3,798 research outputs found
A 20 Thousand Solar Mass Black Hole in the Stellar Cluster G1
We present the detection of a 2.0(+1.4,-0.8)x10^4 solar mass black hole (BH)
in the stellar cluster G1 (Mayall II), based on data taken with the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. G1 is one of
the most massive stellar clusters in M31. The central velocity dispersion (25
kms) and the measured BH mass of G1 places it on a linear extrapolation of the
correlation between BH mass and bulge velocity dispersion established for
nearby galaxies. The detection of a BH in this low-mass stellar system suggests
that (1) the most likely candidates for seed massive BHs come from stellar
clusters, (2) there is a direct link between massive stellar clusters and
normal galaxies, and (3) the formation process of both bulges and massive
clusters is similar due to their concordance in the M_BH/sigma relation.
Globular clusters in our Galaxy should be searched for central BHs.Comment: 4 pages, accepted in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, October 200
Ocean surface wave patterns on TerraSAR-X images and follow-on applications
The TerraSAR-X (TS-X) satellite provides images of wave patterns at the ocean surface which are of great scientific value. With the relatively low orbit of the platform, SAR specific non-linear imaging effects of the moving sea surface play a minor role. As a result, TS-X is able to image ocean waves down to around ~30 m length. Data on the ocean wavelength and wave direction are inferred directly from the image spectra, i.e. without inversion techniques.
In the Stripmap mode, TS-X image sequences may extend in length up to several hundred kilometres. Detecting the spatial variation of sea state parameters is the basis for different follow-on applications. We present selected use cases including the validation of sea state forecast models and a recent study on wave properties in the marginal ice zone. Another potential application included in our contribution, is the estimation of coastal bathymetry from ocean wavelength variations
The supermassive black hole in NGC4486a detected with SINFONI at the VLT
The near-infrared integral field spectrograph SINFONI at the ESO VLT opens a
new window for the study of central supermassive black holes. With a near-IR
spatial resolution similar to HST optical and the ability to penetrate dust it
provides the possibility to explore the low-mass end of the M-sigma relation
(sigma<120km/s) where so far very few black hole masses were measured with
stellar dynamics. With SINFONI we observed the central region of the
low-luminosity elliptical galaxy NGC4486a at a spatial resolution of ~0.1arcsec
in the K band. The stellar kinematics was measured with a maximum penalised
likelihood method considering the region around the CO absorption band heads.
We determined a black hole mass of M_BH=1.25^{+0.75}_{-0.79} x 10^7 M_sun (90%
C.L.) using the Schwarzschild orbit superposition method including the full
2-dimensional spatial information. This mass agrees with the predictions of the
M-sigma relation, strengthening its validity at the lower sigma end.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted by MNRA
Evidence that spontaneous reactivation of herpes virus does not occur in mice
BACKGROUND: Some species, including humans and rabbits, exhibit periodic viral reactivation and shed infectious virus at the infected end organ. Mice may be an exception, because spontaneous shedding of infectious virus rarely, if ever, occurs. However, spontaneous molecular reactivation, i.e., the expression of a few viral genes and the synthesis of the viral glycoproteins coded for by these genes, has been reported. This finding has prompted the assumption that molecular reactivation is an indicator of reactivation and the production of infectious virus. The goal of this study was to differentiate between viral gene expression during latency and the episodic production of infectious virus in mice. RESULTS: Viral reactivation and infection were not seen in herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) latent ganglion graft recipient BALB/c scid or immunocompetent BALB/c mice, which survived the 65-day observation period with no evidence of viral infection although the immunocompetent mice developed cellular and humoral immunity to HSV-1. In contrast, BALB/c scid recipients of ganglia containing reactivating virus invariably developed a local and, subsequently, systemic viral infection and died within 14 days. Immunocompetent BALB/c mice that received ganglion grafts containing reactivating virus survived the infection and became immune to the virus. Trigeminal ganglia removed from scid and immunocompetent recipient graft sites 5, 14, and 28 days after transplantation contained latent virus and viable neurons. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that, within the limits of detection of the experiments, spontaneous episodic production of immunogenic viral antigens but not of infectious virus occurs in mouse neural ganglia during latency
Do Globular Clusters Harbor Black Holes?
