3,007 research outputs found
Time and M-theory
We review our recent proposal for a background independent formulation of a
holographic theory of quantum gravity. The present review incorporates the
necessary background material on geometry of canonical quantum theory,
holography and spacetime thermodynamics, Matrix theory, as well as our specific
proposal for a dynamical theory of geometric quantum mechanics, as applied to
Matrix theory. At the heart of this review is a new analysis of the conceptual
problem of time and the closely related and phenomenologically relevant problem
of vacuum energy in quantum gravity. We also present a discussion of some
observational implications of this new viewpoint on the problem of vacuum
energy.Comment: 86 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, typos fixed, references added, and Sec.
6.2 revised; invited review for Int. J. Mod. Phys.
The 6C** Sample and the Highest Redshift Radio Galaxies
We present a new radio sample, 6C** designed to find radio galaxies at z > 4
and discuss some of its near-infrared imaging follow-up results.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of 'Multi-wavelength AGN
surveys', Cozumel, 200
Cosmology with redshift surveys of radio sources
We use the K-z relation for radio galaxies to illustrate why it has proved
difficult to obtain definitive cosmological results from studies based entirely
on catalogues of the brightest radio sources, e.g. 3C. To improve on this
situation we have been undertaking redshift surveys of complete samples drawn
from the fainter 6C and 7C radio catalogues. We describe these surveys, and
illustrate the new studies they are allowing. We also discuss our `filtered' 6C
redshift surveys: these have led to the discovery of a radio galaxy at z=4.4,
and are sensitive to similar objects at higher redshift provided the space
density of these objects is not declining too rapidly with z. There is
currently no direct evidence for a sharp decline in the space density of radio
galaxies for z > 4, a result only barely consistent with the observed decline
of flat-spectrum radio quasars.Comment: 8 pages Latex, To appear in the "Cosmology with the New Radio
Surveys" Conference - Tenerife 13-15 January 199
The radio luminosity function of radio-loud quasars from the 7C Redshift Survey
We present a complete sample of 24 radio-loud quasars (RLQs) from the new 7C
Redshift Survey. Every quasar with a low-frequency (151 MHz) radio flux-density
S_151 > 0.5 Jy in two regions of the sky covering 0.013 sr is included; 23 of
these have sufficient extended flux to meet the selection criteria, 18 of these
have steep radio spectra (hereafter denoted as SSQs). The key advantage of this
sample over most samples of RLQs is the lack of an optical magnitude limit. By
combining the 7C and 3CRR samples, we have investigated the properties of RLQs
as a function of redshift z and radio luminosity L_151.
We derive the radio luminosity function (RLF) of RLQs and find that the data
are well fitted by a single power-law with slope alpha_1=1.9. We find that
there must be a break in the RLQ RLF at log_10(L_151 / W Hz^-1 sr^-1) < 27, in
order for the models to be consistent with the 7C and 6C source counts. The
z-dependence of the RLF follows a one-tailed gaussian which peaks at z=1.7. We
find no evidence for a decline in the co-moving space density of RLQs at higher
redshifts.
A positive correlation between the radio and optical luminosities of SSQs is
observed, confirming a result of Serjeant et al. (1998). We are able to rule
out this correlation being due to selection effects or biases in our combined
sample. The radio-optical correlation and best-fit model RLF enable us to
estimate the distribution of optical magnitudes of quasars in samples selected
at low radio frequencies. We conclude that for samples with S_151 < 1 Jy one
must use optical data significantly deeper than the POSS-I limit (R approx 20),
in order to avoid severe incompleteness.Comment: 28 pages with 13 figures. To appear in MNRA
The preferentially magnified active nucleus in IRAS F10214+4724 - II. Spatially resolved cold molecular gas
We present JVLA observations of the cold (CO (1-0)) molecular gas in IRAS
F10214+4724, a lensed ULIRG at z=2.3 with an obscured active nucleus. The
galaxy is spatially and spectrally well-resolved in the CO (1-0) emission line.
A CO (1-0) counter-image is detected at the 3-sigma level. Five of the 42 km/s
channels (with >5-sigma detections) are mapped back into the source plane and
their total magnification posterior PDFs sampled. This reveals a roughly linear
arrangement, tentatively a rotating disk. We derive a molecular gas mass of
M_gas = 1.2 +- 0.2 x 10^10 M_sun, assuming a ULIRG L_{CO}-to-M_{gas} conversion
ratio of \alpha = 0.8 M_sun / (K km/s pc^2) that agrees well with the derived
range of \alpha = 0.3 - 1.3 for separate dynamical mass estimates at assumed
inclinations of i = 90 - 30 degrees. Based on the AGN and CO (1-0) peak
emission positions and the lens model, we predict a distortion of the CO
Spectral Line Energy Distribution (SLED) where higher order J lines that may be
partially excited by AGN heating will be preferentially lensed owing to their
smaller solid angles and closer proximity to the AGN and therefore the cusp of
the caustic. Comparison with other lensing inversion results shows that the
narrow line region and AGN radio core in IRAS F10214+4724 are preferentially
lensed by a factor >~ 3 and 11 respectively, relative to the molecular gas
emission. This distorts the global continuum emission Spectral Energy
Distribution (SED) and suggests caution in unsophisticated uses of IRAS
F10214+4724 as an archetype high-redshift ULIRG. We explore two Large Velocity
Gradient (LVG) models, incorporating spatial CO (1-0) and (3-2) information and
present tentative evidence for an extended, low excitation cold gas component
that implies that the total molecular gas mass in IRAS F10214+4724 is a factor
>~2 greater than that calculated using spatially unresolved CO observations.Comment: Dedicated to Steve Rawlings. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16
pages, 11 figure
A submillimetre survey of the star-formation history of radio galaxies
We present the results of the first major systematic submillimetre survey of
radio galaxies spanning the redshift range 1 < z < 5. The primary aim of this
work is to elucidate the star-formation history of this sub-class of elliptical
galaxies by tracing the cosmological evolution of dust mass. Using SCUBA on the
JCMT we have obtained 850-micron photometry of 47 radio galaxies to a
consistent rms depth of 1 mJy, and have detected dust emission in 14 cases. The
radio galaxy targets have been selected from a series of low-frequency radio
surveys of increasing depth (3CRR, 6CE, etc), in order to allow us to separate
the effects of increasing redshift and increasing radio power on submillimetre
luminosity. Although the dynamic range of our study is inevitably small, we
find clear evidence that the typical submillimetre luminosity (and hence dust
mass) of a powerful radio galaxy is a strongly increasing function of redshift;
the detection rate rises from 15 per cent at z 2.5,
and the average submillimetre luminosity rises as (1+z)^3 out to z~4. Moreover
our extensive sample allows us to argue that this behaviour is not driven by
underlying correlations with other radio galaxy properties such as radio power,
radio spectral index, or radio source size/age. Although radio selection may
introduce other more subtle biases, the redshift distribution of our detected
objects is in fact consistent with the most recent estimates of the redshift
distribution of comparably bright submillimetre sources discovered in blank
field surveys. The evolution of submillimetre luminosity found here for radio
galaxies may thus be representative of massive ellipticals in general.Comment: 31 pages - 10 figures in main text, 3 pages of figures in appendix.
