19,953 research outputs found
Ultra-Luminous Infrared Mergers: Elliptical Galaxies in Formation?
We report high quality near-infrared spectroscopy of 12 ultra-luminous
infrared galaxy mergers (ULIRGs). Our new VLT and Keck data provide ~0.5"
resolution, stellar and gas kinematics of these galaxies most of which are
compact systems in the last merger stages.
We confirm that ULIRG mergers are 'ellipticals-in-formation'. Random motions
dominate their stellar dynamics, but significant rotation is common. Gas and
stellar dynamics are decoupled in most systems. ULIRGs fall on or near the
fundamental plane of hot stellar systems, and especially on its less evolution
sensitive, r(eff)-sigma projection. The ULIRG velocity dispersion distribution,
their location in the fundamental plane and their distribution of
v(rot)*sin(i)/sigma closely resemble those of intermediate mass (~L*),
elliptical galaxies with moderate rotation. As a group ULIRGs do not resemble
giant ellipticals with large cores and little rotation. Our results are in good
agreement with other recent studies indicating that disky ellipticals with
compact cores or cusps can form through dissipative mergers of gas rich, disk
galaxies while giant ellipticals with large cores have a different formation
history.Comment: submitted to Ap
Dimension Spectra of Lines
This paper investigates the algorithmic dimension spectra of lines in the
Euclidean plane. Given any line L with slope a and vertical intercept b, the
dimension spectrum sp(L) is the set of all effective Hausdorff dimensions of
individual points on L. We draw on Kolmogorov complexity and geometrical
arguments to show that if the effective Hausdorff dimension dim(a, b) is equal
to the effective packing dimension Dim(a, b), then sp(L) contains a unit
interval. We also show that, if the dimension dim(a, b) is at least one, then
sp(L) is infinite. Together with previous work, this implies that the dimension
spectrum of any line is infinite
CTMC calculations of electron capture and ionization in collisions of multiply charged ions with elliptical Rydberg atoms
We have performed classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) studies of electron
capture and ionization in multiply charged (Q=8) ion-Rydberg atom collisions at
intermediate impact velocities. Impact parallel to the minor and to the major
axis, respectively, of the initial Kepler electron ellipse has been
investigated. The important role of the initial electron momentum distribution
found for singly charged ion impact is strongly disminished for higher
projectile charge, while the initial spatial distribution remains important for
all values of Q studied.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure
Critical role of canonical transient receptor potential channel 7 in initiation of seizures
Status epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening disease that has been recognized since antiquity but still causes over 50,000 deaths annually in the United States. The prevailing view on the pathophysiology of SE is that it is sustained by a loss of normal inhibitory mechanisms of neuronal activity. However, the early process leading to the initiation of SE is not well understood. Here, we show that, as seen in electroencephalograms, SE induced by the muscarinic agonist pilocarpine in mice is preceded by a specific increase in the gamma wave, and genetic ablation of canonical transient receptor potential channel (TRPC) 7 significantly reduces this pilocarpine-induced increase of gamma wave activity, preventing the occurrence of SE. At the cellular level, TRPC7 plays a critical role in the generation of spontaneous epileptiform burst firing in cornu ammonis (CA) 3 pyramidal neurons in brain slices. At the synaptic level, TRPC7 plays a significant role in the long-term potentiation at the CA3 recurrent collateral synapses and Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses, but not at the mossy fiber-CA3 synapses. Taken together, our data suggest that epileptiform burst firing generated in the CA3 region by activity-dependent enhancement of recurrent collateral synapses may be an early event in the initiation process of SE and that TRPC7 plays a critical role in this cellular event. Our findings reveal that TRPC7 is intimately involved in the initiation of seizures both in vitro and in vivo. To our knowledge, this contribution to initiation of seizures is the first identified functional role for the TRPC7 ion channel.Fil: Phelan, K. D.. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Shwe, U. T.. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Abramowitz, J.. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Birnbaumer, Lutz. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Zheng, F.. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Estados Unido
The Initial Mass Functions in the Super-Star-Clusters NGC 1569A and NGC 1705-1
I use recent photometric and stellar velocity dispersion measurements of the
super-star-clusters (SSCs) NGC 1569A and NGC 1705-1 to determine their
present-day luminosity/mass (L_V/M) ratios. I then use the inferred L_V/M
ratios, together with population synthesis models of evolving star-clusters, to
constrain the initial-mass-functions (IMFs) in these objects.
