Pruning the Lyman alpha forest of Q1331+170

A multitude of absorption lines seen shortward of QSO Ly-alpha emission, that cannot be traced to heavy element absorption systems, are assumed to be Ly-alpha lines arising in intervening clouds. Studies of these Ly-alpha clouds, typically done at 1 A or lower resolution, have shown N(H1) approximately equal to 10(exp 13) - 10(exp 17) sq cm and b approximately equal to 35 km/s. Sargent et al 1980, on the basis of a flat pair velocity correlation function (PVCF), argued that these clouds are intergalactic. But Crotts 1989 showed that the strong Ly-alpha lines are spatially clustered. High resolution studies of Webb 1987 and Rauch et al 1992 also report some evidence for weak clustering, but overall such high resolution studies have been rare. A study of the Ly-alpha forest of Q1331 + 170 over x(sub abs) = 1.60 - 2.19 based on 18 km/s resolution data at S/N approximately equal to 15, with metal-line deblending incorporated

Evaluating Trade Developments in Dairy Products

Replaced with revised version of paper 02/11/04.International Relations/Trade,

V_cs from D_s to {\phi}l{\nu} semileptonic decay and full lattice QCD

We determine the complete set of axial and vector form factors for the Ds to {\phi}l{\nu} decay from full lattice QCD for the first time. The valence quarks are implemented using the Highly Improved Staggered Quark action and we normalise the appropriate axial and vector currents fully nonperturbatively. The q^2 and angular distributions we obtain for the differential rate agree well with those from the BaBar experiment and, from the total branching fraction, we obtain Vcs = 1.017(63), in good agreement with that from D to Kl{\nu} semileptonic decay. We also find the mass and decay constant of the {\phi} meson in good agreement with experiment, showing that its decay to K{\bar{K}} (which we do not include here) has at most a small effect. We include an Appendix on nonperturbative renormalisation of the complete set of staggered vector and axial vector bilinears needed for this calculation.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

Laser anemometry: A status report

A laser anemometer system is being developed for the warm turbine facility as part of the HOST program. The system will be built using results obtained from the analytical and experimental research program. The status report of the laser anemometry applications research effort is presented. The designs for the turbine casing, the windows, and the positioning system were completed. A block diagram of the laser anemometer system, signal processing scheme, and computer system is given

Nonperturbative comparison of clover and highly improved staggered quarks in lattice QCD and the properties of the ϕ meson

We compare correlators for pseudoscalar and vector mesons made from valence strange quarks using the clover quark and highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) formalisms in full lattice QCD. We use fully nonperturbative methods to normalize vector and axial vector current operators made from HISQ quarks, clover quarks and from combining HISQ and clover fields. This allows us to test expectations for the renormalization factors based on perturbative QCD, with implications for the error budget of lattice QCD calculations of the matrix elements of clover-staggered b-light weak currents, as well as further HISQ calculations of the hadronic vacuum polarization.We also compare the approach to the (same) continuum limit in clover and HISQ formalisms for the mass and decay constant of the ϕ meson. Our final results for these parameters, using single-meson correlators and allowing an uncertainty for the neglect of quark-line disconnected diagrams are: Mϕ ¼ 1.023ð6Þ GeV and fϕ ¼ 0.238ð3Þ GeV in good agreement with experiment. The results come from calculations in the HISQ formalism using gluon fields that include the effect of u, d, s and c quarks in the sea with three lattice spacing values and mu=d values going down to the physical point

The Cross-correlation of MgII Absorption and Galaxies in BOSS

We present a measurement of the cross-correlation of MgII absorption and massive galaxies, using the DR11 main galaxy sample of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III (CMASS galaxies), and the DR7 quasar spectra of SDSS-II. The cross-correlation is measured by stacking quasar absorption spectra shifted to the redshift of galaxies that are within a certain impact parameter bin of the quasar, after dividing by a quasar continuum model. This results in an average MgII equivalent width as a function of impact parameter from a galaxy, ranging from 50 kpc to more than 10 Mpc in proper units, which includes all MgII absorbers. We show that special care needs to be taken to use an unbiased quasar continuum estimator, to avoid systematic errors in the measurement of the mean stacked MgII equivalent width. The measured cross-correlation follows the expected shape of the galaxy correlation function, although measurement errors are large. We use the cross-correlation amplitude to derive the bias factor of MgII absorbers, finding bMgII = 2.33 \pm? 0.19, where the error accounts only for the statistical uncertainty in measuring the mean equivalent width. This bias factor is larger than that obtained in previous studies and may be affected by modeling uncertainties that we discuss, but if correct it suggests that MgII absorbers at redshift z \simeq 0:5 are spatially distributed on large scales similarly to the CMASS galaxies in BOSS. Keywords: galaxies: haloes, galaxies: formation, quasars: absorption lines, large-scale structure of universeComment: Accepted for publication to MNRAS. Accepted 2014 December 12. Received 2014 November 29; in original form 2014 February

