1,066 research outputs found
Stellar population analysis of MaNGA early-type galaxies: IMF dependence and systematic effects
We study systematics associated with estimating simple stellar population
(SSP) parameters -- age, metallicity [M/H], -enhancement [/Fe]
and IMF shape -- and associated gradients, of elliptical slow rotators
(E-SRs), fast rotators (E-FRs) and S0s from stacked spectra of galaxies in the
MaNGA survey. These systematics arise from (i) how one normalizes the spectra
when stacking; (ii) having to subtract emission before estimating absorption
line strengths; (iii) the decision to fit the whole spectrum or just a few
absorption lines; (iv) SSP model differences (e.g. isochrones, enrichment,
IMF). The MILES+Padova SSP models, fit to the H, Fe,
TiO and [MgFe] Lick indices in the stacks, indicate that out to
the half-light radius : (a) ages are younger and [/Fe] values are
lower in the central regions but the opposite is true of [M/H]; (b) the IMF is
more bottom-heavy in the center, but is close to Kroupa beyond about ;
(c) this makes about larger in the central regions than
beyond . While the models of Conroy et al. (2018) return similar [M/H]
and [/Fe] profiles, the age and (hence) profiles can differ
significantly even for solar abundances and a Kroupa IMF; different responses
to non-solar abundances and IMF parametrization further compound these
differences. There are clear (model independent) differences between E-SRs,
E-FRs and S0s: younger ages and less enhanced [/Fe] values suggest that
E-FRs and S0s are not SSPs, but relaxing this assumption is unlikely to change
their inferred gradients significantly.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Measuring patient-perceived quality of care in US hospitals using Twitter
BACKGROUND: Patients routinely use Twitter to share feedback about their experience receiving healthcare. Identifying and analysing the content of posts sent to hospitals may provide a novel real-time measure of quality, supplementing traditional, survey-based approaches. OBJECTIVE: To assess the use of Twitter as a supplemental data stream for measuring patient-perceived quality of care in US hospitals and compare patient sentiments about hospitals with established quality measures. DESIGN: 404 065 tweets directed to 2349 US hospitals over a 1-year period were classified as having to do with patient experience using a machine learning approach. Sentiment was calculated for these tweets using natural language processing. 11 602 tweets were manually categorised into patient experience topics. Finally, hospitals with ≥50 patient experience tweets were surveyed to understand how they use Twitter to interact with patients. KEY RESULTS: Roughly half of the hospitals in the US have a presence on Twitter. Of the tweets directed toward these hospitals, 34 725 (9.4%) were related to patient experience and covered diverse topics. Analyses limited to hospitals with ≥50 patient experience tweets revealed that they were more active on Twitter, more likely to be below the national median of Medicare patients (p<0.001) and above the national median for nurse/patient ratio (p=0.006), and to be a non-profit hospital (p<0.001). After adjusting for hospital characteristics, we found that Twitter sentiment was not associated with Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) ratings (but having a Twitter account was), although there was a weak association with 30-day hospital readmission rates (p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Tweets describing patient experiences in hospitals cover a wide range of patient care aspects and can be identified using automated approaches. These tweets represent a potentially untapped indicator of quality and may be valuable to patients, researchers, policy makers and hospital administrators
SDSS-IV MANGA: Spatially Resolved Star Formation Main Sequence and LI(N)ER Sequence
We present our study on the spatially resolved H_alpha and M_star relation
for 536 star-forming and 424 quiescent galaxies taken from the MaNGA survey. We
show that the star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR), derived based on
the H_alpha emissions, is strongly correlated with the M_star surface density
(Sigma_star) on kpc scales for star- forming galaxies and can be directly
connected to the global star-forming sequence. This suggests that the global
main sequence may be a consequence of a more fundamental relation on small
scales. On the other hand, our result suggests that about 20% of quiescent
galaxies in our sample still have star formation activities in the outer region
with lower SSFR than typical star-forming galaxies. Meanwhile, we also find a
tight correlation between Sigma_H_alpha and Sigma_star for LI(N)ER regions,
named the resolved "LI(N)ER" sequence, in quiescent galaxies, which is
consistent with the scenario that LI(N)ER emissions are primarily powered by
the hot, evolved stars as suggested in the literature.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. ApJ Letter accepte
Supersymmetry in quantum mechanics: An extended view
The concept of supersymmetry in a quantum mechanical system is extended,
permitting the recognition of many more supersymmetric systems, including very
familiar ones such as the free particle. Its spectrum is shown to be
supersymmetric, with space-time symmetries used for the explicit construction.
