2,815 research outputs found
HI Emission and Absorption in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey
We present preliminary results from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS)
Test Region and Parkes data. As part of the pilot project for the Southern
Galactic Plane Survey, observations of a Test Region (325.5 deg < l < 333.5
deg; -0.5 deg < b < 3.5 deg) were completed in December 1998. Single dish
observations of the full survey region (253 deg < l < 358 deg; |b| <1 deg) with
the Parkes Radio Telescope were completed in March 2000. We present a sample of
SGPS HI data with particular attention to the smallest and largest scale
structures seen in absorption and emission, respectively. On the large scale,
we detect many prominent HI shells. On the small scale, we note extremely
compact, cold clouds seen in HI self-absorption. We explore how these two
classes of objects probe opposite ends of the HI spatial power spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, 3 embedded postscript & 4 jpeg figures. Presented at the
Astronomical Society of Australia, Hobart, Tasmania, July 4-7 2000. To appear
in PASA Vol. 18(1
Elicitation of prior distributions of variable-selection problems in regression
This paper addresses the problem of quantifying expert opinion about a normal linear regression model when there is uncertainty as to which independent variables should be included in the model. Opinion is modeled as a mixture of natural conjugate prior distributions with each distribution in the mixture corresponding to a different subset of the independent variables. It is shown that for certain values of the independent variables, the predictive distribution of the dependent variable simplifies from a mixture of -distributions to a single -distribution. Using this result, a method of eliciting the conjugate distributions of the mixture is developed. The method is illustrated in an example
Observation of polarization domain wall solitons in weakly birefringent cavity fiber lasers
We report on the experimental observation of two types of phase-locked vector
soliton in weakly birefringent cavity erbium-doped fiber lasers. While a
phase-locked dark-dark vector soliton was only observed in fiber lasers of
positive dispersion, a phase-locked dark-bright vector soliton was obtained in
fiber lasers of either positive or negative dispersion. Numerical simulations
confirmed the experimental observations, and further showed that the observed
vector solitons are the two types of phase-locked polarization domain-wall
solitons theoretically predicted.Comment: 14 pages, 4 Figure
A Note on Frame Dragging
The measurement of spin effects in general relativity has recently taken
centre stage with the successfully launched Gravity Probe B experiment coming
toward an end, coupled with recently reported measurements using laser ranging.
Many accounts of these experiments have been in terms of frame-dragging. We
point out that this terminology has given rise to much confusion and that a
better description is in terms of spin-orbit and spin-spin effects. In
particular, we point out that the de Sitter precession (which has been mesured
to a high accuracy) is also a frame-dragging effect and provides an accurate
benchmark measurement of spin-orbit effects which GPB needs to emulate
The Millennium Arecibo 21-CM Absorption Line Survey. II. Properties of the Warm and Cold Neutral Media
We use the Gaussian-fit results of Paper I to investigate the properties of
interstellar HI in the Solar neighborhood. The Warm and Cold Neutral Media (WNM
and CNM) are physically distinct components. The CNM spin temperature histogram
peaks at about 40 K. About 60% of all HI is WNM. At z=0, we derive a volume
filling fraction of about 0.50 for the WNM; this value is very rough. The
upper-limit WNM temperatures determined from line width range upward from about
500 K; a minimum of about 48% of the WNM lies in the thermally unstable region
500 to 5000 K. The WNM is a prominent constituent of the interstellar medium
and its properties depend on many factors, requiring global models that include
all relevant energy sources, of which there are many. We use Principal
Components Analysis, together with a form of least squares fitting that
accounts for errors in both the independent and dependent parameters, to
discuss the relationships among the four CNM Gaussian parameters. The spin
temperature T_s and column density N(HI) are, approximately, the two most
important eigenvectors; as such, they are sufficient, convenient, and
physically meaningful primary parameters for describing CNM clouds. The Mach
number of internal macroscopic motions for CNM clouds is typically 2.5, but
there are wide variations. We discuss the historical tau-T_s relationship in
some detail and show that it has little physical meaning. We discuss CNM
morphology using the CNM pressure known from UV stellar absorption lines.
Knowing the pressure allows us to show that CNM structures cannot be isotropic
but instead are sheetlike, with length-to-thickness aspect ratios ranging up to
about 280. We present large-scale maps of two regions where CNM lies in very
large ``blobby sheets''.Comment: Revised submission to Ap.J. Changes include: (1) correction of
turbulent Mach number in equation 16 and figure 12; the new typical value is
1.3 versus the old, incorrect value 2.5. (2) smaller typeface for the
astro-ph version to conserve paper. 60 pages, 16 figure
Tests of Bayesian Model Selection Techniques for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
The analysis of gravitational wave data involves many model selection
problems. The most important example is the detection problem of selecting
between the data being consistent with instrument noise alone, or instrument
noise and a gravitational wave signal. The analysis of data from ground based
gravitational wave detectors is mostly conducted using classical statistics,
and methods such as the Neyman-Pearson criteria are used for model selection.
