15,770 research outputs found
The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation
We explore the Tully-Fisher relation over five decades in stellar mass in
galaxies with circular velocities ranging over 30 < Vc < 300 km/s. We find a
clear break in the optical Tully-Fisher relation: field galaxies with Vc < 90
km/s fall below the relation defined by brighter galaxies. These faint galaxies
are however very gas rich; adding in the gas mass and plotting baryonic disk
mass Md = M* + Mg in place of luminosity restores a single linear relation. The
Tully-Fisher relation thus appears fundamentally to be a relation between
rotation velocity and total baryonic mass of the form Md = A Vc^4.Comment: 10 pages including 1 color figure. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
Simulations of Dust in Interacting Galaxies I: Dust Attenuation
A new Monte-Carlo radiative-transfer code, Sunrise, is used in conjunction
with hydrodynamic simulations of major galaxy mergers to calculate the effects
of dust in such systems. The simulations are in good agreement with
observations of dust absorption in starburst galaxies, and the dust has a
profound effect on their appearance. The dust attenuation increases with
luminosity such that at peak luminosities ~90% of the bolometric luminosity is
absorbed by dust. In general, the detailed appearance of the merging event
depends on the stage of the merger and the geometry of the encounter. The
fraction of bolometric energy absorbed by the dust, however, is a robust
quantity that can be predicted from the intrinsic properties bolometric
luminosity, baryonic mass, star-formation rate, and metallicity of the system.
This paper presents fitting formulae, valid over a wide range of masses and
metallicities, from which the absorbed fraction of luminosity (and consequently
also the infrared dust luminosity) can be predicted. The attenuation of the
luminosity at specific wavelengths can also be predicted, albeit with a larger
scatter due to the variation with viewing angle. These formulae for dust
attenuation appear to be valid for both isolated and interacting galaxies, are
consistent with earlier studies, and would be suitable for inclusion in
theoretical models, e.g. semi-analytic models of galaxy formation.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap
Table of Contents
Table of contents for Volume 10, Issue 3 of the Linfield Magazin
The Effects of Starburst Activity on Low Surface Brightness Disk Galaxies
Although numerous simulations have been done to understand the effects of
intense bursts of star formation on high surface brightness galaxies, few
attempts have been made to understand how localized starbursts would affect
both the color and surface brightness of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies.
To remedy this, we have run 53 simulations involving bursts of star formation
activity on LSB galaxies, varying both the underlying galaxy properties and the
parameters describing the starbursts. We discovered that although changing the
total color of a galaxy was fairly straightforward, it was virtually impossible
to alter a galaxy's central surface brightness and thereby remove it from the
LSB galaxy classification without placing a high (and fairly artificial)
threshold for the underlying gas density. The primary effect of large amounts
of induced star formation was to produce a centralized core (bulge) component
which is generally not observed in LSB galaxies. The noisy morphological
appearance of LSB galaxies as well as their noisy surface brightness profiles
can be reproduced by considering small bursts of star formation that are
localized within the disk. The trigger mechanism for such bursts is likely
distant/weak tidal encounters. The stability of disk central surface brightness
to these periods of star formation argues that the large space density of LSB
galaxies at z = 0 should hold to substantially higher redshifts.Comment: 38 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, tarred and compressed Also available
on http://guernsey.uoregon.edu/~kare
Quartic double solids with ordinary singularities
We study the mixed Hodge structure on the third homology group of a threefold
which is the double cover of projective three-space ramified over a quartic
surface with a double conic. We deal with the Torelli problem for such
threefolds.Comment: 14 pages, presented at the Conference Arnol'd 7
Universality of Shot-Noise in Multiterminal Diffusive Conductors
We prove the universality of shot-noise in multiterminal diffusive conductors
of arbitrary shape and dimension for purely elastic scattering as well as for
hot electrons. Using a Boltzmann-Langevin approach we reduce the calculation of
shot-noise correlators to the solution of a diffusion equation. We show that
shot-noise in multiterminal conductors is a non-local quantity and that
exchange effects can occur without quantum phase coherence even at zero
electron temperature. Concrete numbers for shot-noise are given that can be
tested experimentally.Comment: 4 double-column pages, REVTeX, 1 eps figure embedded with eps
DDO 88: A Galaxy-Sized Hole in the Interstellar Medium
