1,091 research outputs found
Topology of Large-Scale Structure by Galaxy Type: Hydrodynamic Simulations
The topology of large scale structure is studied as a function of galaxy type
using the genus statistic. In hydrodynamical cosmological CDM simulations,
galaxies form on caustic surfaces (Zeldovich pancakes) then slowly drain onto
filaments and clusters. The earliest forming galaxies in the simulations
(defined as ``ellipticals") are thus seen at the present epoch preferentially
in clusters (tending toward a meatball topology), while the latest forming
galaxies (defined as ``spirals") are seen currently in a spongelike topology.
The topology is measured by the genus (= number of ``donut" holes - number of
isolated regions) of the smoothed density-contour surfaces. The measured genus
curve for all galaxies as a function of density obeys approximately the
theoretical curve expected for random-phase initial conditions, but the early
forming elliptical galaxies show a shift toward a meatball topology relative to
the late forming spirals. Simulations using standard biasing schemes fail to
show such an effect. Large observational samples separated by galaxy type could
be used to test for this effect.Comment: Princeton University Observatory, submitted to The Astrophysical
Journal, figures can be ftp'ed from ftp://astro.princeton.edu/cen/TOP
Topology from the Simulated Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We measure the topology (genus curve) of the galaxy distribution in a mock
redshift catalog designed to resemble the upcoming Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS). The catalog, drawn from a large N-body simulation of a Lambda-CDM cos-
mological model, mimics the anticipated spectroscopic selection procedures of
the SDSS in some detail. Sky maps, redshift slices, and 3-D contour maps of the
mock survey reveal a rich and complex structure, including networks of voids
and superclusters that resemble the patterns seen in the CfA redshift survey
and the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS). The 3-D genus curve can be
measured from the simulated catalog with superb precision; this curve has the
general shape predicted for Gaussian, random phase initial conditions, but the
error bars are small enough to demonstrate with high significance the subtle
departures from this shape caused by non-linear gravitational evolution. These
distortions have the form predicted by Matsubara's (1994) perturbative anal-
ysis, but they are much smaller in amplitude. We also measure the 3-D genus
curve of the radial peculiar velocity field measured by applying distance-
indicator relations (with realistic errors) to the mock catalog. This genus
curve is consistent with the Gaussian random phase prediction, though it is of
relatively low precision because of the large smoothing length required to
overcome noise in the measured velocity field. Finally, we measure the 2-D
topology in redshift slices, similar to early slices from the SDSS and to
slices already observed in the LCRS. The genus curves of these slices are
consistent with the observed genus curves of the LCRS, providing further
evidence in favor of the inflationary CDM model with Omega_M~0.4. The catalog
is publicly available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~dhw/sdss.html.Comment: ASTeX 4.0 Preprint Style, 5 GIF figures (Figs 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 6; see
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~wcolley/SDSS_Top/ for PostScript versions), 7
PostScript figures. Figure 5 and Table 1 have minor corrections since
publicatio
Transformation of Morphology and Luminosity Classes of the SDSS Galaxies
We present a unified picture on the evolution of galaxy luminosity and
morphology. Galaxy morphology is found to depend critically on the local
environment set up by the nearest neighbor galaxy in addition to luminosity and
the large scale density. When a galaxy is located farther than the virial
radius from its closest neighbor, the probability for the galaxy to have an
early morphological type is an increasing function only of luminosity and the
local density due to the nearest neighbor (). The tide produced by the
nearest neighbor is thought to be responsible for the morphology transformation
toward the early type at these separations. When the separation is less than
the virial radius, i.e. when , its morphology
depends also on the neighbor's morphology and the large-scale background
density over a few Mpc scales () in addition to luminosity and
. The early type probability keeps increasing as increases if
its neighbor is an early type. But the probability decreases as
increases when the neighbor is a late type. The cold gas streaming from the
late type neighbor can be the reason for the morphology transformation toward
late type. The overall early-type fraction increases as increases
when . This can be attributed to the hot halo gas
of the neighbor which is confined by the pressure of the ambient medium held by
the background mass. We have also found that galaxy luminosity depends on
, and that the isolated bright galaxies are more likely to be recent
merger products. We propose a scenario that a series of morphology and
luminosity transformation occur through distant interactions and mergers, which
results in the morphology--luminosity--local density relation.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, for higher resolution figures download PDF file
at http://astro.kias.re.kr/docs/trans.pdf ; references added and typos in
section 3.2 corrected; Final version accepted for publication in Ap
Two-Dimensional Topology of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
We study the topology of the publicly available data released by the 2dFGRS.
The 2dFGRS data contains over 100,000 galaxy redshifts with a magnitude limit
of b_J=19.45 and is the largest such survey to date. The data lie over a wide
range of right ascension (75 degree strips) but only within a narrow range of
declination (10 degree and 15 degree strips). This allows measurements of the
two-dimensional genus to be made.
