1,566 research outputs found
A Direct Measurement of the IGM Opacity to HI Ionizing Photons
We present a new method to directly measure the opacity from HI Lyman limit
(LL) absorption k_LL along quasar sightlines by the intergalactic medium (IGM).
The approach analyzes the average (``stacked'') spectrum of an ensemble of
quasars at a common redshift to infer the mean free path (MFP) to ionizing
radiation. We apply this technique to 1800 quasars at z=3.50-4.34 drawn from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), giving the most precise measurements on
k_LL at any redshift. From z=3.6 to 4.3, the opacity increases steadily as
expected and is well parameterized by MFP = (48.4 +/- 2.1) - (38.0 +/-
5.3)*(z-3.6) h^-1 Mpc (proper distance). The relatively high MFP values
indicate that the incidence of systems which dominate k_LL evolves less
strongly at z>3 than that of the Lya forest. We infer a mean free path three
times higher than some previous estimates, a result which has important
implications for the photo-ionization rate derived from the emissivity of star
forming galaxies and quasars. Finally, our analysis reveals a previously
unreported, systematic bias in the SDSS quasar sample related to the survey's
color targeting criteria. This bias potentially affects all z~3 IGM studies
using the SDSS database.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; Accepted to ApJ
Magnetic and Thermodynamic Properties of the Collective Paramagnet-Spin Liquid Pyrochlore Tb2Ti2O7
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 1012 (1999)] it was found that
the Tb magnetic moments in the TbTiO pyrochlore lattice of
corner-sharing tetrahedra remain in a {\it collective paramagnetic} state down
to 70mK. In this paper we present results from d.c. magnetic susceptibility,
specific heat data, inelastic neutron scattering measurements, and crystal
field calculations that strongly suggest that (1) the Tb ions in
TbTiO possess a moment of approximatively 5, and (2)
the ground state tensor is extremely anisotropic below a temperature of
K, with Ising-like Tb magnetic moments confined to point along
a local cubic direction
dramatically reduces the frustration otherwise present in a Heisenberg
pyrochlore antiferromagnet. The results presented herein underpin the
conceptual difficulty in understanding the microscopic mechanism(s) responsible
for TbTiO failing to develop long-range order at a temperature of
the order of the paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperature K. We suggest that dipolar interactions and extra perturbative exchange
coupling(s)beyond nearest-neighbors may be responsible for the lack of ordering
of TbTiO.Comment: 8 POSTSCRIPT figures included. Submitted to Physical Review B.
Contact: [email protected]
A Definitive Survey for Lyman Limit Systems at z~3.5 with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We perform a semi-automated survey for tau>=2 Lyman Limit systems (LLSs) in
quasar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 7. From a
starting sample of 2473 quasars with zem=3.6-4.4, we analyze 469 spectra
meeting strict seletion criteria for a total redshift path Dz=93.8 and identify
192 intervening systems at z>3.3. The incidence of tau>=2 LLSs per unit
redshift, l(z), is well described by a single-power law at these redshifts:
l(z) = C_LLS [(1+z)/(1+z_*)]^gamma, with z_*=3.7, C_LLS = 1.9+/-0.2, and gamma
= 5.2+/-1.5 (68% c.l.). These values are systematically lower than previous
estimates (especially at z<4) but are consistent with recent measurements of
the mean free path to ionizing radiation. Extrapolations of this power-law to
z=0 are inconsistent with previous estimations of l(z) at z<1 and suggest a
break at z~2, similar to that observed for the Lya forest. Our results also
indicate that the systems giving rise to LLS absorption decrease by ~50% in
comoving number density and/or physical size from z=4 to 3.3, perhaps due to an
enhanced extragalactic ultraviolet background. The observations place an
integral constraint on the HI frequency distribution f(N_HI,X) and indicate
that the power-law slope beta= dln[f(N,X)]/dln[N] is likely shallower than beta
= -1 at N_HI=10^18 cm^-2. Including other constraints on f(N_HI,X) from the
literature, we infer that beta is steeper than beta = -1.7 at N_HI~10^15 cm^-2,
implying at least two inflections in f(N_HI,X). We also perform a survey for
proximate LLSs (PLLSs) and find that l(z)_PLLS is systematically lower ~25%
than intervening systems. Finally, we estimate that systematic effects impose
an uncertainty of 10-20% in the l(z) measurements; these effects may limit the
precision of all future surveys.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures (most in color). Submitted to Ap
Formation of new stellar populations from gas accreted by massive young star clusters
Stars in star clusters are thought to form in a single burst from a common
progenitor cloud of molecular gas. However, massive, old globular clusters --
with ages greater than 10 billion years and masses of several hundred thousand
solar masses -- often harbour multiple stellar populations, indicating that
more than one star-forming event occurred during their lifetimes. Colliding
stellar winds from late-stage, asymptotic-giant-branch stars are often invoked
as second-generation star-formation trigger. The initial cluster masses should
be at least 10 times more massive than they are today for this to work.
