250 research outputs found
Model for Gravitational Interaction between Dark Matter and Baryons
We propose a phenomenological model where the gravitational interaction
between dark matter and baryons is suppressed on small, subgalactic scales. We
describe the gravitational force by adding a Yukawa contribution to the
standard Newtonian potential and show that this interaction scheme is
effectively suggested by the available observations of the inner rotation
curves of small mass galaxies. Besides helping in interpreting the cuspy
profile of dark matter halos observed in N-body simulations, this potential
regulates the quantity of baryons within halos of different masses.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, final versio
Highly-Ionized High-Velocity Gas in the Vicinity of the Galaxy
We report the results of an extensive FUSE study of high velocity OVI
absorption along 102 complete sight lines through the Galactic halo. The high
velocity OVI traces a variety of phenomena, including tidal interactions with
the Magellanic Clouds, accretion of gas, outflow from the Galactic disk,
warm/hot gas interactions in a highly extended Galactic corona, and
intergalactic gas in the Local Group. We identify 85 high velocity OVI features
at velocities of -500 < v(LSR) < +500 km/s along 59 of the 102 sight lines.
Approximately 60% of the sky (and perhaps as much as 85%) is covered by high
velocity H+ associated with the high velocity OVI. Some of the OVI is
associated with known high velocity HI structures (e.g., the Magellanic Stream,
Complexes A and C), while some OVI features have no counterpart in HI 21cm
emission. The smaller dispersion in the OVI velocities in the GSR and LGSR
reference frames compared to the LSR is necessary (but not conclusive) evidence
that some of the clouds are extragalactic. Most of the OVI cannot be produced
by photoionization, even if the gas is irradiated by extragalactic background
radiation. Collisions in hot gas are the primary OVI ionization mechanism. We
favor production of some of the OVI at the boundaries between warm clouds and a
highly extended [R > 70 kpc], hot [T > 10^6 K], low-density [n < 10^-4 cm^-3]
Galactic corona or Local Group medium. A hot Galactic corona or Local Group
medium and the prevalence of high velocity OVI are consistent with predictions
of galaxy formation scenarios. Distinguishing between the various phenomena
producing high velocity OVI will require continuing studies of the distances,
kinematics, elemental abundances, and physical states of the different types of
high velocity OVI features found in this study. (abbreviated)Comment: 78 pages of text/tables + 31 figures, AASTeX preprint format. All
figures are in PNG format due to astro-ph space restrictions. Bound copies of
manuscript and two accompanying articles are available upon request.
Submitted to ApJ
Scenario analysis for the San Pedro River, analyzing hydrological consequences of a future environment.
Abstract. Studies of future management and policy options based on different assumptions provide a mechanism to examine possible outcomes and especially their likely benefits and consequences. The San Pedro River in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico is an area that has undergone rapid changes in land use and cover, and subsequently is facing keen environmental crises related to water resources. It is the location of a number of studies that have dealt with change analysis, watershed condition, and most recently, alternative futures analysis. The previous work has dealt primarily with resources of habitat, visual quality, and groundwater related to urban development patterns and preferences. In the present study, previously defined future scenarios, in the form of land-use/land-cover grids, were examined relative to their impact on surface-water conditions (e.g., surface runoff and sediment yield). These hydrological outputs were estimated for the baseline year of 2000 and predicted twenty years in the future as a demonstration of how new geographic information system-based hydrologic modeling tools can be used to evaluate the spatial impacts of urban growth patterns on surface-water hydrology
Modeling Urban Hydrology and Green Infrastructure Using the AGWA Urban Tool and the KINEROS2 Model
Urban hydrology and green infrastructure (GI) can be modeled using the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) Urban tool and the Kinematic Runoff and Erosion (KINEROS2) model. The KINEROS2 model provides an urban modeling element with nine overland flow components that can be used to represent various land cover types commonly found in the built environment while treating runoff-runon and infiltration processes in a physically based manner. The AGWA Urban tool utilizes a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework to prepare parameters required for KINEROS2, executes the model, and imports results for visualization in the GIS. The AGWA Urban tool was validated on a residential subdivision in Arizona, USA, using 47 rainfall events (June 2005 to September 2006) to compare observed runoff volumes and peak flow rates with simulated results. Comparison of simulated and observed runoff volumes resulted in a slope of 1.00 for the regression equation with an R2 value of 0.80. Comparison of observed and simulated peak flows had a slope of 1.12 with an R2 value of 0.83. A roof runoff analysis was simulated for 787 events, from January 2006 through December 2015, to analyze the water availability from roof runoff capture. Simulation results indicated a 15% capture of the average monthly rainfall volume on the watershed. Additionally, rainwater captured from roofs has the potential to provide for up to 70% of the domestic annual per capita water use in this region. Five different scenarios (S1 - base, S2 - with retention basins, S3 - with permeable driveways, S4 - with rainwater harvesting cisterns, and S5 - all GI practices from S2, S3, and S4) were simulated over the same period to compare the effectiveness of GI implementation at the parcel level on runoff and peak flows at the watershed outlet. Simulation results indicate a higher runoff volume reduction for S2 (53.41 m3 average capacity, average 30% reduction) as compared to S3 (average 14% reduction), or S4 (3.78 m3 capacity, average 6% reduction). Analysis of peak flows reveal larger peak flow reduction for S2. S3 showed more reduction of smaller peak flows as compared to S4
Observational evidence for self-interacting cold dark matter
Cosmological models with cold dark matter composed of weakly interacting
