338 research outputs found
Three-dimensional orbits of metal-poor halo stars and the formation of the Galaxy
We present the three-dimensional orbital motions of metal-poor stars in
conjunction with their metal abundances, for the purpose of getting insight
into the formation process of the Galaxy. Our sample stars, which include
metal-deficient red giants and RR Lyrae variables observed by the Hipparcos
satellite, are least affected by known systematics, stemmed from kinematic
bias, metallicity calibration, and secondary metal contamination of stellar
surface. We find, for the stars in the metallicity range of [Fe/H]<-1, that
there is no evidence for the correlation between [Fe/H] and their orbital
eccentricities e. Even for [Fe/H]<-1.6, about 16% of the stars have e less than
0.4. We show that the e distribution of orbits for [Fe/H]<-1.6 is independent
of the height |z| away from the Galactic plane, whereas for [Fe/H]>-1.6 the
stars at |z|>1 kpc are systematically devoid of low-e orbits with e<0.6. This
indicates that low-e stars with [Fe/H]<-1.6 belong to the halo component,
whereas the rapidly-rotating thick disk with a scale height about 1 kpc has a
metal-weak tail in the range of -1.6<[Fe/H]<-1. The fraction of this metal-weak
thick disk appears to be only less than 20%. The significance of these results
for the early evolution of the Galaxy is briefly discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, AASTeX, to appear in ApJ Letter
Evolution of Beryllium and Boron in the Inhomogeneous Early Galaxy
A model of supernova-driven chemical evolution of the Galactic halo, recently
proposed by Tsujimoto, Shigeyama, & Yoshii (1999, ApJL, 519, 64), is extended
in order to investigate the evolution of light elements such as Be and B (BeB),
which are produced mainly through spallative reactions with Galactic cosmic
rays. In this model each supernova sweeps up the surrounding interstellar gas
into a dense shell and directly enriches it with ejecta which consist of heavy
elements produced in each Type II supernova with different progenitor masses.
We propose a two-component source for GCRs such that both interstellar gas and
fresh SN ejecta engulfed in the shell are accelerated by the shock wave. Our
model results include: (1) a prediction of the intrinsic scatter in BeB and
[Fe/H] abundances within the model, (2) a successful prediction of the observed
linear trend between BeB and [Fe/H], (3) a proposal for using BeB as a cosmic
clock, as an alternative to [Fe/H], and (4) a method for possibly constraining
the BBN model from future observations of metal-poor stars.Comment: 3 color figures in 7 pages, accepted by ApJ Letter
Age Dating of a High-Redshift QSO B1422+231 at Z=3.62 and its Cosmological Implications
The observed Fe II(UV+optical)/Mg II lambda lambda 2796,2804 flux ratio from
a gravitationally lensed quasar B1422+231 at z=3.62 is interpreted in terms of
detailed modeling of photoionization and chemical enrichment in the broad-line
region (BLR) of the host galaxy. The delayed iron enrichment by Type Ia
supernovae is used as a cosmic clock. Our standard model, which matches the Fe
II/Mg II ratio, requires the age of 1.5 Gyr for B1422+231 with a lower bound of
1.3 Gyr, which exceeds the expansion age of the Einstein-de Sitter Omega_0=1
universe at a redshift of 3.62 for any value of the Hubble constant in the
currently accepted range, H_0=60-80 km,s^{-1},Mpc^{-1}. This problem of an age
discrepancy at z=3.62 can be unraveled in a low-density Omega_0<0.2 universe,
either with or without a cosmological constant, depending on the allowable
redshift range of galaxy formation. However, whether the cosmological constant
is a required option in modern cosmology awaits a thorough understanding of
line transfer processes in the BLRs.Comment: 7 pages including 3 figures, to appear in ApJ Letter
Does the Number Density of Elliptical Galaxies Change at z<1?
