Where Are the Baryons? II: Feedback Effects

Numerical simulations of the intergalactic medium have shown that at the present epoch a significant fraction (40-50%) of the baryonic component should be found in the (T~10^6K) Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) - with several recent observational lines of evidence indicating the validity of the prediction. We here recompute the evolution of the WHIM with the following major improvements: (1) galactic superwind feedback processes from galaxy/star formation are explicitly included; (2) major metal species (O V to O IX) are computed explicitly in a non-equilibrium way; (3) mass and spatial dynamic ranges are larger by a factor of 8 and 2, respectively, than in our previous simulations. Here are the major findings: (1) galactic superwinds have dramatic effects, increasing the WHIM mass fraction by about 20%, primarily through heating up warm gas near galaxies with density 10^{1.5}-10^4 times the mean density. (2) the fraction of baryons in WHIM is increased modestly from the earlier work but is ~40-50%. (3) the gas density of the WHIM is broadly peaked at a density 10-20 times the mean density, ranging from underdense regions to regions that are overdense by 10^3-10^4. (4) the median metallicity of the WHIM is 0.18 Zsun for oxygen with 50% and 90% intervals being (0.040,0.38) and (0.0017,0.83).Comment: 44 pages, 17 figures, high res version at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~cen/baryonII.ps.g

A new topological aspect of the arbitrary dimensional topological defects

We present a new generalized topological current in terms of the order parameter field $\vec \phi$ to describe the arbitrary dimensional topological defects. By virtue of the $$-mapping method, we show that the topological defects are generated from the zero points of the order parameter field $\vec \phi$, and the topological charges of these topological defects are topological quantized in terms of the Hopf indices and Brouwer degrees of $\phi$-mapping under the condition that the Jacobian $$. When $J(\frac \phi v)=0$, it is shown that there exist the crucial case of branch process. Based on the implicit function theorem and the Taylor expansion, we detail the bifurcation of generalized topological current and find different directions of the bifurcation. The arbitrary dimensional topological defects are found splitting or merging at the degenerate point of field function $\vec \phi$ but the total charge of the topological defects is still unchanged.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Revte

Dual-Frequency Observations of 140 Compact, Flat-Spectrum Active Galactic Nuclei for Scintillation-Induced Variability

The 4.9 GHz Micro-Arcsecond Scintillation-Induced Variability (MASIV) Survey detected a drop in Interstellar Scintillation (ISS) for sources at redshifts z > 2, indicating an apparent increase in angular diameter or a decrease in flux density of the most compact components of these sources, relative to their extended emission. This can result from intrinsic source size effects or scatter broadening in the Intergalactic Medium (IGM), in excess of the expected (1+z)^0.5 angular diameter scaling of brightness temperature limited sources due to cosmological expansion. We report here 4.9 GHz and 8.4 GHz observations and data analysis for a sample of 140 compact, flat-spectrum sources which may allow us to determine the origin of this angular diameter-redshift relation by exploiting their different wavelength dependences. In addition to using ISS as a cosmological probe, the observations provide additional insight into source morphologies and the characteristics of ISS. As in the MASIV Survey, the variability of the sources is found to be significantly correlated with line-of-sight H-alpha intensities, confirming its link with ISS. For 25 sources, time delays of about 0.15 to 3 days are observed between the scintillation patterns at both frequencies, interpreted as being caused by a shift in core positions when probed at different optical depths. Significant correlation is found between ISS amplitudes and source spectral index; in particular, a large drop in ISS amplitudes is observed at spectral indices of < -0.4 confirming that steep spectrum sources scintillate less. We detect a weakened redshift dependence of ISS at 8.4 GHz over that at 4.9 GHz, with the mean variance at 4-day timescales reduced by a factor of 1.8 in the z > 2 sources relative to the z < 2 sources, as opposed to the factor of 3 decrease observed at 4.9 GHz. This suggests scatter broadening in the IGM.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Study on the insecticidal activity compounds of the essential oil from Syzygium aromaticum against stored grain insect pests

Insect pests are a major cause of damage in stored grain around the world. To control the stored grain insects, synthetic insecticides have been used extensively for many years, resulting in insect populations that are resistant to insecticides. Consequently there is an interest to find alternatives to chemical pesticides. The essential oil from Syzygium aromaticum (clove oil) has a number of bioactive compounds. The chemical constituents of the clove oil were analyzed by GC-MS, and 9 of 18 compounds were identified. The main compound (83%) was 2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-phenol the second most common compound (12%) was trans-caryophyllene. These two pure compounds and clove oil were tested for toxicity and repellency against Rhyzopertha dominica, Sitophilus oryzae and Tribolium castaneum. The pure compounds were tested at the dosages found in clove oil. The mortality from 2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-phenol was not significantly different from clove oil, suggesting that the activity of clove oil was solely due to this major compound. The repellency results were more complex. 2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-phenol was more repellant than clove oil. Trans-caryophyllene was less toxic and less repellant than both clove oil and 2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)- phenol. The potential for these compounds to be used to control stored product insects is discussed. Keywords: Essential oils, Syzygium aromaticum, Clove oil, Insecticidal activity compounds, Stored grain insect

