95 research outputs found
sidestep Encodes a Target-Derived Attractant Essential for Motor Axon Guidance in Drosophila
AbstractAt specific choice points in the periphery, subsets of motor axons defasciculate from other axons in the motor nerves and steer into their muscle target regions. Using a large-scale genetic screen in Drosophila, we identified the sidestep (side) gene as essential for motor axons to leave the motor nerves and enter their muscle targets. side encodes a target-derived transmembrane protein (Side) that is a novel member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF). Side is expressed on embryonic muscles during the period when motor axons leave their nerves and extend onto these muscles. In side mutant embryos, motor axons fail to extend onto muscles and instead continue to extend along their motor nerves. Ectopic expression of Side results in extensive and prolonged motor axon contact with inappropriate tissues expressing Side
New evidence for a massive black hole at the centre of the quiescent galaxy M32
Massive black holes are thought to reside at the centres of many galaxies,
where they power quasars and active galactic nuclei. But most galaxies are
quiescent, indicating that any central massive black hole present will be
starved of fuel and therefore detectable only through its gravitational
influence on the motions of the surrounding stars. M32 is a nearby, quiescent
elliptical galaxy in which the presence of a black hole has been suspected;
however, the limited resolution of the observational data and the restricted
classes of models used to interpret this data have made it difficult to rule
out alternative explanations, such as models with an anisotropic stellar
velocity distribution and no dark mass or models with a central concentration
of dark objects (for example, stellar remnants or brown dwarfs). Here we
present high-resolution optical HST spectra of M32, which show that the stellar
velocities near the centre of this galaxy exceed those inferred from previous
ground-based observations. We use a range of general dynamical models to
determine a central dark mass concentration of (3.4 +/- 1.6) x 10^6 solar
masses, contained within a region only 0.3 pc across. This leaves a massive
black hole as the most plausible explanation of the data, thereby strengthening
the view that such black holes exist even in quiescent galaxies.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures; mpeg animation of the stellar motions in
M32 available at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.htm
Weighing black holes with warm absorbers
We present a new technique for determining an upper limit for the mass of the
black hole in active galactic nuclei showing warm absorption features. The
method relies on the balance of radiative and gravitational forces acting on
outflowing warm absorber clouds. It has been applied to 6 objects: five Seyfert
1 galaxies: IC 4329a, MCG-6-30-15, NGC 3516, NGC 4051 and NGC 5548; and one
radio-quiet quasar: MR 2251-178. We discuss our result in comparison with other
methods. The procedure could also be applied to any other radiatively driven
optically thin outflow in which the spectral band covering the major absorption
is directly observed.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 7 tables. MNRAS accepte
The Multitude of Unresolved Continuum Sources at 1.6 microns in Hubble Space Telescope images of Seyfert Galaxies
We examine 112 Seyfert galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
at 1.6 microns. We find that ~50% of the Seyfert 2.0 galaxies which are part of
the Revised Shapeley-Ames (RSA) Catalog or the CfA redshift sample contain
unresolved continuum sources at 1.6 microns. All but a couple of the Seyfert
1.0-1.9 galaxies display unresolved continuum sources. The unresolved sources
have fluxes of order a mJy, near-infrared luminosities of order 10^41 erg/s and
absolute magnitudes M_H ~-16. Comparison non-Seyfert galaxies from the RSA
Catalog display significantly fewer (~20%), somewhat lower luminosity nuclear
sources, which could be due to compact star clusters. We find that the
luminosities of the unresolved Seyfert 1.0-1.9 sources at 1.6 microns are
correlated with [OIII] 5007A and hard X-ray luminosities, implying that these
sources are non-stellar. Assuming a spectral energy distribution similar to
that of a Seyfert 2 galaxy, we estimate that a few percent of local spiral
galaxies contain black holes emitting as Seyferts at a moderate fraction, 10^-1
to 10^-4, of their Eddington luminosities. With increasing Seyfert type the
fraction of unresolved sources detected at 1.6 microns and the ratio of 1.6
microns to [OIII] fluxes tend to decrease. These trends are consistent with the
unification model for Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies.Comment: accepted by Ap
Arc Statistics in Cosmological Models with Dark Energy
We investigate how the probability of the formation of giant arcs in galaxy
clusters is expected to change in cosmological models dominated by dark energy
with an equation of state p=w rho c^2 compared to cosmological-constant or open
models. To do so, we use a simple analytic model for arc cross sections based
on the Navarro-Frenk-White density profile which we demonstrate reproduces
essential features of numerically determined arc cross sections. Since analytic
lens models are known to be inadequate for accurate absolute quantifications of
arc probabilities, we use them only for studying changes relative to
cosmological-constant models. Our main results are (1) the order of magnitude
difference between the arc probabilities in low density, spatially flat and
open CDM models found numerically is reproduced by our analytic model, and (2)
dark-energy cosmologies with w>-1 increase the arc optical depth by at most a
factor of two and are thus unlikely to reconcile arc statistics with spatially
flat cosmological models with low matter density.Comment: 8 pages, accepted by A&
Central cusp due to a super-massive black hole in axisymmetric models of elliptical galaxies
We use numerical simulations to investigate the cusp at the centre of
elliptical galaxies, due to the slow growth of a super-massive black hole. We
study this problem for axisymmetric models of galaxies, with or without
rotation. The numerical simulations are based on the `Perturbation Particles'
method, and use GRAPEs to compute the force due to the cusp. We study how the
density cusp is affected by the initial flattening of the model, as well as the
role played by initial rotation. The logarithmic slope of the density cusp is
found to be very much insensitive to flattening; as a consequence, we deduce
that tangential velocity anisotropy -which supports the flattening- is also of
little influence on the final cusp. We investigate via two different kinds of
rotating models the efficiency with which a rotation velocity component builds
within the cusp. A cusp in rotation develops only for models where a net
rotation component is initially present at high energy levels. The eventual
observation of a central rotational velocity peak in E galaxies has therefore
some implications for the galaxy dynamical history.Comment: 16 pages Latex, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Merging history of three bimodal clusters
We present a combined X-ray and optical analysis of three bimodal galaxy
clusters selected as merging candidates at z ~ 0.1. These targets are part of
MUSIC (MUlti--Wavelength Sample of Interacting Clusters), which is a general
project designed to study the physics of merging clusters by means of
multi-wavelength observations. Observations include spectro-imaging with
XMM-Newton EPIC camera, multi-object spectroscopy (260 new redshifts), and
wide-field imaging at the ESO 3.6m and 2.2m telescopes. We build a global
picture of these clusters using X-ray luminosity and temperature maps together
with galaxy density and velocity distributions. Idealized numerical simulations
were used to constrain the merging scenario for each system. We show that A2933
is very likely an equal-mass advanced pre-merger ~ 200 Myr before the core
collapse, while A2440 and A2384 are post-merger systems ~ 450 Myr and ~1.5 Gyr
after core collapse, respectively). In the case of A2384, we detect a
spectacular filament of galaxies and gas spreading over more than 1 h^{-1} Mpc,
which we infer to have been stripped during the previous collision. The
analysis of the MUSIC sample allows us to outline some general properties of
merging clusters: a strong luminosity segregation of galaxies in recent
post-mergers; the existence of preferential axes --corresponding to the merging
directions-- along which the BCGs and structures on various scales are aligned;
the concomitance, in most major merger cases, of secondary merging or accretion
events, with groups infalling onto the main cluster, and in some cases the
evidence of previous merging episodes in one of the main components. These
results are in good agreement with the hierarchical scenario of structure
formation, in which clusters are expected to form by successive merging events,
and matter is accreted along large--scale filaments
Mergers as triggers for nuclear activity : A near-IR study of the close environment of AGN in the VISTA-VIDEO survey
copyright 2014 The Authors; Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical SocietyThere is an ongoing debate concerning the driver of nuclear activity in galaxies, with active galactic nuclei (AGN) either being triggered by major or minor galactic mergers or, alternatively, through secular processes like cold gas accretion and/or formation of bars. We investigate the close environment of active galaxies selected in the X-ray, the radio and the mid-IR. We utilize the first data release of the new near-IR VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey of the XMM-Large Scale Structure field. We use two measures of environment density, namely counts within a given aperture and a finite redshift slice (pseudo- 3D density) and closest neighbour density measures â2 and â5. We select both AGN and control samples, matching them in redshift and apparent Ks-band magnitude. We find that AGN are found in a range of environments, with a subset of the AGN samples residing in overdense environments. Seyfert-like X-ray AGN and flat-spectrum radio-AGN are found to inhabit significantly overdense environments compared to their control sample. The relation between overdensities and AGN luminosity does not however reveal any positive correlation. Given the absence of an environment density-AGN luminosity relation, we find no support for a scheme where high-luminosity AGN are preferentially triggered by mergers. On the contrary, we find that AGN likely trace over dense environments at high redshift due to the fact that they inhabit the most massive galaxies, rather than being an AGN.Peer reviewe
Galaxy subgroups in galaxy clusters
Galaxies which fall into clusters as part of the same infall halo can retain
correlations due to their shared origin. N-body simulations are used to study
properties of such galaxy subgroups within clusters, including their richnesses
and prevalence. The sizes, densities and velocity dispersions of all subgroups
with >= 8 galaxies are found and compared to those of the host clusters. The
largest galaxy subgroup provides a preferred direction in the cluster and is
compared to other preferred directions in the cluster. Scatter in cluster mass
measurements (via five observables), along ~ 96 lines of sight, is compared to
the relation of the line of sight to this preferred direction: scatter in
cluster velocity dispersion measurements show the strongest correlation. The
Dressler-Shectman test (Dressler & Shectman 1988), is applied to these
clusters, to see whether the substructure it identifies is related to these
subgroups. The results for any specific line of sight seem noisy; however,
clusters with large subgroups tend to have a higher fraction of lines of sight
where the test detects substructure.Comment: 12 pages, final version for publication with helpful comments from
referee and others include
Gauge Singlet Scalars as Cold Dark Matter
In light of recent interest in minimal extensions of the Standard Model and
gauge singlet scalar cold dark matter, we provide an arXiv preprint of the
paper, published as Phys.Rev. D50 (1994) 3637, which presented the first
detailed analysis of gauge singlet scalar cold dark matter.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, LaTe
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