No fermionic or Grassmann variables need to be invoked. Our construction
extends supersymmetry to continuous spectra. Most notably, while the free
particle in one dimension has generally been regarded as having a doubly
degenerate continuum throughout, the construction clarifies taht there is a
single zero energy state at the base of the spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
SSDSS IV MaNGA - Properties of AGN host galaxies
We present here the characterization of the main properties of a sample of 98
AGN host galaxies, both type-II and type-I, in comparison with those of about
2700 non-active galaxies observed by the MaNGA survey. We found that AGN hosts
are morphologically early-type or early-spirals. For a given morphology AGN
hosts are, in average, more massive, more compact, more central peaked and
rather pressurethan rotational-supported systems. We confirm previous results
indicating that AGN hosts are located in the intermediate/transition region
between star-forming and non-star-forming galaxies (i.e., the so-called green
valley), both in the ColorMagnitude and the star formation main sequence
diagrams. Taking into account their relative distribution in terms of the
stellar metallicity and oxygen gas abundance and a rough estimation of their
molecular gas content, we consider that these galaxies are in the process of
halting/quenching the star formation, in an actual transition between both
groups. The analysis of the radial distributions of the starformation rate,
specific star-formation rate, and molecular gas density shows that the
quenching happens from inside-out involving both a decrease of the efficiency
of the star formation and a deficit of molecular gas. All the intermediate
data-products used to derive the results of our analysis are distributed in a
database including the spatial distribution and average properties of the
stellar populations and ionized gas, published as a Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Value Added Catalog being part of the 14th Data Release:
http://www.sdss.org/dr14/manga/manga-data/manga-pipe3d-value-added-catalog/Comment: 48 pages, 14 figures, in press in RMxA
A solution for galactic disks with Yukawian gravitational potential
We present a new solution for the rotation curves of galactic disks with
gravitational potential of the Yukawa type. We follow the technique employed by
Toomre in 1963 in the study of galactic disks in the Newtonian theory. This new
solution allows an easy comparison between the Newtonian solution and the
Yukawian one. Therefore, constraints on the parameters of theories of
gravitation can be imposed, which in the weak field limit reduce to Yukawian
potentials. We then apply our formulae to the study of rotation curves for a
zero-thickness exponential disk and compare it with the Newtonian case studied
by Freeman in 1970. As an application of the mathematical tool developed here,
we show that in any theory of gravity with a massive graviton (this means a
gravitational potential of the Yukawa type), a strong limit can be imposed on
the mass (m_g) of this particle. For example, in order to obtain a galactic
disk with a scale length of b ~ 10 kpc, we should have a massive graviton of
m_g << 10^{-59} g. This result is much more restrictive than those inferred
from solar system observations.Comment: 7 pages; 1 eps figure; to appear in General Relativity and
Gravitatio
The High-Mass End of the Red Sequence at z~0.55 from SDSS-III/BOSS: completeness, bimodality and luminosity function
We have developed an analytical method based on forward-modeling techniques
to characterize the high-mass end of the red sequence (RS) galaxy population at
redshift , from the DR10 BOSS CMASS spectroscopic sample, which
comprises galaxies. The method, which follows an unbinned maximum
likelihood approach, allows the deconvolution of the intrinsic CMASS
colour-colour-magnitude distributions from photometric errors and selection
effects. This procedure requires modeling the covariance matrix for the i-band
magnitude, g-r colour and r-i colour using Stripe 82 multi-epoch data. Our
results indicate that the error-deconvolved intrinsic RS distribution is
consistent, within the photometric uncertainties, with a single point
() in the colour-colour plane at fixed magnitude, for a
narrow redshift slice. We have computed the high-mass end () of the -band RS Luminosity Function (RS LF) in several redshift
slices within the redshift range . In this narrow redshift range,
the evolution of the RS LF is consistent, within the uncertainties in the
modeling, with a passively-evolving model with Mpc mag, fading at a rate of mag per
unit redshift. We report RS completeness as a function of magnitude and
redshift in the CMASS sample, which will facilitate a variety of
galaxy-evolution and clustering studies using BOSS. Our forward-modeling method
lays the foundations for future studies using other dark-energy surveys like
eBOSS or DESI, which are affected by the same type of photometric
blurring/selection effects.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
From Big Bang to Asymptotic de Sitter: Complete Cosmologies in a Quantum Gravity Framework
Using the Einstein-Hilbert approximation of asymptotically safe quantum
gravity we present a consistent renormalization group based framework for the
inclusion of quantum gravitational effects into the cosmological field
equations. Relating the renormalization group scale to cosmological time via a
dynamical cutoff identification this framework applies to all stages of the
cosmological evolution. The very early universe is found to contain a period of
``oscillatory inflation'' with an infinite sequence of time intervals during
which the expansion alternates between acceleration and deceleration. For
asymptotically late times we identify a mechanism which prevents the universe
from leaving the domain of validity of the Einstein-Hilbert approximation and
obtain a classical de Sitter era.Comment: 47 pages, 17 figure
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