66 research outputs found
Star counts in NGC 6397
I-band CCD images of a large area of the nearby globular cluster NGC~6397
have been used to construct a surface density profile and two luminosity and
mass functions. The surface density profile extends out to 14\arcm from the
cluster center and shows no sign of a tidal cutoff. The inner profile is a
power-law with slope -0.8 steepening to -1.7 outside of 1\arcm. The mass
functions are for fields at 4\arcm\ and 11\arcm from the cluster center and
confirm the upturn in the mass function for stars less massive than about 0.4
M\solar. There appears to be an excess of low-mass stars over higher-mass stars
in the outer field with respect to the inner, in qualitative agreement with
expectations for mass segregation.Comment: 16 pages + 7 pages of tables, LaTeX using AASTeX macros, 11 figures
available by request, IoA preprin
Searching for the Annual Modulation of Dark Matter signal with the GENIUS-TF experiment
The annual modulation of the recoil spectrum observed in an underground
detector is well known as the main signature of a possible WIMP signal. The
GENIUS-TF experiment, under construction in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory,
can search for the annual modulation of the Dark Matter signal using 40 kg of
naked-Ge detectors in liquid nitrogen. Starting from a set of data simulated
under the hypothesis of modulation and using different methods, we show the
potential of GENIUS-TF for extracting the modulated signal and the expected
WIMP mass and WIMP cross section.Comment: In press, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section
A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment (2003) and
in Proc. of IDM2002, York Minster, England, 2-6 September, 2002, World
Scientific 200
Solar Wakes of Dark Matter Flows
We analyze the effect of the Sun's gravitational field on a flow of cold dark
matter (CDM) through the solar system in the limit where the velocity
dispersion of the flow vanishes. The exact density and velocity distributions
are derived in the case where the Sun is a point mass. The results are extended
to the more realistic case where the Sun has a finite size spherically
symmetric mass distribution. We find that regions of infinite density, called
caustics, appear. One such region is a line caustic on the axis of symmetry,
downstream from the Sun, where the flow trajectories cross. Another is a
cone-shaped caustic surface near the trajectories of maximum scattering angle.
The trajectories forming the conical caustic pass through the Sun's interior
and probe the solar mass distribution, raising the possibility that the solar
mass distribution may some day be measured by a dark matter detector on Earth.
We generalize our results to the case of flows with continuous velocity
distributions, such as that predicted by the isothermal model of the Milky Way
halo.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure
The Effects of Binary Evolution on the Dynamics of Core Collapse and Neutron-Star Kicks
We systematically examine how the presence in a binary affects the final core
structure of a massive star and its consequences for the subsequent supernova
explosion. Interactions with a companion star may change the final rate of
rotation, the size of the helium core, the strength of carbon burning and the
final iron core mass. Stars with initial masses larger than \sim 11\Ms that
experiece core collapse will generally have smaller iron cores at the time of
the explosion if they lost their envelopes due to a previous binary
interaction. Stars below \sim 11\Ms, on the other hand, can end up with larger
helium and metal cores if they have a close companion, since the second
dredge-up phase which reduces the helium core mass dramatically in single stars
does not occur once the hydrogen envelope is lost. We find that the initially
more massive stars in binary systems with masses in the range 8 - 11\Ms are
likely to undergo an electron-capture supernova, while single stars in the same
mass range would end as ONeMg white dwarfs. We suggest that the core collapse
in an electron-capture supernova (and possibly in the case of relatively small
iron cores) leads to a prompt explosion rather than a delayed neutrino-driven
explosion and that this naturally produces neutron stars with low-velocity
kicks. This leads to a dichotomous distribution of neutron star kicks, as
inferred previously, where neutron stars in relatively close binaries attain
low kick velocities. We illustrate the consequences of such a dichotomous kick
scenario using binary population synthesis simulations and discuss its
implications. This scenario has also important consequences for the minimum
initial mass of a massive star that becomes a neutron star. (Abbreviated.)Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ, updated versio
Biological Effects of Stellar Collapse Neutrinos
Massive stars in their final stages of collapse radiate most of their binding
energy in the form of MeV neutrinos. The recoil atoms that they produce in
elastic scattering off nuclei in organic tissue create radiation damage which
is highly effective in the production of irreparable DNA harm, leading to
cellular mutation, neoplasia and oncogenesis. Using a conventional model of the
galaxy and of the collapse mechanism, the periodicity of nearby stellar
collapses and the radiation dose are calculated. The possible contribution of
this process to the paleontological record of mass extinctions is examined.Comment: gzipped PostScript (filename.ps.Z), 12 pages. Final version, Phys.
