228 research outputs found
Galaxy Evolution in the Cluster Abell 85: New Insights from the Dwarf Population
We present the first results of a new spectroscopic survey of the cluster
Abell 85 targeting 1466 candidate cluster members within the central 1
deg of the cluster and having magnitudes using VIMOS/VLT and
HYDRA/WIYN. A total of 520 galaxies are confirmed as either relaxed cluster
members or part of an infalling population. A significant fraction are low
mass; the median stellar mass of the sample is , and 25%
have stellar masses below (i.e. 133 dwarf galaxies). We also
identify seven active galactic nuclei (AGN), four of which reside in dwarf host
galaxies. We probe the evolution of star formation rates, based on H
emission and continuum modeling, as a function of both mass and environment. We
find that more star forming galaxies are observed at larger clustercentric
distances, while infalling galaxies show evidence for recently enhanced star
forming activity. Main sequence galaxies, defined by their continuum star
formation rates, show different evolutionary behavior based on their mass. At
the low mass end, the galaxies have had their star formation recently quenched,
while more massive galaxies show no significant change. The timescales probed
here favor fast quenching mechanisms, such as ram-pressure stripping. Galaxies
within the green valley, defined similarly, do not show evidence of quenching.
Instead, the low mass galaxies maintain their levels of star forming activity,
while the more massive galaxies have experienced a recent burst.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Starburst Galaxies in Cluster-feeding Filaments Unveiled by Spitzer
We report the first direct detection with Spitzer of galaxy filaments. Using Spitzer and ancillary optical data, we have discovered two filamentary structures in the outskirts of the cluster Abell 1763. Both filaments point toward Abell 1770, which lies at the same redshift as Abell 1763 (z = 0.23), at a projected distance of ~13 Mpc. The X-ray cluster emission is elongated along the same direction. Most of the far-infrared emission is powered by star formation. According to the optical spectra, only one of the cluster members is classified as an active galactic nucleus. Star formation is clearly enhanced in galaxies along the filaments: the fraction of starburst galaxies in the filaments is more than twice than that in other cluster regions. We speculate that these filaments are feeding the cluster Abell 1763 by the infall of galaxies and galaxy groups. Evidence for one of these groups is provided by the analysis of galaxy kinematics in the central cluster region
Coma cluster object populations down to M_R~-9.5
This study follows a recent analysis of the galaxy luminosity functions and
colour-magnitude red sequences in the Coma cluster (Adami et al. 2007). We
analyze here the distribution of very faint galaxies and globular clusters in
an east-west strip of arcmin crossing the Coma cluster
center (hereafter the CS strip) down to the unprecedented faint absolute
magnitude of M. This work is based on deep images obtained at the
CFHT with the CFH12K camera in the B, R, and I bands. The analysis shows that
the observed properties strongly depend on the environment, and thus on the
cluster history. When the CS is divided into four regions, the westernmost
region appears poorly populated, while the regions around the brightest
galaxies NGC 4874 and NGC 4889 (NGC 4874 and NGC 4889 being masked) are
dominated by faint blue galaxies. They show a faint luminosity function slope
of -2, very significantly different from the field estimates. Results are
discussed in the framework of galaxy destruction (which can explain part of the
very faint galaxy population) and of structures infalling on to Coma.Comment: To be published in A&
A Redshift Survey of Nearby Galaxy Groups: the Shape of the Mass Density Profile
We constrain the mass profile and orbital structure of nearby groups and
clusters of galaxies. Our method yields the joint probability distribution of
the density slope n, the velocity anisotropy beta, and the turnover radius r0
for these systems. The measurement technique does not use results from N-body
simulations as priors. We incorporate 2419 new redshifts in the fields of 41
systems of galaxies with z < 0.04. The new groups have median velocity
dispersion sigma=360 km/s. We also use 851 archived redshifts in the fields of
8 nearly relaxed clusters with z < 0.1. Within R < 2 r200, the data are
consistent with a single power law matter density distribution with slope n =
1.8-2.2 for systems with sigma < 470 km/s, and n = 1.6-2.0 for those with sigma
> 470 km/s (95% confidence). We show that a simple, scale-free phase space
distribution function f(E,L^2) ~ (-E)^(alpha-1/2) L^(-2 \beta) is consistent
with the data as long as the matter density has a cusp. Using this DF, matter
density profiles with constant density cores (n=0) are ruled out with better
than 99.7% confidence.Comment: 22 pages; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Quantum computing with incoherent resources and quantum jumps
Spontaneous emission and the inelastic scattering of photons are two natural
processes usually associated with decoherence and the reduction in the capacity
to process quantum information. Here we show that when suitably detected, these
photons are sufficient to build all the fundamental blocks needed to perform
quantum computation in the emitting qubits while protecting them from
deleterious dissipative effects. We exemplify by showing how to teleport an
unknown quantum state and how to efficiently prepare graph states for the
implementation of measurement-based quantum computation.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
