Disentangling the Dynamical Mechanisms for Cluster Galaxy Evolution

The determination of the dynamical causes of the morphological Butcher-Oemler (BO) effect, or the rapid transformation of a large population of late-type galaxies to earlier Hubble types in the rich cluster environment between intermediate redshifts and the local universe, has been an important unsolved problem which is central to our understanding of the general problems of galaxy formation and evolution. In this article, we survey the existing proposed mechanisms for cluster galaxy transformation, and discuss their relevance and limitations to the explanation of the morphological BO effect. A new infrared diagnostic approach is devised to disentangle the relative importance of several major physical mechanisms to account for the BO effect, and an example of the first application of this procedure to a single rich, intermediate redshift galaxy cluster is given to demonstrate the viability of this approach. The preliminary result of this analysis favors the interaction-enhanced secular evolution process as the major cause of the cluster-galaxy morphological transformation. This conclusion is also supported by a wide range of other published results which are assembled here to highlight their implications on a coherent physical origin for the morphological BO effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in the PAS

Green's function of fully anharmonic lattice vibration

Motivated by the discovery of superconductivity in beta-pyrochlore oxides, we study property of rattling motion coupled with conduction electrons. We derive the general expression of the Green's function of fully anharmonic lattice vibration within the accuracy of the second order perturbation of electron-ion interaction by introducing self-energy, vertex-correction, and normalization factor for each transition. Using the expression, we discuss the characteristic properties of the spectral function in the entire range from weakly anharmonic potential to double-well case, and calculate NMR relaxation rate due to the two phonon Raman process

Optical pumping NMR in the compensated semiconductor InP:Fe

The optical pumping NMR effect in the compensated semiconductor InP:Fe has been investigated in terms of the dependences of photon energy (E_p), helicity (sigma+-), and exposure time (tau_L) of infrared lights. The {31}P and {115}In signal enhancements show large sigma+- asymmetries and anomalous oscillations as a function of E_p. We find that (i) the oscillation period as a function of E_p is similar for {31}P and {115}In and almost field independent in spite of significant reduction of the enhancement in higher fields. (ii) A characteristic time for buildup of the {31}P polarization under the light exposure shows strong E_p-dependence, but is almost independent of sigma+-. (iii) The buildup times for {31}P and {115}In are of the same order (10^3 s), although the spin-lattice relaxation times (T_1) are different by more than three orders of magnitude between them. The results are discussed in terms of (1) discrete energy spectra due to donor-acceptor pairs (DAPs) in compensated semiconductors, and (2) interplay between {31}P and dipolar ordered indium nuclei, which are optically induced.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review

A laboratory rearing of the Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica: effect of the temperature and diet and possible seasonal adaptation.

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions : [OB] Polar Biology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

Environmental dependence of 8um luminosity functions of galaxies at z~0.8: Comparison between RXJ1716.4+6708 and the AKARI NEP deep field

We aim to reveal environmental dependence of infrared luminosity functions (IR LFs) of galaxies at z~0.8 using the AKARI satellite. We construct restframe 8um IR LFs in the cluster region RXJ1716.4+6708 at z=0.81, and compare them with a blank field using the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole deep field data at the same redshift. AKARI's wide field of view (10'x10') is suitable to investigate wide range of galaxy environments. AKARI's 15um filter is advantageous here since it directly probes restframe 8um at z~0.8, without relying on a large extrapolation based on a SED fit, which was the largest uncertainty in previous work. We have found that cluster IR LFs at restframe 8um have a factor of 2.4 smaller L^* and a steeper faint-end slope than that of the field. Confirming this trend, we also found that faint-end slopes of the cluster LFs becomes flatter and flatter with decreasing local galaxy density. These changes in LFs cannot be explained by a simple infall of field galaxy population into a cluster. Physics that can preferentially suppress IR luminous galaxies in high density regions is required to explain the observed results.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A AKARI special issu

A Non-Local Mean Curvature Flow and its semi-implicit time-discrete approximation

We address in this paper the study of a geometric evolution, corresponding to a curvature which is non-local and singular at the origin. The curvature represents the first variation of the energy recently proposed as a variant of the standard perimeter penalization for the denoising of nonsmooth curves. To deal with such degeneracies, we first give an abstract existence and uniqueness result for viscosity solutions of non-local degenerate Hamiltonians, satisfying suitable continuity assumption with respect to Kuratowsky convergence of the level sets. This abstract setting applies to an approximated flow. Then, by the method of minimizing movements, we also build an "exact" curvature flow, and we illustrate some examples, comparing the results with the standard mean curvature flow

