185 research outputs found
The mass-L_x relation for moderate luminosity X-ray clusters
We present measurements of the masses of a sample of 25 moderate X-ray
luminosity clusters of galaxies from the 160 square degree ROSAT survey. The
masses were obtained from a weak lensing analysis of deep F814W images obtained
using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). We present an accurate empirical
correction for the effect of charge transfer (in)efficiency on the shapes of
faint galaxies. A significant lensing signal is detected around most of the
clusters. The lensing mass correlates tightly with the cluster richness. We
measured the intrinsic scatter in the scaling relation between M_2500 and L_X
and find the best fit power law slope and normalisation to be alpha=0.68+-0.07
and M_X=(1.2+-0.12)10^14M_sun (for L_X=2x10^44 erg/s). These results agree well
with a number of recent studies, but the normalisation is lower compared to the
study of Rykoff et al. (2008b). One explanation for this difference may be the
fact that (sub)structures projected along the line-of-sight boost both the
galaxy counts and the lensing mass. Such superpositions lead to an increased
mass at a given L_X when clusters are binned by richness.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal; 15 pages, 11
figure
Probing the Interstellar Medium of External Galaxies Using Quasar Absorption Lines: the 3C 232/NGC 3067 System
Quasar absorption lines offer unique opportunities to probe the interstellar medium of external galaxies. Researchers present new optical and UV absorption line spectroscopy of the quasar 3C232 (z=0.55) revealing new detail in the foreground absorption system due to the bright, spiral galaxy NGC 3067 (cz=1420 km/s). Specifically, the spectra show evidence for two and possibly three separate absorption components in CaII and Na I spanning approx. 150 km/s. The original HI detection of Haschick and Burke (1975) corresponds to the strongest of these metal systems which exhibits doublet ratios consistent with saturation in both CaII and Na I. Due to the recent detection in HI emission of a tidal tail or finger of HI extending from the western edge of NGC 3067 through the position of 3C 232 (Carilli, van Gorkom and Stocke, 1989), the morphology of the HI absorber is now known and is not either a warped disk nor a spherical halo as had been proposed. New deep continuum and H alpha imaging provides a sensitive upper limit on the the ionizing continuum impinging upon this cloud (and thus a limit on the intensity of the extragalactic ionizing radiation field). Together with the observed UV spectrum of 3C 232, the optical emission line ratios and the deep H alpha imaging set a minimum distance between the quasar and the HI cloud disregarding redshift information. This limit strains the non-cosmological redshift interpretation for 3C 232 -- and this quasar is one of the original 5 3C quasars found to be too close to NGC galaxies as if by chance (Burbidge, Burbidge, Solomon and Strittmatter, 1972)
Case-control design identifies ecological drivers of endemic coral diseases
Endemic disease transmission is an important ecological process that is challenging to study because of low occurrence rates. Here, we investigate the ecological drivers of two coral diseases-growth anomalies and tissue loss-affecting five coral species. We first show that a statistical framework called the case-control study design, commonly used in epidemiology but rarely applied to ecology, provided high predictive accuracy (67-82%) and disease detection rates (60-83%) compared with a traditional statistical approach that yielded high accuracy (98-100%) but low disease detection rates (0-17%). Using this framework, we found evidence that 1) larger corals have higher disease risk; 2) shallow reefs with low herbivorous fish abundance, limited water motion, and located adjacent to watersheds with high fertilizer and pesticide runoff promote low levels of growth anomalies, a chronic coral disease; and 3) wave exposure, stream exposure, depth, and low thermal stress are associated with tissue loss disease risk during interepidemic periods. Variation in risk factors across host-disease pairs suggests that either different pathogens cause the same gross lesions in different species or that the same disease may arise in different species under different ecological conditions
The Local Ly(alpha) Forest: Association of Clouds with Superclusters and Voids
The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope was used with the G160M grating to obtain high-resolution (6.2 A) spectra of three very bright active galactic nuclei located behind voids in the nearby distribution of bright galaxies (i.e., CfA and Arecibo redshift survey regions). A total of eight definite (greater than or equal to 4 sigma) Ly(alpha) absorption lines were discovered ranging in equivalent width from 26 to 240 mA at Galactocentric velocities 1740-7740 km/s. Of these eight systems, we locate seven in supercluster structures and one, in the sight line of Mrk 501 at 7740 km/s, in a void. In addition, one of two tentative (3-4 sigma) Ly(alpha) absorption lines are found in voids. Thus, the voids are not entirely devoid of matter, and not all Ly(alpha) clouds are associated with galaxies. Also, since the path lengths through voids and superclusters probed by our observations thus far are nearly equal, there is some statistical evidence that the Ly(alpha) clouds avoid the voids. The nearest galaxy neighbors to these absorbing clouds are 0.45-5.9 Mpc away, too far to be physically associated by most models. The lower equivalent width absorption lines (W(sub lambda) less than or equal to 100 mA) are consistent with random locations with respect to galaxies and may be truly intergalactic, similar to the bulk of the Ly(alpha) forest seen at high z. These results on local Ly(alpha) clouds are in full agreement with those found by Morris et al. (1993) for the 3C 273 sight line but are different from the results for higher equivalent width systems where closer cloud-galaxy associations were found by Lanzetta et al. (1994). Pencil-beam optical and 21 cm radio line observations of the area of sky surrounding Mrk 501 fail to find faint galaxies near the velocities of the Ly(alpha) clouds in that sight line. Specifically, for the 'void absorption' system at 7740 km/s, we find no galaxy at comparable redshift to the absorber within 100 h(sub 75)(sup -1) kpc (H(sub 0) = 75 h(sub 75) km/s Mpc(sup -1)) with an absolute magnitude of B less than or equal to - 16 and no object with H I mass greater than or equal to 7 x 10(exp 8) h(sub 75)(sup -2) M(solar) within 500 h(sub 75)(sup -1) kpc. Thus, neither a faint optical galaxy nor a gas-rich, optically dim or low surface brightness galaxy is present close to this absorber
Coral disease time series highlight size-dependent risk and other drivers of white syndrome in a multi-species model
Coral diseases contribute to the decline of reef communities, but factors that lead to disease are difficult to detect. In the present study, we develop a multi-species model of colony-scale risk for the class of coral diseases referred to as White Syndromes, investigating the role of current or past conditions, including both environmental stressors and biological drivers at the colony and community scales. Investigating 7 years of coral survey data at five sites in Guam we identify multiple environmental and ecological associations with White Syndrome, including a negative relationship between short-term heat stress and White Syndrome occurrence, and strong evidence of increasing size-dependent White Syndrome risk across coral species. Our findings result in a generalized model used to predict colony-scale White Syndrome risk for multiple species, highlighting the value of long-term monitoring efforts to detect drivers of coral disease
Bandpass Dependence of X-ray Temperatures in Galaxy Clusters
We explore the band dependence of the inferred X-ray temperature of the
intracluster medium (ICM) for 192 well-observed galaxy clusters selected from
the Chandra Data Archive. If the hot ICM is nearly isothermal in the projected
region of interest, the X-ray temperature inferred from a broad-band (0.7-7.0
keV) spectrum should be identical to the X-ray temperature inferred from a
hard-band (2.0-7.0 keV) spectrum. However, if unresolved cool lumps of gas are
contributing soft X-ray emission, the temperature of a best-fit
single-component thermal model will be cooler for the broad-band spectrum than
for the hard-band spectrum. Using this difference as a diagnostic, the ratio of
best-fitting hard-band and broad-band temperatures may indicate the presence of
cooler gas even when the X-ray spectrum itself may not have sufficient
signal-to-noise to resolve multiple temperature components. To test this
possible diagnostic, we extract X-ray spectra from core-excised annular regions
for each cluster in our archival sample. We compare the X-ray temperatures
inferred from single-temperature fits when the energy range of the fit is
0.7-7.0 keV (broad) and when the energy range is 2.0/(1+z)-7.0 keV (hard). We
find that the hard-band temperature is significantly higher, on average, than
the broad-band temperature. Upon further exploration, we find this temperature
ratio is enhanced preferentially for clusters which are known merging systems.
