122 research outputs found
Streaming velocities as a dynamical estimator of Omega
It is well known that estimating the pairwise velocity of galaxies, v_{12},
from the redshift space galaxy correlation function is difficult because this
method is highly sensitive to the assumed model of the pairwise velocity
dispersion. Here we propose an alternative method to estimate v_{12} directly
from peculiar velocity samples, which contain redshift-independent distances as
well as galaxy redshifts. In contrast to other dynamical measures which
determine beta = sigma_8 x Omega^{0.6}, our method can provide an estimate of
(sigma_8)^2 x Omega^{0.6} for a range of sigma_8 (here Omega is the
cosmological mass density parameter while sigma_8 is the standard normalization
parameter for the spectrum of matter density fluctuations). We demonstrate how
to measure this quantity from realistic catalogues.Comment: 8 pages of text, 4 figures Subject headings: Cosmology: theory -
observation - peculiar velocities: large scale flows Last name of one of the
authors was misspelled. It is now corrected. Otherwise the manuscript is
identical to its original versio
Measuring Omega with Galaxy Streaming Velocities
The mean pairwise velocity of galaxies has traditionally been estimated from
the redshift space galaxy correlation function. This method is notorious for
being highly sensitive to the assumed model of the pairwise velocity
dispersion. Here we propose an alternative method to estimate the streaming
velocity directly from peculiar velocity samples, which contain
redshift-independent distances as well as galaxy redshifts. This method can
provide an estimate of for a range of where
is the cosmological density parameter, while is the
standard normalization for the power spectrum of density fluctuations. We
demonstrate how to measure this quantity from realistic catalogues and identify
the main sources of bias and errorsComment: Proceedings of New Worlds in Astroparticle Physics, 6 pages, 2
figure
Evidence for a low-density Universe from the relative velocities of galaxies
The motions of galaxies can be used to constrain the cosmological density
parameter Omega and the clustering amplitude of matter on large scales. The
mean relative velocity of galaxy pairs, estimated from the Mark III survey,
indicates that Omega = 0.35 +0.35/-0.25. If the clustering of galaxies is
unbiased on large scales, Omega = 0.35 +/- 0.15, so that an unbiased
Einstein-de Sitter model (Omega = 1) is inconsistent with the data.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Jan.7 issue of ``Science''; In
the original version, the title appeared twice. This problem has now been
corrected. No other changes were mad
Stochastic Biasing and Weakly Non-linear Evolution of Power Spectrum
Distribution of galaxies may be a biased tracer of the dark matter
distribution and the relation between the galaxies and the total mass may be
stochastic, non-linear and time-dependent. Since many observations of galaxy
clustering will be done at high redshift, the time evolution of non-linear
stochastic biasing would play a crucial role for the data analysis of the
future sky surveys. In this paper, we develop the weakly non-linear analysis
and attempt to clarify the non-linear feature of the stochastic biasing. We
compute the one-loop correction of the power spectrum for the total mass, the
galaxies and their cross correlation. Assuming the local functional form for
the initial galaxy distribution, we investigate the time evolution of the
biasing parameter and the correlation coefficient. On large scales, we first
find that the time evolution of the biasing parameter could deviate from the
linear prediction in presence of the initial skewness. However, the deviation
can be reduced when the initial stochasticity exists. Next, we focus on the
quasi-linear scales, where the non-linear growth of the total mass becomes
important. It is recognized that the scale-dependence of the biasing
dynamically appears and the initial stochasticity could affect the time
evolution of the scale-dependence. The result is compared with the recent
N-body simulation that the scale-dependence of the halo biasing can appear on
relatively large scales and the biasing parameter takes the lower value on
smaller scales. Qualitatively, our weakly non-linear results can explain this
trend if the halo-mass biasing relation has the large scatter at high redshift.Comment: 29pages, 7 postscript figures, submitted to Ap
Skewness as a probe of non-Gaussian initial conditions
We compute the skewness of the matter distribution arising from non-linear
evolution and from non-Gaussian initial perturbations. We apply our result to a
very generic class of models with non-Gaussian initial conditions and we
estimate analytically the ratio between the skewness due to non-linear
clustering and the part due to the intrinsic non-Gaussianity of the models. We