Dilepton asymmetries at BB factories in search of ΔB=−ΔQ\Delta B =- \Delta Q transitions

In order to detect the possible presence of $\Delta B = - \Delta Q$ amplitudes in neutral $B$ meson decays, we consider the measurement of decay time asymmetries involving like-sign dilepton events at the $B$ factories.Comment: 5 pages, latex, no fig

Origin for the enhanced copper spin echo decay rate in the pseudogap regime of the multilayer high-T_c cuprates

We report measurements of the anisotropy of the spin echo decay for the inner layer Cu site of the triple layer cuprate, Hg_0.8Re_0.2Ba_2Ca_2Cu_3O_8 (T_c=126 K) in the pseudogap T regime below T_pg ~ 170 K and the corresponding analysis for their interpretation. As the field alignment is varied, the shape of the decay curve changes from Gaussian (H_0 \parallel c) to single exponential (H_0 \perp c). The latter characterizes the decay caused by the fluctuations of adjacent Cu nuclear spins caused by their interactions with electron spins. The angular dependence of the second moment (T_{2M}^{-2} \equiv ) deduced from the decay curves indicates that T_{2M}^{-2} for H_0 \parallel c, which is identical to T_{2G}^{-2} (T_{2G} is the Gaussian component), is substantially enhanced, as seen in the pseudogap regime of the bilayer systems. Comparison of T_{2M}^{-2} between H_0 \parallel c and H_0 \perp c indicates that this enhancement is caused by electron spin correlations between the inner and the outer CuO_2 layers. These results provide the answer to the long-standing controversy regarding the opposite T dependences of (T_1T)^{-1} and T_{2G}^{-2} in the pseudogap regime of bi- and trilayer systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Warm gas at 50 AU in the disk around Herbig Be star HD 100546

The disk atmosphere is one of the fundamental elements of theoretical models of a protoplanetary disk. However, the direct observation of the warm gas (>> 100 K) at large radius of a disk (>> 10 AU) is challenging, because the line emission from warm gas in a disk is usually dominated by the emission from an inner disk. Our goal is to detect the warm gas in the disk atmosphere well beyond 10 AU from a central star in a nearby disk system of the Herbig Be star HD 100546. We measured the excitation temperature of the vibrational transition of CO at incremental radii of the disk from the central star up to 50 AU, using an adaptive optics system combined with the high-resolution infrared spectrograph CRIRES at the VLT. The observation successfully resolved the line emission with 0".1 angular resolution, which is 10 AU at the distance of HD 100546. Population diagrams were constructed at each location of the disk, and compared with the models calculated taking into account the optical depth effect in LTE condition. The excitation temperature of CO is 400-500 K or higher at 50 AU away from the star, where the blackbody temperature in equilibrium with the stellar radiation drops as low as 90 K. This is unambiguous evidence of a warm disk atmosphere far away from the central star.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, A&A in pres

Dynamics and thermalization of the nuclear spin bath in the single-molecule magnet Mn12-ac: test for the theory of spin tunneling

The description of the tunneling of a macroscopic variable in the presence of a bath of localized spins is a subject of great fundamental and practical interest, and is relevant for many solid-state qubit designs. Instead of focusing on the the "central spin" (as is most often done), here we present a detailed study of the dynamics of the nuclear spin bath in the Mn12-ac single-molecule magnet, probed by NMR experiments down to very low temperatures (T = 20 mK). We find that the longitudinal relaxation rate of the 55Mn nuclei in Mn12-ac becomes roughly T-independent below T = 0.8 K, and can be strongly suppressed with a longitudinal magnetic field. This is consistent with the nuclear relaxation being caused by quantum tunneling of the molecular spin, and we attribute the tunneling fluctuations to the minority of fast-relaxing molecules present in the sample. The transverse nuclear relaxation is also T-independent for T < 0.8 K, and can be explained qualitatively and quantitatively by the dipolar coupling between like nuclei in neighboring molecules. We also show that the isotopic substitution of 1H by 2H leads to a slower nuclear longitudinal relaxation, consistent with the decreased tunneling probability of the molecular spin. Finally, we demonstrate that, even at the lowest temperatures, the nuclear spins remain in thermal equilibrium with the lattice phonons, and we investigate the timescale for their thermal equilibration. After a review of the theory of macroscopic spin tunneling in the presence of a spin bath, we argue that most of our experimental results are consistent with that theory, but the thermalization of the nuclear spins is not.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures. Experimental study of the spin bath dynamics in quantum nanomagnets, plus an extensive review and application of the theor