1,858 research outputs found
Microjansky sources at 1.4 GHz
We present a deep 1.4 GHz survey made with the Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA), having a background RMS of 9 microJy near the image phase centre,
up to 25 microJy at the edge of a 50' field of view. Over 770 radio sources
brighter than 45 microJy have been catalogued in the field. The differential
source counts in the deep field provide tentative support for the growing
evidence that the microjansky radio population exhibits significantly higher
clustering than found at higher flux density cutoffs. The optical
identification rate on CCD images is approximately 50% to R=22.5, and the
optical counterparts of the faintest radio sources appear to be mainly single
galaxies close to this optical magnitude limit.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ Letters 4 May 199
Neural-network selection of high-redshift radio quasars, and the luminosity function at z~4
We obtain a sample of 87 radio-loud QSOs in the redshift range 3.6<z<4.4 by
cross-correlating sources in the FIRST radio survey S{1.4GHz} > 1 mJy with
star-like objects having r <20.2 in SDSS Data Release 7. Of these 87 QSOs, 80
are spectroscopically classified in previous work (mainly SDSS), and form the
training set for a search for additional such sources. We apply our selection
to 2,916 FIRST-DR7 pairs and find 15 likely candidates. Seven of these are
confirmed as high-redshift quasars, bringing the total to 87. The candidates
were selected using a neural-network, which yields 97% completeness (fraction
of actual high-z QSOs selected as such) and an efficiency (fraction of
candidates which are high-z QSOs) in the range of 47 to 60%. We use this sample
to estimate the binned optical luminosity function of radio-loud QSOs at , and also the LF of the total QSO population and its comoving density. Our
results suggest that the radio-loud fraction (RLF) at high z is similar to that
at low-z and that other authors may be underestimating the fraction at high-z.
Finally, we determine the slope of the optical luminosity function and obtain
results consistent with previous studies of radio-loud QSOs and of the whole
population of QSOs. The evolution of the luminosity function with redshift was
for many years interpreted as a flattening of the bright end slope, but has
recently been re-interpreted as strong evolution of the break luminosity for
high-z QSOs, and our results, for the radio-loud population, are consistent
with this.Comment: 20 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 3 March 201
Use of neural networks for the identification of new z>=3.6 QSOs from FIRST-SDSS DR5
We aim to obtain a complete sample of redshift > 3.6 radio QSOs from FIRST
sources having star-like counterparts in the SDSS DR5 photometric survey
(r<=20.2). We found that simple supervised neural networks, trained on sources
with SDSS spectra, and using optical photometry and radio data, are very
effective for identifying high-z QSOs without spectra. The technique yields a
completeness of 96 per cent and an efficiency of 62 per cent. Applying the
trained networks to 4415 sources without DR5 spectra we found 58 z>=3.6 QSO
candidates. We obtained spectra of 27 of them, and 17 are confirmed as high-z
QSOs. Spectra of 13 additional candidates from the literature and from SDSS DR6
revealed 7 more z>=3.6 QSOs, giving and overall efficiency of 60 per cent. None
of the non-candidates with spectra from NED or DR6 is a z>=3.6 QSO,
consistently with a high completeness. The initial sample of z>=3.6 QSOs is
increased from 52 to 76, i.e. by a factor 1.46. From the new identifications
and candidates we estimate an incompleteness of SDSS for the spectroscopic
classification of FIRST 3.6<=z<=4.6 QSOs of 15 percent for r<=20.2.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures accepted for publication in MNRA
An excess of damped Lyman alpha galaxies near QSOs
We present a sample of 33 damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) discovered in the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) whose absorption redshifts (z_abs) are within
6000 km/s of the QSO's systemic redshift (z_sys). Our sample is based on 731
2.5 < z_sys < 4.5 non-broad-absorption-line (non-BAL) QSOs from Data Release 3
(DR3) of the SDSS. We estimate that our search is ~100 % complete for absorbers
with N(HI) >= 2e20 cm^-2. The derived number density of DLAs per unit redshift,
n(z), within v < 6000 km/s is higher (3.5 sigma significance) by almost a
factor of 2 than that of intervening absorbers observed in the SDSS DR3, i.e.
