14,492 research outputs found
Model-Independent Distance Measurements from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Constraints on Dark Energy
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) are the most energetic events in the Universe, and
provide a complementary probe of dark energy by allowing the measurement of
cosmic expansion history that extends to redshifts greater than 6. Unlike Type
Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), GRBs must be calibrated for each cosmological model
considered, because of the lack of a nearby sample of GRBs for
model-independent calibration. For a flat Universe with a cosmological
constant, we find Omega_m=0.25^{+0.12}_{-0.11} from 69 GRBs alone. We show that
the current GRB data can be summarized by a set of model-independent distance
measurements, with negligible loss of information. We constrain a dark energy
equation of state linear in the cosmic scale factor using these distance
measurements from GRBs, together with the "Union" compilation of SNe Ia, WMAP
five year observations, and the SDSS baryon acoustic oscillation scale
measurement. We find that a cosmological constant is consistent with current
data at 68% confidence level for a flat Universe. Our results provide a simple
and robust method to incorporate GRB data in a joint analysis of cosmological
data to constrain dark energy.Comment: 8 pages, 5 color figures. Version expanded and revised for
clarification, and typo in Eqs.(3)(4)(12) corrected. PRD, in pres
Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 1.7
We report the detection of CO(2-1) emission coincident with the brightest
cluster galaxy (BCG) of the high-redshift galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56, with
the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR) on the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT). We
confirm a spectroscopic redshift for the gas of z = 1.7091+/-0.0004, which is
consistent with the systemic redshift of the cluster galaxies of z = 1.709. The
line is well-fit by a single component Gaussian with a RSR resolution-corrected
FWHM of 569+/-63 km/s. We see no evidence for multiple velocity components in
the gas, as might be expected from the multiple image components seen in
near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure the
integrated flux of the line to be 3.6+/-0.3 Jy km/s and, using alpha_CO = 0.8
Msun (K km s^-1 pc^2)^-1 we estimate a total molecular gas mass of
1.1+/-0.1x10^11 Msun and a M_H2/M_star ~ 0.4. This is the largest gas reservoir
detected in a BCG above z > 1 to date. Given the infrared-estimated star
formation rate of 860+/-130 Msun/yr, this corresponds to a gas depletion
timescale of ~0.1Gyr. We discuss several possible mechanisms for depositing
such a large gas reservoir to the cluster center -- e.g., a cooling flow, a
major galaxy-galaxy merger or the stripping of gas from several galaxies -- but
conclude that these LMT data are not sufficient to differentiate between them.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
The Bolocam 1.1 mm Lockman Hole Galaxy Survey: SHARC II 350 micron Photometry and Implications for Spectral Models, Dust Temperatures, and Redshift Estimation
We present 350 micron photometry of all 17 galaxy candidates in the Lockman
Hole detected in a 1.1 mm Bolocam survey. Several of the galaxies were
previously detected at 850 microns, at 1.2 mm, in the infrared by Spitzer, and
in the radio. Nine of the Bolocam galaxy candidates were detected at 350
microns and two new candidates were serendipitously detected at 350 microns
(bringing the total in the literature detected in this way to three). Five of
the galaxies have published spectroscopic redshifts, enabling investigation of
the implied temperature ranges and a comparison of photometric redshift
techniques.
Lambda = 350 microns lies near the spectral energy distribution peak for z =
2.5 thermally emitting galaxies. Thus, luminosities can be measured without
extrapolating to the peak from detection wavelengths of lambda > 850 microns.
Characteristically, the galaxy luminosities lie in the range 1.0 - 1.2 x 10^13
L_solar, with dust temperatures in the range of 40 K to 70 K, depending on the
choice of spectral index and wavelength of unit optical depth. The implied dust
masses are 3 - 5 x 10^8 M_solar. We find that the far-infrared to radio
relation for star-forming ULIRGs systematically overpredicts the radio
luminosities and overestimates redshifts on the order of Delta z ~ 1, whereas
redshifts based on either on submillimeter data alone or the 1.6 micron stellar
bump and PAH features are more accurate.Comment: In Press (to appear in Astrophysical Journal, ApJ 20 May 2006 v643 1)
47 pages, 10 figures, 4 table
Optical properties of coupled metal-semiconductor and metal-molecule nanocrystal complexes: the role of multipole effects
We investigate theoretically the effects of interaction between an optical
dipole (semiconductor quantum dot or molecule) and metal nanoparticles. The
calculated absorption spectra of hybrid structures demonstrate strong effects
of interference coming from the exciton-plasmon coupling. In particular, the
absorption spectra acquire characteristic asymmetric lineshapes and strong
anti-resonances. We present here an exact solution of the problem beyond the
dipole approximation and find that the multipole treatment of the interaction
is crucial for the understanding of strongly-interacting exciton-plasmon
nano-systems. Interestingly, the visibility of the exciton resonance becomes
greatly enhanced for small inter-particle distances due to the interference
phenomenon, multipole effects, and electromagnetic enhancement. We find that
the destructive interference is particularly strong. Using our exact theory, we
show that the interference effects can be observed experimentally even in the
exciting systems at room temperature.Comment: 9 page
Rigidity of minimal submanifolds in hyperbolic space
We prove that if an -dimensional complete minimal submanifold in
hyperbolic space has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then has
only one end. We also prove that for such there exist no nontrivial
harmonic 1-forms on
Improved cosmological constraints on the curvature and equation of state of dark energy
We apply the Constitution compilation of 397 supernova Ia, the baryon
acoustic oscillation measurements including the parameter, the distance
ratio and the radial data, the five-year Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe
and the Hubble parameter data to study the geometry of the universe and the
property of dark energy by using the popular Chevallier-Polarski-Linder and
Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan parameterizations. We compare the simple
method of joined contour estimation and the Monte Carlo Markov chain method,
and find that it is necessary to make the marginalized analysis on the error
estimation. The probabilities of and in the
Chevallier-Polarski-Linder model are skew distributions, and the marginalized
errors are ,
, , and
. For the Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan model, the
marginalized errors are ,
, , and
. The equation of state parameter of dark energy
is negative in the redshift range at more than level.
The flat CDM model is consistent with the current observational data
at the level.Comment: 10 figures, 12 pages, Classical and Quantum Gravity in press; v2 to
match the pulished versio
Processing-Related Issues for the Design and Lifing of SiC/SiC Hot-Section Components
For successful SiC/SiC engine components, numerous process steps related to the fiber, fiber architecture, interphase coating, and matrix need to be optimized. Under recent NASA-sponsored programs, it was determined that many of these steps in their initial approach were inadequate, resulting in less than optimum thermostructural and life properties for the as-fabricated components. This presentation will briefly review many of these process issues, the key composite properties they degrade, their underlying mechanisms, and current process remedies developed by NASA and others
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