I find that (L_V/M)_solar=28.9 in 1569A, and (L_V/M)_solar=126 in 1705-1. It
follows that in 1569A the IMF is steep with alpha~2.5 for m**(-alpha)dm IMFs
which extend to 0.1 M_sun. This implies that most of the stellar mass in 1569A
is contained in low-mass (< 1 M_sun) stars. However, in 1705-1 the IMF is
either flat, with alpha<2$, or it is truncated at a lower mass-limit between 1
and 3 M_sun.
I compare the inferred IMFs with the mass functions (MFs) of Galactic
globular clusters. It appears that 1569A has a sufficient reservoir of low-mass
stars for it to plausibly evolve into an object similar to Galactic globular
clusters. However, the apparent deficiency of low-mass stars in 1705-1 may make
it difficult for this SSC to become a globular cluster. If low-mass stars do
dominate the cluster mass in 1705-1, the large L_V/M ratio in this SSC may be
evidence that the most massive stars have formed close to the cluster cores.Comment: ApJ, in press. 19 Pages, Latex; [email protected]
Measures of galaxy dust and gas mass with Herschel photometry and prospects for ALMA
(Abridged) Combining the deepest Herschel extragalactic surveys (PEP,
GOODS-H, HerMES), and Monte Carlo mock catalogs, we explore the robustness of
dust mass estimates based on modeling of broad band spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) with two popular approaches: Draine & Li (2007, DL07) and
a modified black body (MBB). As long as the observed SED extends to at least
160-200 micron in the rest frame, M(dust) can be recovered with a >3 sigma
significance and without the occurrence of systematics. An average offset of a
factor ~1.5 exists between DL07- and MBB-based dust masses, based on consistent
dust properties. At the depth of the deepest Herschel surveys (in the GOODS-S
field) it is possible to retrieve dust masses with a S/N>=3 for galaxies on the
main sequence of star formation (MS) down to M(stars)~1e10 [M(sun)] up to z~1.
At higher redshift (z<=2) the same result is achieved only for objects at the
tip of the MS or lying above it. Molecular gas masses, obtained converting
M(dust) through the metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust ratio delta(GDR), are
consistent with those based on the scaling of depletion time, and on CO
spectroscopy. Focusing on CO-detected galaxies at z>1, the delta(GDR)
dependence on metallicity is consistent with the local relation. We combine
far-IR Herschel data and sub-mm ALMA expected fluxes to study the advantages of
a full SED coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Some figures
have degraded quality for filesize reason
Dusty Sources at the Galactic Center: The N- and Q-band view with VISIR
We present mid-infrared N- and Q-band photometry of the Galactic Center from
images obtained with the mid-infrared camera VISIR at the ESO VLT in May 2004.
The high resolution and sensitivity possible with VISIR enables us to
investigate a total of over 60 point-like sources, an unprecedented number for
the Galactic Center at these wavelengths. Combining these data with previous
results at shorter wavelengths (Viehmann et al. 2005) enables us to construct
SEDs covering the H- to Q-band regions of the spectrum, i.e. 1.6 to 19.5
m. We find that the SEDs of certain types of Galactic Center sources show
characteristic features. We can clearly distinguish between luminous Northern
Arm bow-shock sources, lower luminosity bow-shock sources, hot stars, and cool
stars. This characterization may help clarify the status of presently
unclassified sources.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
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