4,228 research outputs found
Gamma rays from ultracompact primordial dark matter minihalos
Ultracompact minihalos have recently been proposed as a new class of dark
matter structure. These minihalos would be produced by phase transitions in the
early Universe or features in the inflaton potential, and constitute
non-baryonic massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) today. We examine the
prospect of detecting ultracompact minihalos in gamma-rays if dark matter
consists of self-annihilating particles. We compute present-day fluxes from
minihalos produced in the electron-positron annihilation epoch, and the QCD and
electroweak phase transitions in the early Universe. Even at a distance of 100
pc, minihalos produced during the electron-positron annihilation epoch should
be eminently detectable today, either by the Fermi satellite, current Air
Cherenkov telescopes, or even in archival EGRET data. Within ~1 pc, minihalos
formed in the QCD phase transition would have similar predicted fluxes to the
dwarf spheroidal galaxies targeted by current indirect dark matter searches, so
might also be detectable by present or upcoming experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Minor update to match published version of
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Effects of Foreground Contamination on the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measured by MAP
We study the effects of diffuse Galactic, far-infrared extragalactic source,
and radio point source emission on the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
anisotropy data anticipated from the MAP experiment. We focus on the
correlation function and genus statistics measured from mock MAP
foreground-contaminated CMB anisotropy maps generated in a spatially-flat
cosmological constant dominated cosmological model. Analyses of the simulated
MAP data at 90 GHz (0.3 deg FWHM resolution smoothed) show that foreground
effects on the correlation function are small compared with cosmic variance.
However, the Galactic emission, even just from the region with |b| > 20 deg,
significantly affects the topology of CMB anisotropy, causing a negative genus
shift non-Gaussianity signal. Given the expected level of cosmic variance, this
effect can be effectively reduced by subtracting existing Galactic foreground
emission models from the observed data. IRAS and DIRBE far-infrared
extragalactic sources have little effect on the CMB anisotropy. Radio point
sources raise the amplitude of the correlation function considerably on scales
below 0.5 deg. Removal of bright radio sources above a 5 \sigma detection limit
effectively eliminates this effect. Radio sources also result in a positive
genus curve asymmetry (significant at 2 \sigma) on 0.5 deg scales. Accurate
radio point source data is essential for an unambiguous detection of CMB
anisotropy non-Gaussianity on these scales. Non-Gaussianity of cosmological
origin can be detected from the foreground-subtracted CMB anisotropy map at the
2 \sigma level if the measured genus shift parameter |\Delta\nu| >= 0.02 (0.04)
or if the measured genus asymmetry parameter |\Delta g| >= 0.03 (0.08) on a 0.3
(1.0) deg FWHM scale.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for Publication in Astrophysical
Journal (Some sentences and figures modified
Detecting Pulsars with Interstellar Scintillation in Variance Images
Pulsars are the only cosmic radio sources known to be sufficiently compact to
show diffractive interstellar scintillations. Images of the variance of radio
signals in both time and frequency can be used to detect pulsars in large-scale
continuum surveys using the next generation of synthesis radio telescopes. This
technique allows a search over the full field of view while avoiding the need
for expensive pixel-by-pixel high time resolution searches. We investigate the
sensitivity of detecting pulsars in variance images. We show that variance
images are most sensitive to pulsars whose scintillation time-scales and
bandwidths are close to the subintegration time and channel bandwidth.
Therefore, in order to maximise the detection of pulsars for a given radio
continuum survey, it is essential to retain a high time and frequency
resolution, allowing us to make variance images sensitive to pulsars with
different scintillation properties. We demonstrate the technique with
Murchision Widefield Array data and show that variance images can indeed lead
to the detection of pulsars by distinguishing them from other radio sources.Comment: 8 papes, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Level density of a Fermi gas and integer partitions: a Gumbel-like finite-size correction
We investigate the many-body level density of gas of non-interacting
fermions. We determine its behavior as a function of the temperature and the
number of particles. As the temperature increases, and beyond the usual
Sommerfeld expansion that describes the degenerate gas behavior, corrections
due to a finite number of particles lead to Gumbel-like contributions. We
discuss connections with the partition problem in number theory, extreme value
statistics as well as differences with respect to the Bose gas.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, one figure added, accepted for publication in
Phys. Rev.
Universal Asymptotic Statistics of Maximal Relative Height in One-dimensional Solid-on-solid Models
We study the probability density function of the maximum relative
height in a wide class of one-dimensional solid-on-solid models of finite
size . For all these lattice models, in the large limit, a central limit
argument shows that, for periodic boundary conditions, takes a
universal scaling form , with the width of the fluctuating interface and the Airy
distribution function. For one instance of these models, corresponding to the
extremely anisotropic Ising model in two dimensions, this result is obtained by
an exact computation using transfer matrix technique, valid for any .
