321 research outputs found
Ognina - a puzzling prehistoric site in Sicily
In 1965, Prof. Bernabo Brea of Syracuse
excavated a site on the small island of Ognina,
off the east coast of Sicily 12 km south of
Syracuse. He found two levels of
prehistoric occupation, a lower one of the
Early Neolithic Stentinello Culture, and an
upper one dating to the Early Bronze Age. At
these periods, however, it may not have been
an island but rather a small promontory beside
a sheltered inlet, making an ideal small port.
The Bronze Age material contained none
of the Castelluccio Culture, widespread in
South-east Sicily at the time, but pottery which
Brea recognised as being closely similar to
some which John Evans had found in Tarxien
Cemetery contexts in Malta. He therefore
suggested that the site had been refounded
at this period, after standing empty since the
Early Neolithic, by emigrants from Malta, who
had probably established it as a trading post
for their commercial interchanges with the
Sicilians. This was adopted as the orthodox
view by Italian prehistorians down to the
present day. However, some uneasiness was
felt among those studying Maltese prehistory,
on the grounds that there was very little
evidence for a sea-faring tradition in that early
period, and though there were undoubtedly
some raw materials imported into the islands,
this was on a comparatively small scalepeer-reviewe
Xewkija and elsewhere : new thoughts on old sites
In this article the author speculates and discusses possible new interpretations of lost megalithic sites throughout Malta and Gozo. His interpretations are based both on the old excavation notes by former archaeologists and new knowledge about the prehistory of Malta.peer-reviewe
The architecture of the Maltese temples
The final form a building takes will
depend on a number of factors over and
above the purpose it is intended to serve,
whether for habitation, defence, industry,
burial, worship or whatever. These
include the constructional materials and
manpower available to the builders, their
technology and the way they think it
ought to look, bluntly, fashion. Nor
should we forget its later history,
undergoing alterations, additions, or most
commonly partial or complete destruction.
The temples of Malta as we see them
today illustrate all these, and in turn are
themselves primary evidence on the skills,
religious practices and society of the
Maltese in the millennium either side of
3000BC.peer-reviewe
From Starburst to Quiescence: Testing AGN feedback in Rapidly Quenching Post-Starburst Galaxies
Post-starbursts are galaxies in transition from the blue cloud to the red
sequence. Although they are rare today, integrated over time they may be an
important pathway to the red sequence. This work uses SDSS, GALEX, and WISE
observations to identify the evolutionary sequence from starbursts to fully
quenched post-starbursts in the narrow mass range , and identifies "transiting" post-starbursts which are intermediate
between these two populations. In this mass range, of galaxies are
starbursts, are quenched post-starbursts, and are the
transiting types in between. The transiting post-starbursts have stellar
properties that are predicted for fast-quenching starbursts and morphological
characteristics that are already typical of early-type galaxies. The AGN
fraction, as estimated from optical line ratios, of these post-starbursts is
about 3 times higher () than that of normal star-forming
galaxies of the same mass, but there is a significant delay between the
starburst phase and the peak of nuclear optical AGN activity (median age
difference of Myr), in agreement with previous studies.
The time delay is inferred by comparing the broad-band near NUV-to-optical
photometry with stellar population synthesis models. We also find that
starbursts and post-starbursts are significantly more dust-obscured than normal
star-forming galaxies in the same mass range. About of the starbursts
and of the transiting post-starbursts can be classified as the
"Dust-Obscured Galaxies" (DOGs), while only of normal galaxies are
DOGs.The time delay between the starburst phase and AGN activity suggests that
AGN do not play a primary role in the original quenching of starbursts but may
be responsible for quenching later low-level star formation during the
post-starburst phase.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures,accepted to Ap
z~2: An Epoch of Disk Assembly
We explore the evolution of the internal gas kinematics of star-forming
galaxies from the peak of cosmic star-formation at to today.
Measurements of galaxy rotation velocity , which quantify ordered
motions, and gas velocity dispersion , which quantify disordered
motions, are adopted from the DEEP2 and SIGMA surveys. This sample covers a
continuous baseline in redshift from to , spanning 10 Gyrs. At
low redshift, nearly all sufficiently massive star-forming galaxies are
rotationally supported (). By , the percentage of
galaxies with rotational support has declined to 50 at low stellar mass
() and 70 at high stellar mass
(). For , the percentage
drops below 35 for all masses. From to now, galaxies exhibit
remarkably smooth kinematic evolution on average. All galaxies tend towards
rotational support with time, and it is reached earlier in higher mass systems.
This is mostly due to an average decline in by a factor of 3 since a
redshift of 2, which is independent of mass. Over the same time period,
increases by a factor of 1.5 for low mass systems, but does not
evolve for high mass systems. These trends in and with
time are at a fixed stellar mass and should not be interpreted as evolutionary
tracks for galaxy populations. When galaxy populations are linked in time with
abundance matching, not only does decline with time as before, but
strongly increases with time for all galaxy masses. This enhances the
evolution in . These results indicate that is a
period of disk assembly, during which the strong rotational support present in
today's massive disk galaxies is only just beginning to emerge.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
Testing Diagnostics of Nuclear Activity and Star Formation in Galaxies at z>1
We present some of the first science data with the new Keck/MOSFIRE
instrument to test the effectiveness of different AGN/SF diagnostics at z~1.5.
MOSFIRE spectra were obtained in three H-band multi-slit masks in the GOODS-S
field, resulting in two hour exposures of 36 emission-line galaxies. We compare
X-ray data with the traditional emission-line ratio diagnostics and the
alternative mass-excitation and color-excitation diagrams, combining new
MOSFIRE infrared data with previous HST/WFC3 infrared spectra (from the 3D-HST
survey) and multiwavelength photometry. We demonstrate that a high [OIII]/Hb
ratio is insufficient as an AGN indicator at z>1. For the four X-ray detected
galaxies, the classic diagnostics ([OIII]/Hb vs. [NII]/Ha and [SII]/Ha) remain
consistent with X-ray AGN/SF classification. The X-ray data also suggest that
"composite" galaxies (with intermediate AGN/SF classification) host bona-fide
AGNs. Nearly 2/3 of the z~1.5 emission-line galaxies have nuclear activity
detected by either X-rays or the classic diagnostics. Compared to the X-ray and
line ratio classifications, the mass-excitation method remains effective at
z>1, but we show that the color-excitation method requires a new calibration to
successfully identify AGNs at these redshifts.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to ApJ Letter
AGN Emission Line Diagnostics and the Mass-Metallicity Relation up to Redshift z~2: the Impact of Selection Effects and Evolution
Emission line diagnostic diagrams probing the ionization sources in galaxies,
such as the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram, have been used
extensively to distinguish AGN from purely star-forming galaxies. Yet, they
remain poorly understood at higher redshifts. We shed light on this issue with
an empirical approach based on a z~0 reference sample built from ~300,000 SDSS
galaxies, from which we mimic selection effects due to typical emission line
detection limits at higher redshift. We combine this low-redshift reference
sample with a simple prescription for luminosity evolution of the global galaxy
population to predict the loci of high-redshift galaxies on the BPT and
Mass-Excitation (MEx) diagnostic diagrams. The predicted bivariate
distributions agree remarkably well with direct observations of galaxies out to
z~1.5, including the observed stellar mass-metallicity (MZ) relation evolution.
As a result, we infer that high-redshift star-forming galaxies are consistent
with having "normal" ISM properties out to z~1.5, after accounting for
selection effects and line luminosity evolution. Namely, their optical line
ratios and gas-phase metallicities are comparable to that of low-redshift
galaxies with equivalent emission-line luminosities. In contrast, AGN
narrow-line regions may show a shift toward lower metallicities at higher
redshift. While a physical evolution of the ISM conditions is not ruled out for
purely star-forming galaxies, and may be more important starting at z>2, we
find that reliably quantifying this evolution is hindered by selections
effects. The recipes provided here may serve as a basis for future studies
toward this goal. Code to predict the loci of galaxies on the BPT and MEx
diagnostic diagrams, and the MZ relation as a function of emission line
luminosity limits, is made publicly available.Comment: Main article: 15 pages, 7 figures; Appendix: 13 pages, 11 figures.
Revisions: Paper now accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
(same scientific content as previous arXiv version). IDL routines to make
empirical predictions on the BPT, MEx, and M-Z plane are now released at
https://sites.google.com/site/agndiagnostics/home/me
Gender disparities in colloquium speakers at top universities
Colloquium talks at prestigious universities both create and reflect academic researchers' reputations. Gender disparities in colloquium talks can arise through a variety of mechanisms. The current study examines gender differences in colloquium speakers at 50 prestigious US colleges and universities in 2013-2014. Using archival data, we analyzed 3,652 talks in six academic disciplines. Men were more likely than women to be colloquium speakers even after controlling for the gender and rank of the available speakers. Eliminating alternative explanations (e.g., women declining invitations more often than men), our follow-up data revealed that female and male faculty at top universities reported no differences in the extent to which they (i) valued and (ii) turned down speaking engagements. Additional data revealed that the presence of women as colloquium chairs (and potentially on colloquium committees) increased the likelihood of women appearing as colloquium speakers. Our data suggest that those who invite and schedule speakers serve as gender gatekeepers with the power to create or reduce gender differences in academic reputations
Incommensurate magnetism near quantum criticality in CeNiAsO
Two phase transitions in the tetragonal strongly correlated electron system
CeNiAsO were probed by neutron scattering and zero field muon spin rotation.
For = 8.7(3) K, a second order phase transition yields an
incommensurate spin density wave with wave vector . For = 7.6(3) K, we find co-planar commensurate order with a
moment of , reduced to of the saturation moment of the
Kramers doublet ground state, which we establish by
inelastic neutron scattering. Muon spin rotation in
shows the commensurate order only exists for x 0.1 so the transition at
= 0.4(1) is from an incommensurate longitudinal spin density wave to a
paramagnetic Fermi liquid
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