Monte Carlo Predictions of Far-Infrared Emission from Spiral Galaxies

We present simulations of Far Infrared (FIR) emission by dust in spiral galaxies, based on the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code of Bianchi, Ferrara & Giovanardi (1996). The radiative transfer is carried out at several wavelength in the Ultraviolet, optical and Near Infrared, to cover the range of the stellar Spectral Energy Distribution (SED). Together with the images of the galactic model, a map of the energy absorbed by dust is produced. Using Galactic dust properties, the spatial distribution of dust temperature is derived under the assumption of thermal equilibrium. A correction is applied for non-equilibrium emission in the Mid Infrared. Images of dust emission can then be produced at any wavelength in the FIR. We show the application of the model to the spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The observed stellar SED is used as input and models are produced for different star-dust geometries. It is found that only optically thick dust disks can reproduce the observed amount of FIR radiation. However, it is not possible to reproduce the large FIR scalelength suggested by recent observation of spirals at 200 um, even when the scalelength of the dust disk is larger than that for stars. Optically thin models have ratios of optical/FIR scalelengths closer to the 200um observations, but with smaller absolute scalelengths than optically thick cases. The modelled temperature distributions are compatible with observations of the Galaxy and other spirals. We finally discuss the approximations of the model and the impact of a clumpy stellar and dust structure on the FIR simulations.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&

Gravitational Entropy and Quantum Cosmology

We investigate the evolution of different measures of ``Gravitational Entropy'' in Bianchi type I and Lema\^itre-Tolman universe models. A new quantity behaving in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics is introduced. We then go on and investigate whether a quantum calculation of initial conditions for the universe based upon the Wheeler-DeWitt equation supports Penrose's Weyl Curvature Conjecture, according to which the Ricci part of the curvature dominates over the Weyl part at the initial singularity of the universe. The theory is applied to the Bianchi type I universe models with dust and a cosmological constant and to the Lema\^itre-Tolman universe models. We investigate two different versions of the conjecture. First we investigate a local version which fails to support the conjecture. Thereafter we construct a non-local entity which shows more promising behaviour concerning the conjecture.Comment: 20 pages, 7 ps figure

The Energy-Momentum Tensor in Fulling-Rindler Vacuum

The energy density in Fulling-Rindler vacuum, which is known to be negative "everywhere" is shown to be positive and singular on the horizons in such a fashion as to guarantee the positivity of the total energy. The mechanism of compensation is displayed in detail.Comment: 9 pages, ULB-TH-15/9

Optical/near-infrared colours of early-type galaxies and constraints on their star formation histories

(abridged) We introduce and discuss the properties of a theoretical (B-K)-(J-K) integrated colour diagram for single-age, single-metallicity stellar populations. This combination of integrated colours is able to largely disentangle the well known age-metallicity degeneracy when the age of the population is greater than ~300 Myr. We discuss in detail the effect on this colour-colour diagram of alpha-enhanced metal abundance ratios, the presence of blue horizontal branch stars unaccounted for in the theoretical calibration, and of statistical colour fluctuations in low mass stellar systems. In the case of populations with multiple stellar generations, the luminosity-weighted mean age obtained from this diagram is shown to be heavily biased towards the youngest stellar components. We apply this method to several datasets for which optical and near-IR photometry are available in the literature. For the two Local Group dwarf galaxies NGC185 and NGC6822, the mean ages derived from the integrated colours are consistent with the star formation histories inferred independently from photometric observations of their resolved stellar populations. A sample of bright field and Virgo cluster elliptical galaxies is found to exhibit a range of luminosity-weighted mean ages from 3 to 14 Gyr, with a mean of 8 Gyr, independent of environment, and mean metallicities at or just above the solar value. Colour gradients are found in all of the galaxies studied, in the sense that central regions are redder. Aperture data for five Virgo early-type dwarf galaxies show that these galaxies appear to be shifted to lower mean metallicities and lower mean ages (range 1 to 6 Gyr) than their higher luminosity counterparts.Comment: (1) Liverpool John Moores University, UK; (2) University of Cardiff, UK; (3) University of Bristol, UK; (4) INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania, I; 12 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS in pres

SCUBA imaging of NGC 7331 dust ring

We present observations of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331 using the Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clark Maxwell Telescope. We have detected a dust ring of 45 arcsec radius (3.3 kpc) at wavelengths of 450 and 850-micron. The dust ring is in good correspondence with other observations of the ring in the mid-infrared (MIR), CO and radio-continuum, suggesting that the observed dust is associated with the molecular gas and star formation. A B-K colour map shows an analogous ring structure with an asymmetry about the major axis, consistent with the extinction being produced by a dust ring. The derived temperature of the dust lies between 16 and 31 K and the gas-to-dust ratio between 150 and 570, depending on the assumed dust emission efficiency index (beta=1.5 or 2.).Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to be published in MNRA

Sharp two-sided heat kernel estimates for critical Schr\"odinger operators on bounded domains

On a smooth bounded domain \Omega \subset R^N we consider the Schr\"odinger operators -\Delta -V, with V being either the critical borderline potential V(x)=(N-2)^2/4 |x|^{-2} or V(x)=(1/4) dist (x,\partial\Omega)^{-2}, under Dirichlet boundary conditions. In this work we obtain sharp two-sided estimates on the corresponding heat kernels. To this end we transform the Scr\"odinger operators into suitable degenerate operators, for which we prove a new parabolic Harnack inequality up to the boundary. To derive the Harnack inequality we have established a serier of new inequalities such as improved Hardy, logarithmic Hardy Sobolev, Hardy-Moser and weighted Poincar\'e. As a byproduct of our technique we are able to answer positively to a conjecture of E.B.Davies.Comment: 40 page

Range safety signal propagation through the SRM exhaust plume of the space shuttle

Theoretical predictions of plume interference for the space shuttle range safety system by solid rocket booster exhaust plumes are reported. The signal propagation was calculated using a split operator technique based upon the Fresnel-Kirchoff integral, using fast Fourier transforms to evaluate the convolution and treating the plume as a series of absorbing and phase-changing screens. Talanov's lens transformation was applied to reduce aliasing problems caused by ray divergence