The NGP displays a slight meatball shift topology, whereas the SGP displays a
bubble like topology. The current SGP data also have a slightly higher genus
amplitude. In both cases, a slight excess of overdense regions are found over
underdense regions. We assess the significance of these features using mock
catalogs drawn from the Virgo Consortium's Hubble Volume LCDM z=0 simulation.
We find that differences between the NGP and SGP genus curves are only
significant at the 1 sigma level. The average genus curve of the 2dFGRS agrees
well with that extracted from the LCDM mock catalogs.
We compare the amplitude of the 2dFGRS genus curve to the amplitude of a
Gaussian random field with the same power spectrum as the 2dFGRS and find,
contradictory to results for the 3D genus of other samples, that the amplitude
of the GRF genus curve is slightly lower than that of the 2dFGRS. This could be
due to a a feature in the current data set or the 2D genus may not be as
sensitive as the 3D genus to non-linear clustering due to the averaging over
the thickness of the slice in 2D. (Abridged)Comment: Submitted to ApJ A version with Figure 1 in higher resolution can be
obtained from http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~hoyle
Extra symmetry in the field equations in 5D with spatial spherical symmetry
We point out that the field equations in 5D, with spatial spherical symmetry,
possess an extra symmetry that leaves them invariant. This symmetry corresponds
to certain simultaneous interchange of coordinates and metric coefficients. As
a consequence a single solution in 5D can generate very different scenarios in
4D, ranging from static configurations to cosmological situations. A new
perspective emanates from our work. Namely, that different astrophysical and
cosmological scenarios in 4D might correspond to the same physics in 5D. We
present explicit examples that illustrate this point of view.Comment: Typos corrected. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum
Gravit
Self-Dual Chern-Simons Solitons in (2+1)-Dimensional Einstein Gravity
We consider here a generalization of the Abelian Higgs model in curved space,
by adding a Chern--Simons term. The static equations are self-dual provided we
choose a suitable potential. The solutions give a self-dual
Maxwell--Chern--Simons soliton that possesses a mass and a spin
The Evolution of the Cosmic Microwave Background
We discuss the time dependence and future of the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) in the context of the standard cosmological model, in which we are now
entering a state of endless accelerated expansion. The mean temperature will
simply decrease until it reaches the effective temperature of the de Sitter
vacuum, while the dipole will oscillate as the Sun orbits the Galaxy. However,
the higher CMB multipoles have a richer phenomenology. The CMB anisotropy power
spectrum will for the most part simply project to smaller scales, as the
comoving distance to last scattering increases, and we derive a scaling
relation that describes this behaviour. However, there will also be a dramatic
increase in the integrated Sachs-Wolfe contribution at low multipoles. We also
discuss the effects of tensor modes and optical depth due to Thomson
scattering. We introduce a correlation function relating the sky maps at two
times and the closely related power spectrum of the difference map. We compute
the evolution both analytically and numerically, and present simulated future
sky maps.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures; references added; one figure dropped and minor
changes to match published version. For high-resolution versions of figures
and animations, see http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/future.htm
Complete characterization of the edited transcriptome of the mitochondrion of Physarum polycephalum using deep sequencing of RNA
RNAs transcribed from the mitochondrial genome of Physarum polycephalum are heavily edited. The most prevalent editing event is the insertion of single Cs, with Us and dinucleotides also added at specific sites. The existence of insertional editing makes gene identification difficult and localization of editing sites has relied upon characterization of individual cDNAs. We have now determined the complete mitochondrial transcriptome of Physarum using Illumina deep sequencing of purified mitochondrial RNA. We report the first instances of A and G insertions and sites of partial and extragenic editing in Physarum mitochondrial RNAs, as well as an additional 772 C, U and dinucleotide insertions. The notable lack of antisense RNAs in our non-size selected, directional library argues strongly against an RNA-guided editing mechanism. Also of interest are our findings that sites of C to U changes are unedited at a significantly higher frequency than insertional editing sites and that substitutional editing of neighboring sites appears to be coupled. Finally, in addition to the characterization of RNAs from 17 predicted genes, our data identified nine new mitochondrial genes, four of which encode proteins that do not resemble other proteins in the database. Curiously, one of the latter mRNAs contains no editing sites
A prescription for probabilities in eternal inflation
Some of the parameters we call ``constants of Nature'' may in fact be
variables related to the local values of some dynamical fields. During
inflation, these variables are randomized by quantum fluctuations. In cases
when the variable in question (call it ) takes values in a continuous
range, all thermalized regions in the universe are statistically equivalent,
and a gauge invariant procedure for calculating the probability distribution
for is known. This is the so-called ``spherical cutoff method''. In
order to find the probability distribution for it suffices to consider a
large spherical patch in a single thermalized region. Here, we generalize this
method to the case when the range of is discontinuous and there are
several different types of thermalized region. We first formulate a set of
requirements that any such generalization should satisfy, and then introduce a
prescription that meets all the requirements. We finally apply this
prescription to calculate the relative probability for different bubble
universes in the open inflation scenario.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
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