8,188 research outputs found
The effect of the environment on the Faber Jackson relation
We investigate the effect of the environment on the Faber Jackson (FJ)
relation, using a sample of 384 nearby elliptical galaxies and estimating
objectively their environment on the typical scale of galaxy clusters. We show
that the intrinsic scatter of the FJ is significantly reduced when ellipticals
in high density environments are compared to ellipticals in low density ones.
This result, which holds on a limited range of overdensities, is likely to
provide an important observational link between scaling relations and formation
mechanisms in galaxies.Comment: accepted by Ap
A new estimate on Evans' Weak KAM approach
We consider a recent formulation of weak KAM theory proposed by Evans. As
well as for classical integrability, for one dimensional mechanical Hamiltonian
systems all the computations can be explicitly done. This allows us on the one
hand to illustrate the geometric content of the theory, on the other hand to
prove new lower bounds which extend also to the generic n degrees of freedom
case
The Spin Glass Transition : Exponents and Dynamics
Numerical simulations on Ising Spin Glasses show that spin glass transitions
do not obey the usual universality rules which hold at canonical second order
transitions. On the other hand the dynamics at the approach to the transition
appear to take up a universal form for all spin glasses. The implications for
the fundamental physics of transitions in complex systems are addressed.Comment: 4 pages (Latex) with 3 figures (postscript), accepted for publication
in Physica
Polarized Diffuse Emission at 2.3 GHz in a High Galactic Latitude Area
Polarized diffuse emission observations at 2.3 GHz in a high Galactic
latitude area are presented. The 2\degr X 2\degr field, centred in
(\alpha=5^h,\delta=-49\degr), is located in the region observed by the
BOOMERanG experiment. Our observations has been carried out with the Parkes
Radio telescope and represent the highest frequency detection done to date in
low emission areas. Because of a weaker Faraday rotation action, the high
frequency allows an estimate of the Galactic synchrotron contamination of the
Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization (CMBP) that is more reliable than that
done at 1.4 GHz. We find that the angular power spectra of the E- and B-modes
have slopes of \beta_E = -1.46 +/- 0.14 and \beta_B = -1.87 +/- 0.22,
indicating a flattening with respect to 1.4 GHz. Extrapolated up to 32 GHz, the
E-mode spectrum is about 3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the CMBP,
allowing a clean detection even at this frequency. The best improvement
concerns the B-mode, for which our single-dish observations provide the first
estimate of the contamination on angular scales close to the CMBP peak (about 2
degrees). We find that the CMBP B-mode should be stronger than synchrotron
contamination at 90 GHz for models with T/S > 0.01. This low level could move
down to 60-70 GHz the optimal window for CMBP measures.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Post-correlation radio frequency interference classification methods
We describe and compare several post-correlation radio frequency interference
classification methods. As data sizes of observations grow with new and
improved telescopes, the need for completely automated, robust methods for
radio frequency interference mitigation is pressing. We investigated several
classification methods and find that, for the data sets we used, the most
accurate among them is the SumThreshold method. This is a new method formed
from a combination of existing techniques, including a new way of thresholding.
This iterative method estimates the astronomical signal by carrying out a
surface fit in the time-frequency plane. With a theoretical accuracy of 95%
recognition and an approximately 0.1% false probability rate in simple
simulated cases, the method is in practice as good as the human eye in finding
RFI. In addition it is fast, robust, does not need a data model before it can
be executed and works in almost all configurations with its default parameters.
The method has been compared using simulated data with several other mitigation
techniques, including one based upon the singular value decomposition of the
time-frequency matrix, and has shown better results than the rest.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures (11 in colour). The software that was used in
the article can be downloaded from http://www.astro.rug.nl/rfi-software
Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies. IV. Dipoles of the Velocity Field
We use the recently completed redshift-distance survey of nearby early-type
galaxies (ENEAR) to measure the dipole component of the peculiar velocity field
to a depth of cz ~ 6000 km/s. The sample consists of 1145 galaxies brighter
than m_B=14.5 and cz < 7000 km/s, uniformly distributed over the whole sky, and
129 fainter cluster galaxies within the same volume. Most of the Dn-sigma
distances were obtained from new spectroscopic and photometric observations
conducted by this project, ensuring the homogeneity of the data over the whole
sky. These 1274 galaxies are objectively assigned to 696 objects -- 282
groups/clusters and 414 isolated galaxies. We find that within a volume of
radius ~ 6000 km/s, the best-fitting bulk flow has an amplitude of |vbulk| =220
+/- 42 km/s in the CMB restframe, pointing towards l=304 +/- 16 degrees, b=25
+/- 11 degrees. The error in the amplitude includes statistical, sampling and
possible systematic errors. This solution is in excellent agreement with that
obtained by the SFI Tully-Fisher survey. Our results suggest that most of the
motion of the Local Group is due to fluctuations within 6000 km/s, in contrast
to recent claims of large amplitude bulk motions on larger scales.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, ApJL, accepted (updated results; matches
accepted version
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