4,999 research outputs found
Preliminary designs for X-ray source modifications for the Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray calibration facility
The objective of this investigation is to develop preliminary designs for modifications to the X-ray source of the MSFC X-Ray Calibration Facility. Recommendations are made regarding: (1) the production of an unpolarized X-ray beam, (2) modification of the source to provide characteristic X-rays with energies up to 40 keV, and (3) addition of the capability to calibrate instruments in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength region
On the Search for Quasar Light Echoes
The UV radiation from a quasar leaves a characteristic pattern in the
distribution of ionized hydrogen throughout the surrounding space. This pattern
or light echo propagates through the intergalactic medium at the speed of
light, and can be observed by its imprint on the Ly-alpha forest spectra of
background sources. As the echo persists after the quasar has switched off, it
offers the possibility of searching for dead quasars, and constraining their
luminosities and lifetimes. We outline a technique to search for and
characterize these light echoes. To test the method, we create artificial
Ly-alpha forest spectra from cosmological simulations at z=3, apply light
echoes and search for them. We show how the simulations can also be used to
quantify the significance level of any detection. We find that light echoes
from the brightest quasars could be found in observational data. With
absorption line spectra of 100 redshift z~3-3.5 quasars or galaxies in a 1
square degree area, we expect that ~10 echoes from quasars with B band
luminosities L_B=3x10^45 ergs/s exist that could be found at 95% confidence,
assuming a quasar lifetime of ~10^7 yr. Even a null result from such a search
would have interesting implications for our understanding of quasar
luminosities and lifetimes.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, ApJ in pres
Utterance Selection Model of Language Change
We present a mathematical formulation of a theory of language change. The
theory is evolutionary in nature and has close analogies with theories of
population genetics. The mathematical structure we construct similarly has
correspondences with the Fisher-Wright model of population genetics, but there
are significant differences. The continuous time formulation of the model is
expressed in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation. This equation is exactly
soluble in the case of a single speaker and can be investigated analytically in
the case of multiple speakers who communicate equally with all other speakers
and give their utterances equal weight. Whilst the stationary properties of
this system have much in common with the single-speaker case, time-dependent
properties are richer. In the particular case where linguistic forms can become
extinct, we find that the presence of many speakers causes a two-stage
relaxation, the first being a common marginal distribution that persists for a
long time as a consequence of ultimate extinction being due to rare
fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figure
Cultural selection drives the evolution of human communication systems
Human communication systems evolve culturally, but the evolutionary mechanisms that drive this evolution are not well understood. Against a baseline that communication variants spread in a population following neutral evolutionary dynamics (also known as drift models), we tested the role of two cultural selection models: coordination- and content-biased. We constructed a parametrized mixed probabilistic model of the spread of communicative variants in four 8-person laboratory micro-societies engaged in a simple communication game. We found that selectionist models, working in combination, explain the majority of the empirical data. The best-fitting parameter setting includes an egocentric bias and a content bias, suggesting that participants retained their own previously used communicative variants unless they encountered a superior (content-biased) variant, in which case it was adopted. This novel pattern of results suggests that (i) a theory of the cultural evolution of human communication systems must integrate selectionist models and (ii) human communication systems are functionally adaptive complex systems
Cosmological Limits on the Neutrino Mass from the Lya Forest
The Lya forest in quasar spectra probes scales where massive neutrinos can
strongly suppress the growth of mass fluctuations. Using hydrodynamic
simulations with massive neutrinos, we successfully test techniques developed
to measure the mass power spectrum from the forest. A recent observational
measurement in conjunction with a conservative implementation of other
cosmological constraints places upper limits on the neutrino mass: m_nu < 5.5
eV for all values of Omega_m, and m_nu < 2.4 (Omega_m/0.17 -1) eV, if 0.2 <
Omega_m <0.5 as currently observationally favored (both 95 % C.L.).Comment: 4 pages, 2 ps figures, REVTex, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Warm-Hot Gas in and around the Milky Way: Detection and Implications of OVII Absorption toward LMC X-3
X-ray absorption lines of highly-ionized species such as OVII at about zero
redshift have been firmly detected in the spectra of several active galactic
nuclei. However, the location of the absorbing gas remains a subject of debate.
To separate the Galactic and extragalactic contributions to the absorption, we
have obtained Chandra LETG-HRC and FUSE observations of the black hole X-ray
binary LMC X--3. A joint analysis of the detected OVII and Ne IX Kalpha lines,
together with the non-detection of the OVII Kbeta and OVIII Kalpha lines, gives
the measurements of the temperature, velocity dispersion, and hot oxygen column
density. The X-ray data also allow us to place a 95% confidence lower limit to
the Ne/O ratio as 0.14. The OVII line centroid and its relative shift from the
Galactic OI Kalpha absorption line, detected in the same observations, are
inconsistent with the systemic velocity of LMC X--3 ().
The far-UV spectrum shows OVI absorption at Galactic velocities, but no OVI
absorption is detected at the LMC velocity at significance. Both
the nonthermal broadening and the decreasing scale height with the increasing
ionization state further suggest an origin of the highly-ionized gas in a
supernova-driven galactic fountain. In addition, we estimate the warm and hot
electron column densities from our detected OVII Kalpha line in the LMC X--3
X-ray spectra and from the dispersion measure of a pulsar in the LMC vicinity.
