455 research outputs found
High-angle-of-attack stability characteristics of a 3-surface fighter configuration
A wind tunnel investigation was conducted to study the low speed, high angle of attack stability characteristics of a three surface fighter concept based on the F-15 configuration. Static force data were measured over angle of attack and side-slip ranges of 0 to 85 and -10 and 10 deg, respectively. A force oscillation technique was used to obtain dynamic derivatives at angles of attack from 0 to 60 deg. The tests were conducted for several canard deflections and with the canards removed to investigate the effects of the close coupled canard on the high angle of attack stability characteristics of the configuration. A fuselage strake was developed which significantly improved static lateral directional stability characteristics at high angles of attack while also increasing the maximum lift of the configuration
Discovery of a Clustered Quasar Pair at z ~ 5: Biased Peaks in Early Structure Formation
We report a discovery of a quasar at z = 4.96 +- 0.03 within a few Mpc of the
quasar SDSS 0338+0021 at z = 5.02 +- 0.02. The newly found quasar has the SDSS
i and z magnitudes of ~ 21.2, and an estimated absolute magnitude M_B ~ -25.2.
The projected separation on the sky is 196 arcsec, and the redshift difference
Delta z = 0.063 +- 0.008. The probability of finding this quasar pair by chance
in the absence of clustering in this particular volume is ~ 10^-4 to 10^-3. We
conclude that the two objects probably mark a large-scale structure, possibly a
protocluster, at z ~ 5. This is the most distant such structure currently
known. Our search in the field of 13 other QSOs at z >~ 4.8 so far has not
resulted in any detections of comparable luminous QSO pairs, and it is thus not
yet clear how representative is this structure at z ~ 5. However, along with
the other evidence for clustering of quasars and young galaxies at somewhat
lower redshifts, the observations are at least qualitatively consistent with a
strong biasing of the first luminous and massive objects, in agreement with
general predictions of theoretical models. More extensive searches for
clustered quasars and luminous galaxies at these redshifts will provide
valuable empirical constraints for our understanding of early galaxy and
structure formation.Comment: Latex file, 8 pages, 3 eps figures, sty files included. To appear in
the Ap
Spatial Correlation Function of X-ray Selected AGN
We present a detailed description of the first direct measurement of the
spatial correlation function of X-ray selected AGN. This result is based on an
X-ray flux-limited sample of 219 AGN discovered in the contiguous 80.7 deg^2
region of the ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Survey. Clustering is detected at
the 4 sigma level at comoving scales in the interval r = 5-60 h^-1 Mpc. Fitting
the data with a power law of slope gamma=1.8, we find a correlation length of
r_0 = 7.4 (+1.8, -1.9) h^-1 Mpc (Omega_M=0.3, Omega_Lambda=0.7). The median
redshift of the AGN contributing to the signal is z_xi=0.22. This clustering
amplitude implies that X-ray selected AGN are spatially distributed in a manner
similar to that of optically selected AGN. Furthermore, the ROSAT NEP
determination establishes the local behavior of AGN clustering, a regime which
is poorly sampled in general. Combined with high-redshift measures from optical
studies, the ROSAT NEP results argue that the AGN correlation strength
essentially does not evolve with redshift, at least out to z~2.2. In the local
Universe, X-ray selected AGN appear to be unbiased relative to galaxies and the
inferred X-ray bias parameter is near unity, b_X~1. Hence X-ray selected AGN
closely trace the underlying mass distribution. The ROSAT NEP AGN catalog,
presented here, features complete optical identifications and spectroscopic
redshifts. The median redshift, X-ray flux, and X-ray luminosity are z=0.41,
f_X=1.1*10^-13 cgs, and L_X=9.2*10^43 h_70^-2 cgs (0.5-2.0 keV), respectively.
Unobscured, type 1 AGN are the dominant constituents (90%) of this soft X-ray
selected sample of AGN.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, a version with
high-resolution figures is available at
http://www.eso.org/~cmullis/papers/Mullis_et_al_2004b.ps.gz, a
machine-readable version of the ROSAT NEP AGN catalog is available at
http://www.eso.org/~cmullis/research/nep-catalog.htm
Photometric Selection of Emission Line Galaxies, Clustering Analysis and a Search for the ISW effect
We investigate the use of simple colour cuts applied to the SDSS optical
imaging to perform photometric selections of emission line galaxies out to z<1.
