666 research outputs found
The effect of radiative cooling on scaling laws of X-ray groups and clusters
We have performed cosmological simulations in a ΛCDM cosmology with and without radiative cooling in order to study the effect of cooling on the cluster scaling laws. Our simulations consist of 4.1 million particles each of gas and dark matter within a box size of 100 h-1 Mpc, and the run with cooling is the largest of its kind to have been evolved to z = 0. Our cluster catalogs both consist of over 400 objects and are complete in mass down to ~1013 h-1 M☉. We contrast the emission-weighted temperature-mass (Tew-M) and bolometric luminosity-temperature (Lbol-Tew) relations for the simulations at z = 0. We find that radiative cooling increases the temperature of intracluster gas and decreases its total luminosity, in agreement with the results of Pearce et al. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of these effects flattens the slope of the Tew-M relation and steepens the slope of the Lbol-Tew relation. Inclusion of radiative cooling in the simulations is sufficient to reproduce the observed X-ray scaling relations without requiring excessive nongravitational energy injection
The history of stellar metallicity in a simulated disc galaxy
We explore the chemical distribution of stars in a simulated galaxy. Using simulations of the same initial conditions but with two different feedback schemes (McMaster Unbiased Galaxy Simulations – MUGS – and Making Galaxies in a Cosmological Context – MaGICC), we examine the features of the age–metallicity relation (AMR), and the three-dimensional age– [Fe/H]–[O/Fe] distribution, both for the galaxy as a whole and decomposed into disc, bulge, halo and satellites. The MUGS simulation, which uses traditional supernova feedback, is replete with chemical substructure. This substructure is absent from the MaGICC simulation, which includes early feedback from stellar winds, a modified initial mass function and more efficient feedback. The reduced amount of substructure is due to the almost complete lack of satellites in MaGICC. We identify a significant separation between the bulge and disc AMRs, where the bulge is considerably more metal-rich with a smaller spread in metallicity at any given time than the disc. Our results suggest, however, that identifying the substructure in observations will require exquisite age resolution, of the order of 0.25 Gyr. Certain satellites show exotic features in the AMR, even forming a ‘sawtooth’ shape of increasing metallicity followed by sharp declines which correspond to pericentric passages. This fact, along with the large spread in stellar age at a given metallicity, compromises the use of metallicity as an age indicator, although alpha abundance provides a more robust clock at early times. This may also impact algorithms that are used to reconstruct star formation histories from resolved stellar populations, which frequently assume a monotonically increasing AMR
The Universe Was Reionized Twice
We show the universe was reionized twice, first at z~15-16 and second at z~6.
Such an outcome appears inevitable, when normalizing to two well determined
observational measurements, namely, the epoch of the final cosmological
reionization at z~6 and the density fluctuations at z~6, which in turn are
tight ly constrained by Lyman alpha forest observations at z~3. These two
observations most importantly fix the product of star formation efficiency and
ionizing photon escape fraction from galaxies at high redshift. To the extent
that the relative star formation efficiencies in gaseous minihalos with H2
cooling and large halos with atomic cooling at high redshift are still unknown,
the primary source for the first reionization could be Pop III stars either in
minihalos or in large halos. We show that gas in minihalos can be cooled
efficiently by H2 molecules and star formation can continue to take place
largely unimpeded throughout the first reionization period, thanks to two new
mechanisms for generating a high X-ray background during the Pop III era, put
forth here. Moreover, an important process for producing a large number of H2
molecules in relic HII regions of Pop III galaxies, first pointed out by
Ricotti, Gnedin, & Shull, is quantified here. It is shown that the Lyman-Werner
background may never build up during the Pop III era. The long cosmological
reionization and reheating history is complex. We discuss a wide range of
implications and possible tests for this new reionization picture. In
particular, Thomson scattering optical depth is increased to 0.10 +- 0.03,
compared to 0.027 for the case of only one rapid reionization at z=6. Upcoming
Microwave Anisotropy Probe observation of the polarization of the cosmic
microwave background should be able to distinguish between these two scenarios.Comment: submitted to ApJ, 69 pages, substantial revision made and conclusions
strengthene
Gaussian random waves in elastic media
Similar to the Berry conjecture of quantum chaos we consider elastic analogue
which incorporates longitudinal and transverse elastic displacements with
corresponding wave vectors. Based on that we derive the correlation functions
for amplitudes and intensities of elastic displacements. Comparison to numerics
in a quarter Bunimovich stadium demonstrates excellent agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A novel role for syndecan-3 in angiogenesis.
