7,123 research outputs found
A Spectrometer to Study Elastic and Diffractive Physics at LHC
The possibility to study elastic and diffractive physics in pp collisions at
LHC is investigated. For this purpose we have considered detectors close to the
beam in conjunction with the magnetic elements of the accelerator to provide a
high precision spectrometer for very forward final state protons. The
geometrical acceptance is given and momentum resolution is calculated for
different spatial resolution detectors.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, Latex, submitted in International Journal of
Modern Physics
Reflectivity measurements in uniaxial superconductors: a methodological discussion applied to the case of La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4)
Most of the novel superconductors are uniaxial crystals, with metallic planes
() orthogonal to an insulating axis (). Far-infrared measurements of the
reflectivity provide valuable information on their low-energy
electrodynamics, but involve delicate experimental issues. Two of them are a
possible contamination of from the c axis and the
extrapolation of the data to =0, both above and below .
Here we discuss quantitatively these issues with particular regard to
LaSrCuO, one of the most studied high- materials.Comment: 13 pages with 3 Fig
Focusing on the extended X-ray emission in 3C 459 with a Chandra follow-up observation
6 pages, 4 figures. Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2019 ESO.Aims. We investigated the X-ray emission properties of the powerful radio galaxy 3C 459 revealed by a recent Chandra follow-up observation carried out in October 2014 with a 62 ks exposure. Methods. We performed an X-ray spectral analysis from a few selected regions on an image obtained from this observation and also compared the X-ray image with a 4.9 GHz VLA radio map available in the literature. Results. The dominant contribution comes from the radio core but significant X-ray emission is detected at larger angular separations from it, surrounding both radio jets and lobes. According to a scenario in which the extended X-ray emission is due to a plasma collisionally heated by jet-driven shocks and not magnetically dominated, we estimated its temperature to be ∼0.8 keV. This hot gas cocoon could be responsible for the radio depolarization observed in 3C 459, as recently proposed also for 3C 171 and 3C 305. On the other hand, our spectral analysis and the presence of an oxygen K edge, blueshifted at 1.23 keV, cannot exclude the possibility that the X-ray radiation originating from the inner regions of the radio galaxy could be intercepted by some outflow of absorbing material intervening along the line of sight, as already found in some BAL quasars.Peer reviewe
Can We Detect the Anisotropic Shapes of Quasar HII Regions During Reionization Through The Small-Scale Redshifted 21cm Power Spectrum?
Light travel time delays distort the apparent shapes of HII regions
surrounding bright quasars during early stages of cosmic reionization.
Individual HII regions may remain undetectable in forthcoming redshifted 21 cm
experiments. However, the systematic deformation along the line of sight may be
detectable statistically, either by stacking tomographic 21cm images of quasars
identified, for example, by JWST, or as small-scale anisotropy in the
three-dimensional 21cm power spectrum. Here we consider the detectability of
this effect. The anisotropy is largest when HII regions are large and expand
rapidly, and we find that if bright quasars contributed to the early stages of
reionization, then they can produce significant anisotropy, on scales
comparable to the typical sizes of HII regions of the bright quasars (approx.
30 Mpc and below). The effect therefore cannot be ignored when analyzing future
21cm power spectra on small scales. If 10 percent of the volume of the IGM at
redshift z=10 is ionized by quasars with typical ionizing luminosity of S= 5 x
10^{56} photons/second, the distortions can enhance by more than 10 percent the
21cm power spectrum in the radial (redshift) direction, relative to the
transverse directions. The level of this anisotropy exceeds that due to
redshift-space distortion, and has the opposite sign. We show that on-going
experiments such as MWA should be able to detect this effect. A detection would
reveal the presence of bright quasars, and shed light on the ionizing yield and
age of the ionizing sources, and the distribution and small-scale clumping of
neutral intergalactic gas in their vicinity.Comment: Version accepted by ApJ, with new fiducial model and improved
discussio
Lyman-alpha Damping Wing Constraints on Inhomogeneous Reionization
One well-known way to constrain the hydrogen neutral fraction, x_H, of the
high-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) is through the shape of the red
damping wing of the Lya absorption line. We examine this method's effectiveness
in light of recent models showing that the IGM neutral fraction is highly
inhomogeneous on large scales during reionization. Using both analytic models
and "semi-numeric" simulations, we show that the "picket-fence" absorption
typical in reionization models introduces both scatter and a systematic bias to
the measurement of x_H. In particular, we show that simple fits to the damping
wing tend to overestimate the true neutral fraction in a partially ionized
universe, with a fractional error of ~ 30% near the middle of reionization.
