5,745 research outputs found
Strong lensing time delay: a new way of measuring cosmic shear
The phenomenon of cosmic shear, or distortion of images of distant sources
unaccompanied by magnification, is an effective way of probing the content and
state of the foreground Universe, because light rays do not have to pass
through mass structures in order to be sheared. It is shown that the delay in
the arrival times between two simultaneously emitted photons that appear to be
arriving from a pair of images of a strongly lensed cosmological source
contains not only information about the Hubble constant, but also the long
range gravitational effect of galactic scale mass clumps located away from the
light paths in question. This is therefore also a method of detecting shear.
Data on time delays among a sample of strongly lensed sources can provide
crucial information about whether extra dynamics beyond gravity and dark energy
are responsible for the global flatness of space. If the standard
model is correct, there should be a large dispersion in the value of as
inferred from the delay data by (the usual procedure of) ignoring the effect of
all other mass clumps except the strong lens itself. The fact that there has
not been any report of a significant deviation from the 0.7 mark during
any of the determinations by this technique may already be pointing to
the absence of the random effect discussed here.Comment: ApJ in pres
A Model for Structure Formation Seeded by Gravitationally Produced Matter
This model assumes the baryons, radiation, three families of massless
neutrinos, and cold dark matter were mutually thermalized before the baryon
number was fixed, primeval curvature fluctuations were subdominant, and
homogeneity was broken by scale-invariant fluctuations in a new dark matter
component that behaves like a relativistic ideal fluid. The fluid behavior
could follow if this new component were a single scalar field that interacts
only with gravity and with itself by a pure quartic potential. The initial
energy distribution could follow if this component were gravitationally
produced by inflation. The power spectra of the present distributions of mass
and radiation in this model are not inconsistent with the measurements but are
sufficiently different from the adiabatic cold dark matter model to allow a
sharp test in the near future.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures submitted to ApJ Letter
Dark Matter, Modified Gravity and the Mass of the Neutrino
It has been suggested that Einstein's theory of General Relativity can be
modified to accomodate mismatches between the gravitational field and luminous
matter on a wide range of scales. Covariant theories of modified gravity
generically predict the existence of extra degrees of freedom which may be
interpreted as dark matter. We study a subclass of these theories where the
overall energy density in these extra degrees of freedom is subdominant
relative to the baryon density and show that they favour the presence of
massive neutrinos. For some specific cases (such as a flat Universes with a
cosmological constant) one finds a conservative lower bound on the neutrinos
mass of eV.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.
A study of human performance in a rotating environment
Consideration is given to the lack of sufficient data relative to the response of man to the attendant oculovestibular stimulations induced by multi-directional movement of an individual within the rotating environment to provide the required design criteria. This was done to determine the overall impact of artificial gravity simulations on potential design configurations and crew operational procedures. Gross locomotion and fine motor performance were evaluated. Results indicate that crew orientation, rotational rates, vehicle design configurations, and operational procedures may be used to reduce the severity of the adverse effects of the Coriolis and cross-coupled angular accelerations acting on masses moving within a rotating environment. Results further indicate that crew selection, motivation, and short-term exposures to the rotating environment may be important considerations for future crew indoctrination and training programs
The DCU laser ion source
Laser ion sources are used to generate and deliver highly charged ions of various masses and energies. We present details on the design and basic parameters of the DCU laser ion source (LIS). The theoretical aspects of a high voltage (HV) linear LIS are presented and the main issues surrounding laser-plasma formation, ion extraction and modeling of beam transport in relation to the operation of a LIS are detailed. A range of laser power densities (I ⌠108â1011âWâcmâ2) and fluences (F = 0.1â3.9âkJâcmâ2) from a Q-switched ruby laser (full-width half-maximum pulse duration ⌠35âns, λ = 694ânm) were used to generate a copper plasma. In âbasic operating mode,â laser generated plasma ions are electrostatically accelerated using a dc HV bias (5â18 kV). A traditional einzel electrostatic lens system is utilized to transport and collimate the extracted ion beam for detection via a Faraday cup. Peak currents of up to I ⌠600âÎŒA for Cu+ to Cu3+ ions were recorded. The maximum collected charge reached 94 pC (Cu2+). Hydrodynamic simulations and ion probe diagnostics were used to study the plasma plume within the extraction gap. The system measured performance and electrodynamic simulations indicated that the use of a short field-free (L = 48âmm) region results in rapid expansion of the injected ion beam in the drift tube. This severely limits the efficiency of the electrostatic lens system and consequently the sources performance. Simulations of ion beam dynamics in a âcontinuous einzel arrayâ were performed and experimentally verified to counter the strong space-charge force present in the ion beam which results from plasma extraction close to the target surface. Ion beam acceleration and injection thus occur at âhigh pressure.â In âenhanced operating mode,â peak currents of 3.26 mA (Cu2+) were recorded. The collected currents of more highly charged ions (Cu4+âCu6+) increased considerably in this mode of operation
The finite size effect of galaxies on the cosmic virial theorem and the pairwise peculiar velocity dispersions
We discuss the effect of the finite size of galaxies on estimating
small-scale relative pairwise peculiar velocity dispersions from the cosmic
virial theorem (CVT). Specifically we evaluate the effect by incorporating the
finite core radius in the two-point correlation function of mass, i.e.
