48 research outputs found
Extragalactic Foregrounds of the Cosmic Microwave Background: Prospects for the MAP Mission
(Abridged) While the major contribution to the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) anisotropies are the sought-after primordial fluctuations produced at the
surface of last scattering, other effects produce secondary fluctuations at
lower redshifts. Here, we study the extragalactic foregrounds of the CMB in the
context of the upcoming MAP mission. We first survey the major extragalactic
foregrounds and show that discrete sources, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect,
and gravitational lensing are the most dominant ones for MAP. We then show that
MAP will detect (>5 sigma) about 46 discrete sources and 10 SZ clusters
directly with 94 GHz fluxes above 2 Jy. The mean SZ fluxes of fainter clusters
can be probed by cross-correlating MAP with cluster positions extracted from
existing catalogs. For instance, a MAP-XBACs cross-correlation will be
sensitive to clusters with S(94GHz)>200mJy, and will thus provide a test of
their virialization state and a measurement of their gas fraction. Finally, we
consider probing the hot gas on supercluster scales by cross-correlating the
CMB with galaxy catalogs. Assuming that galaxies trace the gas, we show that a
cross-correlation between MAP and the APM catalog should yield a marginal
detection, or at least a four-fold improvement on the COBE upper limits for the
rms Compton y-parameter.Comment: 27 LaTeX pages, including 5 ps figures and 2 tables. To appear in
ApJ. Minor revisions to match accepted version. Color figures and further
links available at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~refreg
Active Brownian Particles. From Individual to Collective Stochastic Dynamics
We review theoretical models of individual motility as well as collective
dynamics and pattern formation of active particles. We focus on simple models
of active dynamics with a particular emphasis on nonlinear and stochastic
dynamics of such self-propelled entities in the framework of statistical
mechanics. Examples of such active units in complex physico-chemical and
biological systems are chemically powered nano-rods, localized patterns in
reaction-diffusion system, motile cells or macroscopic animals. Based on the
description of individual motion of point-like active particles by stochastic
differential equations, we discuss different velocity-dependent friction
functions, the impact of various types of fluctuations and calculate
characteristic observables such as stationary velocity distributions or
diffusion coefficients. Finally, we consider not only the free and confined
individual active dynamics but also different types of interaction between
active particles. The resulting collective dynamical behavior of large
assemblies and aggregates of active units is discussed and an overview over
some recent results on spatiotemporal pattern formation in such systems is
given.Comment: 161 pages, Review, Eur Phys J Special-Topics, accepte
Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO
For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer
gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their
first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from
their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper
limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous
direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some
detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial
change
Cosmology with clusters of galaxies
In this Chapter I review the role that galaxy clusters play as tools to
constrain cosmological parameters. I will concentrate mostly on the application
of the mass function of galaxy clusters, while other methods, such as that
based on the baryon fraction, are covered by other Chapters of the book. Since
most of the cosmological applications of galaxy clusters rely on precise
measurements of their masses, a substantial part of my Lectures concentrates on
the different methods that have been applied so far to weight galaxy clusters.
I provide in Section 2 a short introduction to the basics of cosmic structure
formation. In Section 3 I describe the Press--Schechter (PS) formalism to
derive the cosmological mass function, then discussing extensions of the PS
approach and the most recent calibrations from N--body simulations. In Section
4 I review the methods to build samples of galaxy clusters at different
wavelengths. Section 5 is devoted to the discussion of different methods to
derive cluster masses. In Section 6 I describe the cosmological constraints,
which have been obtained so far by tracing the cluster mass function with a
variety of methods. Finally, I describe in Section 7 the future perspectives
for cosmology with galaxy clusters and the challenges for clusters to keep
playing an important role in the era of precision cosmology.Comment: 49 pages, 19 figures, Lectures for 2005 Guillermo Haro Summer School
on Clusters, to appear in "Lecture notes in Physics" (Springer
Hubble Space Telescope Hα imaging of star-forming galaxies at z ≃ 1–1.5 : evolution in the size and luminosity of giant H ii regions
We present Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 narrow-band imaging of the Hα emission in a sample of eight gravitationally lensed galaxies at z = 1–1.5. The magnification caused by the foreground clusters enables us to obtain a median source plane spatial resolution of 360 pc, as well as providing magnifications in flux ranging from ∼10× to ∼50×. This enables us to identify resolved star-forming H ii regions at this epoch and therefore study their Hα luminosity distributions for comparisons with equivalent samples at z ∼ 2 and in the local Universe. We find evolution in the both luminosity and surface brightness of H ii regions with redshift. The distribution of clump properties can be quantified with an H ii region luminosity function, which can be fit by a power law with an exponential break at some cut-off, and we find that the cut-off evolves with redshift. We therefore conclude that ‘clumpy’ galaxies are seen at high redshift because of the evolution of the cut-off mass; the galaxies themselves follow similar scaling relations to those at z = 0, but their H ii regions are larger and brighter and thus appear as clumps which dominate the morphology of the galaxy. A simple theoretical argument based on gas collapsing on scales of the Jeans mass in a marginally unstable disc shows that the clumpy morphologies of high-z galaxies are driven by the competing effects of higher gas fractions causing perturbations on larger scales, partially compensated by higher epicyclic frequencies which stabilize the disc
Optische Verbindungssysteme (Optosys). Teilvorhaben: Modulkomponenten fuer die optische On-Board und Inter-Board Uebertragung (MoKom) Abschlussbericht
Available from TIB Hannover: F03B934 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, Berlin (Germany)DEGerman