We then infer the O/H ratio of the gas to be ,
consistent with the chemically-enriched galactic fountain scenario. We conclude
that the Galactic hot interstellar medium should in general substantially
contribute to zero-redshift X-ray absorption lines in extragalactic sources.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Introduction of CAA into a mathematics course for technology students to address a change in curriculum requirements
The mathematical requirements for engineering, science and technology students has been debated for many years and concern has been expressed about the mathematical preparedness of students entering higher education. This paper considers a mathematics course that has been specifically designed to address some of these issues for technology education students. It briefly chronicles the changes that have taken place over its lifetime and evaluates the introduction of Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) into a course already being delivered using Computer Aided Learning (CAL).
Benefits of CAA can be categorised into four main areas.
1. Educational â achieved by setting short, topic related, assessments, each of which has to be passed, thereby increasing curriculum coverage.
2. Students â by allowing them to complete assessments at their own pace removing the stress of the final examination.
3. Financial â increased income to the institution, by broadening access to the course. Improved retention rate due to self-paced learning.
4. Time â staff no longer required to set and mark exams.
Most students preferred this method of assessment to traditional exams, because it increased confidence and reduced stress levels. Self-paced working, however, resulted in a minority of students not completing the tests by the deadline
Lordship and Environmental Change in Central Highland Scotland c.1300âc.1400
Whilst there has been an increasing recognition of the infl uence of natural agency on human society in Scotland in the medieval period, conventional historiography has generally presented the wholesale reconfi guration of structures of secular lordship in the Scottish central Highlands in the 14th century as an essentially political consequence of the sociopolitical dislocation associated with the Anglo-Scottish wars that occurred after 1296. The establishment within the region of militarised Gaelic kindreds from the West Highlands and Hebrides of Scotland has come to be regarded as either a symptom of efforts by externally based regional lords to bolster their authority, or an opportunistic territorial aggrandisement by newly dominant neighbouring lords. Feuding and predatory raiding associated with these kindreds is recognised as competition for resources but generally in a context of projection of superior lordship over weaker neighbours. Evidence for long-term changes in climate extrapolated from North Atlantic proxy data, however, suggests that the cattle-based economy of Atlantic Scotland was experiencing protracted environmentally induced stress in the period c.1300âc.1350. Using this evidence, we discuss whether exchange systems operating within traditional lordship structures could offset localised and short-term pressures on the livestock-based regime, but could not be sustained long-term on the reduced fodder and contracting herd sizes caused by climatic deterioration. Territorial expansion and development of a predatory culture, it is argued, were responses to an environment-triggered economic crisis
Protoclusters associated with z > 2 radio galaxies. I. Characteristics of high redshift protoclusters
[Abridged] We present the results of a large program conducted with the Very
Large Telescope and Keck telescope to search for forming clusters of galaxies
near powerful radio galaxies at 2.0 < z < 5.2. We obtained narrow- and
broad-band images of nine radio galaxies and their surroundings. The imaging
was used to select candidate Lyman alpha emitting galaxies in ~3x3 Mpc^2 areas
near the radio galaxies. A total of 337 candidate emitters were found with a
rest-frame Lyman alpha equivalent width of EW_0 > 15 A and Sigma = EW_0/Delta
EW_0 > 3. Follow-up spectroscopy confirmed 168 Lyman alpha emitters near eight
radio galaxies. The success rate of our selection procedure is 91%. At least
six of our eight fields are overdense in Lyman alpha emitters by a factor 3-5.
Also, the emitters show significant clustering in velocity space. In the
overdense fields, the width of the velocity distributions of the emitters is a
factor 2-5 smaller than the width of the narrow-band filters. Taken together,
we conclude that we have discovered six forming clusters of galaxies
(protoclusters). We estimate that roughly 75% of powerful (L_2.7GHz > 10^33
erg/s/Hz/sr) high redshift radio galaxies reside in a protocluster, with a
sizes of at least 1.75 Mpc. We estimate that the protoclusters have masses in
the range 2-9 x 10^14 Msun and they are likely to be progenitors of present-day
(massive) clusters of galaxies. For the first time, we have been able to
estimate the velocity dispersion of cluster progenitors from z~5 to ~2. The
velocity dispersion of the emitters increases with cosmic time, in agreement
with the dark matter velocity dispersion in numerical simulations of forming
massive clusters.Comment: 30 pages, 20 figures. Published in A&A. The article with high
resolution figures is available at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~venemans/research/datapaper/index.htm
Silo Storage Preconceptual Design
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has a need to develop and field a low-cost option for the long-term storage of a variety of radiological material. The storage optionâs primary requirement is to provide both environmental and physical protection of the materials. Design criteria for this effort require a low initial cost and minimum maintenance over a 50-year design life. In 1999, Argonne National Laboratory-West was tasked with developing a dry silo storage option for the BN-350 Spent Fuel in Aktau Kazakhstan. Argonâs design consisted of a carbon steel cylinder approximately 16 ft long, 18 in. outside diameter and 0.375 in. wall thickness. The carbon steel silo was protected from corrosion by a duplex coating system consisting of zinc and epoxy. Although the study indicated that the duplex coating design would provide a design life well in excess of the required 50 years, the review board was concerned because of the novelty of the design and the lack of historical use. In 2012, NNSA tasked Idaho National Laboratory (INL) with reinvestigating the silo storage concept and development of alternative corrosion protection strategies. The 2012 study, âSilo Storage Concepts, Cathodic Protection Options Studyâ (INL/EST-12-26627), concludes that the option which best fits the design criterion is a passive cathotic protection scheme, consisting of a carbon steel tube coated with zinc or a zinc-aluminum alloy encapsulated in either concrete or a cement grout. The hot dipped zinc coating option was considered most efficient, but the flame-sprayed option could be used if a thicker zinc coating was determined to be necessary
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