and the effective gravitational force
softening on small scales. We analytically obtain the lowest-order
correction term for which is in quantitative agreement with the
full numerical evaluation. With a nonzero and/or the cosmic virial
theorem is no longer limited to the case of . We present accurate
fitting formulae for the CVT predicted pairwise velocity dispersion for the
case of . Compared with the idealistic point-mass approximation
(), the finite size effect can significantly reduce the small-scale
velocity dispersions of galaxies at scales much larger than and .
Even without considering the finite size of galaxies, nonzero values for
are generally expected, for instance, for cold dark matter (CDM) models with a
scale-invariant primordial spectrum. For these CDM models, a reasonable force
softening r_s\le 100 \hikpc would have rather tiny effect. We present the CVT
predictions for the small-scale pairwise velocity dispersion in the CDM models
normalized by the COBE observation. The implication of our results for
confrontation of observations of galaxy pair-wise velocity dispersions and
theoretical predictions of the CVT is also discussed.Comment: 18 pages. LaTeX text and 8 postcript figures. submitted to Ap
Simulated Extragalactic Observations with a Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer
In this paper we explore the application of cryogenic imaging
spectrophotometers. Prototypes of this new class of detector, such as
superconducting tunnel junctions (STJs) and transition edge sensors (TESs),
currently deliver low resolution imaging spectrophotometry with high quantum
efficiency (70-100%) and no read noise over a wide bandpass in the visible to
near-infrared. In order to demonstrate their utility and the differences in
observing strategy needed to maximize their scientific return, we present
simulated observations of a deep extragalactic field. Using a simple analytic
technique, we can estimate both the galaxy redshift and spectral type more
accurately than is possible with current broadband techniques. From our
simulated observations and a subsequent discussion of the expected migration
path for this new technology, we illustrate the power and promise of these
devices.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical
Journa
Correlation between the Mean Matter Density and the Width of the Saturated Lyman Alpha Absorption
We report a scaling of the mean matter density with the width of the
saturated Lyman alpha absorptions. This property is established using the
``pseudo-hydro'' technique (Croft et al. 1998). It provides a constraint for
the inversion of the Lyman alpha forest, which encounters difficulty in the
saturated region. With a Gaussian density profile and the scaling relation, a
simple inversion of the simulated Lyman alpha forests shows that the
one-dimensional mass power spectrum is well recovered on scales above 2 Mpc/h,
or roughly k < 0.03 s/km, at z=3. The recovery underestimates the power on
small scales, but improvement is possible with a more sophisticated algorithm.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, replaced by
the version after proo
The Angular Power Spectrum of EDSGC Galaxies
We determine the angular power spectrum, C_l, of the Edinburgh/Durham
Southern Galaxy Catalog (EDSGC) and use this statistic to constrain
cosmological parameters. Our methods for determining C_l, and the parameters
that affect it are based on those developed for the analysis of cosmic
microwave background maps. We expect them to be useful for future surveys.
Assuming flat cold dark matter models with a cosmological constant (constrained
by COBE/DMR and local cluster abundances), and a scale--independent bias, b, we
find good fits to the EDSGC angular power spectrum with 1.11 < b < 2.35 and 0.2
< Omega_m < 0.55 at 95% confidence. These results are not significantly
affected by the ``integral constraint'' or extinction by interstellar dust, but
may be by our assumption of Gaussianity.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, version to appear in Ap
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