provide good descriptions for the gravitational
collapse of spherical clouds or stars when the gas obeys a polytropic equation
of state, (with ). We study the behaviors of
nonradial perturbations in the similarity solutions of Larson, Penston and
Yahil, which describe the evolution of the collapsing cloud prior to core
formation. Our global stability analysis reveals the existence of unstable
bar-modes () when . In particular, for the collapse of
isothermal spheres, which applies to the early stages of star formation, the
density perturbation relative to the background, , increases as ,
where denotes the epoch of core formation, and is the cloud
central density. Thus, the isothermal cloud tends to evolve into an ellipsoidal
shape (prolate bar or oblate disk, depending on initial conditions) as the
collapse proceeds. In the context of Type II supernovae, core collapse is
described by the equation of state, and our analysis
indicates that there is no growing mode (with density perturbation) in the
collapsing core before the proto-neutron star forms, although nonradial
perturbations can grow during the subsequent accretion of the outer core and
envelope onto the neutron star. We also carry out a global stability analysis
for the self-similar expansion-wave solution found by Shu, which describes the
post-collapse accretion (``inside-out'' collapse) of isothermal gas onto a
protostar. We show that this solution is unstable to perturbations of all
's, although the growth rates are unknown.Comment: 28 pages including 7 ps figures; Minor changes in the discussion; To
be published in ApJ (V.540, Sept.10, 2000 issue
Cooling, Gravity and Geometry: Flow-driven Massive Core Formation
We study numerically the formation of molecular clouds in large-scale
colliding flows including self-gravity. The models emphasize the competition
between the effects of gravity on global and local scales in an isolated cloud.
Global gravity builds up large-scale filaments, while local gravity --
triggered by a combination of strong thermal and dynamical instabilities --
causes cores to form. The dynamical instabilities give rise to a local focusing
of the colliding flows, facilitating the rapid formation of massive
protostellar cores of a few 100 M. The forming clouds do not reach an
equilibrium state, though the motions within the clouds appear comparable to
``virial''. The self-similar core mass distributions derived from models with
and without self-gravity indicate that the core mass distribution is set very
early on during the cloud formation process, predominantly by a combination of
thermal and dynamical instabilities rather than by self-gravity.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Ap
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