In addition, cool-core clusters tend to have best-fit hard-band temperatures
that are in closer agreement with their best-fit broad-band temperatures. We
show, using simulated spectra, that this diagnostic is sensitive to secondary
cool components (TX = 0.5-3.0 keV) with emission measures >10-30% of the
primary hot component.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
A Very Hot, High Redshift Cluster of Galaxies: More Trouble for Omega_0 = 1
We have observed the most distant (z=0.829) cluster of galaxies in the
Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey, with the ASCA and ROSAT
satellites. We find an X-ray temperature of 12.3 +3.1/-2.2 keV for this
cluster, and the ROSAT map reveals significant substructure. The high
temperature of MS1054-0321 is consistent with both its approximate velocity
dispersion, based on the redshifts of 12 cluster members we have obtained at
the Keck and the Canada-France-Hawaii telescopes, and with its weak lensing
signature. The X-ray temperature of this cluster implies a virial mass ~ 7.4 x
10^14 h^-1 solar masses, if the mean matter density in the universe equals the
critical value, or larger if Omega_0 < 1. Finding such a hot, massive cluster
in the EMSS is extremely improbable if clusters grew from Gaussian
perturbations in an Omega_0 = 1 universe. Combining the assumptions that
Omega_0 = 1 and that the intial perturbations were Gaussian with the observed
X-ray temperature function at low redshift, we show that the probability of
this cluster occurring in the volume sampled by the EMSS is less than a few
times 10^{-5}. Nor is MS1054-0321 the only hot cluster at high redshift; the
only two other EMSS clusters already observed with ASCA also have
temperatures exceeding 8 keV. Assuming again that the initial perturbations
were Gaussian and Omega_0 = 1, we find that each one is improbable at the <
10^{-2} level. These observations, along with the fact that these luminosities
and temperatures of the high- clusters all agree with the low-z L_X-T_X
relation, argue strongly that Omega_0 < 1. Otherwise, the initial perturbations
must be non-Gaussian, if these clusters' temperatures do indeed reflect their
gravitational potentials.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, To appear in 1 Aug 1998 ApJ (heavily revised
version of original preprint
Chandra Observations of the Interacting NGC 4410 Galaxy Group
We present high resolution X-ray imaging data from the ACIS-S instrument on
the Chandra telescope of the nearby interacting galaxy group NGC 4410. Four
galaxies in the inner portion of this group are clearly detected by Chandra,
including the peculiar low luminosity radio galaxy NGC 4410A. In addition to a
nuclear point source, NGC 4410A contains diffuse X-ray emission, including an
X-ray ridge extending out to about 12" (6 kpc) to the northwest of the nucleus.
This ridge is coincident with an arc of optical emission-line gas, which has
previously been shown to have optical line ratios consistent with shock
ionization. This structure may be due to an expanding superbubble of hot gas
caused by supernovae and stellar winds or by the active nucleus. The Chandra
observations also show four or five possible compact ultra-luminous X-ray (ULX)
sources (L(x) >= 10^39 erg/s) associated with NGC 4410A. At least one of these
candidate ULXs appears to have a radio counterpart, suggesting that it may be
due to an X-ray binary with a stellar-mass black hole, rather than an
intermediate mass black hole. In addition, a faint diffuse intragroup X-ray
component has been detected between the galaxies (L(x) ~ 10^41 erg/s). This
supports the hypothesis that the NGC 4410 group is in the process of evolving
via mergers from a spiral-dominated group (which typically have no
X-ray-emitting intragroup gas) to an elliptical-dominated group (which often
have a substantial intragroup medium).Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures; Accepted by Astronomical Journal; color images
at http://www.etsu.edu/physics/bsmith/research/n4410.htm
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