771 research outputs found
The Effect of the Outer Lindblad Resonance of the Galactic Bar on the Local Stellar Velocity Distribution
Hydro-dynamical modeling of the inner Galaxy suggest that the radius of the
outer Lindblad resonance (OLR) of the Galactic bar lies in the vicinity of the
Sun. How does this resonance affect the distribution function in the outer
parts of a barred disk, and can we identify any effect of the resonance in the
velocity distribution f(v) actually observed in the solar neighborhood? To
answer these questions, detailed simulations of f(v) in the outer parts of an
exponential stellar disks with nearly flat rotation curves and a rotating
central bar have been performed. For a model resembling the old stellar disk,
the OLR causes a distinct feature in f(v) over a significant fraction of the
outer disk. For positions <2kpc outside the OLR radius and at bar angles of
\~10-70 degrees, f(v) inhibits a bi-modality between the low-velocity stars
moving like the local standard of rest (LSR) and a secondary mode of stars
predominantly moving outward and rotating more slowly than the LSR.
Such a bi-modality is indeed present in f(v) inferred from the Hipparcos data
for late-type stars in the solar neighborhood. If one interpretes this observed
bi-modality as induced by the OLR -- and there are hardly any viable
alternatives -- then one is forced to deduce that the OLR radius is slightly
smaller than Ro. Moreover, by a quantitative comparison of the observed with
the simulated distributions one finds that the pattern speed of the bar is
1.85+/-0.15 times the local circular frequency, where the error is dominated by
the uncertainty in bar angle and local circular speed.
Also other, less prominent but still significant, features in the observed
f(v) resemble properties of the simulated velocity distributions, in particular
a ripple caused by orbits trapped in the outer 1:1 resonance.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures (Fig.2 in full resolution available upon
request), accepted for publication in A
Is Galactic Structure Compatible with Microlensing Data?
We generalize to elliptical models the argument of Kuijken (1997), which
connects the microlensing optical depth towards the Galactic bulge to the
Galactic rotation curve. When applied to the latest value from the MACHO
collaboration for the optical depth for microlensing of bulge sources, the
argument implies that the Galactic bar cannot plausibly reconcile the measured
values of the optical depth, the rotation curve and the local mass density.
Either there is a problem with the interpretation of the microlensing data, or
our line of sight to the Galactic centre is highly atypical in that it passes
through a massive structure that wraps only a small distance around the
Galactic centre.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letters. 8 pages LaTeX, 3 figures. Corrected error
in description of microlensing observation
Preprint arXiv: 2201.05529 Submitted on 14 Jan 2022
We study the thermalization of individual spins of a short XYZ Heisenberg chain with strongly coupled thermal leads by checking the consistency of two-time correlations with the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. To compute these correlations we develop and apply a general numerical method for chains of quantum systems, where each system may couple strongly to a structured environment. The method combines the process tensor formalism for general (possibly non-Markovian) open quantum systems with time evolving block decimation for 1D chains. It systematically reduces the numerical complexity originating from system-environment correlations before integrating them into the full many-body problem, making a wide range of applications numerically feasible. Our results show the complete thermalization of the chain when coupled to a single bath, and reveal distinct effective temperatures in low, mid, and high frequency regimes when placed between a hot and a cold bath
The Pattern Speed of the Galactic Bar
Most late-type stars in the solar neighborhood have velocities similar to the
local standard of rest (LSR), but there is a clearly separated secondary
component corresponding to a slower rotation and a mean outward motion.
Detailed simulations of the response of a stellar disk to a central bar show
that such a bi-modality is expected from outer-Lindblad resonant scattering.
When constraining the run of the rotation curve by the proper motion of Sgr A*
and the terminal gas velocities, the value observed for the rotation velocity
separating the two components results in a value of (53+/-3)km/s/kpc for the
pattern speed of the bar, only weakly dependent on the precise values for Ro
and bar angle phi.Comment: 5 pages LaTeX, 2 Figs, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Comparison of real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, serum and cell-free body cavity effusion for the diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis
Objectives Diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) remains challenging, especially in cats without effusions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detecting feline coronavirus (FCoV) RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and serum in comparison with the same real-time RT-PCR in cell-free body cavity effusion. Methods This prospective case-control study included 92 cats. Forty-three cats had a definitive diagnosis of FIP, established either by histopathological examination (n = 28) or by positive immunofluorescence staining of FCoV antigen in macrophages of effusions (n = 11), or by both methods (n = 4). Forty-nine control cats had other diseases but similar clinical signs. Real-time RT-PCR was performed on PBMCs of 37 cats (21 cats with FIP, 16 controls), on serum of 51 cats (26 cats with FIP, 25 controls) and on cell-free body cavity effusion of 69 cats (36 cats with FIP, 33 controls). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, including 95% confidence intervals (CI), were calculated. Results Real-time RT-PCR of PBMCs, serum and cell-free body cavity effusion showed a specificity of 100% (95% CI 79.4-100% in PBMCs, 86.3-100% in serum, 89.4-100% in cell-free body cavity effusion) and a sensitivity of 28.6% (95% CI 11.3-52.2%) in PBMCs, 15.4% (95% CI 4.4-34.9%) in serum and 88.9% (95% CI 73.9-96.9%) in cell-free body cavity effusion to diagnose FIP. Conclusions and relevance Although it is known that RT-PCR can often provide false-positive results in healthy cats, this real-time RT-PCR was shown to be a specific tool for the diagnosis of FIP when applied in a clinical setting. Sensitivity in cell-free body cavity effusion was high but low in PBMCs and serum. PBMC samples showed a higher sensitivity than serum samples, and are therefore a better choice if no effusion is present