CAIRNS: The Cluster And Infall Region Nearby Survey I. Redshifts and Mass Profiles
The CAIRNS (Cluster And Infall Region Nearby Survey) project is a
spectroscopic survey of the infall regions surrounding eight nearby, rich,
X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies. We collect 15665 redshifts (3471 new or
remeasured) within \sim 5-10 Mpc of the centers of the clusters, making it the
largest study of the infall regions of clusters. We determine cluster
membership and the mass profiles of the clusters based on the phase space
distribution of the galaxies. All of the clusters display decreasing velocity
dispersion profiles. The mass profiles are fit well by functional forms based
on numerical simulations but exclude an isothermal sphere. Specifically, NFW
and Hernquist models provide good descriptions of cluster mass profiles to
their turnaround radii. Our sample shows that the predicted infall pattern is
ubiquitous in rich, X-ray luminous clusters over a large mass range. The
caustic mass estimates are in excellent agreement with independent X-ray
estimates at small radii and with virial estimates at intermediate radii. The
mean ratio of the caustic mass to the X-ray mass is 1.03\pm0.11 and the mean
ratio of the caustic mass to the virial mass (when corrected for the surface
pressure term) is 0.93\pm0.07. We further demonstrate that the caustic
technique provides reasonable mass estimates even in merging clusters.Comment: 54 pages, 18 figures, to appear in The Astronomical Journa
A study of dark matter halos and gas properties in clusters of galaxies from ROSAT data
Self-gravitating systems such as elliptical galaxies appear to have a
constant integrated specific entropy and obey a scaling law relating their
potential energy to their mass. These properties can be interpreted as due to
the physical processes involved in the formation and evolution of these
structures. Dark matter halos obtained through numerical simulations have also
been found to obey a scaling law relating their potential energy to their mass
with the same slope as for ellipticals, and very close to the expected value
predicted by theory. Since the X-ray gas in clusters is weakly dissipative, we
test here the hypothesis that it verifies similar properties. Comparable
properties for the dark matter component are also investigated. With this aim,
we have analyzed ROSAT-PSPC images of 24 clusters, and fit a S\'ersic law to
their X-ray surface brightness profiles. We found that: 1) the S\'ersic law
parameters (intensity, shape and scale) describing the X-ray gas emission are
correlated two by two, with a strong correlation between the shape and scale
parameters; 2) the hot gas in all these clusters roughly has the same
integrated specific entropy, although a second order correlation between this
integrated specific entropy and both the gas mass and the dynamical mass is
observed; 3) a scaling law links the cluster potential energy to its total
mass, with the same slope as that derived for elliptical galaxies and for dark
matter halo simulations. Comparable relations are obtained for the dark matter
component. All these correlations are probably the consequence of the formation
and evolution processes undergone by clusters of galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Mean-field diffusive dynamics on weighted networks
Diffusion is a key element of a large set of phenomena occurring on natural
and social systems modeled in terms of complex weighted networks. Here, we
introduce a general formalism that allows to easily write down mean-field
equations for any diffusive dynamics on weighted networks. We also propose the
concept of annealed weighted networks, in which such equations become exact. We
show the validity of our approach addressing the problem of the random walk
process, pointing out a strong departure of the behavior observed in quenched
real scale-free networks from the mean-field predictions. Additionally, we show
how to employ our formalism for more complex dynamics. Our work sheds light on
mean-field theory on weighted networks and on its range of validity, and warns
about the reliability of mean-field results for complex dynamics.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
A Turn-over in the Galaxy Luminosity Function of the Coma Cluster Core?
Our previous study of the faint end (R21.5) of the galaxy luminosity
function (GLF) was based on spectroscopic data in a small region near the Coma
cluster center. In this previous study Adami et al. (1998) suggested, with
moderate statistical significance, that the number of galaxies actually
belonging to the cluster was much smaller than expected. This led us to
increase our spectroscopic sample. Here, we have improved the statistical
significance of the results of the Coma GLF faint end study (R22.5) by
using a sample of 85 redshifts. This includes both new spectroscopic data and a
literature compilation. The relatively small number of faint galaxies belonging
to Coma that was suggested by Adami et al. (1998) and Secker et al. (1998) has
been confirmed with these new observations. We also confirm that the
color-magnitude relation is not well suited for finding the galaxies inside the
Coma cluster core, close to the center at magnitudes fainter than R19. We
show that there is an enhancement in the Coma line of sight of field galaxies
compared to classical field counts. This can be explained by the contribution
of groups and of a distant cluster along the line of sight. The
result is that the Coma GLF appears to turn-over or at least to become flat for
the faint galaxies. We suggest that this is due to environmental effects.Comment: 8 pages, 6 postscript figures, accepted in A&A, new table 1, updated
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