Rev. Lett., in pres
Superheated Microdrops as Cold Dark Matter Detectors
It is shown that under realistic background considerations, an improvement in
Cold Dark Matter sensitivity of several orders of magnitude is expected from a
detector based on superheated liquid droplets. Such devices are totally
insensitive to minimum ionizing radiation while responsive to nuclear recoils
of energies ~ few keV. They operate on the same principle as the bubble
chamber, but offer unattended, continuous, and safe operation at room
temperature and atmospheric pressure.Comment: 15 pgs, 4 figures include
The Central Temperature of the Sun can be Measured via the Be Solar Neutrino Line
A precise test of the theory of stellar evolution can be performed by
measuring the difference in average energy between the neutrino line produced
by electron capture in the solar interior and the corresponding
neutrino line produced in a terrestrial laboratory. The high temperatures in
the center of the sun broaden the line asymmetrically, FWHM = 1.6~keV, and
cause an average energy shift of 1.3~keV. The width of the Be neutrino line
should be taken into account in calculations of vacuum neutrino oscillations.Comment: RevTeX file, 9 pages. For hardcopy with figure, send to
[email protected]. Institute for Advanced Study number AST 93/4
Constraints on the mass and abundance of black holes in the Galactic halo: the high mass limit
We establish constraints on the mass and abundance of black holes in the
Galactic halo by determining their impact on globular clusters which are
conventionally considered to be little evolved. Using detailed Monte Carlo
simulations and simple analytic estimates, we conclude that, at Galactocentric
radius R~8 kpc, black holes with masses M_bh >~(1-3) x 10^6 M_sun can comprise
no more than a fraction f_bh ~ 0.025-0.05 of the total halo density. This
constraint significantly improves those based on disk heating and dynamical
friction arguments as well as current lensing results. At smaller radius, the
constraint on f_bh strengthens, while, at larger radius, an increased fraction
of black holes is allowed.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, revised version, in press, Monthly Notice
The phase-space structure of a dark-matter halo: Implications for dark-matter direct detection experiments
We study the phase-space structure of a dark-matter halo formed in a high
resolution simulation of a Lambda CDM cosmology. Our goal is to quantify how
much substructure is left over from the inhomogeneous growth of the halo, and
how it may affect the signal in experiments aimed at detecting the dark matter
particles directly. If we focus on the equivalent of ``Solar vicinity'', we
find that the dark-matter is smoothly distributed in space. The probability of
detecting particles bound within dense lumps of individual mass less than 10^7
M_\sun h^{-1} is small, less than 10^{-2}. The velocity ellipsoid in the Solar
neighbourhood deviates only slightly from a multivariate Gaussian, and can be
thought of as a superposition of thousands of kinematically cold streams. The
motions of the most energetic particles are, however, strongly clumped and
highly anisotropic. We conclude that experiments may safely assume a smooth
multivariate Gaussian distribution to represent the kinematics of dark-matter
particles in the Solar neighbourhood. Experiments sensitive to the direction of
motion of the incident particles could exploit the expected anisotropy to learn
about the recent merging history of our Galaxy.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, Phys. Rev. D in press. Postscript version with
high resolution figures available from
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~ahelmi/research/lcdm_dm.html; some changes in
the text; constraints on the effect of bound dark-matter lumps revised;
remaining conclusions unchange
Cold Dark Matter in SUSY Theories. The Role of Nuclear Form Factors and the Folding with the LSP Velocity
The momentum transfer dependence of the total cross section for elastic
scattering of cold dark matter candidates, i.e. lightest supersymmetric
particle (LSP), with nuclei is examined. The presented calculations of the
event rates refer to a number of representative nuclear targets throughout the
periodic table and have been obtained in a relatively wide phenomenologically
allowed SUSY parameter space. For the coherent cross sections it is shown that,
since the momentum transfer can be quite big for large mass of the LSP and
heavy nuclei even though the energy transfer is small (), the
total cross section can in such instances be reduced by a factor of about five.
For the spin induced cross section of odd-A nuclear targets, as is the case of
studied in this work, we found that the reduction is less
pronounced, since the high multipoles tend to enhance the cross section as the
momentum transfer increases (for LSP ) and partially cancell
the momentum retardation. The effect of the Earth's revolution around the sun
on these event rates is also studied by folding with a Maxwellian LSP-velocity
distribution which is consistent with its density in the halos. We thus found
that the convoluted event rates do not appreciably change compared to those
obtained with an average velocity. The event rates increase with A and, in the
SUSY parameter space considered, they can reach values up to 140
for Pb. The modulation effect, however, was found to be small
(less than ).Comment: 23 LATEX pages, 4 Tables, 3 PostScript Figures included. Phys. Rev.
D, to be publishe
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