Angular Normal Modes of a Circular Coulomb Cluster

We investigate the angular normal modes for small oscillations about an equilibrium of a single-component coulomb cluster confined by a radially symmetric external potential to a circle. The dynamical matrix for this system is a Laplacian symmetrically circulant matrix and this result leads to an analytic solution for the eigenfrequencies of the angular normal modes. We also show the limiting dependence of the largest eigenfrequency for large numbers of particles

Lifting the Veil on Obscured Accretion: Active Galactic Nuclei Number Counts and Survey Strategies for Imaging Hard X-Ray Missions

Finding and characterizing the population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that produces the X-ray background (XRB) is necessary to connect the history of accretion to observations of galaxy evolution at longer wavelengths. The year 2012 will see the deployment of the first hard X-ray imaging telescope which, through deep extragalactic surveys, will be able to measure the AGN population at the energies where the XRB peaks (~20-30 keV). Here, we present predictions of AGN number counts in three hard X-ray bandpasses: 6-10 keV, 10-30 keV, and 30-60 keV. Separate predictions are presented for the number counts of Compton thick AGNs, the most heavily obscured active galaxies. The number counts are calculated for five different models of the XRB that differ in the assumed hard X-ray luminosity function, the evolution of the Compton thick AGNs, and the underlying AGN spectral model. The majority of the hard X-ray number counts will be Compton thin AGNs, but there is a greater than tenfold increase in the Compton thick number counts from the 6-10 keV to the 10-30 keV band. The Compton thick population shows enough variation that a hard X-ray number counts measurement will constrain the models. The computed number counts are used to consider various survey strategies for the NuSTAR mission, assuming a total exposure time of 6.2 Ms. We find that multiple surveys will allow a measurement of Compton thick evolution. The predictions presented here should be useful for all future imaging hard X-ray missions

Gaps below strange star crusts

The gap caused by a strong electric field between the quark surface and nuclear crust of a strange star is studied in an improved model including gravity and pressure as well as electrostatic forces. The transition from gap to crust is followed in detail. The properties of the gap are investigated for a wide range of parameters assuming both color-flavor locked and non color-flavor locked strange star cores. The maximally allowed crust density is generally lower than that of neutron drip. Finite temperature is shown to increase the gap width, but the effect is significant only at extreme temperatures. Analytical approximations are derived and shown to provide useful fits to the numerical results.Comment: 12 pages incl. 14 figures. To appear in Physical Review

High-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules including nuclear motion and a nuclear modes analysis

We present a generic approach for treating the effect of nuclear motion in the high-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules. Our procedure relies on a separation of nuclear and electron dynamics where we account for the electronic part using the Lewenstein model and nuclear motion enters as a nuclear correlation function. We express the nuclear correlation function in terms of Franck-Condon factors which allows us to decompose nuclear motion into modes and identify the modes that are dominant in the high-order harmonic generation process. We show results for the isotopes CH$_4$ and CD$_4$ and thereby provide direct theoretical support for a recent experiment [Baker {\it et al.}, Science {\bf 312}, 424 (2006)] that uses high-order harmonic generation to probe the ultra-fast structural nuclear rearrangement of ionized methane.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

WHAM Observations of H-alpha from High-Velocity Clouds: Are They Galactic or Extragalactic?

It has been suggested that high velocity clouds may be distributed throughout the Local Group and are therefore not in general associated with the Milky Way galaxy. With the aim of testing this hypothesis, we have made observations in the H-alpha line of high velocity clouds selected as the most likely candidates for being at larger than average distances. We have found H-alpha emission from 4 out of 5 of the observed clouds, suggesting that the clouds under study are being illuminated by a Lyman continuum flux greater than that of the metagalactic ionizing radiation. Therefore, it appears likely that these clouds are in the Galactic halo and not distributed throughout the Local Group.Comment: 12 pages, 5 eps figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter