1,710 research outputs found
A Spinor Theory of Gravity and the Cosmological Framework
Recently we have presented a new formulation of the theory of gravity based
on an implementation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle distinct from
General Relativity. The kinetic part of the theory - that describes how matter
is affected by the modified geometry due to the gravitational field - is the
same as in General Relativity. However, we do not consider the metric as an
independent field. Instead, it is an effective one, constructed in terms of two
fundamental spinor fields and and thus the metric does not
have a dynamics of its own, but inherits its evolution through its relation
with the fundamental spinors. In the first paper it was shown that the metric
that describes the gravitational field generated by a compact static and
spherically symmetric configuration is very similar to the Schwarzschild
metric. In the present paper we describe the cosmological framework in the
realm of the Spinor Theory of Gravity
MACHOs, White Dwarfs, and the Age of the Universe
(Abridged Abstract) A favored interpretation of recent microlensing
measurements towards the Large Magellanic Cloud implies that a large fraction
(i.e. 10--50%) of the mass of the galactic halo is composed of white dwarfs. We
compare model white dwarf luminosity functions to the data from the
observational surveys in order to determine a lower bound on the age of any
substantial white dwarf halo population (and hence possibly on the age of the
Universe). We compare various theoretical white dwarf luminosity functions, in
which we vary hese three parameters, with the abovementioned survey results.
From this comparison, we conclude that if white dwarfs do indeed constitute
more than 10% of the local halo mass density, then the Universe must be at
least 10 Gyr old for our most extreme allowed values of the parameters. When we
use cooling curves that account for chemical fractionation and more likely
values of the IMF and the bolometric correction, we find tighter limits: a
white dwarf MACHO fraction of 10% (30%) requires a minimum age of 14 Gyr (15.5
Gyr). Our analysis also indicates that the halo white dwarfs almost certainly
have helium-dominated atmospheres.Comment: Final version accepted for publication, straight TeX formate, 6 figs,
22 page
Hierarchy and Wave Functions in a Simple Quantum Cosmology
Astrophysical observations indicate the expansion of the universe is
accelerating. Applying the holographic entropy conjecture to the cosmological
horizon in an accelerating universe suggests the universe has only a finite
number of degrees of freedom. This is consistent with a closed universe arising
from a quantum fluctuation, with zero total quantum numbers. If space-time has
eleven dimensions, and the universe began as a closed force-symmetric
ten-dimensional space with characteristic dimension L, seven of the space
dimensions must have collapsed to generate the three large space dimensions we
see. The holographic conjecture then suggests the initial length scale L must
be roughly twenty orders of magnitude larger than the Planck length.
Accordingly, the nuclear force must be roughly forty orders of magnitude
stronger than gravity, possibly resolving the force hierarchy problem. A
wavefunction for the radius of curvature of the universe can be obtained from
the Schrodinger equation derived by Elbaz and Novello. The product of this
wavefunction and its complex conjugate can be interpreted as the probability
density for finding a given radius of curvature in one of the infinity of
measurements of the radius of curvature possible (in principle) at any location
in a homogeneous isotropic universe.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, abstract corrected to insert omitted word
NGC6240: extended CO structures and their association with shocked gas
We present deep CO observations of NGC6240 performed with the IRAM Plateau de
Bure Interferometer (PdBI). NGC6240 is the prototypical example of a major
galaxy merger in progress, caught at an early stage, with an extended,
strongly-disturbed butterfly-like morphology and the presence of a heavily
obscured active nucleus in the core of each progenitor galaxy. The CO line
shows a skewed profile with very broad and asymmetric wings detected out to
velocities of -600 km/s and +800 km/s with respect to the systemic velocity.
The PdBI maps reveal the existence of two prominent structures of blueshifted
CO emission. One extends eastward, i.e. approximately perpendicular to the line
connecting the galactic nuclei, over scales of ~7 kpc and shows velocities up
to -400 km/s. The other extends southwestward out to ~7 kpc from the nuclear
region, and has a velocity of -100 km/s with respect to the systemic one.
Interestingly, redshifted emission with velocities 400 to 800 km/s is detected
around the two nuclei, extending in the east-west direction, and partly
overlapping with the eastern blue-shifted structure, although tracing a more
compact region of size ~1.7 kpc. The overlap between the southwestern CO blob
and the dust lanes seen in HST images, which are interpreted as tidal tails,
indicates that the molecular gas is deeply affected by galaxy interactions. The
eastern blueshifted CO emission is co-spatial with an Halpha filament that is
associated with strong H2 and soft X-ray emission. The analysis of Chandra
X-ray data provides strong evidence for shocked gas at the position of the
Halpha emission. Its association with outflowing molecular gas supports a
scenario where the molecular gas is compressed into a shock wave that
propagates eastward from the nuclei. If this is an outflow, the AGN are likely
the driving force.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Simple quantum cosmology: Vacuum energy and initial state
A static non-singular 10-dimensional closed Friedmann universe of Planck
size, filled with a perfect fluid with an equation of state with w = -2/3, can
arise spontaneously by a quantum fluctuation from nothing in 11-dimensional
spacetime. A quantum transition from this state can initiate the inflationary
quantum cosmology outlined in Ref. 2 [General Relativity and Gravitation 33,
1415, 2001 - gr-qc/0103021]. With no fine-tuning, that cosmology predicts about
60 e-folds of inflation and a vacuum energy density depending only on the
number of extra space dimensions (seven), G, h, c and the ratio between the
strength of gravity and the strength of the strong force. The fraction of the
total energy in the universe represented by this vacuum energy depends on the
Hubble constant. Hubble constant estimates from WMAP, SDSS, the Hubble Key
Project and Sunyaev-Zeldovich and X-ray flux measurements range from 60 to 72
km/(Mpc sec). With a mid-range Hubble constant of 65 km/(Mpc sec), the model in
Ref. 2 predicts Omega-sub-Lambda = 0.7Comment: To be published in General Relativity and Gravitation, Vol. 37, May
2005. 5 pages, no figure
X-ray observations of highly obscured τ_(9.7 μm) > 1 sources: an efficient method for selecting Compton-thick AGN?
Observations with the IRS spectrograph onboard Spitzer have found many sources with very deep Si features at 9.7 μm, that have optical depths of τ > 1. Since it is believed that a few of these systems in the local Universe are associated with Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (hereafter AGN), we set out to investigate whether the presence of a strong Si absorption feature is a good indicator of a heavily obscured AGN. We compile X-ray spectroscopic observations available in the literature on the optically-thick (τ_(9.7 μm) > 1) sources from the 12 μm IRAS Seyfert sample. We find that the majority of the high-τ optically confirmed Seyferts (six out of nine)
in the 12 μm sample are probably Compton-thick. Thus, we provide direct evidence of a connection between mid-IR optically-thick galaxies and Compton-thick AGN, with the success rate being close to 70% in the local Universe. This is at least comparable to, if not better than, other rates obtained with photometric information in the mid to far-IR, or even mid-IR to X-rays. However, this technique cannot provide complete Compton-thick AGN samples, i.e., there are many Compton-thick AGN that do not display significant Si
absorption, with the most notable example being NGC1068. After assessing the validity of the high 9.7 μm optical-depth technique in the local Universe, we attempt to construct a sample of candidate Compton-thick AGN at higher redshifts. We compile a sample of seven high-τ Spitzer sources in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) and five in the Spitzer First-Look Survey.
All these have been selected to have no PAH features (EW_(6.2 μm) 10^(42) erg s^(−1)) of the detected GOODS sources corroborates that these are AGN. For FLS, ancillary optical spectroscopy reveals hidden nuclei in two more sources. SED fitting can support the presence of an AGN in the vast majority of sources. Owing to the limited photon statistics, we cannot derive useful constraints from X-ray spectroscopy on whether these sources are Compton-thick. However, the low L_(X)/L_(6 μm) luminosity ratios, suggest that at least four out of the six detected sources in GOODS may be associated with Compton-thick AGN
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