Accretion of Small Satellites and Gas Inflows in a Disc Galaxy

Galaxy interactions can have an important effect in a galaxy's evolution. Cosmological models predict a large number of small satellites around galaxies. It is important to study the effect that these small satellites can have on the host. The present work explores the effect of small N-body spherical satellites with total mass ratios in the range approx 1:1000-1:100 in inducing gas flows to the central regions of a disc galaxy with late-type morphology resembling the Milky Way. Two model galaxies are considered: barred and non-barred models; the latter one is motivated in order to isolate and understand better the effects of the satellite. Several circular and non-circular orbits are explored, considering both prograde and retrogade orientations. We show that satellites with such small mass ratios can still produce observable distortions in the gas and stellar components of the galaxy. In terms of gas flows, the prograde circular orbits are more favourable for producing gas flows, where in some cases up to $60% of the gas of the galaxy is driven to the central region. We find, hence, that small satellites can induce significant gas flows to the central regions of a disc galaxy, which is relevant in the context of fuelling active galactic nuclei.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Measuring Galactic Extinction: A Test

We test the recently published all-sky reddening map of Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis (1998 [SFD]) using the extinction study of a region in the Taurus dark cloud complex by Arce & Goodman (1999 [AG]). In their study, AG use four different techniques to measure the amount and structure of the extinction toward Taurus, and all four techniques agree very well. Thus we believe that the AG results are a truthful representation of the extinction in the region and can be used to test the reliability of the SFD reddening map. The results of our test show that the SFD all-sky reddening map, which is based on data from COBE/DIRBE and IRAS/ISSA, overestimates the reddening by a factor of 1.3 to 1.5 in regions of smooth extinction with A_V > 0.5 mag. In some regions of steep extinction gradients the SFD map underestimates the reddening value, probably due to its low spatial resolution. We expect that the astronomical community will be using the SFD reddening map extensively. We offer this Letter as a cautionary note about using the SFD map in regions of high extinction (A_V > 0.5 mag), as it might not be giving accurate reddening values there.Comment: 14 pages (which include 2 pages of figures

Warm Dark Matter Galaxies with Central Supermassive Black-Holes

We generalize the Thomas-Fermi approach to galaxy structure to include self-consistently and non-linearly central supermassive black holes. This approach naturally incorporates the quantum pressure of the warm dark matter (WDM) particles and shows its full powerful and clearness in the presence of supermassive black holes (SPMHs). We find the main galaxy and central black hole magnitudes: halo radius r_h , halo mass M_h, black hole mass M_BH, velocity dispersion, phase space density, with their realistic astrophysical values, masses and sizes over a wide galaxy range. The SMBH masses arise naturally in this framework. Our extensive numerical calculations and detailed analytic resolution show that with SMBH's, both WDM regimes: classical (Boltzmann dilute) and quantum (compact) do necessarily co-exist in any galaxy: from the smaller and compact galaxies to the largest ones. The transition from the quantum to the classical region occurs precisely at the same point r_A where the chemical potential vanishes. A novel halo structure with three regions shows up: A small quantum compact core of radius r_A around the SMBH, followed by a less compact region till the BH influence radius r_i, and then for r> r_i the known halo galaxy shows up with its astrophysical size. Three representative families of galaxy plus central SMBH solutions are found and analyzed:small, medium and large galaxies having SMBH masses of 10^5, 10^7 and 10^9 M_sun respectively. A minimum galaxy size and mass ~ 10^7 M_sun larger than the one without SMBH is found. Small galaxies in the range 10^4 M_sun < M_h < 10^7 M_sun cannot harbor central SMBHs. We find novel scaling M_BH - r_h - M_h relations. The galaxy equation of state is derived: The pressure P(r) takes huge values in the SMBH vecinity and then sharply decreases entering the classical region following a local perfect gas behaviour.(Abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, new materia

Nonperturbative Quantum Physics from Low-Order Perturbation Theory

The Stark effect in hydrogen and the cubic anharmonic oscillator furnish examples of quantum systems where the perturbation results in a certain ionization probability by tunneling processes. Accordingly, the perturbed ground-state energy is shifted and broadened, thus acquiring an imaginary part which is considered to be a paradigm of nonperturbative behavior. Here we demonstrate how the low order coefficients of a divergent perturbation series can be used to obtain excellent approximations to both real and imaginary parts of the perturbed ground state eigenenergy. The key is to use analytic continuation functions with a built in analytic structure within the complex plane of the coupling constant, which is tailored by means of Bender-Wu dispersion relations. In the examples discussed the analytic continuation functions are Gauss hypergeometric functions, which take as input fourth order perturbation theory and return excellent approximations to the complex perturbed eigenvalue. These functions are Borel-consistent and dramatically outperform widely used Pad\'e and Borel-Pad\'e approaches, even for rather large values of the coupling constant.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, PDFLaTe

Light pollution at high zenith angles, as measured at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

On the basis of measurements of the V-band sky brightness obtained at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in December 2006 and December 2008 we confirm the functional form of the basic model of Garstang (1989, 1991). At high zenith angles we measure an enhancement of a factor of two over Garstang's later model when there is no marine cloud layer over La Serena/Coquimbo. No corresponding enhancement is found in the B-band.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the March, 2010, issue of Publs. of the Astron. Soc. of the Pacifi

The evolution of the bi-modal colour distribution of galaxies in SDSS groups

We analyse $u-r$ colour distributions for several samples of galaxies in groups drawn from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For all luminosity ranges and environments considered the colour distributions are well described by the sum of two Gaussian functions. We find that the fraction of galaxies in the red sequence is an increasing function of group virial mass. We also study the evolution of the galaxy colour distributions at low redshift, $z\le0.18$ in the field and in groups for galaxies brighter than $M_r-5\log(h)=-20$, finding significant evidence of recent evolution in the population of galaxies in groups. The fraction of red galaxies monotonically increases with decreasing redshift, this effect implies a much stronger evolution of galaxies in groups than in the field.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submited to MNRAS after minor revisio

PASSENGER MOBILITY AND CLIMATE CONSTRAINTS: ANALYSING ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES

Today, numerous works conclude that transport seems to be completely coupled to economic growth. Therefore, as a direct consequence of economic development, transport sits today as one of the major final energy consumers and one of the most important sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, in the absence of major technological change, this unsustainable situation will most undoubtedly get worse in the future. In this paper we analyze what different types of public policies aiming at sharp reductions in GHG emissions imply on passenger transport and how they can be linked to new behavior patterns affecting time use and consumption. For this, we use the TILT (Transport Issues in the Long Term) model's core microeconomic choice model IT-UP (Integrated Tools for Utility-based Planning). Through this analysis, we explain the interest of adaptive strategies for GHG mitigation.Greenhouse gas, long term, scenario, transport, sustainable development.