These arguments and exact analytical calculations are supported by numerical
simulations, which show in addition that the subleading scaling function is
also universal, up to a non universal amplitude, and simply given by the
derivative of the Airy distribution function .Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
A critical role for Cadherin6B in regulating avian neural crest emigration
Neural crest cells originate in the dorsal neural tube but subsequently undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), delaminate, and migrate to diverse locations in the embryo where they contribute to a variety of derivatives. Cadherins are a family of cellâcell adhesion molecules expressed in a broad range of embryonic tissues, including the neural tube. In particular, cadherin6B (Cad6B) is expressed in the dorsal neural tube prior to neural crest emigration but is then repressed by the transcription factor Snail2, expressed by premigratory and early migrating cranial neural crest cells. To examine the role of Cad6B during neural crest EMT, we have perturbed Cad6B protein levels in the cranial neural crest-forming region and have examined subsequent effects on emigration and migration. The results show that knock-down of Cad6B leads to premature neural crest cell emigration, whereas Cad6B overexpression disrupts migration. Our data reveal a novel role for Cad6B in controlling the proper timing of neural crest emigration and delamination from the neural tube of the avian embryo
The quantum inflaton, primordial perturbations and CMB fluctuations
We compute the primordial scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations
arising from quantum field inflation. Quantum field inflation takes into
account the nonperturbative quantum dynamics of the inflaton consistently
coupled to the dynamics of the (classical) cosmological metric. For chaotic
inflation, the quantum treatment avoids the unnatural requirements of an
initial state with all the energy in the zero mode. For new inflation it allows
a consistent treatment of the explosive particle production due to spinodal
instabilities. Quantum field inflation (under conditions that are the quantum
analog of slow roll) leads, upon evolution, to the formation of a condensate
starting a regime of effective classical inflation. We compute the primordial
perturbations taking the dominant quantum effects into account. The results for
the scalar, vector and tensor primordial perturbations are expressed in terms
of the classical inflation results. For a N-component field in a O(N) symmetric
model, adiabatic fluctuations dominate while isocurvature or entropy
fluctuations are negligible. The results agree with the current WMAP
observations and predict corrections to the power spectrum in classical
inflation.Such corrections are estimated to be of the order of m^2/[N H^2]
where m is the inflaton mass and H the Hubble constant at horizon crossing.
This turns to be about 4% for the cosmologically relevant scales. This quantum
field treatment of inflation provides the foundations to the classical
inflation and permits to compute quantum corrections to it.Comment: 23 pages, no figures. Improved version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Non-Gaussianity from Self-Ordering Scalar Fields
The Universe may harbor relics of the post-inflationary epoch in the form of
a network of self-ordered scalar fields. Such fossils, while consistent with
current cosmological data at trace levels, may leave too weak an imprint on the
cosmic microwave background and the large-scale distribution of matter to allow
for direct detection. The non-Gaussian statistics of the density perturbations
induced by these fields, however, permit a direct means to probe for these
relics. Here we calculate the bispectrum that arises in models of self-ordered
scalar fields. We find a compact analytic expression for the bispectrum,
evaluate it numerically, and provide a simple approximation that may be useful
for data analysis. The bispectrum is largest for triangles that are aligned
(have edges ) as opposed to the local-model
bispectrum, which peaks for squeezed triangles (), and
the equilateral bispectrum, which peaks at . We
estimate that this non-Gaussianity should be detectable by the Planck satellite
if the contribution from self-ordering scalar fields to primordial
perturbations is near the current upper limit.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
Fundamental Discreteness Limitations of Cosmological N-Body Clustering Simulations
We explore some of the effects that discreteness and two-body scattering may
have on N-body simulations with ``realistic'' cosmological initial conditions.
We use an identical subset of particles from the initial conditions for a
Particle-Mesh (PM) calculation as the initial conditions for a variety
PM and Tree code runs. We investigate the effect of mass resolution (the
mean interparticle separation) since most ``high resolution'' codes only have
high resolution in gravitational force. The phase-insensitive two--point
statistics, such as the power spectrum (autocorrelation) are somewhat affected
by these variations, but phase-sensitive statistics show greater differences.
Results converge at the mean interparticle separation scale of the lowest
mass-resolution code. As more particles are added, but the force resolution is
held constant, the PM and the Tree runs agree more and more strongly with
each other and with the PM run which had the same initial conditions. This
shows high particle density is necessary for correct time evolution, since many
different results cannot all be correct. However, they do not so converge to a
PM run which continued the fluctuations to small scales. Our results show that
ignoring them is a major source of error on comoving scales of the missing
wavelengths. This can be resolved by putting in a high particle density. Since
the codes never agree well on scales below the mean comoving interparticle
separation, we find little justification for quantitative predictions on this
scale. Some measures vary by 50%, but others can be off by a factor of three or
more. Our results suggest possible problems with the density of galaxy halos,
formation of early generation objects such as QSO absorber clouds, etc.Comment: Revised version to be published in Astrophysical Journal. One figure
changed; expanded discussion, more information on code parameters. Latex, 44
pages, including 19 figures. Higher resolution versions of Figures 10-15
available at: ftp://kusmos.phsx.ukans.edu/preprints/nbod
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