We present an HI and optical study of the gas-rich dwarf irregular galaxy DDO
88. Although DDO 88's global optical and HI parameters are normal for its
morphological type, it hosts a large (3 kpc diameter) and unusually complete
ring of enhanced HI emission. The gas ring is located at approximately
one-third of the total HI radius and one-half the optically-defined Holmberg
radius, and contains 30% of the total HI of the galaxy. The ring surrounds a
central depression in the HI distribution, so it may be a shell formed by a
starburst episode. However, the UBV colors in the HI hole are not bluer than
the rest of the galaxy as would be expected if an unusual star-forming event
had taken place there recently, but there is an old (~1-3 Gyr), red cluster
near the center of the hole that is massive enough to have produced the hole in
the HI. An age estimate for the ring, however, is uncertain because it is not
observed to be expanding. An expansion model produces a lower estimate of 0.5
Gyr, but the presence of faint star formation regions associated with the ring
indicate a much younger age. We also estimate that the ring could have
dispersed by now if it is older than 0.5 Gyr. This implies that the ring is
younger than 0.5 Gyr. A younger age would indicate that the red cluster did not
produce the hole and ring. If this ring and the depression in the gas which it
surrounds were not formed by stellar winds and supernovae, this would indicate
that some other, currently unidentified, mechanism is operating.Comment: 44 pages; 16 figures. To appear in AJ, January 2005. Available from
ftp.lowell.edu, cd pub/dah/papers/d88 and http://www.fiu.edu/~simpsonc/d8
Shot noise in ferromagnet--normal metal systems
A semiclassical theory of the low frequency shot noise in ferromagnet -
normal metal systems is formulated. Non-collinear magnetization directions of
the ferromagnetic leads, arbitrary junctions and the elastic and inelastic
scattering regimes are considered. The shot noise is governed by a set of
mesoscopic parameters that are expressed in terms of the microscopic details of
the junctions in the circuit. Explicit results in the case of ballistic,
tunnel, and diffusive junctions are evaluated. The shot noise, the current and
the Fano factor are calculated for a double barrier ferromagnet - normal metal
- ferromagnet system. It is demonstrated that the shot noise can have a
non-monotonic behavior as a function of the relative angle between the
magnetizations of the ferromagnetic reservoirs.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure
Radiative Transfer in Obliquely Illuminated Accretion Disks
The illumination of an accretion disk around a black hole or neutron star by
the central compact object or the disk itself often determines its spectrum,
stability, and dynamics. The transport of radiation within the disk is in
general a multi-dimensional, non-axisymmetric problem, which is challenging to
solve. Here, I present a method of decomposing the radiative transfer equation
that describes absorption, emission, and Compton scattering in an obliquely
illuminated disk into a set of four one-dimensional transfer equations. I show
that the exact calculation of the ionization balance and radiation heating of
the accretion disk requires the solution of only one of the one-dimensional
equations, which can be solved using existing numerical methods. I present a
variant of the Feautrier method for solving the full set of equations, which
accounts for the fact that the scattering kernels in the individual transfer
equations are not forward-backward symmetric. I then apply this method in
calculating the albedo of a cold, geometrically thin accretion disk.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical Journa
The stellar disk thickness of LSB galaxies
We present surface photometry results for a sample of eleven edge-on galaxies
observed with the 6m telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory
(Russia). The photometric scale length, scale height, and central surface
brightness of the stellar disks of our sample galaxies are estimated. We show
that four galaxies in our sample, which are visually referred as objects of the
lowest surface brightness class in the Revised Flat Galaxies Catalog, have bona
fide low surface brightness (LSB) disks. We find from the comparison of
photometric scales that the stellar disks of LSB galaxies are thinner than
those of high surface brightness (HSB) ones. There is a clear correlation
between the central surface brightness of the stellar disk and its vertical to
radial scale ratio. The masses of spherical subsystems (dark halo + bulge) and
the dark halo masses are obtained for the sample galaxies based on the
thickness of their stellar disks. The LSB galaxies tend to harbor more massive
spherical subsystems than the HSB objects, whereas no systematic difference in
the dark halo masses between LSB and HSB galaxies is found. At the same time,
the inferred mass-to-luminosity ratio for the LSB disks appears to be
systematically higher than for HSB disks.Comment: 33 pages with 17 Postscript figures, uses aastex.cls, accepted by Ap
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