17,091 research outputs found
Rest Frame Optical Spectra of Lyman Break Galaxies: Other Lensing Arcs around MS1512-cB58
We have obtained near-infrared spectra of two images of the galaxy at z=2.72 which is gravitationally lensed by the foreground cluster MS1512+36. The brighter arc, cB58, is an image of only the nucleus and the southern half of the background galaxy, while the fainter image, A2, encompasses the entire background galaxy. Thus the gravitational lensing provides spatial resolution on a smaller scale than is routinely available by other methods.
Our observations indicate no evidence for any systematic rotational velocity gradient across the face of this galaxy. The nucleus and outer regions of the galaxy do not differ in their gas reddening or excitation level, based on the identical Hα/5007 ratios. cB58 (which is more dominated by the nucleus) has relatively stronger continuum emission, perhaps because of a higher ratio of old to young stars, compared to the outer parts of the galaxy.
A second emission line source, denoted as K1, at a slightly lower redshift was serendipitously detected in the slit. It appears to be the gravitationally lensed image of another background galaxy in the same group as cB58
Distinguishing coherent atomic processes using wave mixing
We are able to clearly distinguish the processes responsible for enhanced
low-intensity atomic Kerr nonlinearity, namely coherent population trapping and
coherent population oscillations in experiments performed on the Rb D1 line,
where one or the other process dominates under appropriate conditions. The
potential of this new approach based on wave mixing for probing coherent atomic
media is discussed. It allows the new spectral components to be detected with
sub-kHz resolution, which is well below the laser linewidth limit. Spatial
selectivity and enhanced sensitivity make this method useful for testing dilute
cold atomic samples.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Using Narrow Band Photometry to Detect Young Brown Dwarfs in IC348
We report the discovery of a population of young brown dwarf candidates in
the open star cluster IC348 and the development of a new spectroscopic
classification technique using narrow band photometry. Observations were made
using FLITECAM, the First Light Camera for SOFIA, at the 3-m Shane Telescope at
Lick Observatory. FLITECAM is a new 1-5 micron camera with an 8 arcmin field of
view. Custom narrow band filters were developed to detect absorption features
of water vapor (at 1.495 microns) and methane (at 1.66 microns) characteristic
of brown dwarfs. These filters enable spectral classification of stars and
brown dwarfs without spectroscopy. FLITECAM's narrow and broadband photometry
was verified by examining the color-color and color-magnitude characteristics
of stars whose spectral type and reddening was known from previous surveys.
Using our narrow band filter photometry method, it was possible to identify an
object measured with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 or better to within +/-3
spectral class subtypes for late-type stars. With this technique, very deep
images of the central region of IC348 (H ~ 20.0) have identified 18 sources as
possible L or T dwarf candidates. Out of these 18, we expect that between 3 - 6
of these objects are statistically likely to be background stars, with the
remainder being true low-mass members of the cluster. If confirmed as cluster
members then these are very low-mass objects (~5 Mjupiter). We also describe
how two additional narrow band filters can improve the contrast between M, L,
and T dwarfs as well as provide a means to determine the reddening of an
individual object.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal 27 June 200
Near-Infrared Observations of the Environments of Radio Quiet QSOs at z >~ 1
We present the results of an infrared survey of QSO fields at z=0.95, 0.995
and 1.5. Each z<1 field was imaged to typical continuum limits of J=20.5,
Kprime=19 (5 sigma), and line fluxes of 1.3E10{-16}ergs/cm^2/s (1 sigma)in a 1%
interference filter. 16 fields were chosen with z~0.95 targets, 14 with z~0.995
and 6 with z~1.5. A total area of 0.05 square degrees was surveyed, and two
emission-line objects were found. We present the infrared and optical
photometry of these objects. Optical spectroscopy has confirmed the redshift of
one object (at z=0.989) and is consistent with the other object having a
similar redshift. We discuss the density of such objects across a range of
redshifts from this survey and others in the literature. We also present
number-magnitude counts for galaxies in the fields of radio quiet QSOs,
supporting the interpretation that they exist in lower density environments
than their radio loud counterparts. The J-band number counts are among the
first to be published in the J=16--20.Comment: 34 pages, including 12 figures; accepted for publication in the Ap
Herding cats: observing live coding in the wild
After a momentous decade of live coding activities, this paper seeks to explore the practice with the aim of situating it in the history of contemporary arts and music. The article introduces several key points of investigation in live coding research and discusses some examples of how live coding practitioners engage with these points in their system design and performances. In the light of the extremely diverse manifestations of live coding activities, the problem of defining the practice is discussed, and the question raised whether live coding will actually be necessary as an independent category
Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sgr A* Cluster
We present K-band ~ 2600 spectroscopy of five stars
(K ~ 14 - 16 mag) within 0.''5 of Sgr A*, the radio source associated with the
compact massive object suspected to be a 2.6 x 10 \msun black hole at the
center of our Galaxy. High spatial resolution of ~ 0.''09, and good strehl
ratios of ~ 0.2 achieved with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope
make it possible to measure moderate-resolution spectra of these stars
individually for the first time. Two stars (S0-17 and S0-18) are identified as
late-type stars by the detection of CO bandhead absorption in their spectra.
Their absolute K magnitudes and CO bandhead absorption strengths are consistent
with early K giants. Three stars (S0-1, S0-2, and S0-16), with r
0.0075 pc (~ 0.''2) from Sgr A*, lack CO bandhead absorption, confirming the
results of earlier lower spectral and lower spatial resolution observations
that the majority of the stars in the Sgr A* Cluster are early-type stars. The
absolute K magnitudes of the early-type stars suggest that they are late O -
early B main sequence stars of ages 20 Myr. The presence of young stars in
the Sgr A* Cluster, so close to the central supermassive black hole, poses the
intriguing problem of how these stars could have formed, or could have been
brought, within its strong tidal field.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
Infrared images of merging galaxies
Infrared imaging of interacting galaxies is especially interesting because their optical appearance is often so chaotic due to extinction by dust and emission from star formation regions, that it is impossible to locate the nuclei or determine the true stellar distribution. However, at near-infrared wavelengths extinction is considerably reduced, and most of the flux from galaxies originates from red giant stars that comprise the dominant stellar component by mass. Thus near infrared images offer the opportunity to study directly components of galactic structure which are otherwise inaccessible. Such images may ultimately provide the framework in which to understand the activity taking place in many of the mergers with high Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) luminosities. Infrared images have been useful in identifying double structures in the nuclei of interacting galaxies which have not even been hinted at by optical observations. A striking example of this is given by the K images of Arp 220. Graham et al. (1990) have used high resolution imaging to show that it has a double nucleus coincident with the radio sources in the middle of the dust lane. The results suggest that caution should be applied in the identification of optical bright spots as multiple nuclei in the absence of other evidence. They also illustrate the advantages of using infrared imaging to study the underlying structure in merging galaxies. The authors have begun a program to take near infrared images of galaxies which are believed to be mergers of disk galaxies because they have tidal tails and filaments. In many of these the merger is thought to have induced exceptionally luminous infrared emission (cf. Joseph and Wright 1985, Sanders et al. 1988). Although the optical images of the galaxies show spectacular dust lanes and filaments, the K images all have a very smooth distribution of light with an apparently single nucleus
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