In situ construction of heterostructured bimetallic sulfide/phosphide with rich interfaces for high-performance aqueous Zn-ion batteries

It is still challenging to develop suitable cathode structures for high-rate and stable aqueous Zn-ion batteries. Herein, a phosphating-assisted interfacial engineering strategy is designed for the controllable conversion of NiCo_{2}S_{4} nanosheets into heterostructured NiCoP/NiCo_{2}S_{4} as the cathodes in aqueous Zn-ion batteries. The multicomponent heterostructures with rich interfaces can not only improve the electrical conductivity but also enhance the diffusion pathways for Zn-ion storage. As expected, the NiCoP/NiCo_{2}S_{4} electrode has high performance with a large specific capacity of 251.1 mA h g^{−1} at a high current density of 10 A g^{−1} and excellent rate capability (retaining about 76% even at 50 A g^{−1}). Accordingly, the Zn-ion battery using NiCoP/NiCo_{2}S_{4} as the cathode delivers a high specific capacity (265.1 mA h g^{−1} at 5A g^{−1}), a long-term cycling stability (96.9% retention after 5000 cycles), and a competitive energy density (444.7 W h kg^{−1} at the power density of 8.4 kW kg^{−1}). This work therefore provides a simple phosphating-assisted interfacial engineering strategy to construct heterostructured electrode materials with rich interfaces for the development of high-performance energy storage devices in the future

Time Evolution of Galaxy Formation and Bias in Cosmological Simulations

The clustering of galaxies relative to the mass distribution declines with time because: first, nonlinear peaks become less rare events; second, the densest regions stop forming new galaxies because gas there becomes too hot to cool and collapse; third, after galaxies form, they are gravitationally ``debiased'' because their velocity field is the same as the dark matter. To show these effects, we perform a hydrodynamic cosmological simulation and examine the density field of recently formed galaxies as a function of redshift. We find the bias b_* of recently formed galaxies (the ratio of the rms fluctuations of these galaxies and mass), evolves from 4.5 at z=3 to around 1 at z=0, on 8 h^{-1} Mpc comoving scales. The correlation coefficient r_* between recently formed galaxies and mass evolves from 0.9 at z=3 to 0.25 at z=0. As gas in the universe heats up and prevents star formation, star-forming galaxies become poorer tracers of the mass density field. After galaxies form, the linear continuity equation is a good approximation to the gravitational debiasing, even on nonlinear scales. The most interesting observational consequence of the simulations is that the linear regression of the star-formation density field on the galaxy density field evolves from about 0.9 at z=1 to 0.35 at z=0. These effects also provide a possible explanation for the Butcher-Oemler effect, the excess of blue galaxies in clusters at redshift z ~ 0.5. Finally, we examine cluster mass-to-light ratio estimates of Omega, finding that while Omega(z) increases with z, one's estimate Omega_est(z) decreases. (Abridged)Comment: 31 pages of text and figures; submitted to Ap

Studying the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium in Emission

We assess the possibility to detect the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) in emission and to characterize its physical conditions and spatial distribution through spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, in the framework of the recently proposed DIOS, EDGE, Xenia, and ORIGIN missions, all of which are equipped with microcalorimeter-based detectors. For this purpose we analyze a large set of mock emission spectra, extracted from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. These mock X-ray spectra are searched for emission features showing both the OVII K alpha triplet and OVIII Ly alpha line, which constitute a typical signature of the warm hot gas. Our analysis shows that 1 Ms long exposures and energy resolution of 2.5 eV will allow us to detect about 400 such features per deg^2 with a significance >5 sigma and reveals that these emission systems are typically associated with density ~100 above the mean. The temperature can be estimated from the line ratio with a precision of ~20%. The combined effect of contamination from other lines, variation in the level of the continuum, and degradation of the energy resolution reduces these estimates. Yet, with an energy resolution of 7 eV and all these effects taken into account, one still expects about 160 detections per deg^2. These line systems are sufficient to trace the spatial distribution of the line-emitting gas, which constitute an additional information, independent from line statistics, to constrain the poorly known cosmic chemical enrichment history and the stellar feedback processes.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, ApJ in press; revised version according to revie