This bias is generic to any inhomogeneous model. However, the bias is reduced
and can even underestimate x_H if the observational sample only probes a subset
of the entire halo population, such as quasars with large HII regions. We also
find that the damping wing absorption profile is generally steeper than one
would naively expect in a homogeneously ionized universe. The profile steepens
and the sightline-to-sightline scatter increases as reionization progresses. Of
course, the bias and scatter also depend on x_H and so can, at least in
principle, be used to constrain it. Damping wing constraints must therefore be
interpreted by comparison to theoretical models of inhomogeneous reionization.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures; submitted to MNRA
Fixation of genetic variation and optimization of gene expression: The speed of evolution in isolated lizard populations undergoing Reverse Island Syndrome
The ecological theory of island biogeography suggests that mainland populations should be more genetically divergent from those on large and distant islands rather than from those on small and close islets. Some island populations do not evolve in a linear way, but the process of divergence occurs more rapidly because they undergo a series of phenotypic changes, jointly known as the Island Syndrome. A special case is Reversed Island Syndrome (RIS), in which populations show drastic phenotypic changes both in body shape, skin colouration, age of sexual maturity, aggressiveness, and food intake rates. The populations showing the RIS were observed on islets nearby mainland and recently raised, and for this they are useful models to study the occurrence of rapid evolutionary change. We investigated the timing and mode of evolution of lizard populations adapted through selection on small islets. For our analyses, we used an ad hoc model system of three populations: wild-type lizards from the mainland and insular lizards from a big island (Capri, Italy), both Podarcis siculus siculus not affected by the syndrome, and a lizard population from islet (Scopolo) undergoing the RIS (called P. s. coerulea because of their melanism). The split time of the big (Capri) and small (Scopolo) islands was determined using geological events, like sea-level rises. To infer molecular evolution, we compared five complete mitochondrial genomes for each population to reconstruct the phylogeography and estimate the divergence time between island and mainland lizards. We found a lower mitochondrial mutation rate in Scopolo lizards despite the phenotypic changes achieved in approximately 8,000 years. Furthermore, transcriptome analyses showed significant differential gene expression between islet and mainland lizard populations, suggesting the key role of plasticity in these unpredictable environments
Galaxy formation with radiative and chemical feedback
Here we introduce GAMESH, a novel pipeline which implements self-consistent
radiative and chemical feedback in a computational model of galaxy formation.
By combining the cosmological chemical-evolution model GAMETE with the
radiative transfer code CRASH, GAMESH can post process realistic outputs of a
N-body simulation describing the redshift evolution of the forming galaxy.
After introducing the GAMESH implementation and its features, we apply the code
to a low-resolution N-body simulation of the Milky Way formation and we
investigate the combined effects of self-consistent radiative and chemical
feedback. Many physical properties, which can be directly compared with
observations in the Galaxy and its surrounding satellites, are predicted by the
code along the merger-tree assembly. The resulting redshift evolution of the
Local Group star formation rates, reionisation and metal enrichment along with
the predicted Metallicity Distribution Function of halo stars are critically
compared with observations. We discuss the merits and limitations of the first
release of GAMESH, also opening new directions to a full implementation of
feedback processes in galaxy formation models by combining semi-analytic and
numerical methods.Comment: This version has coloured figures not present in the printed version.
Submitted to MNRAS, minor revision
Effect of Mn substitution by Ga on the optical properties of a metallic manganite
In a metallic manganite like La(2/3)Sr(1/3)MnO(3), the substitution of Mn(+3)
by Ga(+3) dilutes the ferromagnetic order and locally cancels the Jahn-Teller
distortion, without heavily affecting the crystal structure. One can thus
follow the changes in the charge dynamics induced by Ga, until the
ferro-metallic manganite is turned into an insulator. Here this phenomenon is
studied in detail through the infrared reflectivity of five samples of
La(2/3)Sr(1/3)Mn(1-x)Ga(x)O(3), with x increasing from 0 to 0.30 and for 50 < T
< 320 K. A simple model which links the measured optical parameters to the
magnetization M(x, T) well describes the behavior of the plasma frequency, the
scattering rate, and the mid-infrared absorption along the metal-to-insulator
transition.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figure
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