1,330 research outputs found
The Impact of baryonic physics on the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
Poorly understood "baryonic physics" impacts our ability to predict the power
spectrum of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect. We study this in one
sample high resolution simulation of galaxy formation and feedback, Illustris.
The high resolution of Illustris allows us to probe the kSZ power spectrum on
multipoles . Strong AGN feedback in Illustris nearly
wipes out gas fluctuations at and at late times,
likely somewhat under predicting the kSZ power generated at . The
post-reionization kSZ power spectrum for Illustris is well-fit by
over
, somewhat lower than most other reported values
but consistent with the analysis of Shaw et al. Our analysis of the bias of
free electrons reveals subtle effects associated with the multi-phase gas
physics and stellar fractions that affect even linear scales. In particular
there are fewer electrons in biased galaxies, due to gas cooling and star
formation, and this leads to an electron bias less than one even at low
wavenumbers. The combination of bias and electron fraction that determines the
overall suppression is relatively constant, , but more
simulations are needed to see if this is Illustris-specific. By separating the
kSZ power into different terms, we find at least of the signal at
comes from non-Gaussian connected four-point density and
velocity correlations, \left_{c}, even without
correcting for the Illustris simulation box size. A challenge going forward
will be to accurately model long-wave velocity modes simultaneously with
Illustris-like high resolution to capture the complexities of galaxy formation
and its correlations with large scale flows.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure, submitted to Ap
The Imprint of Gravitational Waves on the Cosmic Microwave Background
Long-wavelength gravitational waves can induce significant temperature
anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background. Distinguishing this from
anisotropy induced by energy density fluctuations is critical for testing
inflationary cosmology and theories of large-scale structure formation. We
describe full radiative transport calculations of the two contributions and
show that they differ dramatically at angular scales below a few degrees. We
show how anisotropy experiments probing large- and small-angular scales can
combine to distinguish the imprint due to gravitational waves.Comment: 11 pages, Penn Preprint-UPR-
The Canada-UK Deep Sub-Millimeter Survey II: First identifications, redshifts and implications for galaxy evolution
Identifications are sought for 12 sub-mm sources detected by Eales et al
(1998). Six are securely identified, two have probable identifications and four
remain unidentified with I_AB > 25. Spectroscopic and estimated photometric
redshifts indicate that four of the sources have z < 1, and four have 1 < z <
3, with the remaining four empty field sources probably lying at z > 3. The
spectral energy distributions of the identifications are consistent with those
of high extinction starbursts such as Arp 220. The far-IR luminosities of the
sources at z > 0.5 are of order 3 x 10^12 h_50^-2 L_sun, i.e. slightly larger
than that of Arp 220. Based on this small sample, the cumulative bolometric
luminosity function shows strong evolution to z ~ 1, but weaker or possibly
even negative evolution beyond. The redshift dependence of the far-IR
luminosity density does not appear, at this early stage, to be inconsistent
with that seen in the ultraviolet luminosity density. Assuming that the energy
source in the far-IR is massive stars, the total luminous output from
star-formation in the Universe is probably dominated by the far-IR emission.
The detected systems have individual star-formation rates (exceeding 300
h_50^-2 M_O yr^-1) that are much higher than seen in the ultraviolet selected
samples, and which are sufficient to form substantial stellar populations on
dynamical timescales of 10^8 yr. The association with merger-like morphologies
and the obvious presence of dust makes it attractive to identify these systems
as forming the metal-rich spheroid population, in which case we would infer
that much of this activity has occurred relatively recently, at z ~ 2.Comment: 17 pages text + 14 figures. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal. Gzipped tar file contains one text.ps file for text
and tables, one Fig2.jpg file for Fig 2, and 13 Fig*.ps files for the
remaining figure
Wintering Bald Eagle Count Trends in the Conterminous United States, 1986-2010
We analyzed counts from the annual Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey to examine state, regional, and national trends in counts of wintering Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) within the conterminous 48 United States from 1986 to 2010. Using hierarchical mixed model methods, we report trends in counts from 11 729 surveys along 844 routes in 44 states. Nationwide Bald Eagle counts increased 0.6% per yr over the 25-yr period, compared to an estimate of 1.9% per yr from 1986 to 2000. Trend estimates for Bald Eagles were significant (P ≤ 0.05) and positive in the northeastern and northwestern U.S. (3.9% and 1.1%, respectively), while trend estimates for Bald Eagles were negative (P ≤ 0.05) in the southwestern U.S. (-2.2%). After accounting for potential biases resulting from temporal and regional differences in surveys, we believe trends reflect post-DDT recovery and subsequent early effects of density-dependent population regulation
The Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect from Radiative Transfer Simulations of Patchy Reionization
We present the first calculation of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ)
effect due to the inhomogeneous reionization of the universe based on detailed
large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization. The resulting sky
power spectra peak at l=2000-8000 with maximum values of
l^2C_l~1\times10^{-12}. The peak scale is determined by the typical size of the
ionized regions and roughly corresponds to the ionized bubble sizes observed in
our simulations, ~5-20 Mpc. The kSZ anisotropy signal from reionization
dominates the primary CMB signal above l=3000. This predicted kSZ signal at
arcminute scales is sufficiently strong to be detectable by upcoming