However, large populations of clusters with masses greater than a few million
solar masses are not found in the local Universe. Here we report on three 1-2
billion-year-old, massive star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, which show
clear evidence of burst-like star formation that occurred a few hundred million
years after their initial formation era. We show that such clusters could
accrete sufficient gas reservoirs to form new stars if the clusters orbited in
their host galaxies' gaseous discs throughout the period between their initial
formation and the more recent bursts of star formation. This may eventually
give rise to the ubiquitous multiple stellar populations in globular clusters.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, Authors' version of a letter published in
Nature (27 January 2016), including Methods and Extended Dat
Orientation and Alignment Echoes
We present what is probably the simplest classical system featuring the echo
phenomenon - a collection of randomly oriented free rotors with dispersed
rotational velocities. Following excitation by a pair of time-delayed impulsive
kicks, the mean orientation/alignment of the ensemble exhibits multiple echoes
and fractional echoes. We elucidate the mechanism of the echo formation by
kick-induced filamentation of phase space, and provide the first experimental
demonstration of classical alignment echoes in a thermal gas of CO_2 molecules
excited by a pair of femtosecond laser pulses
Wavefront correction with a ferrofluid deformable mirror: experimental results and recent developments
We present the research status of a deformable mirror made of a magnetic
liquid whose surface is actuated by a triangular array of small current
carrying coils. We demonstrate that the mirror can correct a 11 microns low
order aberrated wavefront to a residual RMS wavefront error 0.05 microns.
Recent developments show that these deformable mirrors can reach a frequency
response of several hundred hertz. A new method for linearizing the response of
these mirrors is also presented.Comment: To appear in "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy
II" SPIE conference, Marseille, 23-28 June 200
The origin of ultra diffuse galaxies: stellar feedback and quenching
We test if the cosmological zoom-in simulations of isolated galaxies from the
FIRE project reproduce the properties of ultra diffuse galaxies. We show that
stellar feedback-generated outflows that dynamically heat galactic stars,
together with a passively aging stellar population after imposed quenching
(from e.g. infall into a galaxy cluster), naturally reproduce the observed
population of red UDGs, without the need for high spin halos or dynamical
influence from their host cluster. We reproduce the range of surface
brightness, radius and absolute magnitude of the observed z=0 red UDGs by
quenching simulated galaxies at a range of different times. They represent a
mostly uniform population of dark matter-dominated galaxies with M_star ~1e8
Msun, low metallicity and a broad range of ages. The most massive simulated
UDGs require earliest quenching and are therefore the oldest. Our simulations
provide a good match to the central enclosed masses and the velocity
dispersions of the observed UDGs (20-50 km/s). The enclosed masses of the
simulated UDGs remain largely fixed across a broad range of quenching times
because the central regions of their dark matter halos complete their growth
early. A typical UDG forms in a dwarf halo mass range of Mh~4e10-1e11 Msun. The
most massive red UDG in our sample requires quenching at z~3 when its halo
reached Mh ~ 1e11 Msun. If it, instead, continues growing in the field, by z=0
its halo mass reaches > 5e11 Msun, comparable to the halo of an L* galaxy. If
our simulated dwarfs are not quenched, they evolve into bluer low-surface
brightness galaxies with mass-to-light ratios similar to observed field dwarfs.
While our simulation sample covers a limited range of formation histories and
halo masses, we predict that UDG is a common, and perhaps even dominant, galaxy
type around Ms~1e8 Msun, both in the field and in clusters.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures; match the MNRAS accepted versio
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