particles predict overly dense cores in the centers of galaxies and clusters
and an overly large number of halos within the Local Group compared to actual
observations. We propose that the conflict can be resolved if the cold dark
matter particles are self-interacting with a large scattering cross-section but
negligible annihilation or dissipation. In this scenario, astronomical
observations may enable us to study dark matter properties that are
inaccessible in the laboratoryComment: 4 pages, no figures; added references, pedagogical improvements, to
appear in PR
An Automated Cluster Finder: the Adaptive Matched Filter
We describe an automated method for detecting clusters of galaxies in imaging
and redshift galaxy surveys. The Adaptive Matched Filter (AMF) method utilizes
galaxy positions, magnitudes, and---when available---photometric or
spectroscopic redshifts to find clusters and determine their redshift and
richness. The AMF can be applied to most types of galaxy surveys: from
two-dimensional (2D) imaging surveys, to multi-band imaging surveys with
photometric redshifts of any accuracy (2.5D), to three-dimensional (3D)
redshift surveys. The AMF can also be utilized in the selection of clusters in
cosmological N-body simulations. The AMF identifies clusters by finding the
peaks in a cluster likelihood map generated by convolving a galaxy survey with
a filter based on a model of the cluster and field galaxy distributions. In
tests on simulated 2D and 2.5D data with a magnitude limit of r' ~ 23.5,
clusters are detected with an accuracy of Delta z ~ 0.02 in redshift and ~10%
in richness to z < 0.5. Detecting clusters at higher redshifts is possible with
deeper surveys. In this paper we present the theory behind the AMF and describe
test results on synthetic galaxy catalogs.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, accepted to Ap
Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Agricultural Marketing Conference "Government and Marketing"
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: the group catalogue
[Abridged] We present a homogeneous and complete catalogue of optical groups
identified in the purely flux limited (17.5<=I<=24.0) VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey
(VVDS). We use mock catalogues extracted from the MILLENNIUM simulation, to
correct for potential systematics that might affect the overall distribution as
well as the individual properties of the identified systems. Simulated samples
allow us to forecast the number and properties of groups that can be
potentially found in a survey with VVDS-like selection functions. We use them
to correct for the expected incompleteness and also to asses how well galaxy
redshifts trace the line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the underlying mass
overdensity. In particular, we train on these mock catalogues the adopted
group-finding technique (the Voronoi-Delaunay Method, VDM). The goal is to
fine-tune its free parameters, recover in a robust and unbiased way the
redshift and velocity dispersion distributions of groups and maximize the level
of completeness (C) and purity (P) of the group catalogue. We identify 318 VVDS
groups with at least 2 members within 0.2<=z<=1.0, among which 144 (/30) with
at least 3 (/5) members. The sample has globally C=60% and P=50%. Nearly 45% of
the groups with at least 3 members are still recovered if we run the algorithm
with a parameter set which maximizes P (75%). We exploit the group sample to
study the redshift evolution of the fraction f_b of blue galaxies (U-B<=1)
within 0.2<=z<=1. We find that f_b is significantly lower in groups than in the
whole ensemble of galaxies irrespectively of their environment. These
quantities increase with redshift, with f_b in groups showing a marginally
significant steeper increase. We also confirm that, at any explored redshift,
f_b decreases for increasing group richness, and we extend towards fainter
luminosities the magnitude range over which this result holds.Comment: Submitted to A&A, revised version after referee comments, Table 5
adde
Detecting clusters of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Monte Carlo comparison of cluster detection algorithms
We present a comparison of three cluster-finding algorithms from imaging data using Monte Carlo simulations of clusters embedded in a 25 deg(2) region of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data: the matched filter (MF; Postman et al., published in 1996), the adaptive matched filter (AMF; Kepner et al., published in 1999), and a color-magnitude filtered Voronoi tessellation technique (VTT). Among the two matched filters, we find that the MF is more efficient in detecting faint clusters, whereas the AMF evaluates the redshifts and richnesses more accurately, therefore suggesting a hybrid method (HMF) that combines the two. The HMF outperforms the VTT when using a background that is uniform, but it is more sensitive to the presence of a nonuniform galaxy background than is the VTT; this is due to the assumption of a uniform background in the HMF model. We thus find that for the detection thresholds we determine to be appropriate for the SDSS data, the performance of both algorithms are similar; we present the selection function for each method evaluated with these thresholds as a function of redshift and richness. For simulated clusters generated with a Schechter luminosity function ( M-r* = -21.5 and alpha = 1.1), both algorithms are complete for Abell richness greater than or similar to1 clusters up to z similar to 4 for a sample magnitude limited to r = 21. While the cluster parameter evaluation shows a mild correlation with the local background density, the detection efficiency is not significantly affected by the background fluctuations, unlike previous shallower surveys
Inside the whale: the structure and dynamics of the isolated Cetus dwarf spheroidal
This paper presents a study of the Cetus dwarf, an isolated dwarf galaxy
within the Local Group. A matched-filter analysis of the INT/WFC imaging of
this system reveals no evidence for significant tidal debris that could have
been torn from the galaxy, bolstering the hypothesis that Cetus has never
significantly interacted with either the Milky Way or M31. Additionally,
Keck/Deimos spectroscopic observations identify this galaxy as a distinct
kinematic population possessing a systematic velocity of $-87\pm2{\rm km\
s^{-1}}17\pm2{\rm km s^{-1}}\sim8{\rm km s^{-1}}{\rm [Fe/H]\sim-1.9}M/L\sim70\gta2\times10^{12}M_\odot$.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
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