Has Blending Compromised Cepheid-Based Determinations of the Extragalactic Distance Scale?

We examine the suggestion that half of the HST Key Project- and Sandage/Saha-observed galaxies have had their distances systematically underestimated, by 0.1-0.3 mag in the distance modulus, due to the underappreciated influence of stellar profile blending on the WFC chips. The signature of such an effect would be a systematic trend in (i) the Type Ia supernovae corrected peak luminosity and (ii) the Tully-Fisher residuals, with increasing calibrator distance, and (iii) a differential offset between PC and WFC distance moduli, within the same galaxy. The absence of a trend would be expected if blending were negligible (as has been inherently assumed in the analyses of the aforementioned teams). We adopt a functional form for the predicted influence of blending that is consistent with the models of Mochejska et al. and Stanek & Udalski, and demonstrate that the expected correlation with distance predicted by these studies is not supported by the data. We conclude that the Cepheid-based extragalactic distance scale has not been severely compromised by the neglect of blending.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, LaTeX, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, also available at http://casa.colorado.edu/~bgibson/publications.htm

Peculiar Velocities of Nonlinear Structure: Voids in McVittie Spacetime

As a study of peculiar velocities of nonlinear structure, we analyze the model of a relativistic thin-shell void in the expanding universe. (1) Adopting McVittie (MV) spacetime as a background universe, we investigate the dynamics of an uncompensated void with negative MV mass. Although the motion itself is quite different from that of a compensated void, as shown by Haines & Harris (1993), the present peculiar velocities are not affected by MV mass. (2) We discuss how precisely the formula in the linear perturbation theory applies to nonlinear relativistic voids, using the results in (1) as well as the previous results for the homogeneous background (Sakai, Maeda, & Sato 1993). (3) We re-examine the effect of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Contrary to the results of Pim & Lake (1986, 1988), we find that the effect is negligible. We show that their results are due to inappropriate initial conditions. Our results (1)-(3) suggest that the formula in the linear perturbation theory is approximately valid even for nonlinear voids.Comment: 12 pages, aastex, 4 ps figures separate, Fig.2 added, to appear in Ap

Charge Exchange Spin-Dipole Excitations of 90Zr and 208Pb and Neutron Matter Equation of State

Charge exchange spin-dipole (SD) excitations of $^{90}$Zr and $^{208}$Pb are studied by using a Skyrme Hartree-Fock(HF) + Random Phase approximation (RPA). The calculated spin-dipole strength distributions are compared with experimental data obtained by $^{90}$Zr (p,n) $^{90}$Nb and $^{90}$Zr (n,p) $^{90}$ Nb reactions. The model-independent SD sum rule values of various Skyrme interactions are studied in comparison with the experimental values in order to determine the neutron skin thickness of $^{90}$Zr. The pressure of the neutron matter equation of state (EOS) and the nuclear matter symmetry energy are discussed in terms of the neutron skin thickness and peak energies of SD strength distributions.Comment: 26pages, 10figure

Metamagnetism of antiferromagnetic XXZ quantum spin chains

The magnetization process of the one-dimensional antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with the Ising-like anisotropic exchange interaction is studied by the exact diagonalization technique. It results in the evidence of the first-order spin flop transition with a finite magnetization jump in the N\'eel ordered phase for $S\geq 1$. It implies that the S=1/2 chain is an exceptional case where the metamagnetic transition becomes second-order due to large quantum fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, with 6 eps figure

Critical exponent in the magnetization curve of quantum spin chains

The ground state magnetization curve around the critical magnetic field $H_c$ of quantum spin chains with the spin gap is investigated. We propose a size scaling method to estimate the critical exponent $\delta$ defined as $m\sim |H-H_c|^{1/\delta}$ from finite cluster calculation. The applications of the method to the S=1 antiferromagnetic chain and S=1/2 bond alternating chain lead to a common conclusion $\delta =2$. The same result is derived for both edges of the magnetization plateau of the S=3/2 antiferromagnetic chain with the single ion anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, with 4 eps figure

The thermal conductivity of alternating spin chains

We study a class of integrable alternating (S1,S2) quantum spin chains with critical ground state properties. Our main result is the description of the thermal Drude weight of the one-dimensional alternating spin chain as a function of temperature. We have identified the thermal current of the model with alternating spins as one of the conserved currents underlying the integrability. This allows for the derivation of a finite set of non-linear integral equations for the thermal conductivity. Numerical solutions to the integral equations are presented for specific cases of the spins S1 and S2. In the low-temperature limit a universal picture evolves where the thermal Drude weight is proportional to temperature T and central charge c.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Fe-doping-induced evolution of charge-orbital ordering in a bicritical-state manganite

Impurity effects on the stability of a ferromagnetic metallic state in a bicritical-state manganite, (La0.7Pr0.3)0.65Ca0.35MnO3, on the verge of metal-insulator transition have been investigated by substituting a variety of transition-metal atoms for Mn ones. Among them, Fe doping exhibits the exceptional ability to dramatically decrease the ferromagnetic transition temperature. Systematic studies on the magnetotransport properties and x-ray diffraction for the Fe-doped crystals have revealed that charge-orbital ordering evolves down to low temperatures, which strongly suppresses the ferromagnetic metallic state. The observed glassy magnetic and transport properties as well as diffuse phase transition can be attributed to the phase-separated state where short-range charge-orbital-ordered clusters are embedded in the ferromagnetic metallic matrix. Such a behavior in the Fe-doped manganites form a marked contrast to the Cr-doping effects on charge-orbital-ordered manganites known as impurity-induced collapse of charge-orbital ordering.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure