660 research outputs found
Diffuse light in z~0.25 galaxy clusters: constraining tidal damage and the faint end of the Luminosity Function
The starlight coming from the intergalactic space in galaxy clusters and
groups witnesses the violent tidal interactions that galaxies experience in
these dense environments. Such interactions may be (at least partly)
responsible for the transformation of normal star-forming galaxies into passive
dwarf ellipticals (dEs). In this contribution we present the first systematic
study of the IntraCluster Light (ICL) for a statistically representative sample
(Zibetti et al. 2005), which comprises 683 clusters selected between z=0.2 and
0.3 from ~1500 deg^2 in the SDSS. Their ICL is studied by stacking the images
in the g-, r-, and i-band after masking out all galaxies and polluting sources.
In this way a very uniform background illumination is obtained, that allows us
to measure surface brightnesses as faint as 31 mag/arcsec^2 and to trace the
ICL out to 700 kpc from the central galaxy. We find that the local fraction of
light contributed by intracluster stars rapidly decreases as a function of the
clustercentric distance, from ~40% at 100 kpc to ~5% at 500 kpc. By comparing
the distribution and colours of the ICL and of the clusters galaxies, we find
indication that the main source of ICL are the stars stripped from galaxies
that plunge deeply into the cluster potential well along radial orbits. Thus,
if dEs are the remnants of these stripped progenitors we should expect similar
radial orbital anisotropies and correlations between the dE luminosity function
and the amount of ICL in different clusters. The diffuse emission we measure is
contaminated by faint unresolved galaxies: this makes our flux estimate depend
to some extent on the assumed luminosity function, but, on the other hand,
allows us to constrain the number of faint galaxies. Our present results
disfavour steep (alpha<-1.35) faint-end powerlaw slopes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, use iauc.cls. Oral presentation to appear in the
proceedings of "IAU Colloquium 198 - Near-Field Cosmology with Dwarf
Elliptical Galaxies", Les Diablerets 14-18 March 2005, B. Binggeli and H.
Jerjen ed
Halos around edge-on disk galaxies in the SDSS
We present a statistical analysis of halo emission for a sample of 1047
edge-on disk galaxies imaged in five bands by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS). Stacking the homogeneously rescaled images of the galaxies, we can
measure surface brightnesses as deep as mu_r~31 mag/arcsec^2. The results
strongly support the almost ubiquitous presence of stellar halos around disk
galaxies, whose spatial distribution is well described by a power-law
, in a moderately flattened spheroid (c/a~0.6). The colour
estimates in g-r and r-i, although uncertain, give a clear indication for
extremely red stellar populations, hinting at old ages and/or non-negligible
metal enrichment. These results support the idea of halos being assembled via
early merging of satellite galaxies.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRAS. Version with
full resolution images available at
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~zibetti/papers/halos_edgeon.pd
Placebo effect in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy: The PATH study and a systematic review
A faint red stellar halo around an edge-on disc galaxy in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
We analyse the detailed structure of a highly-inclined (i>~80 degrees) disc
galaxy which lies within the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF). The unprecedented
depth of the UDF data allow disc and extraplanar emission to be reliably traced
to surface brightness levels of mu_{V,i,z}~29-30 mag/arcsec^2 (corresponding to
rest-frame equivalents of mu_{g,r,i}~28-29 mag/arcsec^2) in this redshift
z=0.32 system. We detect excess emission above the disc which is characterised
by a moderately-flattened (b/a~0.6) power-law (I proportional to R^(-2.6)). The
structure and colour of this component are very similar to the stellar halo
detected in an SDSS stacking analysis of local disc galaxies (Zibetti, White
and Brinkmann 2004) and lend support to the idea that we have detected a
stellar halo in this distant system. Although the peculiar colours of the halo
are difficult to understand in terms of normal stellar populations, the
consistency found between the UDF and SDSS analyses suggests that they cannot
be easily discounted.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. Figure
1 substantially degraded, full resolution version available at
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~zibetti/UDFhalo.pd
Assessing rem sleep behaviour disorder: From machine learning classification to the definition of a continuous dissociation index
Sudden Onset, Fixed Dystonia and Acute Peripheral Trauma as Diagnostic Clues for Functional Dystonia
The Discovery of a High Redshift X-ray Emitting QSO Very Close to the Nucleus of NGC 7319
A strong X-ray source only 8" from the nucleus of the Sy2 galaxy NGC 7319 in
Stephan's Quintet has been discovered by Chandra. We have identified the
optical counterpart and show it is a QSO with . It is also a ULX
with . From the optical spectra of the QSO
and interstellar gas in the galaxy (z = .022) we show that it is very likely
that the QSO and the gas are interacting.Comment: 8 figures, 5 color, minimized ps siz
Single-channel EEG classification of sleep stages based on REM microstructure
Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, or paradoxical sleep, accounts for 20â25% of total night-time sleep in healthy adults and may be related, in pathological cases, to parasomnias. A large percentage of Parkinson's disease patients suffer from sleep disorders, including REM sleep behaviour disorder and hypokinesia; monitoring their sleep cycle and related activities would help to improve their quality of life. There is a need to accurately classify REM and the other stages of sleep in order to properly identify and monitor parasomnias. This study proposes a method for the identification of REM sleep from raw single-channel electroencephalogram data, employing novel features based on REM microstructures. Sleep stage classification was performed by means of random forest (RF) classifier, K-nearest neighbour (K-NN) classifier and random Under sampling boosted trees (RUSBoost); the classifiers were trained using a set of published and novel features. REM detection accuracy ranges from 89% to 92.7%, and the classifiers achieved a F-1 score (REM class) of about 0.83 (RF), 0.80 (K-NN), and 0.70 (RUSBoost). These methods provide encouraging outcomes in automatic sleep scoring and REM detection based on raw single-channel electroencephalogram, assessing the feasibility of a home sleep monitoring device with fewer channels
The Pittsburgh Sloan Digital Sky Survey MgII Quasar Absorption-Line Survey Catalog
We present a catalog of intervening MgII quasar absorption-line systems in
the redshift interval 0.36 <= z <= 2.28. The catalog was built from Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release Four (SDSS DR4) quasar spectra. Currently, the
catalog contains > 17,000 measured MgII doublets. We also present data on the
~44,600 quasar spectra which were searched to construct the catalog, including
redshift and magnitude information, continuum-normalized spectra, and
corresponding arrays of redshift-dependent minimum rest equivalent widths
detectable at our confidence threshold. The catalog is available on the web. A
careful second search of 500 random spectra indicated that, for every 100
spectra searched, approximately one significant MgII system was accidentally
rejected. Current plans to expand the catalog beyond DR4 quasars are discussed.
Many MgII absorbers are known to be associated with galaxies. Therefore, the
combination of large size and well understood statistics makes this catalog
ideal for precision studies of the low-ionization and neutral gas regions
associated with galaxies at low to moderate redshift. An analysis of the
statistics of MgII absorbers using this catalog will be presented in a
subsequent paper.Comment: AJ, in pres
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