267 research outputs found
Synchrotron Emission from Hot Accretion Flows and the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy
Current estimates of number counts of radio sources in the frequency range
where the most sensitive Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments are
carried out significantly under-represent sources with strongly inverted
spectra. Hot accretion flows around supermassive black holes in the nuclei of
nearby galaxies are expected to produce inverted radio spectra by thermal
synchrotron emission. We calculate the temperature fluctuations and power
spectra of these sources in the Planck Surveyor 30 GHz energy channel, where
their emission is expected to peak. We find that their potential contribution
is generally comparable to the instrumental noise, and approaches the CMB
anisotropy level at small angular scales. Forthcoming CMB missions, which will
provide a large statistical sample of inverted-spectra sources, will be crucial
for determining the distribution of hot accretion flows in nearby quiescent
galactic nuclei. Detection of these sources in different frequency channels
will help constrain their spectral characteristics, hence their physical
properties.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Radio Foregrounds for the 21cm Tomography of the Neutral Intergalactic Medium at High Redshifts
Absorption or emission against the cosmic microwave background radiation
(CMB) may be observed in the redshifted 21cm line if the spin temperature of
the neutral intergalactic medium prior to reionization differs from the CMB
temperature. This so-called 21cm tomography should reveal important information
on the physical state of the intergalactic medium at high redshifts. The
fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm, due to gas density inhomogeneities at
early times, should be observed at meter wavelengths by the next generation
radio telescopes such as the proposed {\it Square Kilometer Array (SKA)}. Here
we show that the extra-galactic radio sources provide a serious contamination
to the brightness temperature fluctuations expected in the redshifted 21 cm
emission from the IGM at high redshifts. Unless the radio source population
cuts off at flux levels above the planned sensitivity of SKA, its clustering
noise component will dominate the angular fluctuations in the 21 cm signal. The
integrated foreground signal is smooth in frequency space and it should
nonetheless be possible to identify the sharp spectral feature arising from the
non-uniformities in the neutral hydrogen density during the epoch when the
first UV sources reionize the intergalactic medium.Comment: 5 pages emulateapj with 1 figure, accepted to Ap
Optimal Transport, Convection, Magnetic Relaxation and Generalized Boussinesq equations
We establish a connection between Optimal Transport Theory and classical
Convection Theory for geophysical flows. Our starting point is the model
designed few years ago by Angenent, Haker and Tannenbaum to solve some Optimal
Transport problems. This model can be seen as a generalization of the
Darcy-Boussinesq equations, which is a degenerate version of the
Navier-Stokes-Boussinesq (NSB) equations. In a unified framework, we relate
different variants of the NSB equations (in particular what we call the
generalized Hydrostatic-Boussinesq equations) to various models involving
Optimal Transport (and the related Monge-Ampere equation. This includes the 2D
semi-geostrophic equations and some fully non-linear versions of the so-called
high-field limit of the Vlasov-Poisson system and of the Keller-Segel for
Chemotaxis. Finally, we show how a ``stringy'' generalization of the AHT model
can be related to the magnetic relaxation model studied by Arnold and Moffatt
to obtain stationary solutions of the Euler equations with prescribed topology
A flash in the dark: UVES/VLT high resolution spectroscopy of GRB afterglows
We present the first high resolution (R=20000--45000, corresponding to 14
km/s at 4200A to 6.6 km/s at 9000A) observations of the optical afterglow of
Gamma Ray Bursts. GRB020813 and GRB021004 were observed by UVES@VLT 22.19 hours
and 13.52 hours after the trigger, respectively. These spectra show that the
inter--stellar matter of the GRB host galaxies is complex, with many components
contributing to each main absorption system, and spanning a total velocity
range of up to about 3000 km/s. Several narrow components are resolved down to
a width of a few tens of km/s. In the case of GRB021004 we detected both low
and high ionization lines. Combined with photoionization results obtained with
CLOUDY, the ionization parameters of the various systems are consistent with a
remarkably narrow range with no clear trend with system velocity. This can be
interpreted as due to density fluctuations on top of a regular R^-2 wind
density profile.Comment: Most figure improved, a few typos corrected, added a new subsection.
ApJ in pres
Short Gamma Ray Bursts: marking the birth of black holes from coalescing compact binaries
This contribution summarizes, as of early 2008, the observational and
theoretical understanding of the origin, physics, and emission properties of
short gamma-ray bursts in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.Comment: 19 pages, appeared in the book "Physics of Relativistic Objects in
Compact Binaries: From Birth to Coalescence", Astrophysics and Space Science
Library, edited by M. Colpi, P. Casella, V. Gorini, U. Moschella, and A.
Possent
Physics of ULIRGs with MUSE and ALMA: The PUMA project: III. Incidence and properties of ionised gas disks in ULIRGs, associated velocity dispersion, and its dependence on starburstiness
CONTEXT:
A classical scenario suggests that ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) transform colliding spiral galaxies into a spheroid-dominated early-type galaxy. Recent high-resolution simulations have instead shown that, under some circumstances, rotation disks can be preserved during the merging process or rapidly regrown after coalescence. Our goal is to analyse in detail the ionised gas kinematics in a sample of ULIRGs to infer the incidence of gas rotational dynamics in late-stage interacting galaxies and merger remnants.
AIMS:
We analysed integral field spectrograph MUSE data of a sample of 20 nearby (z < 0.165) ULIRGs (with 29 individual nuclei) as part of the Physics of ULIRGs with MUSE and ALMA (PUMA) project. We used multi-Gaussian fitting techniques to identify gaseous disk motions and the 3D-Barolo tool to model them.
METHODS:
We found that 27% (8 out of 29) individual nuclei are associated with kiloparsec-scale disk-like gas motions. The rest of the sample displays a plethora of gas kinematics, dominated by winds and merger-induced flows, which makes the detection of rotation signatures difficult. On the other hand, the incidence of stellar disk-like motions is ∼2 times larger than gaseous disks, as the former are probably less affected by winds and streams. The eight galaxies with a gaseous disk present relatively high intrinsic gas velocity dispersion (σ0 ∈ [30 − 85] km s−1), rotationally supported motions (with gas rotation velocity over velocity dispersion vrot/σ0 ∼ 1 − 8), and dynamical masses in the range (2 − 7)×1010 M⊙. By combining our results with those of local and high-z disk galaxies (up to z ∼ 2) from the literature, we found a significant correlation between σ0 and the offset from the main sequence (δMS), after correcting for their evolutionary trends.
RESULTS:
Our results confirm the presence of kiloparsec-scale rotating disks in interacting galaxies and merger remnants in the PUMA sample, with an incidence going from 27% (gas) to ≲50% (stars). Their gas σ0 is up to a factor of ∼4 higher than in local normal main sequence galaxies, similar to high-z starbursts as presented in the literature; this suggests that interactions and mergers enhance the star formation rate while simultaneously increasing the velocity dispersion in the interstellar medium
The PUMA project. III. Incidence and properties of ionised gas disks in ULIRGs, associated velocity dispersion and its dependence on starburstiness
A classical scenario suggests that ULIRGs transform colliding spiral galaxies
into a spheroid dominated early-type galaxy. Recent high-resolution simulations
have instead shown that, under some circumstances, rotation disks can be
preserved during the merging process or rapidly regrown after coalescence. Our
goal is to analyze in detail the ionised gas kinematics in a sample of ULIRGs
to infer the incidence of gas rotational dynamics in late-stage interacting
galaxies and merger remnants. We analysed MUSE data of a sample of 20 nearby
(z<0.165) ULIRGs, as part of the "Physics of ULIRGs with MUSE and ALMA" (PUMA)
project. We found that 27% individual nuclei are associated with kpc-scale
disk-like gas motions. The rest of the sample displays a plethora of gas
kinematics, dominated by winds and merger-induced flows, which make the
detection of rotation signatures difficult. On the other hand, the incidence of
stellar disk-like motions is ~2 times larger than gaseous disks, as the former
are probably less affected by winds and streams. The eight galaxies with a
gaseous disk present relatively high intrinsic gas velocity dispersion (sigma =
30-85 km/s), rotationally-supported motions (with gas rotation velocity over
velocity dispersion vrot/sigma > 1-8), and dynamical masses in the range
(2-7)x1e10 Msun. By combining our results with those of local and high-z disk
galaxies from the literature, we found a significant correlation between sigma
and the offset from the main sequence (MS), after correcting for their
evolutionary trends. Our results confirm the presence of kpc-scale rotating
disks in interacting galaxies and merger remnants, with an incidence going from
27% (gas) to ~50% (stars). The ULIRGs gas velocity dispersion is up to a factor
of ~4 higher than in local normal MS galaxies, similar to high-z starbursts as
presented in the literature
Existence and Nonlinear Stability of Rotating Star Solutions of the Compressible Euler-Poisson Equations
We prove existence of rotating star solutions which are steady-state
solutions of the compressible isentropic Euler-Poisson (EP) equations in 3
spatial dimensions, with prescribed angular momentum and total mass. This
problem can be formulated as a variational problem of finding a minimizer of an
energy functional in a broader class of functions having less symmetry than
those functions considered in the classical Auchmuty-Beals paper. We prove the
nonlinear dynamical stability of these solutions with perturbations having the
same total mass and symmetry as the rotating star solution. We also prove local
in time stability of W^{1, \infty}(\RR^3) solutions where the perturbations
are entropy-weak solutions of the EP equations. Finally, we give a uniform (in
time) a-priori estimate for entropy-weak solutions of the EP equations
Predictions for high-frequency radio surveys of extragalactic sources
We present detailed predictions of the contributions of the various source
populations to the counts at frequencies of tens of GHz. New evolutionary
models are worked out for flat-spectrum radio quasars, BL Lac objects, and
steep-spectrum sources. Source populations characterized by spectra peaking at
high radio frequencies, such as extreme GPS sources, ADAF/ADIOS sources and
early phases of gamma-ray burst afterglows are also dealt with. The counts of
different populations of star-forming galaxies (normal spirals, starbursts,
high-z galaxies detected by SCUBA and MAMBO surveys, interpreted as
proto-spheroidal galaxies) are estimated taking into account both synchrotron
and free-free emission, and dust re-radiation. Our analysis is completed by
updated counts of Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects in clusters of galaxies and by a
preliminary estimate of galactic-scale Sunyaev-Zeldovich signals associated to
proto-galactic plasma.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, to be published in A&
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