experiments, like the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and South Pole Telescope
which are expected to have ~1' resolution and ~muK sensitivity. The extended
and patchy nature of the reionization process results in a boost of the peak
signal in power by approximately one order of magnitude compared to a uniform
reionization scenario, while roughly tripling the signal compared with that
based upon the assumption of gradual but spatially uniform reionization. At
large scales the patchy kSZ signal depends largely on the ionizing source
efficiencies and the large-scale velocity fields: sources which produce photons
more efficiently yield correspondingly higher signals. The introduction of
sub-grid gas clumping in the radiative transfer simulations produces
significantly more power at small scales, and more non-Gaussian features, but
has little effect at large scales. The patchy nature of the reionization
process roughly doubles the total observed kSZ signal for l~3000-10^4 compared
to non-patchy scenarios with the same total electron-scattering optical depth.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (some in color), submitted to Ap
A New Forest Fire Paradigm: The Need for High-Severity Fires
Forest fires, particularly those that burn at mixed and high severity (collectively called ‘severe’), have been traditionally perceived as catastrophic events, directing public attention and immense forest management budgets toward fire prevention and suppression. These fires may indeed be catastrophic when measured by losses of human lives and property. However, severe fires in wildland areas are both natural and necessary to maintain the integrity of dynamic, disturbance-adapted forest systems. We propose a change in the current paradigm—which holds that severe forest fires are always harmful—to a new one that embraces their ecological necessity
Computing CMB Anisotropy in Compact Hyperbolic Spaces
The measurements of CMB anisotropy have opened up a window for probing the
global topology of the universe on length scales comparable to and beyond the
Hubble radius. For compact topologies, the two main effects on the CMB are: (1)
the breaking of statistical isotropy in characteristic patterns determined by
the photon geodesic structure of the manifold and (2) an infrared cutoff in the
power spectrum of perturbations imposed by the finite spatial extent. We
present a completely general scheme using the regularized method of images for
calculating CMB anisotropy in models with nontrivial topology, and apply it to
the computationally challenging compact hyperbolic topologies. This new
technique eliminates the need for the difficult task of spatial eigenmode
decomposition on these spaces. We estimate a Bayesian probability for a
selection of models by confronting the theoretical pixel-pixel temperature
correlation function with the COBE-DMR data. Our results demonstrate that
strong constraints on compactness arise: if the universe is small compared to
the `horizon' size, correlations appear in the maps that are irreconcilable
with the observations. If the universe is of comparable size, the likelihood
function is very dependent upon orientation of the manifold wrt the sky. While
most orientations may be strongly ruled out, it sometimes happens that for a
specific orientation the predicted correlation patterns are preferred over the
conventional infinite models.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX (IOP style included), 3 color figures (GIF) in
separate files. Minor revision to match the version accepted in Class.
Quantum Grav.: Proc. of Topology and Cosmology, Cleveland, 1997. The paper
can be also downloaded from
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~pogosyan/cwru_proc.ps.g
Allosteric Modulators for GPCRs as a Therapeutic Alternative with High Potential in Drug Discovery
The superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) consists of biological microprocessors that can activate multiple signaling pathways. Most GPCRs have an orthosteric pocket where the endogenous ligand(s) typically binds. Conversely, allosteric ligands bind to GPCRs at sites that are distinct from the orthosteric binding region and they modulate the response elicited by the endogenous ligand. Allosteric ligands can also switch the response of a GPCR after ligand binding to a unique signaling pathway, these ligands are termed biased allosteric modulators. Thus, the development of allosteric ligands opens new and multiple ways in which the signaling pathways of GPCRs can be manipulated for potential therapeutic benefit. Furthermore, the mechanisms by which allosteric ligands modulate the effects of endogenous ligands have provided new insights into the interactions between allosteric ligands and GPCRs. These new findings have a high potential to improve drug discovery and development and, therefore, creating the need for better screening methods for allosteric drugs to increase the chances of success in the development of allosteric modulators as lead clinical compounds
The Relationship between Physical Activity Variety and Objectively Measured Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity Levels in Weight Loss Maintainers and Normal-Weight Individuals
Given the importance of physical activity (PA) for weight control, identifying strategies to achieve higher PA levels is imperative. We hypothesized that performing a greater variety of self-reported moderate-to-vigorous activities (MVPAs) would relate to higher objectively measured MVPA minutes in two groups who were successfully maintaining their body weight: weight loss maintainers (WLM/n = 226) and normal-weight individuals (NW/n = 169). The Paffenbarger Questionnaire and RT3 accelerometer were used to determine variety/number of different MVPAs performed and MVPA minutes, respectively. The variety/number of different activities performed by WLM and NW was similar (1.8 ± 1.2 versus 1.7 ± 1.2, P = 0.52). Regression analyses showed that greater variety (P < 0.01) and WLM status (P < 0.05) were each positively related to greater MVPA minutes/day and meeting the ≥250 MVPA minutes/week guideline for long-term weight maintenance. The association between greater variety and higher MVPA was similar in NW and WLM. Future studies should test whether variety can facilitate engagement in higher MVPA levels for more effective weight control
- …