531 research outputs found
Wavefunction tomography of topological dimer chains with long-range couplings
The ability to tailor with a high accuracy the inter-site connectivity in a
lattice is a crucial tool for realizing novel topological phases of matter.
Here, we report the experimental realization of photonic dimer chains with
long-range hopping terms of arbitrary strength and phase, providing a rich
generalization of the celebrated Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Our experiment is
based on a synthetic dimension scheme involving the frequency modes of an
optical fiber loop platform. This setup provides direct access to both the band
dispersion and the geometry of the Bloch wavefunctions throughout the entire
Brillouin zone allowing us to extract the winding number for any possible
configuration. Finally, we highlight a topological phase transition solely
driven by a time-reversal-breaking synthetic gauge field associated with the
phase of the long-range hopping, providing a route for engineering topological
bands in photonic lattices belonging to the AIII symmetry class
Diffuse far-infrared and ultraviolet emission in the NGC4435/4438 system: tidal stream or Galactic cirrus?
We report the discovery of diffuse far-infrared and far-ultraviolet emission
projected near the interacting pair NGC4435/4438, in the Virgo cluster. This
feature spatially coincides with a well known low surface-brightness optical
plume, usually interpreted as tidal debris. If extragalactic, this stream would
represent not only one of the clearest examples of intracluster dust, but also
a rare case of intracluster molecular hydrogen and large-scale intracluster
star formation. However, the ultraviolet, far-infrared, HI and CO emission as
well as the dynamics of this feature are extremely unusual for tidal streams
but are typical of Galactic cirrus clouds. In support to the cirrus scenario,
we show that a strong spatial correlation between far-infrared and
far-ultraviolet cirrus emission is observed across the center of the Virgo
cluster, over a scale of several degrees. This study demonstrates how dramatic
Galactic cirrus contamination can be, even at optical and ultraviolet
wavelengths and at high galactic latitudes. If ignored, the presence of diffuse
light scattered by Galactic dust clouds could significantly bias our
interpretation of low surface-brightness features and diffuse light observed
around galaxies and in clusters of galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Synthetic High-Resolution Line Spectra of Star-Forming Galaxies Below 1200A
We have generated a set of far-ultraviolet stellar libraries using spectra of
OB and Wolf-Rayet stars in the Galaxy and the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud.
The spectra were collected with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and
cover a wavelength range from 1003.1 to 1182.7A at a resolution of 0.127A. The
libraries extend from the earliest O- to late-O and early-B stars for the
Magellanic Cloud and Galactic libraries, respectively. Attention is paid to the
complex blending of stellar and interstellar lines, which can be significant,
especially in models using Galactic stars. The most severe contamination is due
to molecular hydrogen. Using a simple model for the H line strength, we
were able to remove the molecular hydrogen lines in a subset of Magellanic
Cloud stars. Variations of the photospheric and wind features of CIII 1176, OVI
1032, 1038, PV 1118, 1128, and SIV 1063, 1073, 1074 are discussed as a function
of temperature and luminosity class. The spectral libraries were implemented
into the LavalSB and Starburst99 packages and used to compute a standard set of
synthetic spectra of star-forming galaxies. Representative spectra are
presented for various initial mass functions and star formation histories. The
valid parameter space is confined to the youngest ages of less than 10 Myr for
an instantaneous burst, prior to the age when incompleteness of spectral types
in the libraries sets in. For a continuous burst at solar metallicity, the
parameter space is not limited. The suite of models is useful for interpreting
the restframe far-ultraviolet in local and high-redshift galaxies.Comment: 33 pages including 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Evidence for Environmentally Dependent Cluster Disruption in M83
Using multi-wavelength imaging from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble
Space Telescope we study the stellar cluster populations of two adjacent fields
in the nearby face-on spiral galaxy, M83. The observations cover the galactic
centre and reach out to ~6 kpc, thereby spanning a large range of environmental
conditions, ideal for testing empirical laws of cluster disruption. The
clusters are selected by visual inspection to be centrally concentrated,
symmetric, and resolved on the images. We find that a large fraction of objects
detected by automated algorithms (e.g. SExtractor or Daofind) are not clusters,
but rather are associations. These are likely to disperse into the field on
timescales of tens of Myr due to their lower stellar densities and not due to
gas expulsion (i.e. they were never gravitationally bound). We split the sample
into two discrete fields (inner and outer regions of the galaxy) and search for
evidence of environmentally dependent cluster disruption. Colour-colour
diagrams of the clusters, when compared to simple stellar population models,
already indicate that a much larger fraction of the clusters in the outer field
are older by tens of Myr than in the inner field. This impression is quantified
by estimating each cluster's properties (age, mass, and extinction) and
comparing the age/mass distributions between the two fields. Our results are
inconsistent with "universal" age and mass distributions of clusters, and
instead show that the ambient environment strongly affects the observed
populations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS in pres
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