3,573 research outputs found
Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
It has been suggested by a number of authors that the 2.7K cosmic microwave
background (CMB) radiation might have arisen from the radiation from Population
III objects thermalized by conducting cosmic graphite/iron needle-shaped dust.
Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of exceedingly
elongated grains, in existing literature which studies the CMB thermalizing
process they are generally modelled as (1) needle-like spheroids in terms of
the Rayleigh approximation; (2) infinite cylinders; and (3) the antenna theory.
We show here that the Rayleigh approximation is not valid since the Rayleigh
criterion is not satisfied for highly conducting needles. We also show that the
available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not
sufficient to supply the required opacity at long wavelengths to obtain the
observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. If appealing to the antenna
theory, conducting iron needles with exceedingly large elongations (10^4)
appear able to provide sufficient opacity to thermalize the CMB within the iron
density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin
needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ
The HI Mass Function and Velocity Width Function of Void Galaxies in the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey
We measure the HI mass function (HIMF) and velocity width function (WF)
across environments over a range of masses ,
and profile widths , using a catalog of
~7,300 HI-selected galaxies from the ALFALFA Survey, located in the region of
sky where ALFALFA and SDSS (Data Release 7) North overlap. We divide our galaxy
sample into those that reside in large-scale voids (void galaxies) and those
that live in denser regions (wall galaxies). We find the void HIMF to be well
fit by a Schechter function with normalization
, characteristic mass
, and low-mass-end slope
. Similarly, for wall galaxies, we find best-fitting
parameters ,
, and . We
conclude that void galaxies typically have slightly lower HI masses than their
non-void counterparts, which is in agreement with the dark matter halo mass
function shift in voids assuming a simple relationship between DM mass and HI
mass. We also find that the low-mass slope of the void HIMF is similar to that
of the wall HIMF suggesting that there is either no excess of low-mass galaxies
in voids or there is an abundance of intermediate HI mass galaxies. We fit a
modified Schechter function to the ALFALFA void WF and determine its
best-fitting parameters to be ,
, and high-width slope
. For wall galaxies, the WF parameters are:
, ,
and . Because of large uncertainties on
the void and wall width functions, we cannot conclude whether the WF is
dependent on the environment.Comment: Accepted for publication at MNRAS, 14 pages, 12 figure
Testing extra dimensions with boundaries using Newton's law modifications
Extra dimensions with boundaries are often used in the literature, to provide
phenomenological models that mimic the standard model. In this context, we
explore possible modifications to Newton's law due to the existence of an
extra-dimensional space, at the boundary of which the gravitational field obeys
Dirichlet, Neumann or mixed boundary conditions. We focus on two types of extra
space, namely, the disk and the interval. As we prove, in order to have a
consistent Newton's law modification (i.e., of the Yukawa-type), some of the
extra-dimensional spaces that have been used in the literature, must be ruled
out.Comment: Published version, title changed, 6 figure
Improved Torsion Pendulum for Ground Testing of LISA Displacement Sensors
We discuss a new torsion pendulum design for ground testing of prototype LISA
(Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) displacement sensors. This new design is
directly sensitive to net forces and therefore provides a more representative
test of the noisy forces and parasitic stiffnesses acting on the test mass as
compared to previous ground-based experiments. We also discuss a specific
application to the measurement of thermal gradient effects.Comment: 4 pages 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 10th Marcel
Grossmann Meeting on General Relativit
The Nikolaevskiy equation with dispersion
The Nikolaevskiy equation was originally proposed as a model for seismic
waves and is also a model for a wide variety of systems incorporating a
neutral, Goldstone mode, including electroconvection and reaction-diffusion
systems. It is known to exhibit chaotic dynamics at the onset of pattern
formation, at least when the dispersive terms in the equation are suppressed,
as is commonly the practice in previous analyses. In this paper, the effects of
reinstating the dispersive terms are examined. It is shown that such terms can
stabilise some of the spatially periodic traveling waves; this allows us to
study the loss of stability and transition to chaos of the waves. The secondary
stability diagram (Busse balloon) for the traveling waves can be remarkably
complicated.Comment: 24 pages; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Astrophysical implications of hypothetical stable TeV-scale black holes
We analyze macroscopic effects of TeV-scale black holes, such as could
possibly be produced at the LHC, in what is regarded as an extremely
hypothetical scenario in which they are stable and, if trapped inside Earth,
begin to accrete matter. We examine a wide variety of TeV-scale gravity
scenarios, basing the resulting accretion models on first-principles, basic,
and well-tested physical laws. These scenarios fall into two classes, depending
on whether accretion could have any macroscopic effect on the Earth at times
shorter than the Sun's natural lifetime. We argue that cases with such effect
at shorter times than the solar lifetime are ruled out, since in these
scenarios black holes produced by cosmic rays impinging on much denser white
dwarfs and neutron stars would then catalyze their decay on timescales
incompatible with their known lifetimes. We also comment on relevant lifetimes
for astronomical objects that capture primordial black holes. In short, this
study finds no basis for concerns that TeV-scale black holes from the LHC could
pose a risk to Earth on time scales shorter than the Earth's natural lifetime.
Indeed, conservative arguments based on detailed calculations and the
best-available scientific knowledge, including solid astronomical data,
conclude, from multiple perspectives, that there is no risk of any significance
whatsoever from such black holes.Comment: Version2: Minor corrections/fixed typos; updated reference
Modeling Repulsive Gravity with Creation
There is a growing interest in the cosmologists for theories with negative
energy scalar fields and creation, in order to model a repulsive gravity. The
classical steady state cosmology proposed by Bondi, Gold and Hoyle in 1948, was
the first such theory which used a negative kinetic energy creation field to
invoke creation of matter. We emphasize that creation plays very crucial role
in cosmology and provides a natural explanation to the various explosive
phenomena occurring in local (z<0.1) and extra galactic universe. We exemplify
this point of view by considering the resurrected version of this theory - the
quasi-steady state theory, which tries to relate creation events directly to
the large scale dynamics of the universe and supplies more natural explanations
of the observed phenomena. Although the theory predicts a decelerating universe
at the present era, it explains successfully the recent SNe Ia observations
(which require an accelerating universe in the standard cosmology), as we show
in this paper by performing a Bayesian analysis of the data.Comment: The paper uses an old SNeIa dataset. With the new improved data, for
example the updated gold sample (Riess et al, astro-ph/0611572), the fit
improves considerably (\chi^2/DoF=197/180 and a probability of
goodness-of-fit=18%
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