15,127 research outputs found
Reconstructing the Accretion History of the Galactic Stellar Halo from Chemical Abundance Ratio Distributions
Observational studies of halo stars during the last two decades have placed
some limits on the quantity and nature of accreted dwarf galaxy contributions
to the Milky Way stellar halo by typically utilizing stellar phase-space
information to identify the most recent halo accretion events. In this study we
tested the prospects of using 2-D chemical abundance ratio distributions
(CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history.
First, we used simulated data from eleven "MW-like" halos to generate satellite
template sets of 2-D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites which are comprised of
accreted dwarfs from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we
randomly drew samples of mock observations of stellar chemical
abundance ratios ([/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those eleven halos to generate
samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our
templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization
algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the satellite template
set (STS) used and the sample size. For certain STS used we typically can
identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a
factor of 2. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older
accretion events involving low-luminous dwarfs e.g. ultra-faint dwarfs -
precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies
of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early Universe.
Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys
promise to provide dimensions, we conclude that these new
high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us to
recover its accretion history - and the luminosity function of infalling dwarf
galaxies - across cosmic time.Comment: Article contains 18 pages total (16 pages of main text + 2 pages of
Appendix) with 12 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
The Dominance of Metal-Rich Streams in Stellar Halos: A Comparison Between Substructure in M31 and Lambda-CDM Models
Extensive photometric and spectroscopic surveys of the Andromeda galaxy (M31)
have discovered tidal debris features throughout M31's stellar halo. We present
stellar kinematics and metallicities in fields with identified substructure
from our on-going SPLASH survey of M31 red giant branch stars with the DEIMOS
spectrograph on the Keck II 10-m telescope. Radial velocity criteria are used
to isolate members of the kinematically-cold substructures. The substructures
are shown to be metal-rich relative to the rest of the dynamically hot stellar
population in the fields in which they are found. We calculate the mean
metallicity and average surface brightness of the various kinematical
components in each field, and show that, on average, higher surface brightness
features tend to be more metal-rich than lower surface brightness features.
Simulations of stellar halo formation via accretion in a cosmological context
are used to illustrate that the observed trend can be explained as a natural
consequence of the observed dwarf galaxy mass-metallicity relation. A
significant spread in metallicity at a given surface brightness is seen in the
data; we show that this is due to time effects, namely the variation in the
time since accretion of the tidal streams' progenitor onto the host halo. We
show that in this theoretical framework a relationship between the
alpha-enhancement and surface brightness of tidal streams is expected, which
arises from the varying times of accretion of the progenitor satellites onto
the host halo. Thus, measurements of the alpha-enrichment, metallicity, and
surface brightness of tidal debris can be used to reconstruct the luminosity
and time of accretion onto the host halo of the progenitors of tidal streams.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, published in Ap
Giant Pulses -- the Main Component of the Radio Emission of the Crab Pulsar
The paper presents an analysis of dual-polarization observations of the Crab
pulsar obtained on the 64-m Kalyazin radio telescope at 600 MHz with a time
resolution of 250 ns. A lower limit for the intensities of giant pulses is
estimated by assuming that the pulsar radio emission in the main pulse and
interpulse consists entirely of giant radio pulses; this yields estimates of
100 Jy and 35 Jy for the peak flux densities of giant pulses arising in the
main pulse and interpulse, respectively. This assumes that the normal radio
emission of the pulse occurs in the precursor pulse. In this case, the
longitudes of the giant radio pulses relative to the profile of the normal
radio emission turn out to be the same for the Crab pulsar and the millisecond
pulsar B1937+21, namely, the giant pulses arise at the trailing edge of the
profile of the normal radio emission. Analysis of the distribution of the
degree of circular polarization for the giant pulses suggests that they can
consist of a random mixture of nanopulses with 100% circular polarization of
either sign, with, on average, hundreds of such nanopulses within a single
giant pulse.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures (originally published in Russian in
Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, 2006, vol. 83, No. 1, pp. 62-69) translated by
Denise Gabuzd
Superconductivity and Physical Properties of CaPd2Ge2 Single Crystals
We present the superconducting and normal state properties of CaPd2Ge2 single
crystal investigated by magnetic susceptibility \chi, isothermal magnetization
M, heat capacity C_p, in-plane electrical resistivity \rho and London
penetration depth \lambda versus temperature T and magnetic field H
measurements. Bulk superconductivity is inferred from the \rho(T) and C_p(T)
data. The \rho(T) data exhibit metallic behavior and undergoes a
superconducting transition with T_c onset = 1.98 K and zero resistivity state
at T_c 0 = 1.67 K. The \chi(T) reveal the onset of superconductivity at 2.0 K.
For T>2.0 K, the \chi(T) and M(H) are weakly anisotropic paramagnetic with
\chi_ab > \chi_c. The C_p(T) confirm the bulk superconductivity below T_c =
1.69(3) K. The superconducting state electronic heat capacity is analyzed
within the framework of a single-band \alpha-model of BCS superconductivity and
various normal and superconducting state parameters are estimated. Within the
\alpha-model, the C_p(T) data and the ab plane \lambda(T) data consistently
indicate a moderately anisotropic s-wave gap with \Delta(0)/k_B T_c ~ 1.6,
somewhat smaller than the BCS value of 1.764. The relationship of the heat
capacity jump at T_c and the penetration depth measurement to the anisotropy in
the s-wave gap is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 2 Tables; Submitted to PR
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