30,912 research outputs found
On the Presence of Thermal SZ Induced Signal in the First Year WMAP Temperature Maps
Using available optical and X-ray catalogues of clusters and superclusters of
galaxies, we build templates of tSZ emission as they should be detected by the
WMAP experiment. We compute the cross-correlation of our templates with WMAP
temperature maps, and interpret our results separately for clusters and for
superclusters of galaxies. For clusters of galaxies, we claim 2-5
detections in our templates built from BCS Ebeling et al. (1998), NORAS
(Boehringer et al. 2000) and de Grandi et al. (1999) catalogues. In these
templates, the typical cluster temperature decrements in WMAP maps are around
15-35 K in the RJ range (no beam deconvolution applied). Several tests
probing the possible influence of foregrounds in our analyses demonstrate that
our results are robust against galactic contamination. On supercluster scales,
we detect a diffuse component in the V & W WMAP bands which cannot be generated
by superclusters in our catalogues (Einasto et al. 1994, 1997), and which is
not present in the clean map of Tegmark, de Oliveira-Costa & Hamilton (2003).
Using this clean map, our analyses yield, for Einasto's supercluster
catalogues, the following upper limit for the comptonization parameter
associated to supercluster scales: y_{SC} < 2.18 \time s 10^{-8} at the 95%
confidence limit.Comment: MNRAS accepted. New section and minor changes include
Limits on Hot Intracluster Gas Contributions to the Tenerife Temperature Anisotropy Map
We limit the contribution of the hot intracluster gas, by means of the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, to the temperature anisotropies measured by the
Tenerife experiment. The data is cross-correlated with maps generated from the
ACO cluster catalogue, the ROSAT PSPC catalogue of clusters of galaxies, a
catalogue of superclusters and the HEAO 1 A-1 map of X-ray sources. There is no
evidence of contamination by such sources at an rms level of K at
99% confidence level at angular resolution. We place an upper limit on
the mean Comptonization parameter of at the same
level of confidence. These limits are slightly more restrictive than those
previously found by a similar analysis on the COBE/DMR data and indicate that
most of the signal measured by Tenerife is cosmological.Comment: To be published in ApJ (main journal
Inverse magnetic catalysis from the properties of the QCD coupling in a magnetic field
We compute the vacuum one-loop quark-gluon vertex correction at zero
temperature in the presence of a magnetic field. From the vertex function we
extract the effective quark-gluon coupling and show that it grows with
increasing magnetic field strength. The effect is due to a subtle competition
between the color charge associated to gluons and the color charge associated
to quarks, the former being larger than the latter. In contrast, at high
temperature the effective thermo-magnetic coupling results exclusively from the
contribution of the color charge associated to quarks. This produces a decrease
of the coupling with increasing field strength. We interpret the results in
terms of a geometrical effect whereby the magnetic field induces, on average, a
closer distance between the (electrically charged) quarks and antiquarks. At
high temperature, since the effective coupling is proportional only to the
color charge associated to quarks, such proximity with increasing field
strength makes the effective coupling decrease due to asymptotic freedom. In
turn, this leads to a decreasing quark condensate. In contrast, at zero
temperature both the effective strong coupling and the quark condensate
increase with increasing magnetic field. This is due to the color charge
associated to gluons dominating over that associated to quarks, with both
having the opposite sign. Thus, the gluons induce a kind of screening of the
quark color charge, in spite of the quark-antiquark proximity. The implications
of these results for the inverse magnetic catalysis phenomenon are discussed.Comment: Expanded discussion, references added. Version to appear in Phys.
Lett.
Wide binaries as a critical test for Gravity theories
Assuming Newton's gravity and GR to be valid at all scales leads to the dark
matter hypothesis as a requirement demanded by the observed dynamics and
measured baryonic content at galactic and extragalactic scales. Alternatively,
modified gravity scenarios where a change of regime appears at acceleration
scales have been proposed. This modified regime at will
generically be characterised by equilibrium velocities which become independent
of distance. Here we identify a critical test in this debate and we propose its
application to samples of wide binary stars. Since for systems
the acceleration drops below at scales of around 7000 AU, a statistical
survey of wide binaries with relative velocities and separations reaching
AU and beyond should prove useful to the above debate. We apply the
proposed test to the best currently available data. Results show a constant
upper limit to the relative velocities in wide binaries which is independent of
separation for over three orders of magnitude, in analogy with galactic flat
rotation curves in the same acceleration regime. Our results are
suggestive of a breakdown of Kepler's third law beyond
scales, in accordance with generic predictions of modified gravity theories
designed not to require any dark matter at galactic scales and beyond.Comment: 4 pages 1 figure, Proceedings of the COSGRAV12 meeting, Kolkata,
India, 7th - 11th February, 201
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