finally extend our estimates to higher moments.Comment: 5 pages, 2 ps-figs., accepted for publication in PRD, rapid com
An estimate of \Omega_m without priors
Using mean relative peculiar velocity measurements for pairs of galaxies, we
estimate the cosmological density parameter and the amplitude of
density fluctuations . Our results suggest that our statistic is a
robust and reproducible measure of the mean pairwise velocity and thereby the
parameter. We get and . These estimates do not depend on prior assumptions on
the adiabaticity of the initial density fluctuations, the ionization history,
or the values of other cosmological parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, slight changes to reflect published versio
Dark matter clustering: a simple renormalization group approach
I compute a renormalization group (RG) improvement to the standard
beyond-linear-order Eulerian perturbation theory (PT) calculation of the power
spectrum of large-scale density fluctuations in the Universe. At z=0, for a
power spectrum matching current observations, lowest order RGPT appears to be
as accurate as one can test using existing numerical simulation-calibrated
fitting formulas out to at least k~=0.3 h/Mpc; although inaccuracy is
guaranteed at some level by approximations in the calculation (which can be
improved in the future). In contrast, standard PT breaks down virtually as soon
as beyond-linear corrections become non-negligible, on scales even larger than
k=0.1 h/Mpc. This extension in range of validity could substantially enhance
the usefulness of PT for interpreting baryonic acoustic oscillation surveys
aimed at probing dark energy, for example. I show that the predicted power
spectrum converges at high k to a power law with index given by the fixed-point
solution of the RG equation. I discuss many possible future directions for this
line of work. The basic calculation of this paper should be easily
understandable without any prior knowledge of RG methods, while a rich
background of mathematical physics literature exists for the interested reader.Comment: much expanded explanation of basic calculatio
2-Point Moments in Cosmological Large Scale Structure: I. Theory and Comparison with Simulations
We present new perturbation theory (PT) predictions in the Spherical Collapse
(SC) model for the 2-point moments of the large-scale distribution of dark
matter density in the universe. We assume that these fluctuations grow under
gravity from small Gaussian initial conditions. These predictions are compared
with numerical simulations and with previous PT results to assess their domain
of validity. We find that the SC model provides in practice a more accurate
description of 2-point moments than previous tree-level PT calculations. The
agreement with simulations is excellent for a wide range of scales (5-50 Mpc/h)
and fluctuations amplitudes (0.02-2 variance). When normalized to unit variance
these results are independent of the cosmological parameters and of the initial
amplitude of fluctuations. The 2-point moments provide a convenient tool to
study the statistical properties of gravitational clustering for fairly
non-linear scales and complicated survey geometries, such as those probing the
clustering of the Ly-alpha forest. In this context, the perturbative SC
predictions presented here, provide a simple and novel way to test the
gravitational instability paradigm.Comment: 10 LaTeX pages, 9 figs, submitted to MNRA
Recommended from our members
The architecture of EMC reveals a path for membrane protein insertion.
Funder: Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001645Funder: Naito Foundation; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007428Funder: Japanese Biochemical SocietyApproximately 25% of eukaryotic genes code for integral membrane proteins that are assembled at the endoplasmic reticulum. An abundant and widely conserved multi-protein complex termed EMC has been implicated in membrane protein biogenesis, but its mechanism of action is poorly understood. Here, we define the composition and architecture of human EMC using biochemical assays, crystallography of individual subunits, site-specific photocrosslinking, and cryo-EM reconstruction. Our results suggest that EMC's cytosolic domain contains a large, moderately hydrophobic vestibule that can bind a substrate's transmembrane domain (TMD). The cytosolic vestibule leads into a lumenally-sealed, lipid-exposed intramembrane groove large enough to accommodate a single substrate TMD. A gap between the cytosolic vestibule and intramembrane groove provides a potential path for substrate egress from EMC. These findings suggest how EMC facilitates energy-independent membrane insertion of TMDs, explain why only short lumenal domains are translocated by EMC, and constrain models of EMC's proposed chaperone function
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