there is evidence for an overdensity of galaxies near the QSOs. This provides a
physical motivation for excluding DLAs at small velocity separations in surveys
of intervening 'field' DLAs. In addition, we find that the overdensity of
proximate DLAs is independent of the radio-loudness of the QSO, consistent with
the environments of radio-loud and radio-quiet QSOs being similar.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (13 pages, 6 figures
The Redshift Distribution of FIRST Radio Sources at 1 mJy
We present spectra for a sample of radio sources from the FIRST survey, and
use them to define the form of the redshift distribution of radio sources at
mJy levels.We targeted 365 sources and obtained 46 redshifts (13 per cent of
the sample). We find that our sample is complete in redshift measurement to R
, corresponding to . Early-type galaxies represent the
largest subset (45 per cent) of the sample and have redshifts 0.15\la z \la
0.5 ; late-type galaxies make up 15 per cent of the sample and have redshifts
0.05\la z \la 0.2; starbursting galaxies are a small fraction ( per
cent), and are very nearby (z\la 0.05). Some 9 per cent of the population
have Seyfert1/quasar-type spectra, all at z\ga 0.8, and there are 4 per cent
are Seyfert2 type galaxies at intermediate redshifts (). Using our
measurements and data from the Phoenix survey, we obtain an estimate for
at mJy and compare this with model predictions. At
variance with previous conclusions, we find that the population of starbursting
objects makes up \la 5 per cent of the radio population at S mJy.Comment: 20 pages, sumbitted to MNRA
On Spinors Transformations
We begin showing that for even dimensional vector spaces all
automorphisms of their Clifford algebras are inner. So all orthogonal
transformations of are restrictions to of inner automorphisms of the
algebra. Thus under orthogonal transformations and - space and time
reversal - all algebra elements, including vectors and spinors ,
transform as and for some
algebra element . We show that while under combined spinor remain in its spinor space, under or separately
goes to a 'different' spinor space and may have opposite chirality.
We conclude with a preliminary characterization of inner automorphisms with
respect to their property to change, or not, spinor spaces.Comment: Minor changes to propositions 1 and
Impact of astronomical research from different countries
The impact of astronomical research carried out by different countries has
been compared by analysing the 1000 most-cited astronomy papers published
1991-8 (125 from each year). 61% of the citations are to papers with first
authors at institutions in the USA, 11% in the UK, 5% in Germany, 4% in Canada,
3% in Italy and 3% in France. 17% are to papers with first authors in ESO
countries. The number of citations is approximately proportional to the number
of IAU members in a given country. The number of citations per IAU astronomer
is highest in the USA, Switzerland and the UK. Within continental Europe, the
number of citations per IAU astronomer varies little from country to country,
but is slightly higher in the north than in the south. The sample of 1000
papers maps regional subject preferences. 62% of the extragalactic papers in
the sample were published from the USA, 15% from the UK, 23% from other
countries (mainly in continental Europe). 62% of the papers on stars were also
published from the USA, but the fractions from the UK and from other countries
are 2% and 36% respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 3 fig. Accepted for publishing in A
An inside story: tracking experiences, challenges and successes in a joint specialist performing arts college
In England the government’s specialist schools initiative is transforming the nature of secondary education. A three-year longitudinal case study tracked the effects of specialist performing arts college status on two schools. The sites were a mainstream school drawing pupils from an area of high social deprivation and disadvantage, and a special school catering for pupils with profound and \ud
multiple learning difficulties, which were awarded joint performing arts college status. The government’s \ud
preferred criterion for judging the success of specialist schools is improvement in whole-school examination results. The authors argue that this is a crude and inappropriate measure for these case study schools and probably others. Using questionnaires, interviews and documentation they tell an ‘inside story’ of experiences, challenges and achievements, from the perspectives of the schools’ mangers, staff and pupils. Alternative ‘value-added’ features emerged that were positive indicators of enrichment and success in both schools
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