Chandra deep X-ray observation on the Galactic plane

Using the Chandra ACIS-I instruments, we have carried out the deepest X-ray observation on a typical Galactic plane region at l 28.5 deg, where no discrete X-ray sources have been known previously. We have detected, as well as strong diffuse emission, 275 new point X-ray sources (4 sigma confidence) within two partially overlapping fields (~250 arcmin^2 in total) down to ~3 x 10^{-15} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} (2 -- 10 keV) or ~ 7 x 10^{-16} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} (0.5 -- 2 keV). We have studied spectral distribution of these point sources, and found that very soft sources detected only below ~ 3 keV are more numerous than hard sources detected only above ~ 3 keV. Only small number of sources are detected both in the soft and hard bands. Surface density of the hard sources is almost consistent with that at high Galactic regions, thus most of the hard sources are considered to be Active Galactic Nuclei seen through the milky way. On the other hand, some of the bright hard X-ray sources which show extremely flat spectra and iron line or edge features are considered to be Galactic, presumably quiescent dwarf novae. The soft sources show thermal spectra and small interstellar hydrogen column densities, and some of them exhibit X-ray flares. Therefore, most of the soft sources are probably X-ray active nearby late type stars.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the "New Visions of the X-Ray Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra Era" symposium at ESTEC, The Netherlands. 26-30 Nov. 200

Fourth-order gravity as the inflationary model revisited

We revisit the old (fourth-order or quadratically generated) gravity model of Starobinsky in four space-time dimensions, and derive the (inflaton) scalar potential in the equivalent scalar-tensor gravity model via a Legendre-Weyl transform. The inflaton scalar potential is used to compute the (CMB) observables of inflation associated with curvature perturbations (namely, the scalar and tensor spectral indices, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio), including the new next-to-leading-order terms with respect to the inverse number of e-foldings. The results are compared to the recent (WMAP5) experimental bounds. We confirm both mathematical and physical equivalence between f(R) gravity theories and the corresponding scalar-tensor gravity theories.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, LaTeX; few comments added, style improved, references added and update

Slow-roll inflation in (R+R*4) gravity

We reconsider the toy-model of topological inflation, based on the R*4-modified gravity. By using its equivalence to the certain scalar-tensor gravity model in four space-time dimensions, we compute the inflaton scalar potential and investigate a possibility of inflation. We confirm the existence of the slow-roll inflation with an exit. However, the model suffers from the eta-problem that gives rise to the unacceptable value of the spectral index n_s of scalar perturbations.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, misprints corrected and references update

Large-scale distributions of mid- and far-infrared emission from the center to the halo of M82 revealed with AKARI

The edge-on starburst galaxy M82 exhibits complicated distributions of gaseous materials in its halo, which include ionized superwinds driven by nuclear starbursts, neutral materials entrained by the superwinds, and large-scale neutral streamers probably caused by a past tidal interaction with M81. We investigate detailed distributions of dust grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) around M82 to understand their interplay with the gaseous components. We performed mid- (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) observations of M82 with the Infrared Camera and Far-Infrared Surveyor on board AKARI. We obtain new MIR and FIR images of M82, which reveal both faint extended emission in the halo and very bright emission in the center with signal dynamic ranges as large as five and three orders of magnitude for the MIR and FIR, respectively. We detect MIR and FIR emission in the regions far away from the disk of the galaxy, reflecting the presence of dust and PAHs in the halo of M82. We find that the dust and PAHs are contained in both ionized and neutral gas components, implying that they have been expelled into the halo of M82 by both starbursts and galaxy interaction. In particular, we obtain a tight correlation between the PAH and H$\alpha$ emission, which provides evidence that the PAHs are well mixed in the ionized superwind gas and outflowing from the disk.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Dust properties in the cold and hot gas phases of the ATLAS3D early-type galaxies as revealed by AKARI

The properties of the dust in the cold and hot gas phases of early-type galaxies (ETGs) are key to understand ETG evolution. We thus conducted a systematic study of the dust in a large sample of local ETGs, focusing on relations between the dust and the molecular, atomic, and X-ray gas of the galaxies, as well as their environment. We estimated the dust temperatures and masses of the 260 ETGs from the ATLAS3D survey, using fits to their spectral energy distributions primarily constructed from AKARI measurements. We also used literature measurements of the cold (CO and HI) and X-ray gas phases. Our ETGs show no correlation between their dust and stellar masses, suggesting inefficient dust production by stars and/or dust destruction in X-ray gas. The global dust-to-gas mass ratios of ETGs are generally lower than those of late-type galaxies, likely due to dust-poor HI envelopes in ETGs. They are also higher in Virgo Cluster ETGs than in group and field ETGs, but the same ratios measured in the central parts of the galaxies only are independent of galaxy environment. Slow-rotating ETGs have systematically lower dust masses than fast-rotating ETGs. The dust masses and X-ray luminosities are correlated in fast-rotating ETGs, whose star formation rates are also correlated with the X-ray luminosities. The correlation between dust and X-rays in fast-rotating ETGs appears to be caused by residual star formation, while slow-rotating ETGs are likely well evolved, and thus exhausting their dust. These results appear consistent with the postulated evolution of ETGs, whereby fast-rotating ETGs form by mergers of late-type galaxies and associated bulge growth, while slow-rotating ETGs form by (dry) mergers of fast-rotating ETGs. Central cold dense gas appears to be resilient against ram pressure stripping, suggesting that Virgo Cluster ETGs may not suffer strong related star formation suppression.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Non-local interactions in hydrodynamic turbulence at high Reynolds numbers: the slow emergence of scaling laws

