Migration of giant planets in planetesimal discs

Planets orbiting a planetesimal circumstellar disc can migrate inward from their initial positions because of dynamical friction between planets and planetesimals. The migration rate depends on the disc mass and on its time evolution. Planets that are embedded in long-lived planetesimal discs, having total mass of $10^{-4}-0.01 M_{\odot}$, can migrate inward a large distance and can survive only if the inner disc is truncated or because of tidal interaction with the star. In this case the semi-major axis, a, of the planetary orbit is less than 0.1 AU. Orbits with larger $a$ are obtained for smaller value of the disc mass or for a rapid evolution (depletion) of the disc. This model may explain several of the orbital features of the giant planets that were discovered in last years orbiting nearby stars as well as the metallicity enhancement found in several stars associated with short-period planets.Comment: 21 pages; 6 encapsulated figures. Accepted by MNRA

Extended Spherical Collapse and the Accelerating Universe

The influence of the shear stress and angular momentum on the nonlinear spherical collapse model is discussed in the framework of the Einstein-de Sitter (EdS) and $\Lambda$CDM models. By assuming that the vacuum component is not clustering within the homogeneous nonspherical overdensities, we show how the local rotation and shear affects the linear density threshold for collapse of the non-relativistic component ($\delta_\mathrm{c}$) and its virial overdensity ($\Delta_\mathrm{V}$). It is also found that the net effect of shear and rotation in galactic scale is responsible for higher values of the linear overdensity parameter as compared with the standard spherical collapse model (no shear and rotation).Comment: 5 pages, 2 fig

The influence of dynamical friction on the collapse of spherical density pertubation

We solve numerically the equations of motion for the collapse of a shell of baryonic matter falling into the central regions of a cluster of galaxies, taking into account of the presence of the substructure inducing dynamical friction. The evolution of the expansion parameter a(t) of the perturbation is calculated in spherical systems. The effect of dynamical friction is to reduce the binding radius and the total mass accreted by the central regions. Using a peak density profile given by Bardeen et al. (1986) we show how the binding radius of the perturbation is modified by dinamical friction. We show how dynamical friction modifies the collapse parameter of the perturbation slowing down the collapse

Improvements in the M-T relation and mass function and the measured Omega_m through clusters evolution

In this paper, I revisit the constraints obtained by several authors (Reichart et al. 1999; Eke et al. 1998; Henry 2000) on the estimated values of Omega_m, n and sigma_8 in the light of recent theoretical developments: 1) new theoretical mass functions (Sheth & Tormen 1999, Sheth, Mo & Tormen 1999, Del Popolo 2002b); 2) a more accurate mass-temperature relation, also determined for arbitrary Omega_m and Omega_{\Lambda} (Voit 2000, Pierpaoli et al. 2001, Del Popolo 2002a). Firstly, using the quoted improvements, I re-derive an expression for the X-ray Luminosity Function (XLF), similarly to Reichart et al. (1999), and then I get some constraints to \Omega_m and n, by using the ROSAT BCS and EMSS samples and maximum-likelihood analysis. Then I re-derive the X-ray Temperature Function (XTF), similarly to Henry (2000) and Eke et al. (1999), re-obtaining the constraints on Omega_m, n, sigma_8. Both in the case of the XLF and XTF, the changes in the mass function and M-T relation produces an increase in Omega_m of \simeq 20% and similar results in sigma_8 and n.Comment: 34 pages, 11 encapsulated figures. Accepted by Ap