11,851 research outputs found
Stellar Orbits and the Interstellar Gas Temperature in Elliptical Galaxies
We draw attention to the close relationship between the anisotropy parameter
beta(r) for stellar orbits in elliptical galaxies and the temperature profile
T(r) of the hot interstellar gas. For nearly spherical galaxies the gas density
can be accurately determined from X-ray observations and the stellar luminosity
density can be accurately found from the optical surface brightness. The Jeans
equation and hydrostatic equilibrium establish a connection between beta(r) and
T(r) that must be consistent with the observed stellar velocity dispersion.
Purely optical observations of the bright elliptical galaxy NGC 4472 indicate
beta(r) < 0.35 within the effective radius. However, the X-ray gas temperature
profile T(r) for NGC 4472 requires significantly larger anisotropy, beta = 0.6
- 0.7, about twice the optical value. This strong preference for radial stellar
orbits must be understood in terms of the formation history of massive
elliptical galaxies. Conversely, if the smaller, optically determined
anisotropy is indeed correct, we are led to the important conclusion that the
temperature profile T(r) of the hot interstellar gas in NGC 4472 must differ
from that indicated by X-ray observations, or that the hot gas is not in
hydrostatic equilibrium.Comment: 6 pages (emulateapj5) with 4 figures; accepted by The Astrophysical
Journa
Spatially resolved spectroscopy of Coma cluster early-type galaxies IV. Completing the dataset
The long-slit spectra obtained along the minor axis, offset major axis and
diagonal axis are presented for 12 E and S0 galaxies of the Coma cluster drawn
from a magnitude-limited sample studied before. The rotation curves, velocity
dispersion profiles and the H_3 and H_4 coefficients of the Hermite
decomposition of the line of sight velocity distribution are derived. The
radial profiles of the Hbeta, Mg, and Fe line strength indices are measured
too. In addition, the surface photometry of the central regions of a subsample
of 4 galaxies recently obtained with Hubble Space Telescope is presented. The
data will be used to construct dynamical models of the galaxies and study their
stellar populations.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Universality in Random Walk Models with Birth and Death
Models of random walks are considered in which walkers are born at one
location and die at all other locations with uniform death rate. Steady-state
distributions of random walkers exhibit dimensionally dependent critical
behavior as a function of the birth rate. Exact analytical results for a
hyperspherical lattice yield a second-order phase transition with a nontrivial
critical exponent for all positive dimensions . Numerical studies
of hypercubic and fractal lattices indicate that these exact results are
universal. Implications for the adsorption transition of polymers at curved
interfaces are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 2 postscript figure
Pairing gaps from nuclear mean-field models
We discuss the pairing gap, a measure for nuclear pairing correlations, in
chains of spherical, semi-magic nuclei in the framework of self-consistent
nuclear mean-field models. The equations for the conventional BCS model and the
approximate projection-before-variation Lipkin-Nogami method are formulated in
terms of local density functionals for the effective interaction. We calculate
the Lipkin-Nogami corrections of both the mean-field energy and the pairing
energy. Various definitions of the pairing gap are discussed as three-point,
four-point and five-point mass-difference formulae, averaged matrix elements of
the pairing potential, and single-quasiparticle energies. Experimental values
for the pairing gap are compared with calculations employing both a delta
pairing force and a density-dependent delta interaction in the BCS and
Lipkin-Nogami model. Odd-mass nuclei are calculated in the spherical blocking
approximation which neglects part of the the core polarization in the odd
nucleus. We find that the five-point mass difference formula gives a very
robust description of the odd-even staggering, other approximations for the gap
may differ from that up to 30% for certain nuclei.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJ
Consequences of the center-of-mass correction in nuclear mean-field models
We study the influence of the scheme for the correction for spurious
center-of-mass motion on the fit of effective interactions for self-consistent
nuclear mean-field calculations. We find that interactions with very simple
center-of-mass correction have significantly larger surface coefficients than
interactions for which the center-of-mass correction was calculated for the
actual many-body state during the fit. The reason for that is that the
effective interaction has to counteract the wrong trends with nucleon number of
all simplified schemes for center-of-mass correction which puts a wrong trend
with mass number into the effective interaction itself. The effect becomes
clearly visible when looking at the deformation energy of largely deformed
systems, e.g. superdeformed states or fission barriers of heavy nuclei.Comment: 12 pages LATeX, needs EPJ style files, 5 eps figures, accepted for
publication in Eur. Phys. J.
PT-Symmetry Quantum Electrodynamics--PTQED
The construction of -symmetric quantum electrodynamics is
reviewed. In particular, the massless version of the theory in 1+1 dimensions
(the Schwinger model) is solved. Difficulties with unitarity of the -matrix
are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, contributed to Proceedings of 6th International
Workshop on Pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physic
Kinematic Structure of Merger Remnants
We use numerical simulations to study the kinematic structure of remnants
formed from mergers of equal-mass disk galaxies. In particular, we show that
remnants of dissipational mergers, which include the radiative cooling of gas,
star formation, feedback from supernovae, and the growth of supermassive black
holes, are smaller, rounder, have, on average, a larger central velocity
dispersion, and show significant rotation compared to remnants of
dissipationless mergers. The increased rotation speed of dissipational remnants
owes its origin to star formation that occurs in the central regions during the
galaxy merger. We have further quantified the anisotropy, three-dimensional
shape, minor axis rotation, and isophotal shape of each merger remnant, finding
that dissipational remnants are more isotropic, closer to oblate, have the
majority of their rotation along their major axis, and are more disky than
dissipationless remnants. Individual remnants display a wide variety of
kinematic properties. A large fraction of the dissipational remnants are oblate
isotropic rotators. Many dissipational, and all of the dissipationless, are
slowly rotating and anisotropic. The remnants of gas-rich major mergers can
well-reproduce the observed distribution of projected ellipticities, rotation
parameter (V/\sigma)*, kinematic misalignments, Psi, and isophotal shapes. The
dissipationless remnants are a poor match to this data. Our results support the
merger hypothesis for the origin of low-luminosity elliptical galaxies provided
that the progenitor disks are sufficiently gas-rich, however our remnants are a
poor match to the bright ellipticals that are slowly rotating and uniformly
boxy.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted to Ap
PT-symmetry and its spontaneous breakdown explained by anti-linearity
The impact of an anti-unitary symmetry on the spectrum of non-Hermitian operators is studied. Wigner's normal form of an anti-unitary operator accounts for the spectral properties of non-Hermitian, PE-symmetric Harniltonians. The occurrence of either single real or complex conjugate pairs of eigenvalues follows from this theory. The corresponding energy eigenstates span either one- or two-dimensional irreducible representations of the symmetry PE. In this framework, the concept of a spontaneously broken PE-symmetry is not needed
The Z=82 shell closure in neutron-deficient Pb isotopes
Recent mass measurements show a substantial weakening of the binding energy
difference delta_{2p} (Z,N) = E(Z-2,N) - 2 E(Z,N) + E(Z+2,N) in the
neutron-deficient Pb isotopes. As delta_{2p} is often attributed to the size of
the proton magic gap, it might be speculated that the reduction in delta_{2p}
is related to a weakening of the spherical Z=82 shell. We demonstrate that the
observed trend is described quantitatively by self-consistent mean-field models
in terms of deformed ground states of Hg and Po isotopes.Comment: submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
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