We have performed a detailed V/Vmax test for a sample of the Canada-France
Redshift Survey (CFRS) for the purpose of examining whether the comoving number
density of field galaxies changes significantly at redshifts of z<1. Taking
into account the luminosity evolution of galaxies which depends on their
morphological type through different history of star formation, we obtain
\sim 0.5 in the range of 0.3<z<0.8, where reliable redshifts were
secured by spectroscopy of either absorption or emission lines for the CFRS
sample. This indicates that a picture of mild evolution of field galaxies
without significant mergers is consistent with the CFRS data. Early-type
galaxies, selected by their (V-I)_{AB} color, become unnaturally deficient in
number at z>0.8 due to the selection bias, thereby causing a fictitious
decrease of . We therefore conclude that a reasonable choice of upper
bound of redshift z \sim 0.8 in the V/Vmax test saves the picture of passive
evolution for field ellipticals in the CFRS sample, which was rejected by
Kauffman, Charlot, & White (1996) without confining the redshift range.
However, about 10% of the CFRS sample consists of galaxies having colors much
bluer than predicted for irregular galaxies, and their \avmax is significantly
larger than 0.5. We discuss this population of extremely blue galaxies in terms
of starburst that has just turned on at their observed redshifts.Comment: 11 pages including 3 figures, to appear in ApJ Letter
First Detection of Near-Infrared Intraday Variations in the Seyfert 1 Nucleus NGC4395
We carried out a one-night optical V and near-infrared JHK monitoring
observation of the least luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC4395, on 2004 May 1, and
detected for the first time the intraday flux variations in the J and H bands,
while such variation was not clearly seen for the K band. The detected J and H
variations are synchronized with the flux variation in the V band, which
indicates that the intraday-variable component of near-infrared continuum
emission of the NGC4395 nucleus is an extension of power-law continuum emission
to the near-infrared and originates in an outer region of the central accretion
disk. On the other hand, from our regular program of long-term optical BVI and
near-infrared JHK monitoring observation of NGC4395 from 2004 February 12 until
2005 January 22, we found large flux variations in all the bands on time scales
of days to months. The optical BVI variations are almost synchronized with each
other, but not completely with the near-infrared JHK variations. The color
temperature of the near-infrared variable component is estimated to be
T=1320-1710 K, in agreement with thermal emission from hot dust tori in active
galactic nuclei (AGNs). We therefore conclude that the near-infrared variation
consists of two components having different time scales, so that a small K-flux
variation on a time scale of a few hours would possibly be veiled by large
variation of thermal dust emission on a time scale of days.Comment: 4 pages including figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Coupled Replicator Equations for the Dynamics of Learning in Multiagent Systems
Starting with a group of reinforcement-learning agents we derive coupled
replicator equations that describe the dynamics of collective learning in
multiagent systems. We show that, although agents model their environment in a
self-interested way without sharing knowledge, a game dynamics emerges
naturally through environment-mediated interactions. An application to
rock-scissors-paper game interactions shows that the collective learning
dynamics exhibits a diversity of competitive and cooperative behaviors. These
include quasiperiodicity, stable limit cycles, intermittency, and deterministic
chaos--behaviors that should be expected in heterogeneous multiagent systems
described by the general replicator equations we derive.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures,
http://www.santafe.edu/projects/CompMech/papers/credlmas.html; updated
references, corrected typos, changed conten
New limits on a cosmological constant from statistics of gravitational lensing
We present new limits on cosmological parameters from the statistics of
gravitational lensing, based on the recently revised knowledge of the
luminosity function and internal dynamics of E/S0 galaxies that are essential
in lensing high-redshift QSOs. We find that the lens models using updated
Schechter parameters for such galaxies, derived from the recent redshift
surveys combined with morphological classification, are found to give smaller
lensing probabilities than earlier calculated. Inconsistent adoption of these
parameters from a mixture of various galaxy surveys gives rise to systematic
biases in the results. We also show that less compact dwarf-type galaxies which
largely dominate the faint part of the Schechter-form luminosity function
contribute little to lensing probabilities, so that earlier lens models
overestimate incidents of small separation lenses. Applications of the lens
models to the existing lens surveys indicate that reproduction of both the
lensing probability of optical sources and the image separations of optical and
radio lenses is significantly improved in the revised lens models. The
likelihood analyses allow us to conclude that a flat universe with
Omega=0.3(+0.2-0.1) and Omega+Lambda=1 is most preferable, and a
matter-dominated flat universe with Lambda=0 is ruled out at 98 % confidence
level. These new limits are unaffected by inclusion of uncertainties in the
lens properties.Comment: 30 pages, 9 ps figures, AASTeX, ApJ in pres
Unavoidable Selection Effects in the Analysis of Faint Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field: Probing the Cosmology and Merger History of Galaxies
(Abridged) We present a detailed analysis of the number count and photometric
redshift distribution of faint galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), paying
a special attention to the selection effects including the cosmological dimming
of surface brightness of galaxies. We find a considerably different result from
previous studies ignoring the selection effects, and these effects should
therefore be taken into account in the analysis. We find that the model of pure
luminosity evolution (PLE) of galaxies in the Einstein-de Sitter (EdS) universe
predicts much smaller counts than those observed at faint magnitude limits by a
factor of more than 10, so that a very strong number evolution of galaxies with
\eta > 3-4 must be invoked to reproduce the I_{814} counts, when parametrized
as \phi^* \propto (1+z)^\eta. However we show that such a strong number
evolution under realistic merging processes of galaxies can not explain the
steep slope of the B_{450} and V_{606} counts, and it is seriously inconsistent
with their photometric redshift distribution. We find that these difficulties
still persist in an open universe with \Omega_0 > 0.2, but are resolved only
when we invoke a -dominated flat universe, after examining various
systematic uncertainties in modeling the formation and evolution of galaxies.