The Galactic Kinematics of Mira Variables
The galactic kinematics of Mira variables derived from radial velocities,
Hipparcos proper motions and an infrared period-luminosity relation are
reviewed. Local Miras in the 145-200day period range show a large asymmetric
drift and a high net outward motion in the Galaxy. Interpretations of this
phenomenon are considered and (following Feast and Whitelock 2000) it is
suggested that they are outlying members of the bulge-bar population and
indicate that this bar extends beyond the solar circle.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure, to be published in Mass-Losing Pulsating Stars and
their Circumstellar Matter, Y. Nakada & M. Honma (eds) Kluwer ASSL serie
Tracing out the Northern Tidal Stream of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheoridal Galaxy
The main aim of this paper is to report two new detections of tidal debris in
the northern stream of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy located at 45 arcdeg and 55
arcdeg from the center of galaxy. Our observational approach is based on deep
color-magnitude diagrams, that provides accurate distances, surface brightness
and the properties of stellar population of the studied region of this tidal
stream. The derived distances for these tidal debris wraps are 45 kpc and 54
kpc respectively.We also confirm these detections with numerical simulations of
the Sagittarius dwarf plus the Milky Way. The model reproduces the present
position and velocity of the Sagittarius main body and presents a long tidal
stream formed by tidal interaction with the Milky Way potential. This model is
also in good agreement with the available observations of the Sagittarius tidal
stream. We also present a method for estimating the shape of the Milky Way halo
potential using numerical simulations. From our simulations we obtain an
oblateness of the Milky Way dark halo potential of 0.85, using the current
database of distances and radial velocities of the Sagittarius tidal stream.
The color-magnitude diagram of the apocenter of Sagittarius shows that this
region of the stream shares the complex star formation history observed in the
main body of the galaxy. We present the first evidence for a gradient in the
stellar population along the stream, possibly correlated with its different
pericenter passages. (abridged)Comment: 43 pages (including 15 figures; for high resolution color figures,
please contact [email protected]). Submitted to Ap
The Distance to the Galactic Center Derived From Infrared Photometry of Bulge Red Clump Stars
On the basis of the near infrared observations of bulge red clump stars near
the Galactic center, we have determined the galactocentric distance to be R_0 =
7.52 +- 0.10 (stat) +- 0.35 (sys) kpc. We observed the red clump stars at |l| <
1.0 deg and 0.7 deg < |b| < 1.0 deg with the IRSF 1.4 m telescope and the
SIRIUS camera in the H and Ks bands. After extinction and population
corrections, we obtained (m - M)_0 = 14.38 +- 0.03 (stat) +- 0.10 (sys). The
statistical error is dominated by the uncertainty of the intrinsic local red
clump stars' luminosity. The systematic error is estimated to be +- 0.10
including uncertainties in extinction and population correction, zero-point of
photometry, and the fitting of the luminosity function of the red clump stars.
Our result, R_0 = 7.52 kpc, is in excellent agreement with the distance
determined geometrically with the star orbiting the massive black hole in the
Galactic center. The recent result based on the spatial distribution of
globular clusters is also consistent with our result. In addition, our study
exhibits that the distance determination to the Galactic center with the red
clump stars, even if the error of the population correction is taken into
account, can achieve an uncertainty of about 5%, which is almost the same level
as that in recent geometrical determinations.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Ap
An inner ring and the micro lensing toward the Bulge
All current Bulge-Disk models for the inner Galaxy fall short of reproducing
self-consistently the observed micro-lensing optical depth by a factor of two
(). We show that the least mass-consuming way to increase the
optical depth is to add density roughly half-way the observer and the highest
micro-lensing-source density. We present evidence for the existence of such a
density structure in the Galaxy: an inner ring, a standard feature of barred
galaxies. Judging from data on similar rings in external galaxies, an inner
ring can contribute more than 50% of a pure Bulge-Disk model to the
micro-lensing optical depth. We may thus eliminate the need for a small viewing
angle of the Bar. The influence of an inner ring on the event-duration
distribution, for realistic viewing angles, would be to increase the fraction
of long-duration events toward Baade's window. The longest events are expected
toward the negative-longitude tangent point at -22\degr . A properly
sampled event-duration distribution toward this tangent point would provide
essential information about viewing angle and elongation of the over-all
density distribution in the inner Galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 7(15) figs, LaTeX, AJ (accepted
Reconstructing fossil sub-structures of the Galactic disk: clues from abundance patterns of old open clusters and moving groups
The long term goal of large-scale chemical tagging is to use stellar
elemental abundances as a tracer of dispersed substructures of the Galactic
disk. The identification of such lost stellar aggregates and the exploration of
their chemical properties will be key in understanding the formation and
evolution of the disk. Present day stellar structures such as open clusters and
moving groups are the ideal testing grounds for the viability of chemical
tagging, as they are believed to be the remnants of the original larger
starforming aggregates. Until recently, high accuracy elemental abundance
studies of open clusters and moving groups having been lacking in the
literature. In this paper we examine recent high resolution abundance studies
of open clusters to explore the various abundance trends and reasses the
prospects of large-scale chemical tagging.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical
Society of Australi
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