Future space based detectors, such as the \emph{Laser Interferometer Space
Antenna} (LISA), are expected to produced rich data streams containing the
signals from many millions of sources. Determining the number of sources that
are resolvable, and the most appropriate description of each source poses a
challenging model selection problem that may best be addressed in a Bayesian
framework. An important class of LISA sources are the millions of low-mass
binary systems within our own galaxy, tens of thousands of which will be
detectable. Not only are the number of sources unknown, but so are the number
of parameters required to model the waveforms. For example, a significant
subset of the resolvable galactic binaries will exhibit orbital frequency
evolution, while a smaller number will have measurable eccentricity. In the
Bayesian approach to model selection one needs to compute the Bayes factor
between competing models. Here we explore various methods for computing Bayes
factors in the context of determining which galactic binaries have measurable
frequency evolution. The methods explored include a Reverse Jump Markov Chain
Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) algorithm, Savage-Dickie density ratios, the Schwarz-Bayes
Information Criterion (BIC), and the Laplace approximation to the model
evidence. We find good agreement between all of the approaches.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
The HI and Ionized Gas Disk of the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 1144 = Arp 118: A Violently Interacting Galaxy with Peculiar Kinematics
We present observations of the distribution and kinematics of neutral and
ionized gas in NGC 1144, a galaxy that forms part of the Arp 118 system.
Ionized gas is present over a huge spread in velocity (1100 km/s) in the disk
of NGC 1144, but HI emission is detected over only 1/3 of this velocity range,
in an area that corresponds to the NW half of the disk. In the nuclear region
of NGC 1144, a jump in velocity in the ionized gas component of 600 km/s is
observed. Faint, narrow HI absorption lines are also detected against radio
sources in the SE part of the disk of NGC 1144, which includes regions of
massive star formation and a Seyfert nucleus. The peculiar HI distribution,
which is concentrated in the NW disk, seems to be the inverse of the molecular
distribution which is concentrated in the SE disk. Although this may partly be
the result of the destruction of HI clouds in the SE disk, there is
circumstantial evidence that the entire HI emission spectrum of NGC 1144 is
affected by a deep nuclear absorption line covering a range of 600 km/s, and is
likely blueshifted with respect to the nucleus. In this picture, a high
column-density HI stream is associated with the nuclear ionized gas velocity
discontinuity, and the absorption effectively masks any HI emission that would
be present in the SE disk of NGC 1144.Comment: manuscript, arp118.ps: 28 pages; 1 Table: arp118.tab1.ps; 16 Figures:
arp118.fig1-16.ps; Accepted to Ap
Additional symmetries of constrained CKP and BKP hierarchies
The additional symmetries of the constrained CKP (cCKP) and BKP (cBKP)
hierarchies are given by their actions on the Lax operators, and their actions
on the eigenfunction and adjoint eigenfunction are
presented explicitly. Furthermore, we show that acting on the space of the wave
operator, forms new centerless and
-subalgebra of centerless respectively. In
order to define above symmetry flows of the cCKP and cBKP
hierarchies, two vital operators are introduced to revise the additional
symmetry flows of the CKP and BKP hierarchies.Comment: 14 pages, accepted by SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics(2010
Detection of Cold Atomic Clouds in the Magellanic Bridge
We report a detection of cold atomic hydrogen in the Magellanic Bridge using
21-cm absorption spectroscopy toward the radio source B0312-770. With a column
density of N_HI=1.2E20 cm^-2, a maximum absorption optical depth of tau=0.10
and a maximum 21-cm emission brightness temperature of 1.4 K, this line of
sight yields a spin temperature, T_s, between 20 K and 40 K. H I 21-cm
absorption and emission spectroscopy toward 7 other low column density
sightlines on the periphery of the LMC and SMC reveal absorption toward one
additional background radio source behind the SMC with tau=0.03. The data have
typical sensitivities of sigma_tau=0.005 to 0.070 in absorption and
sigma_{T_B}=0.03 K in emission. These data demonstrate the presence of a cold
atomic phase which is probably accompanied by molecular condensations in the
tenuous interstellar medium of the Bridge region. Young OB stars observed in
the Magellanic Bridge could form "in situ" from these cold condensations rather
than migrate from regions of active star formation in the main body of the SMC.
The existence of cold condensations and star formation in the Magellanic Bridge
might be understood as a small scale version of the mechanism that produces
star formation in the tidal tails of interacting galaxies.Comment: 25 pages, uses AASTeX and psfig; Accepted for Publication in the
Astronomical Journa
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