5,645 research outputs found
Multikilowatt hydrogen-nickel oxide battery system
The potential of the H2-NiO battery for terrestrial applications was assessed. A multicell design approach that differs significantly from the aerospace individual pressure vessel was used. A number of experimental 100-Ah cells were built to evaluate the new design concepts and components. The experimental cells provided the input needed for a multicell battery design. It is found that new multicell H2-NiO battery has a number of potential advantages for aerospace applications such as the manned space station. The advantages are discussed, and a design concept is presented for a multikilowatt battery in a lightweight pressure vessel
Time and M-theory
We review our recent proposal for a background independent formulation of a
holographic theory of quantum gravity. The present review incorporates the
necessary background material on geometry of canonical quantum theory,
holography and spacetime thermodynamics, Matrix theory, as well as our specific
proposal for a dynamical theory of geometric quantum mechanics, as applied to
Matrix theory. At the heart of this review is a new analysis of the conceptual
problem of time and the closely related and phenomenologically relevant problem
of vacuum energy in quantum gravity. We also present a discussion of some
observational implications of this new viewpoint on the problem of vacuum
energy.Comment: 86 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, typos fixed, references added, and Sec.
6.2 revised; invited review for Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Damped Lyman alpha systems and disk galaxies: number density, column density distribution and gas density
We present a comparison between the observed properties of damped Lyman alpha
systems (DLAs) and the predictions of simple models for the evolution of
present day disk galaxies, including both low and high surface brightness
galaxies. We focus in particular on the number density, column density
distribution and gas density of DLAs, which have now been measured in
relatively large samples of absorbers. From the comparison we estimate the
contribution of present day disk galaxies to the population of DLAs, and how it
varies with redshift. Based on the differences between the models and the
observations, we also speculate on the nature of the fraction of DLAs which
apparently do not arise in disk galaxies.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted in MNRA
Unveiling the nature of bright z ~ 7 galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope
We present new Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 imaging of 25
extremely luminous (-23.2 < M_ UV < -21.2) Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~
7. The sample was initially selected from 1.65 deg^2 of ground-based imaging in
the UltraVISTA/COSMOS and UDS/SXDS fields, and includes the extreme Lyman-alpha
emitters, `Himiko' and `CR7'. A deconfusion analysis of the deep Spitzer
photometry available suggests that these galaxies exhibit strong rest-frame
optical nebular emission lines (EW_0(H_beta + [OIII]) > 600A). We find that
irregular, multiple-component morphologies suggestive of clumpy or merging
systems are common (f_multi > 0.4) in bright z ~ 7 galaxies, and ubiquitous at
the very bright end (M_UV < -22.5). The galaxies have half-light radii in the
range r_1/2 ~ 0.5-3 kpc. The size measurements provide the first determination
of the size-luminosity relation at z ~ 7 that extends to M_UV ~ -23. We find
the relation to be steep with r_1/2 ~ L^1/2. Excluding clumpy, multi-component
galaxies however, we find a shallower relation that implies an increased
star-formation rate surface density in bright LBGs. Using the new, independent,
HST/WFC3 data we confirm that the rest-frame UV luminosity function at z ~ 7
favours a power-law decline at the bright-end, compared to an exponential
Schechter function drop-off. Finally, these results have important implications
for the Euclid mission, which we predict will detect > 1000 similarly bright
galaxies at z ~ 7. Our new HST imaging suggests that the vast majority of these
galaxies will be spatially resolved by Euclid, mitigating concerns over dwarf
star contamination.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures and 5 tables. Updated to match MNRAS accepted
versio
Morphology and Redshifts of Extremely Red Galaxies in the GOODS/CDFS deep ISAAC field
We present the photometric redshift distribution of a sample of 198 Extremely
Red Galaxies (ERGs) with Ks3.92 (Vega), selected by Roche et al.
in 50.4 sq. arcmin of the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). The sample has been
obtained using ISAAC-VLT and ACS-HST GOODS public data. We also show the
results of a morphological study of the 72 brightest ERGs in the z band (z<25,
AB).Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the ESO/USM/MPE
Workshop "Multiwavelength Mapping of Galaxy Formation and Evolution", Venice,
October 13-16, 200
Analysis of wasp-waisted hysteresis loops in magnetic rocks
The random-field Ising model of hysteresis is generalized to dilute magnets
and solved on a Bethe lattice. Exact expressions for the major and minor
hysteresis loops are obtained. In the strongly dilute limit the model provides
a simple and useful understanding of the shapes of hysteresis loops in magnetic
rock samples.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Quasars, their host galaxies, and their central black holes
We present the final results from our deep HST imaging study of the hosts of
radio-quiet quasars (RQQs), radio-loud quasars (RLQs) and radio galaxies (RGs).
We describe new WFPC2 R-band observations for 14 objects and model these images
in conjunction with the data already reported in McLure et al (1999). We find
that spheroidal hosts become more prevalent with increasing nuclear luminosity
such that, for nuclear luminosities M_V < -23.5, the hosts of both radio-loud
and radio-quiet AGN are virtually all massive ellipticals. Moreover we
demonstrate that the basic properties of these hosts are indistinguishable from
those of quiescent, evolved, low-redshift ellipticals of comparable mass. This
result kills any lingering notion that radio-loudness is determined by
host-galaxy morphology, and also sets severe constraints on evolutionary
schemes which attempt to link low-z ULIRGs with RQQs. Instead, we show that our
results are as expected given the relationship between black-hole and spheroid
mass established for nearby galaxies, and apply this relation to estimate the
mass of the black hole in each object. The results agree very well with
completely-independent estimates based on nuclear emission-line widths; all the
quasars in our sample have M(bh) > 5 x 10^8 solar masses, while the radio-loud
objects are confined to M(bh) > 10^9 solar masses. This apparent mass-threshold
difference, which provides a natural explanation for why RQQs outnumber RLQs by
a factor of 10, appears to reflect the existence of a minimum and maximum level
of black-hole radio output which is a strong function of black-hole mass.
Finally, we use our results to estimate the fraction of massive
spheroids/black-holes which produce quasar-level activity. This fraction is
\~0.1% at the present day, rising to > 10% at z = 2-3.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society. 46 pages, the final 19 of which comprise an
Appendix. 15 figures in main text. A further 14 4-panel greyscale plots and
14 line plots which appear in the Appendix have been reproduced here with
reduced quality due to space limitations. A full resolution copy of the
manuscript can be obtained via ftp://ftp.roe.ac.uk/pub/jsd/dunlop2002.ps.g
The final two redshifts for radio sources from the equatorial BRL sample
Best, Rottgering and Lehnert (1999, 2000a) defined a new sample of powerful
radio sources from the Molonglo Reference Catalogue, for which redshifts were
compiled or measured for 177 of the 178 objects. For the final object,
MRC1059-010 (3C249), the host galaxy is here identified using near-infrared
imaging, and the redshift is determined from VLT spectroscopy. For one other
object in the sample, MRC0320+053 (4C05.14), the literature redshift has been
questioned: new spectroscopic observations of this object are presented,
deriving a corrected redshift. With these two results, the spectroscopic
completeness of this sample is now 100%.
New redshifts are also presented for PKS0742+10 from the Wall & Peacock 2.7
GHz catalogue, and PKS1336+003 from the Parkes Selected Regions. PKS0742+10
shows a strong neutral hydrogen absorption feature in its Lyman-alpha emission
profile.Comment: 4 pages. LaTeX. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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