From colour-cuts using the SDSS g, r and i bands, we obtain mean photometric
redshifts of z=0.32+-0.08, z=0.44+-0.12 and z=0.65+-0.21. We further calibrate
our high redshift selection using spectroscopic observations with the AAOmega
spectrograph on the 4m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), observing ~50-200
galaxy candidates in 4 separate fields. With just 1-hour of integration time
and with seeing of ~1.6", we successfully determined redshifts for ~65% of the
targeted candidates. We calculate the angular correlation functions of the
samples and find correlation lengths of r0=2.64 h-1 Mpc, r0=3.62 h-1 Mpc and
r0=5.88 h-1 Mpc for the low, mid and high redshift samples respectively.
Comparing these results with predicted dark matter clustering, we estimate the
bias parameter for each sample to be b=0.70, b=0.92 and b=1.46. We calculate
the 2-point redshift-space correlation function at z~0.6 and find a clustering
amplitude of s0=6.4 h-1 Mpc. Finally, we use our photometric sample to search
for the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal in the WMAP 5yr data. We cross-correlate
our three redshift samples with the WMAP W, V, Q and K bands and find an
overall trend for a positive signal similar to that expected from models.
However, the signal in each is relatively weak. Combining all three galaxy
samples we find a signal of wTg(<100')=0.20+-0.12 microK in the WMAP W-band, a
significance of 1.7sigma.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRA
Variability selected high-redshift quasars on SDSS Stripe 82
The SDSS-III BOSS Quasar survey will attempt to observe z>2.15 quasars at a
density of at least 15 per square degree to yield the first measurement of the
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly-alpha forest. To help reaching this
goal, we have developed a method to identify quasars based on their variability
in the u g r i z optical bands. The method has been applied to the selection of
quasar targets in the SDSS region known as Stripe 82 (the Southern equatorial
stripe), where numerous photometric observations are available over a 10-year
baseline. This area was observed by BOSS during September and October 2010.
Only 8% of the objects selected via variability are not quasars, while 90% of
the previously identified high-redshift quasar population is recovered. The
method allows for a significant increase in the z>2.15 quasar density over
previous strategies based on optical (ugriz) colors, achieving a density of
24.0 deg^{-2} on average down to g~22 over the 220 deg^2 area of Stripe 82. We
applied this method to simulated data from the Palomar Transient Factory and
from Pan-STARRS, and showed that even with data that have sparser time sampling
than what is available in Stripe 82, including variability in future quasar
selection strategies would lead to increased target selection efficiency in the
z>2.15 redshift range. We also found that Broad Absorption Line quasars are
preferentially present in a variability than in a color selection.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in A&
QSO clustering and the AAT 2dF redshift survey
We review previous results on the clustering and environments of QSOs. We
show that the correlation length for QSOs derived from existing surveys is
r~5/h Mpc, similar to the observed correlation length for field galaxies at the
present epoch. The galaxy environment for z<1 radio-quiet QSOs is also
consistent with field galaxies. The evolution of the QSO correlation length
with redshift is currently uncertain, largely due to the small numbers of QSOs
(~2000) in surveys suitable for clustering analysis. We report on intial
progress with the AAT 2dF QSO redshift survey, which, once completed will
comprise almost 30000 QSOs. With over 1000 QSOs already observed, it is already
the largest single homogeneous QSO survey. We discuss prospects for deriving
limits on cosmological parameters from this survey, and on the evolution of
large-scale structure in the Universe.Comment: Invited talk at RS meeting on 'Large Scale Structure in the Universe'
held at the Royal Society on 25-26 March 1998 14 pages, 11 figre
Quasar clustering: evidence for an increase with redshift and implications for the nature of AGNs
The evolution of quasar clustering is investigated with a new sample of 388
quasars with 0.3<z<=2.2, B<=20.5 and Mb<-23, selected over an area of 24.6 sq.
deg. in the South Galactic Pole. Assuming a two-point correlation function of
the form xi(r) = (r/r_o)^-1.8, we detect clustering with r_0=6.2 +/- 1.6 h^-1
comoving Mpc at an average redshift of z=1.3. We find a 2 sigma significant
increase of the quasar clustering between z=0.95 and z=1.8, independent of the
quasar absolute magnitude and inconsistent with recent evidence on the
evolution of galaxy clustering. If other quasar samples are added (resulting in
a total data-set of 737 quasars) the increase of the quasar clustering is still
favoured although it becomes less significant. We find epsilon=-2.5.
