12,500 research outputs found
Discovery of distant high luminosity infrared galaxies
We have developed a method for selecting the most luminous galaxies detected
by IRAS based on their extreme values of R, the ratio of 60 micron and B-band
luminosity. These objects have optical counterparts that are close to or below
the limits of Schmidt surveys. We have tested our method on a 1079 deg^2 region
of sky, where we have selected a sample of IRAS sources with 60 micron flux
densities greater than 0.2 Jy, corresponding to a redshift limit z~1 for
objects with far-IR luminosities of 10^{13} L_sun. Optical identifications for
these were obtained from the UK Schmidt Telescope plates, using the likelihood
ratio method. Optical spectroscopy has been carried out to reliably identify
and measure the redshifts of six objects with very faint optical counterparts,
which are the only objects with R>100 in the sample. One object is a
hyperluminous infrared galaxy (HyLIG) at z=0.834. Of the remaining, fainter
objects, five are ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) with a mean redshift
of 0.45, higher than the highest known redshift of any non-hyperluminous ULIG
prior to this study. High excitation lines reveal the presence of an active
nucleus in the HyLIG, just as in the other known infrared-selected HyLIGs. In
contrast, no high excitation lines are found in the non-hyperluminous ULIGs. We
discuss the implications of our results for the number density of HyLIGs at z<1
and for the evolution of the infrared galaxy population out to this redshift,
and show that substantial evolution is indicated. Our selection method is
robust against the presence of gravitational lensing if the optical and
infrared magnification factors are similar, and we suggest a way of using it to
select candidate gravitationally lensed infrared galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Gauge fields, ripples and wrinkles in graphene layers
We analyze elastic deformations of graphene sheets which lead to effective
gauge fields acting on the charge carriers. Corrugations in the substrate
induce stresses, which, in turn, can give rise to mechanical instabilities and
the formation of wrinkles. Similar effects may take place in suspended graphene
samples under tension.Comment: contribution to the special issue of Solid State Communications on
graphen
Volunteer studies replacing animal experiments in brain research - Report and recommendations of a Volunteers in Research and Testing workshop
Testing equality of variances in the analysis of repeated measurements
The problem of comparing the precisions of two instruments using repeated measurements can be cast as an extension of the Pitman-Morgan problem of testing equality of variances of a bivariate normal distribution. Hawkins (1981) decomposes the hypothesis of equal variances in this model into two subhypotheses for which simple tests exist. For the overall hypothesis he proposes to combine the tests of the subhypotheses using Fisher's method and empirically compares the component tests and their combination with the likelihood ratio test. In this paper an attempt is made to resolve some discrepancies and puzzling conclusions in Hawkins's study and to propose simple modifications.\ud
\ud
The new tests are compared to the tests discussed by Hawkins and to each other both in terms of the finite sample power (estimated by Monte Carlo simulation) and theoretically in terms of asymptotic relative efficiencies
The Double Quasar Q2138-431: Lensing by a Dark Galaxy?
We report the discovery of a new gravitational lens candidate Q2138-431AB,
comprising two quasar images at a redshift of 1.641 separated by 4.5 arcsecs.
The spectra of the two images are very similar, and the redshifts agree to
better than 115 km.sec. The two images have magnitudes and
, and in spite of a deep search and image subtraction procedure, no
lensing galaxy has been found with . Modelling of the system
configuration implies that the mass-to-light ratio of any lensing galaxy is
likely to be around , with an absolute lower limit of
for an Einstein-de Sitter universe. We conclude that
the most likely explanation of the observations is gravitational lensing by a
dark galaxy, although it is possible we are seeing a binary quasar.Comment: 17 pages (Latex), 8 postscript figures included, accepted by MNRA
The CARMA correlator
The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) requires a flexible correlator to process the data from up to 23 telescopes and up to 8GHz of receiver bandwidth. The Caltech Owens Valley Broadband Reconfigurable Array (COBRA) correlator, developed for use at the Owens Valley millimeter-wave array and being used by the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Array (SZA), will be adapted for use by CARMA. The COBRA correlator system, a hybrid analog-digital design, consisting of downconverters, digitizers and correlators will be presented in this paper. The downconverters receive an input IF of 1-9GHz and produce a selectable output bandwidth of 62.5MHz, 125MHz, 250MHz, or 500MHz. The downconverter output is digitized at 1Gsample/s to 2-bits per sample. The digitized data is optionally digitally filtered to produce bands narrower than 62.5MHz (down to 2MHz). The digital correlator system is a lag- or XF-based system implemented using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The digital system implements delay lines, calculates the autocorrelations for each antenna, and the cross-correlations for each baseline. The number of lags, and hence spectral channels, produced by the system is a function of the input bandwidth; with the 500MHz band having the coarsest resolution, and the narrowest bandwidths having the finest resolution
On the relationship between sigma models and spin chains
We consider the two-dimensional non-linear sigma model with
topological term using a lattice regularization introduced by Shankar and Read
[Nucl.Phys. B336 (1990), 457], that is suitable for studying the strong
coupling regime. When this lattice model is quantized, the coefficient
of the topological term is quantized as , with integer or
half-integer. We study in detail the relationship between the low energy
behaviour of this theory and the one-dimensional spin- Heisenberg model. We
generalize the analysis to sigma models with other symmetries.Comment: To appear in Int. J. MOd. Phys.
Public geographies II: being organic
This second report on ‘public geographies' considers the diverse, emergent and shifting spaces of engaging with and in public/s. Taking as its focus the more ‘organic’ rather than ‘traditional’ approach to doing public geography, as discussed in the first report, it explores the multiple and unorthodox ways in which engagements across academic-public spheres play out, and what such engagements may mean for geography/ers. The report first explores the role of the internet in ‘enabling conversations', generating a range of opportunities for public geography through websites, wikis, blogs, file-sharing sites, discussion forums and more, thinking critically about how technologies may enable/disable certain kinds of publically engaged activities. It then considers issues of process and praxis: how collaborations with groups/communities/organizations beyond academia are often unplanned, serendipitous encounters that evolve organically into research/learning/teaching endeavours; but also that personal politics/positionality bring an agency to bear upon whether we, as academics, follow the leads we may stumble upon. The report concludes with a provocative question – given that many non-academics appear to be doing some amazing and inspiring projects and activities, thoughtful, critical and (arguably) examples of organic public geographies, what then is academia’s role
Use of predictive models to attribute potential effects of mixture toxicity and habitat alteration on the biological condition of fish assemblages
An examination of the genotyping error detection function of SIMWALK2
This investigation was undertaken to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the genotyping error detection function of the computer program SIMWALK2. We chose to examine chromosome 22, which had 7 microsatellite markers, from a single simulated replicate (330 pedigrees with a pattern of missing genotype data similar to the Framingham families). We created genotype errors at five overall frequencies (0.0, 0.025, 0.050, 0.075, and 0.100) and applied SIMWALK2 to each of these five data sets, respectively assuming that the total error rate (specified in the program), was at each of these same five levels. In this data set, up to an assumed error rate of 10%, only 50% of the Mendelian-consistent mistypings were found under any level of true errors. And since as many as 70% of the errors detected were false-positives, blanking suspect genotypes (at any error probability) will result in a reduction of statistical power due to the concomitant blanking of correctly typed alleles. This work supports the conclusion that allowing for genotyping errors within likelihood calculations during statistical analysis may be preferable to choosing an arbitrary cut-off
- …