Do broad absorption line quasars live in different environments from ordinary quasars?

We select a sample of $\sim 4200$ traditionally defined broad absorption line quasars (BALQs) from the Fifth Data Release quasar catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For a statistically homogeneous quasar sample with $1.7\le z\le 4.2$, the BAL quasar fraction is $\sim 14$ and is almost constant with redshift. We measure the auto-correlation of non-BAL quasars (nonBALQs) and the cross-correlation of BALQs with nonBALQs using this statistically homogeneous sample, both in redshift space and using the projected correlation function. We find no significant difference between the clustering strengths of BALQs and nonBALQs. Assuming a power-law model for the real space correlation function $\xi(r)=(r/r_0)^{-1.8}$, the correlation length for nonBALQs is $r_0=7.6\pm 0.8 h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$; for BALQs, the cross-correlation length is $r_0=7.4\pm 1.1 h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. Our clustering results suggest that BALQs live in similar large-scale environments as do nonBALQs.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap

Radio to Gamma-Ray Emission from Shell-type Supernova Remnants: Predictions from Non-linear Shock Acceleration Models

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are widely believed to be the principal source of galactic cosmic rays. Such energetic particles can produce gamma-rays and lower energy photons via interactions with the ambient plasma. In this paper, we present results from a Monte Carlo simulation of non-linear shock structure and acceleration coupled with photon emission in shell-like SNRs. These non-linearities are a by-product of the dynamical influence of the accelerated cosmic rays on the shocked plasma and result in distributions of cosmic rays which deviate from pure power-laws. Such deviations are crucial to acceleration efficiency and spectral considerations, producing GeV/TeV intensity ratios that are quite different from test particle predictions. The Sedov scaling solution for SNR expansions is used to estimate important shock parameters for input into the Monte Carlo simulation. We calculate ion and electron distributions that spawn neutral pion decay, bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton, and synchrotron emission, yielding complete photon spectra from radio frequencies to gamma-ray energies. The cessation of acceleration caused by the spatial and temporal limitations of the expanding SNR shell in moderately dense interstellar regions can yield spectral cutoffs in the TeV energy range; these are consistent with Whipple's TeV upper limits on unidentified EGRET sources. Supernova remnants in lower density environments generate higher energy cosmic rays that produce predominantly inverse Compton emission at super-TeV energies; such sources will generally be gamma-ray dim at GeV energies.Comment: 62 pages, AASTeX format, including 1 table and 11 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (Vol 513, March 1, 1999

Blue horizontal branch stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II. Kinematics of the Galactic halo

We carry out a maximum-likelihood kinematic analysis of a sample of 1170 blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey presented in Sirko et al. (2003) (Paper I). Monte Carlo simulations and resampling show that the results are robust to distance and velocity errors at least as large as the estimated errors from Paper I. The best-fit velocities of the Sun (circular) and halo (rotational) are 245.9 +/- 13.5 km/s and 23.8 +/- 20.1 km/s but are strongly covariant, so that v_0 - v_halo = 222.1 +/- 7.7 km/s. If one adopts standard values for the local standard of rest and solar motion, then the halo scarcely rotates. The velocity ellipsoid inferred for our sample is much more isotropic [(sigma_r,sigma_theta,sigma_phi) = (101.4 +/- 2.8, 97.7 +/- 16.4, 107.4 +/- 16.6) km/s] than that of halo stars in the solar neighborhood, in agreement with a recent study of the distant halo by Sommer-Larsen et al. (1997). The line-of-sight velocity distribution of the entire sample, corrected for the Sun's motion, is accurately gaussian with a dispersion of 101.6 +/- 3.0 km/s.Comment: 23 pages including 4 figures, 1 color; submitted to A