We analyze the data stemming from a forced incompressible hydrodynamic simulation on a grid of 2048^3 regularly spaced points, with a Taylor Reynolds number of Re~1300. The forcing is given by the Taylor-Green flow, which shares similarities with the flow in several laboratory experiments, and the computation is run for ten turnover times in the turbulent steady state. At this Reynolds number the anisotropic large scale flow pattern, the inertial range, the bottleneck, and the dissipative range are clearly visible, thus providing a good test case for the study of turbulence as it appears in nature. Triadic interactions, the locality of energy fluxes, and structure functions of the velocity increments are computed. A comparison with runs at lower Reynolds numbers is performed, and shows the emergence of scaling laws for the relative amplitude of local and non-local interactions in spectral space. The scalings of the Kolmogorov constant, and of skewness and flatness of velocity increments, performed as well and are consistent with previous experimental results. Furthermore, the accumulation of energy in the small-scales associated with the bottleneck seems to occur on a span of wavenumbers that is independent of the Reynolds number, possibly ruling out an inertial range explanation for it. Finally, intermittency exponents seem to depart from standard models at high Re, leaving the interpretation of intermittency an open problem.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Large-scale distributions of mid- and far-infrared emission from the center to the halo of M82 revealed with AKARI

The edge-on starburst galaxy M82 exhibits complicated distributions of gaseous materials in its halo, which include ionized superwinds driven by nuclear starbursts, neutral materials entrained by the superwinds, and large-scale neutral streamers probably caused by a past tidal interaction with M81. We investigate detailed distributions of dust grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) around M82 to understand their interplay with the gaseous components. We performed mid- (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) observations of M82 with the Infrared Camera and Far-Infrared Surveyor on board AKARI. We obtain new MIR and FIR images of M82, which reveal both faint extended emission in the halo and very bright emission in the center with signal dynamic ranges as large as five and three orders of magnitude for the MIR and FIR, respectively. We detect MIR and FIR emission in the regions far away from the disk of the galaxy, reflecting the presence of dust and PAHs in the halo of M82. We find that the dust and PAHs are contained in both ionized and neutral gas components, implying that they have been expelled into the halo of M82 by both starbursts and galaxy interaction. In particular, we obtain a tight correlation between the PAH and H$\alpha$ emission, which provides evidence that the PAHs are well mixed in the ionized superwind gas and outflowing from the disk.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Unusual PAH Emission in Nearby Early-Type Galaxies: A Signature of an Intermediate Age Stellar Population?

We present the analysis of Spitzer-IRS spectra of four early-type galaxies, NGC 1297, NGC 5044, NGC 6868, and NGC 7079, all classified as LINERs in the optical bands. Their IRS spectra present the full series of H2 rotational emission lines in the range 5--38 microns, atomic lines, and prominent PAH features. We investigate the nature and origin of the PAH emission, characterized by unusually low 6 -- 9/11.3 microns inter-band ratios. After the subtraction of a passive early type galaxy template, we find that the 7 -- 9 microns spectral region requires dust features not normally present in star forming galaxies. Each spectrum is then analyzed with the aim of identifying their components and origin. In contrast to normal star forming galaxies, where cationic PAH emission prevails, our 6--14 microns spectra seem to be dominated by large and neutral PAH emission, responsible for the low 6 -- 9/11.3 microns ratios, plus two broad dust emission features peaking at 8.2 microns and 12 microns. Theses broad components, observed until now mainly in evolved carbon stars and usually attributed to pristine material, contribute approximately 30-50% of the total PAH flux in the 6--14 microns region. We propose that the PAH molecules in our ETGs arise from fresh carbonaceous material which is continuously released by a population of carbon stars, formed in a rejuvenation episode which occurred within the last few Gyr. The analysis of the MIR spectra allows us to infer that, in order to maintain the peculiar size and charge distributions biased to large and neutral PAHs, this material must be shocked, and excited by the weak UV interstellar radiation field of our ETG.Comment: ApJ accepte

Monte Carlo renormalization group study of the Heisenberg and XY antiferromagnet on the stacked triangular lattice and the chiral ϕ4\phi^4 model

With the help of the improved Monte Carlo renormalization-group scheme, we numerically investigate the renormalization group flow of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg and XY spin model on the stacked triangular lattice (STA-model) and its effective Hamiltonian, 2N-component chiral $\phi^4$ model which is used in the field-theoretical studies. We find that the XY-STA model with the lattice size $126\times 144 \times 126$ exhibits clear first-order behavior. We also find that the renormalization-group flow of STA model is well reproduced by the chiral $\phi^4$ model, and that there are no chiral fixed point of renormalization-group flow for N=2 and 3 cases. This result indicates that the Heisenberg-STA model also undergoes first-order transition.Comment: v1:15 pages, 15 figures v2:updated references v3:added comments on the higher order irrelevant scaling variables v4:added results of larger sizes v5:final version to appear in J.Phys.Soc.Jpn Vol.72, No.

Finite-Temperature Phase Structure of Lattice QCD with the Wilson Quark Action for Two and Four Flavors

We present further analyses of the finite-temperature phase structure of lattice QCD with the Wilson quark action based on spontaneous breakdown of parity-flavor symmetry. Results are reported on (i) an explicit demonstration of spontaneous breakdown of parity-flavor symmetry beyond the critical line, (ii) phase structure and order of chiral transition for the case of $N_f=4$ flavors, and (iii) approach toward the continuum limit.Comment: Poster presented at LATTICE96(finite temperature); 4 pages, Latex, uses espcrc2 and epsf, seven ps figures include