The present analysis revitalizes the practice of using faint number counts as
an important cosmological test, giving one of the arguments against the EdS
universe and suggests acceleration of the cosmic expansion by vacuum energy
density. While a modest number evolution of galaxies with \eta ~ 1 is still
necessary even in a Lambda-dominated universe, a stronger number evolution with
\eta > 1 is rejected from the HDF data, giving a strong constraint on the
merger history of galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, final version matching publication in ApJ. Some
references added. The complete ps file of Table 3 is available at
http://th.nao.ac.jp/~totani/images/paper/ty2000-table3.p
Kinematics of Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy. II. Proper Motions for a Large Non-Kinematically Selected Sample
We present a revised catalog of 2106 Galactic stars, selected without
kinematic bias, and with available radial velocities, distance estimates, and
metal abundances in the range 0.0 <= [Fe/H] <= -4.0. This update of the Beers
and Sommer-Larsen (1995) catalog includes newly-derived homogeneous photometric
distance estimates, revised radial velocities for a number of stars with
recently obtained high-resolution spectra, and refined metallicities for stars
originally identified in the HK objective-prism survey (which account for
nearly half of the catalog) based on a recent re-calibration. A subset of 1258
stars in this catalog have available proper motions, based on measurements
obtained with the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, or taken from the updated
Astrographic Catalogue (AC 2000; second epoch positions from either the Hubble
Space Telescope Guide Star Catalog or the Tycho Catalogue), the Yale/San Juan
Southern Proper Motion (SPM) Catalog 2.0, and the Lick Northern Proper Motion
(NPM1) Catalog. Our present catalog includes 388 RR Lyrae variables (182 of
which are newly added), 38 variables of other types, and 1680 non-variables,
with distances in the range 0.1 to 40 kpc.Comment: 31 pages, including 8 figures, to appear in AJ (June 2000), full
paper with all figures embedded available at
http://pluto.mtk.nao.ac.jp/people/chiba/preprint/halo4
NGC 5548 in a Low-Luminosity State: Implications for the Broad-Line Region
We describe results from a new ground-based monitoring campaign on NGC 5548,
the best studied reverberation-mapped AGN. We find that it was in the lowest
luminosity state yet recorded during a monitoring program, namely L(5100) = 4.7
x 10^42 ergs s^-1. We determine a rest-frame time lag between flux variations
in the continuum and the Hbeta line of 6.3 (+2.6/-2.3) days. Combining our
measurements with those of previous campaigns, we determine a weighted black
hole mass of M_BH = 6.54 (+0.26/-0.25) x 10^7 M_sun based on all broad emission
lines with suitable variability data. We confirm the previously-discovered
virial relationship between the time lag of emission lines relative to the
continuum and the width of the emission lines in NGC 5548, which is the
expected signature of a gravity-dominated broad-line region. Using this lowest
luminosity state, we extend the range of the relationship between the
luminosity and the time lag in NGC 5548 and measure a slope that is consistent
with alpha = 0.5, the naive expectation for the broad line region for an
assumed form of r ~ L^alpha. This value is also consistent with the slope
recently determined by Bentz et al. for the population of reverberation-mapped
AGNs as a whole.Comment: 24 pages, 3 tables, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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