1,103 research outputs found
Dependence of the Fundamental Plane Scatter on Galaxy Age
The fundamental plane (FP) has an intrinsic scatter that can not be explained
purely by observational errors. Using recently available age estimates for
nearby early type galaxies, we show that a galaxy's position relative to the FP
depends on its age. In particular, the mean FP corresponds to ellipticals with
an age of ~10 Gyr. Younger galaxies are systematically brighter with higher
surface brightness relative to the mean relation. Old ellipticals form an
`upper envelope' to the FP. For our sample of mostly non-cluster galaxies, age
can account for almost half of the scatter in the B band FP. Distance
determinations based on the FP may have a systematic bias, if the mean age of
the sample varies with redshift.
We also show that fundamental plane residuals, B-V colors and Mg_2 line
strength are consistent with an ageing central burst superposed on an old
stellar population. This reinforces the view that these age estimates are
tracing the last major episode of star formation induced by a gaseous merger
event. We briefly discuss the empirical `evolutionary tracks' of
merger-remnants and young ellipticals in terms of their key observational
parameters.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, 2 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter
Bipartite entangled stabilizer mutually unbiased bases as maximum cliques of Cayley graphs
We examine the existence and structure of particular sets of mutually
unbiased bases (MUBs) in bipartite qudit systems. In contrast to well-known
power-of-prime MUB constructions, we restrict ourselves to using maximally
entangled stabilizer states as MUB vectors. Consequently, these bipartite
entangled stabilizer MUBs (BES MUBs) provide no local information, but are
sufficient and minimal for decomposing a wide variety of interesting operators
including (mixtures of) Jamiolkowski states, entanglement witnesses and more.
The problem of finding such BES MUBs can be mapped, in a natural way, to that
of finding maximum cliques in a family of Cayley graphs. Some relationships
with known power-of-prime MUB constructions are discussed, and observables for
BES MUBs are given explicitly in terms of Pauli operators.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
How Dry Are Red Mergers?
The focus of current research in galaxy evolution has increasingly turned to
understanding the effect that mergers have on the evolution of systems on the
red sequence. For those interactions purported to occur dissipationlessly (so
called "dry mergers"), it would appear that the role of gas is minimal.
However, if these mergers are not completely dry, then even low levels of gas
may be detectable. The purpose of our study is to test whether early type
galaxies with HI in or around them, or "wet" ellipticals, would have been
selected as dry mergers by the criteria in van Dokkum (2005, AJ, 130, 2647). To
that end, we examine a sample of 20 early types from the HI Rogues Gallery with
neutral hydrogen in their immediate environs. Of these, the 15 brightest and
reddest galaxies match the optical dry merger criteria, but in each case, the
presence of HI means that they are not truly dry.Comment: 8 pages plus 1 table and 5 figures; accepted for publication in A
AGI and the Knight-Darwin Law: why idealized AGI reproduction requires collaboration
Can an AGI create a more intelligent AGI? Under idealized assumptions, for a certain theoretical type of intelligence, our answer is: “Not without outside help”. This is a paper on the mathematical structure of AGI populations when parent AGIs create child AGIs. We argue that such populations satisfy a certain biological law. Motivated by observations of sexual reproduction in seemingly-asexual species, the Knight-Darwin Law states that it is impossible for one organism to asexually produce another, which asexually produces another, and so on forever: that any sequence of organisms (each one a child of the previous) must contain occasional multi-parent organisms, or must terminate. By proving that a certain measure (arguably an intelligence measure) decreases when an idealized parent AGI single-handedly creates a child AGI, we argue that a similar Law holds for AGIs
Star Clusters in the Tidal Tails of Interacting Galaxies: Cluster Populations Across a Variety of Tail Environments
We have searched for compact stellar structures within 17 tidal tails in 13
different interacting galaxies using F606W- and F814W- band images from the
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The
sample of tidal tails includes a diverse population of optical properties,
merging galaxy mass ratios, HI content, and ages. Combining our tail sample
with Knierman et al. (2003), we find evidence of star clusters formed in situ
with Mv < -8.5 and V-I < 2.0 in 10 of 23 tidal tails; we are able to identify
cluster candidates to Mv = -6.5 in the closest tails. Three tails offer clear
examples of "beads on a string" star formation morphology in V-I color maps.
Two tails present both tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG) candidates and cluster
candidates. Statistical diagnostics indicate that clusters in tidal tails may
be drawn from the same power-law luminosity functions (with logarithmic slopes
~ -2 - -2.5) found in quiescent spiral galaxies and the interiors of
interacting systems. We find that the tail regions with the largest number of
observable clusters are relatively young (< 250 Myr old) and bright (V < 24 mag
arcsec^(-2)), probably attributed to the strong bursts of star formation in
interacting systems soon after periapse. Otherwise, we find no statistical
difference between cluster-rich and cluster-poor tails in terms of many
observable characteristics, though this analysis suffers from complex,
unresolved gas dynamics and projection effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 27 pages, 8
figure
The Cold and Hot Gas Content of Fine-Structure E and S0 Galaxies
We investigate trends of the cold and hot gas content of early-type galaxies
with the presence of optical morphological peculiarities, as measured by the
fine-structure index (Sigma). HI mapping observations from the literature are
used to track the cold-gas content, and archival ROSAT PSPC data are used to
quantify the hot-gas content. We find that E and S0 galaxies with a high
incidence of optical peculiarities are exclusively X-ray underluminous and,
therefore, deficient in hot gas. In contrast, more relaxed galaxies with little
or no signs of optical peculiarities span a wide range of X-ray luminosities.
That is, the X-ray excess anticorrelates with Sigma. There appears to be no
similar trend of cold-gas content with either fine-structure index or X-ray
content. The fact that only apparently relaxed E and S0 galaxies are strong
X-ray emitters is consistent with the hypothesis that after strong disturbances
such as a merger hot-gas halos build up over a time scale of several gigayears.
This is consistent with the expected mass loss from stars.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in A
Powerful H Emission and Star Formation on the Interacting Galaxy System Arp 143: Observations with Spitzer and GALEX
We present new mid-infrared (m) and ultraviolet (1539 -- 2316 \AA)
observations of the interacting galaxy system Arp 143 (NGC 2444/2445) from the
Spitzer Space Telescope and GALEX. In this system, the central nucleus of NGC
2445 is surrounded by knots of massive star-formation in a ring-like structure.
We find unusually strong emission from warm H associated with an expanding
shock wave between the nucleus and the western knots. At this ridge, the flux
ratio between H and PAH emission is nearly ten times higher than in the
nucleus. Arp 143 is one of the most extreme cases known in that regard. From
our multi-wavelength data we derive a narrow age range of the star-forming
knots between 2 Myr and 7.5 Myr, suggesting that the ring of knots was formed
almost simultaneously in response to the shock wave traced by the H
emission. However, the knots can be further subdivided in two age groups: those
with an age of 2--4 Myr (knots A, C, E, and F), which are associated with
m emission from PAHs, and those with an age of 7-8 Myr (knots D and G),
which show little or no m emission shells surrounding them. We attribute
this finding to an ageing effect of the massive clusters which, after about 6
Myr, no longer excite the PAHs surrounding the knots.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, including tables at the end; accepted by Ap
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