Evolutionary parameters epsilon>0.0 are excluded at a 0.3% probability level,
to be compared with epsilon=0.8 found for galaxies. The observed clustering
properties appear qualitatively consistent with a scenario of Omega=1 CDM in
which a) the difference between the quasar and the galaxy clustering can be
explained as a difference in the effective bias and redshift distributions, and
b) the quasars, with a lifetime of t~10^8 yr, sparsely sample halos of mass
greater than M_min~10^12-10^13 h^-1 M_sun. We discuss also the possibility that
the observed change in the quasar clustering is due to an increase in the
fraction of early-type galaxies as quasar hosts at high z.Comment: 8 pages including 2 eps figures, LaTeX (AAS v4.0), ApJ in pres
Constraining the Lifetime of Quasars from their Spatial Clustering
The lifetime t_Q of the luminous phase of quasars is constrained by current
observations to be between 10^6 and 10^8 years, but is otherwise unkown. We
model the quasar luminosity function in detail in the optical and X-ray bands
using the Press-Schechter formalism, and show that the expected clustering of
quasars depends strongly on their assumed lifetime. We quantify this
dependence, and find that existing measurements of the correlation length of
quasars are consistent with the range 10^6 < t_Q < 10^8 years. We then show
that future measurements of the power spectrum of quasars out to z=3, from the
2dF or Sloan Digital Sky Survey, can significantly improve this constraint, and
in principle allow a precise determination of t_Q. We estimate the systematic
errors introduced by uncertainties in the modeling of the quasar-halo
relationship, as well as by the possible existence of obscured quasars.Comment: ApJ, in press (emulateapj
The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Unveiling the nature of kinematically offset active galactic nuclei
We have observed two kinematically offset active galactic nuclei (AGN), whose
ionised gas is at a different line-of-sight velocity to their host galaxies,
with the SAMI integral field spectrograph (IFS). One of the galaxies shows gas
kinematics very different to the stellar kinematics, indicating a recent merger
or accretion event. We demonstrate that the star formation associated with this
event was triggered within the last 100 Myr. The other galaxy shows simple disc
rotation in both gas and stellar kinematics, aligned with each other, but in
the central region has signatures of an outflow driven by the AGN. Other than
the outflow, neither galaxy shows any discontinuity in the ionised gas
kinematics at the galaxy's centre. We conclude that in these two cases there is
no direct evidence of the AGN being in a supermassive black hole binary system.
Our study demonstrates that selecting kinematically offset AGN from
single-fibre spectroscopy provides, by definition, samples of kinematically
peculiar objects, but IFS or other data are required to determine their true
nature.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 14 pages, 11 figure
Compact to extended Lyman- emitters in MAGPI: strong blue peak emission at
We report the discovery of three double-peaked Lyman- emitters (LAEs)
exhibiting strong blue peak emission at 2.9 4.8, in the
VLT/MUSE data obtained as part of the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with
Integral Field Spectroscopy (MAGPI) survey. These strong blue peak systems
provide a unique window into the scattering of Lyman- photons by
neutral hydrogen (HI), suggesting gas inflows along the line-of-sight and low
HI column density. Two of them at and are spatially extended
halos with their core regions clearly exhibiting stronger blue peak emissions
than the red peak. However, spatial variations in the peak ratio and peak
separation are evident over kpc () and kpc
() regions in these extended halos. Notably, these systems do not fall
in the regime of Lyman- blobs or nebulae. To the best of our knowledge,
such a Lyman- halo with a dominant blue core has not been observed
previously. In contrast, the LAE at is a compact system spanning a
kpc region and stands as the highest-redshift strong blue peak
emitter ever detected. The peak separation of the bright cores in these three
systems ranges from to km/s. The observed
overall trend of decreasing peak separation with increasing radius is supposed
to be controlled by HI column density and gas covering fraction. Based on
various estimations, in contrast to the compact LAE, our halos are found to be
good candidates for LyC leakers. These findings shed light on the complex
interplay between Lyman- emission, gas kinematics, and ionising
radiation properties, offering valuable insights into the evolution and nature
of high-redshift galaxies.Comment: 2 Figures, 1 Table, accepted for A&A Letter
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