This revised version has been re-structured, but the analysis and conclusions
have not changed. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Near-Infrared Observations of Powerful High-Redshift Radio Galaxies: 4C 40.36 and 4C 39.37
We present near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations of two FR II
high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs), 4C 40.36 (z=2.3) and 4C 39.37 (z=3.2),
obtained with the Hubble, Keck, and Hale Telescopes. High resolution images
were taken with filters both in and out of strong emission lines, and together
with the spectroscopic data, the properties of the line and continuum emissions
were carefully analyzed. Our analysis of 4C 40.36 and 4C 39.37 shows that
strong emission lines (e.g., [O III] 5007 A and H alpha+[N II]) contribute to
the broad-band fluxes much more significantly than previously estimated (80%
vs. 20-40%), and that when the continuum sources are imaged through line-free
filters, they show an extremely compact morphology with a high surface
brightness. If we use the R^1/4-law parametrization, their effective radii
(r(e)) are only 2-3 kpc while their restframe B-band surface brightnesses at
r(e) are I(B) ~ 18 mag/arcsec^2. Compared with z ~ 1 3CR radio galaxies, the
former is x3-5 smaller, while the latter is 1-1.5 mag brighter than what is
predicted from the I(B)-r(e) correlation. Although exponential profiles produce
equally good fits for 4C 40.36 and 4C 39.37, this clearly indicates that with
respect to the z~1 3CR radio galaxies, the light distribution of these two
HzRGs is much more centrally concentrated. Spectroscopically, 4C 40.36 shows a
flat (fnu=const) continuum while 4C 39.37 shows a spectrum as red as that of a
local giant elliptical galaxy. Although this difference may be explained in
terms of a varying degree of star formation, the similarities of their surface
brightness profiles and the submillimeter detection of 4C 39.37 might suggest
that the intrinsic spectra is equally blue (young stars or an AGN), and that
the difference is the amount of reddening.Comment: 30 pages, 6 tables, 10 figures; Accepted for publication in
Astronomical Journa
HST and UKIRT imaging observations of z ~ 1 6C radio galaxies - I. The data
The results of Hubble Space Telescope and UKIRT imaging observations are
presented for a sample of 11 6C radio galaxies with redshifts 0.85 < z < 1.5.
The observations of the 6C sources reveal a variety of different features,
similar to those observed around the higher luminosity of the aligned emission
appears less extreme in the case of the 6C radio galaxies. For both samples,
the aligned emission clearly cannot be explained by a single emission
mechanism; line emission and related nebular continuum emission, however, often
provide a significant contribution to the aligned emission.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures (figs 3,6,11 low resolution - full resolution
images can be obtained from http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~kji/ImagingFigs/).
Accepted for publication in MNRA
Desorption From Interstellar Ices
The desorption of molecular species from ice mantles back into the gas phase
in molecular clouds results from a variety of very poorly understood processes.
We have investigated three mechanisms; desorption resulting from H_2 formation
on grains, direct cosmic ray heating and cosmic ray induced photodesorption.
Whilst qualitative differences exist between these processes (essentially
deriving from the assumptions concerning the species-selectivity of the
desorption and the assumed threshold adsorption energies, E_t) all three
processes are found to be potentially very significant in dark cloud
conditions. It is therefore important that all three mechanisms should be
considered in studies of molecular clouds in which freeze-out and desorption
are believed to be important.
Employing a chemical model of a typical static molecular core and using
likely estimates for the quantum yields of the three processes we find that
desorption by H_2 formation probably dominates over the other two mechanisms.
However, the physics of the desorption processes and the nature of the dust
grains and ice mantles are very poorly constrained. We therefore conclude that
the best approach is to set empirical constraints on the desorption, based on
observed molecular depletions - rather than try to establish the desorption
efficiencies from purely theoretical considerations. Applying this method to
one such object (L1689B) yields upper limits to the desorption efficiencies
that are consistent with our understanding of these mechanisms.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by MNRAS subject to minor revision
which has been carried ou
- âŠ