21,131 research outputs found
X-ray Emission from Haloes of Simulated Disc Galaxies
Bolometric and 0.2-2 keV X-ray luminosities of the hot gas haloes of
simulated disc galaxies have been calculated at redshift z=0. The TreeSPH
simulations are fully cosmological and the sample of 44 disc galaxies span a
range in characteristic circular speeds of V_c = 130-325 km/s. The galaxies
have been obtained in simulations with a considerable range of physical
parameters, varying the baryonic fraction, the gas metallicity, the
meta-galactic UV field, the cosmology, the dark matter type, and also the
numerical resolution. The models are found to be in agreement with the (few)
relevant X-ray observations available at present. The amount of hot gas in the
haloes is also consistent with constraints from pulsar dispersion measures in
the Milky Way. Forthcoming XMM and Chandra observations should enable much more
stringent tests and provide constraints on the physical parameters. We find
that simple cooling flow models over-predict X-ray luminosities by up to two
orders of magnitude for high (but still realistic) cooling efficiencies
relative to the models presented here. Our results display a clear trend that
increasing cooling efficiency leads to decreasing X-ray luminosities at z=0.
The reason is found to be that increased cooling efficiency leads to a
decreased fraction of hot gas relative to total baryonic mass inside of the
virial radius at present. At gas metal abundances of a third solar this hot gas
fraction becomes as low as just a few percent. We also find that most of the
X-ray emission comes from the inner parts (inner about 20 kpc) of the hot
galactic haloes. Finally, we find for realistic choices of the physical
parameters that disc galaxy haloes possibly were more than one order of
magnitude brighter in soft X-ray emission at z=1, than at present.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS LaTeX forma
Stable and Unstable Circular Strings in Inflationary Universes
It was shown by Garriga and Vilenkin that the circular shape of nucleated
cosmic strings, of zero loop-energy in de Sitter space, is stable in the sense
that the ratio of the mean fluctuation amplitude to the loop radius is
constant. This result can be generalized to all expanding strings (of non-zero
loop-energy) in de Sitter space. In other curved spacetimes the situation,
however, may be different.
In this paper we develop a general formalism treating fluctuations around
circular strings embedded in arbitrary spatially flat FRW spacetimes. As
examples we consider Minkowski space, de Sitter space and power law expanding
universes. In the special case of power law inflation we find that in certain
cases the fluctuations grow much slower that the radius of the underlying
unperturbed circular string. The inflation of the universe thus tends to wash
out the fluctuations and to stabilize these strings.Comment: 15 pages Latex, NORDITA 94/14-
New Distribution Records of Ground Beetles From the North Central United States (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
We report 39 ground beetles new to five states in the upper midwestern United States. These species records include 19 new to Illinois (all but one from Lake County), 11 from Iowa, three from South Dakota, eight from Wisconsin, and two from Michigan. (Three species are new to more than one state). Enigmatically disjunct collections include the myrmecophile, Helluomorphoides nigripennis from western Illinois, known previously only from the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain and piedmont, and Chlaenius amoenus, reported only from southeastern states and now from northeast Iowa
Monitoring of the prompt radio emission from the unusual supernova 2004dj in NGC2403
Supernova 2004dj in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC2403 was detected optically
in July 2004. Peaking at a magnitude of 11.2, this is the brightest supernova
detected for several years. Here we present Multi-Element Radio Linked
Interferometer Network (MERLIN) observations of this source, made over a four
month period, which give a position of R.A. = 07h37m17.044s, Dec
=+65deg35'57.84" (J2000.0). We also present a well-sampled 5 GHz light curve
covering the period from 5 August to 2 December 2004. With the exception of the
unusual and very close SN 1987A, these observations represent the first
detailed radio light curve for the prompt emission from a Type II-P supernova.Comment: (1) Jodrell Bank Observatory (2) University of Valencia (3)
University of Sheffield 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in ApJ letter
Circular String-Instabilities in Curved Spacetime
We investigate the connection between curved spacetime and the emergence of
string-instabilities, following the approach developed by Loust\'{o} and
S\'{a}nchez for de Sitter and black hole spacetimes. We analyse the linearised
equations determining the comoving physical (transverse) perturbations on
circular strings embedded in Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m and de
Sitter backgrounds. In all 3 cases we find that the "radial" perturbations grow
infinitely for (ring-collapse), while the "angular"
perturbations are bounded in this limit. For we find that
the perturbations in both physical directions (perpendicular to the string
world-sheet in 4 dimensions) blow up in the case of de Sitter space. This
confirms results recently obtained by Loust\'{o} and S\'{a}nchez who considered
perturbations around the string center of mass.Comment: 24 pages Latex + 2 figures (not included). Observatoire de Paris,
Meudon No. 9305
Potential formation sites of super star clusters in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies
Recent observational results on high spatial resolution images of
ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) have revealed very luminous, young,
compact, and heavily obscured super star clusters in their central regions,
suggested to be formed by gas-rich major mergers. By using stellar and gaseous
numerical simulations of galaxy mergers, we firstly demonstrate that the
central regions of ULIGs are the most promising formation sites of super star
clusters owing to the rather high gaseous pressure of the interstellar medium.
Based on simple analytical arguments, we secondly discuss the possibility that
super star clusters in an ULIG can be efficiently transferred into the nuclear
region owing to dynamical friction and consequently merge with one another to
form a single compact stellar nucleus with a seed massive black hole. We thus
suggest that multiple merging between super star clusters formed by nuclear
starbursts in the central regions of ULIGs can result in the formation of
massive black holes.Comment: 12 pages 4 figures, 2001, accepted by ApJ
The Holographic Universe
We present a holographic description of four-dimensional single-scalar
inflationary universes in terms of a three-dimensional quantum field theory.
The holographic description correctly reproduces standard inflationary
predictions in their regime of applicability. In the opposite case, wherein
gravity is strongly coupled at early times, we propose a holographic
description in terms of perturbative QFT and present models capable of
satisfying the current observational constraints while exhibiting a
phenomenology distinct from standard inflation. This provides a qualitatively
new method for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of primordial
cosmological perturbations.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figs; extended version of arXiv:0907.5542 including
background material and detailed derivations. To appear in Proceedings of 1st
Mediterranean Conference on Classical and Quantum Gravit
A Semiconductor Nanowire-Based Superconducting Qubit
We introduce a hybrid qubit based on a semiconductor nanowire with an
epitaxially grown superconductor layer. Josephson energy of the transmon-like
device ("gatemon") is controlled by an electrostatic gate that depletes
carriers in a semiconducting weak link region. Strong coupling to an on-chip
microwave cavity and coherent qubit control via gate voltage pulses is
demonstrated, yielding reasonably long relaxation times (0.8 {\mu}s) and
dephasing times (1 {\mu}s), exceeding gate operation times by two orders of
magnitude, in these first-generation devices. Because qubit control relies on
voltages rather than fluxes, dissipation in resistive control lines is reduced,
screening reduces crosstalk, and the absence of flux control allows operation
in a magnetic field, relevant for topological quantum information
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