3,338 research outputs found
Do long-duration GRBs follow star formation?
We compare the luminosity function and rate inferred from the BATSE long
bursts peak flux distribution with those inferred from the Swift peak flux
distribution. We find that both the BATSE and the Swift peak fluxes can be
fitted by the same luminosity function and the two samples are compatible with
a population that follows the star formation rate. The estimated local long GRB
rate (without beaming corrections) varies by a factor of five from 0.05
Gpc^(-3)yr^(-1) for a rate function that has a large fraction of high redshift
bursts to 0.27 Gpc^(-3)yr^(-1) for a rate function that has many local ones. We
then turn to compare the BeppoSax/HETE2 and the Swift observed redshift
distributions and compare them with the predictions of the luminosity function
found. We find that the discrepancy between the BeppoSax/HETE2 and Swift
observed redshift distributions is only partially explained by the different
thresholds of the detectors and it may indicate strong selection effects. After
trying different forms of the star formation rate (SFR) we find that the
observed Swift redshift distribution, with more observed high redshift bursts
than expected, is inconsistent with a GRB rate that simply follows current
models for the SFR. We show that this can be explained by GRB evolution beyond
the SFR (more high redshift bursts). Alternatively this can also arise if the
luminosity function evolves and earlier bursts were more luminous or if strong
selection effects affect the redshift determination.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
Observation of persistent flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap
We have observed the persistent flow of Bose-condensed atoms in a toroidal
trap. The flow persists without decay for up to 10 s, limited only by
experimental factors such as drift and trap lifetime. The quantized rotation
was initiated by transferring one unit, , of the orbital angular
momentum from Laguerre-Gaussian photons to each atom. Stable flow was only
possible when the trap was multiply-connected, and was observed with a BEC
fraction as small as 15%. We also created flow with two units of angular
momentum, and observed its splitting into two singly-charged vortices when the
trap geometry was changed from multiply- to simply-connected.Comment: 1 file, 5 figure
Major Galaxy Mergers and the Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars
Despite observed strong correlations between central supermassive black holes
(SMBHs) and star-formation in galactic nuclei, uncertainties exist in our
understanding of their coupling. We present observations of the ratio of
heavily-obscured to unobscured quasars as a function of cosmic epoch up to z~3,
and show that a simple physical model describing mergers of massive, gas-rich
galaxies matches these observations. In the context of this model, every
obscured and unobscured quasar represent two distinct phases that result from a
massive galaxy merger event. Much of the mass growth of the SMBH occurs during
the heavily-obscured phase. These observations provide additional evidence for
a causal link between gas-rich galaxy mergers, accretion onto the nuclear SMBH
and coeval star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Science. Published by Science Express on
March 25th. 17 pages, 5 figures, including supplemental online materia
Probabilistic combinatorial optimization: Moments, semidefinite programming, and asymptotic bounds
10.1137/S1052623403430610SIAM Journal on Optimization151185-20
Characterizing the Cluster Lens Population
We present a detailed investigation into which properties of CDM halos make
them effective strong gravitational lenses. Strong lensing cross sections of
878 clusters from an N-body simulation are measured by ray tracing through
13,594 unique projections. We measure concentrations, axis ratios,
orientations, and the amount of substructure of each cluster, and compare the
lensing weighted distribution of each quantity to that of the cluster
population as a whole. The concentrations of lensing clusters are on average
34% larger than the typical cluster in the Universe. Despite this bias, the
anomalously high concentrations (c >14) recently measured by several groups,
appear to be inconsistent with the concentration distribution in our
simulations, which predict < 2% of lensing clusters should have concentrations
this high. No correlation is found between lensing cross section and the amount
of substructure. We introduce several types of simplified dark matter halos,
and use them to isolate which properties of CDM clusters make them effective
lenses. Projections of halo substructure onto small radii and the large scale
mass distribution of clusters do not significantly influence cross sections.
The abundance of giant arcs is primarily determined by the mass distribution
within an average overdensity of ~ 10,000. A multiple lens plane ray tracing
algorithm is used to show that projections of large scale structure increase
the giant arc abundance by a modest amount <7%. We revisit the question of
whether there is an excess of giant arcs behind high redshift clusters in the
RCS survey and find that the number of high redshift (z > 0.6) lenses is in
good agreement with LCDM, although our simulations predict more low redshift (z
< 0.6) lenses than were observed. (abridged)Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Ap
Uptake and movement of phosphorus (32P) in grapes
Phosphorus applied into the soil, appeared in the vine shoots within 24 hours of application, and the 6th bud of the shoot, which is generally the most fruitful region of shoots in the Anab-e-Shahi variety of grape, accumulated a high concentration of fertilizer P
Stoichiometry control of sputtered CuCl thin films: Influence on ultraviolet emission properties
We demonstrate that the chemical composition of the sputtered CuCl thin films could be finely controlled by adjusting the bias to the substrate. The films deposited without any intentional bias were Cl rich (CuCl1+x), a bias of −22 V yielded stoichiometric CuCl, and a further increase in the negative bias resulted in Cl deficient films (CuCl1−x). The crystalline and optical properties were found to be associated with the chemical composition. Cl rich films showed a deep level green emission at around 515 nm in addition to ultraviolet (UV) excitonic emission. The stoichiometric films have higher optical quality, exhibiting a sharp UV emission at around 385 nm at room temperature, compared to nonstoichiometric samples. Visible luminescence related to deep level defects was not observed in the stoichiometric films. Changes in energy of the flux from the target and the subsequent ion bombardment on the substrate surface are correlated with the variations in chemical composition and their impact on the film microstructure and UV emission
Constraining the Collisional Nature of the Dark Matter Through Observations of Gravitational Wakes
We propose to use gravitational wakes as a direct observational probe of the
collisional nature of the dark matter. We calculate analytically the structure
of a wake generated by the motion of a galaxy in the core of an X-ray cluster
for dark matter in the highly-collisional and collisionless limits. We show
that the difference between these limits can be recovered from detailed X-ray
or weak lensing observations. We also discuss the sizes of sub-halos in these
limits. Preliminary X-ray data on the motion of NGC 1404 through the Fornax
group disfavors fluid-like dark matter but does not exclude scenarios in which
the dark matter is weakly collisional.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Ap
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