It has been firmly established that there exists a tight correlation between
the central black hole mass and velocity dispersion (or luminosity) of
elliptical galaxies, ``pseudobulges'' and bulges of galaxies, although the
nature of this correlation still remains unclear. In this letter, we explore
the possibility of extrapolating such a correlation to less massive, spherical
systems like globular clusters. In particular, motivated by the apparent
success in globular cluster M15, we present an estimate of the central black
hole mass for a number of globular clusters with available velocity dispersion
in the literature.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in CJA
The central black hole mass of the high-sigma but low-bulge-luminosity lenticular galaxy NGC 1332
The masses of the most massive supermassive black holes (SMBHs) predicted by
the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-luminosity relations appear to be in conflict. Which of
the two relations is the more fundamental one remains an open question. NGC
1332 is an excellent example that represents the regime of conflict. It is a
massive lenticular galaxy which has a bulge with a high velocity dispersion
sigma of ~320 km/s; bulge--disc decomposition suggests that only 44% of the
total light comes from the bulge. The M_BH-sigma and the M_BH-luminosity
predictions for the central black hole mass of NGC 1332 differ by almost an
order of magnitude. We present a stellar dynamical measurement of the SMBH mass
using an axisymmetric orbit superposition method. Our SINFONI integral-field
unit (IFU) observations of NGC 1332 resolve the SMBH's sphere of influence
which has a diameter of ~0.76 arcsec. The sigma inside 0.2 arcsec reaches ~400
km/s. The IFU data allow us to increase the statistical significance of our
results by modelling each of the four quadrants separately. We measure a SMBH
mass of (1.45 \pm 0.20) x 10^9 M_sun with a bulge mass-to-light ratio of 7.08
\pm 0.39 in the R-band. With this mass, the SMBH of NGC 1332 is offset from the
M_BH-luminosity relation by a full order of magnitude but is consistent with
the M_BH-sigma relation.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Unbiased Cosmological Parameter Estimation from Emission Line Surveys with Interlopers
The galaxy catalogs generated from low-resolution emission line surveys often
contain both foreground and background interlopers due to line
misidentification, which can bias the cosmological parameter estimation. In
this paper, we present a method for correcting the interloper bias by using the
joint-analysis of auto- and cross-power spectra of the main and the interloper
samples. In particular, we can measure the interloper fractions from the
cross-correlation between the interlopers and survey galaxies, because the true
cross-correlation must be negligibly small. The estimated interloper fractions,
in turn, remove the interloper bias in the cosmological parameter estimation.
For example, in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX)
low-redshift () [O II] {\AA} emitters contaminate
high-redshift () Lyman- line emitters. We demonstrate that
the joint-analysis method yields a high signal-to-noise ratio measurement of
the interloper fractions while only marginally increasing the uncertainties in
the cosmological parameters relative to the case without interlopers. We also
show the same is true for the high-latitude spectroscopic survey of Wide-Field
Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission where contamination occurs between
the Balmer- line emitters at lower redshifts () and Oxygen
([O III] {\AA}) line emitters at higher redshifts ().Comment: 36 pages, 26 figure
Mass Segregation in NGC 2298: limits on the presence of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole
[abridged] Theoretical investigations have suggested the presence of
Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs, with masses in the 100-10000 Msun range)
in the cores of some Globular Clusters (GCs). In this paper we present the
first application of a new technique to determine the presence or absence of a
central IMBH in globular clusters that have reached energy equipartition via
two-body relaxation. The method is based on the measurement of the radial
profile for the average mass of stars in the system, using the fact that a
quenching of mass segregation is expected when an IMBH is present. Here we
measure the radial profile of mass segregation using main-sequence stars for
the globular cluster NGC 2298 from resolved source photometry based on HST-ACS
data. The observations are compared to expectations from direct N-body
simulations of the dynamics of star clusters with and without an IMBH. The mass
segregation profile for NGC 2298 is quantitatively matched to that inferred
from simulations without a central massive object over all the radial range
probed by the observations, that is from the center to about two half-mass
radii. Profiles from simulations containing an IMBH more massive than ~ 300-500
Msun (depending on the assumed total mass of NGC 2298) are instead inconsistent
with the data at about 3 sigma confidence, irrespective of the IMF and binary
fraction chosen for these runs. While providing a null result in the quest of
detecting a central black hole in globular clusters, the data-model comparison
carried out here demonstrates the feasibility of the method which can also be
applied to other globular clusters with resolved photometry in their cores.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, ApJ accepte
Dynamical modelling of luminous and dark matter in 17 Coma early-type galaxies
Dynamical models for 17 Coma early-type galaxies are presented. The galaxy
sample consists of flattened, rotating as well as non-rotating early-types
including cD and S0 galaxies with luminosities between M=-18.79 and M=-22.56.
Kinematical long-slit observations cover at least the major and minor axis and
extend to 1-4 effective radii. Axisymmetric Schwarzschild models are used to
derive stellar mass-to-light ratios and dark halo parameters. In every galaxy
models with a dark matter halo match the data better than models without. The
statistical significance is over 95 percent for 8 galaxies, around 90 percent
for 5 galaxies and for four galaxies it is not significant. For the highly
significant cases systematic deviations between observed and modelled
kinematics are clearly seen; for the remaining galaxies differences are more
statistical in nature. Best-fit models contain 10-50 percent dark matter inside
the half-light radius. The central dark matter density is at least one order of
magnitude lower than the luminous mass density. The central phase-space density
of dark matter is often orders of magnitude lower than in the luminous
component, especially when the halo core radius is large. The orbital system of
the stars along the major-axis is slightly dominated by radial motions. Some
galaxies show tangential anisotropy along the minor-axis, which is correlated
with the minor-axis Gauss-Hermite coefficient H4. Changing the balance between
data-fit and regularisation constraints does not change the reconstructed mass
structure significantly. Model anisotropies tend to strengthen if the weight on
regularisation is reduced, but the general property of a galaxy to be radially
or tangentially anisotropic, respectively, does not change. (abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 34 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA
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