Syndecan-3 is one of the four members of the syndecan family of heparan sulphate proteoglycans and has been shown to interact with numerous growth factors via its heparan sulphate chains. The extracellular core proteins of syndecan-1,-2 and -4 all possess adhesion regulatory motifs and we hypothesized that syndecan-3 may also possess such characteristics. Here we show that a bacterially expressed GST fusion protein consisting of the entire mature syndecan-3 ectodomain has anti-angiogenic properties and acts via modulating endothelial cell migration. This work identifies syndecan-3 as a possible therapeutic target for anti-angiogenic therapy.This work was funded by Arthritis Research-UK (Grant No. 19207) and funds from the William Harvey Research Foundation both to JRW
Species-specific or assemblage-wide decline? The case of Arthroleptides dutoiti Loveridge, 1935 and the amphibian assemblage of Mount Elgon, Kenya
The frog Arthroleptides dutoiti Loveridge, 1935, endemic to Mount Elgon, East Africa was last collected in 1962 and has not been observed since. The species is regarded as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List and is a priority species on the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct, Globally Endangered) project, given its Red List status and phylogenetic distinctiveness. We analyse temporal patterns of abundance (1934–2014) of A. dutoiti and the remainder of the Mount Elgon amphibian assemblage to infer the probability of re-encountering A. dutoiti and assess whether declines are species specific to A. dutoiti, or whether they are assemblage-wide phenomena. Our results show that for localities where surveys have been repeatedly conducted, A. dutoiti is likely to be locally extinct. Declines are observed in other Mount Elgon amphibians, encompassing both specialists and generalists. Causal factors for declines are unknown, but habitat change might be important, given the high degree of forest loss in the area, especially since the turn of the 20th century. Urgent sampling of preferred microhabitats of A. dutoiti at the type locality and surrounding areas beyond those included in our study are required to determine whether or not the species is extinct. Impacts on other taxonomic groups would also be useful to understand so that it can be determined how broad the changes are for the Mount Elgon biota
Effects of broadening and electron overheating in tunnel structures based on metallic clusters
We study the influence of energy levels broadening and electron subsystem
overheating in island electrode (cluster) on current-voltage characteristics of
three-electrode structure. A calculation scheme for broadening effect in
one-dimensional case is suggested. Estimation of broadening is performed for
electron levels in disc-like and spherical gold clusters. Within the
two-temperature model of metallic cluster and by using a size dependence of the
Debye frequency the effective electron temperature as a function of bias
voltage is found approximately. We suggest that the effects of broadening and
electron overheating are responsible for the strong smoothing of
current-voltage curves, which is observed experimentally at low temperatures in
structures based on clusters consisting of accountable number of atoms.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Modeling scale-dependent bias on the baryonic acoustic scale with the statistics of peaks of Gaussian random fields
Models of galaxy and halo clustering commonly assume that the tracers can be
treated as a continuous field locally biased with respect to the underlying
mass distribution. In the peak model pioneered by BBKS, one considers instead
density maxima of the initial, Gaussian mass density field as an approximation
to the formation site of virialized objects. In this paper, the peak model is
extended in two ways to improve its predictive accuracy. Firstly, we derive the
two-point correlation function of initial density peaks up to second order and
demonstrate that a peak-background split approach can be applied to obtain the
k-independent and k-dependent peak bias factors at all orders. Secondly, we
explore the gravitational evolution of the peak correlation function within the
Zel'dovich approximation. We show that the local (Lagrangian) bias approach
emerges as a special case of the peak model, in which all bias parameters are
scale-independent and there is no statistical velocity bias. We apply our
formulae to study how the Lagrangian peak biasing, the diffusion due to large
scale flows and the mode-coupling due to nonlocal interactions affect the scale
dependence of bias from small separations up to the baryon acoustic oscillation
(BAO) scale. For 2-sigma density peaks collapsing at z=0.3, our model predicts
a ~ 5% residual scale-dependent bias around the acoustic scale that arises
mostly from first-order Lagrangian peak biasing (as opposed to second-order
gravity mode-coupling). We also search for a scale dependence of bias in the
large scale auto-correlation of massive halos extracted from a very large
N-body simulation provided by the MICE collaboration. For halos with mass
M>10^{14}Msun/h, our measurements demonstrate a scale-dependent bias across the
BAO feature which is very well reproduced by a prediction based on the peak
model.Comment: (v1): 23 pages text, 8 figures + appendix (v2): typos fixed,
references added, accepted for publication in PR
Simulation techniques for cosmological simulations
Modern cosmological observations allow us to study in great detail the
evolution and history of the large scale structure hierarchy. The fundamental
problem of accurate constraints on the cosmological parameters, within a given
cosmological model, requires precise modelling of the observed structure. In
this paper we briefly review the current most effective techniques of large
scale structure simulations, emphasising both their advantages and
shortcomings. Starting with basics of the direct N-body simulations appropriate
to modelling cold dark matter evolution, we then discuss the direct-sum
technique GRAPE, particle-mesh (PM) and hybrid methods, combining the PM and
the tree algorithms. Simulations of baryonic matter in the Universe often use
hydrodynamic codes based on both particle methods that discretise mass, and
grid-based methods. We briefly describe Eulerian grid methods, and also some
variants of Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods.Comment: 42 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science
Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view",
Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 12; work done by an international team at the
International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S.
Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke
Measurement of triple gauge boson couplings from W⁺W⁻ production at LEP energies up to 189 GeV
A measurement of triple gauge boson couplings is presented, based on W-pair data recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP during 1998 at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV with an integrated luminosity of 183 pb⁻¹. After combining with our previous measurements at centre-of-mass energies of 161–183 GeV we obtain κ = 0.97_{-0.16}^{+0.20}, g_{1}^{z} = 0.991_{-0.057}^{+0.060} and λ = -0.110_{-0.055}^{+0.058}, where the errors include both statistical and systematic uncertainties and each coupling is determined by setting the other two couplings to their Standard Model values. These results are consistent with the Standard Model expectations
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