31,746 research outputs found
The formation of spiral arms and rings in barred galaxies
In this and in a previous paper (Romero-Gomez et al. 2006) we propose a
theory to explain the formation of both spirals and rings in barred galaxies
using a common dynamical framework. It is based on the orbital motion driven by
the unstable equilibrium points of the rotating bar potential. Thus, spirals,
rings and pseudo-rings are related to the invariant manifolds associated to the
periodic orbits around these equilibrium points. We examine the parameter space
of three barred galaxy models and discuss the formation of the different
morphological structures according to the properties of the bar model. We also
study the influence of the shape of the rotation curve in the outer parts, by
making families of models with rising, flat, or falling rotation curves in the
outer parts. The differences between spiral and ringed structures arise from
differences in the dynamical parameters of the host galaxies. The results
presented here will be discussed and compared with observations in a
forthcoming paper.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted in A&A. High resolution version
available at http://www.oamp.fr/dynamique/pap/merce.htm
Deep Strong Coupling Regime of the Jaynes-Cummings model
We study the quantum dynamics of a two-level system interacting with a
quantized harmonic oscillator in the deep strong coupling regime (DSC) of the
Jaynes-Cummings model, that is, when the coupling strength g is comparable or
larger than the oscillator frequency w (g/w > 1). In this case, the
rotating-wave approximation cannot be applied or treated perturbatively in
general. We propose an intuitive and predictive physical frame to describe the
DSC regime where photon number wavepackets bounce back and forth along parity
chains of the Hilbert space, while producing collapse and revivals of the
initial population. We exemplify our physical frame with numerical and
analytical considerations in the qubit population, photon statistics, and
Wigner phase space.Comment: Published version, note change of title: DSC regime of the JC mode
Leptonic emission from microquasar jets: from radio to very high-energy gamma-rays
Microquasars are sources of very high-energy gamma-rays and, very probably,
high-energy gamma-ray emitters. We propose a model for a jet that can allow to
give accurate observational predictions for jet emission at different energies
and provide with physical information of the object using multiwavelength data.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. Proceedings of the conference: "International
Astronomical Union Symposium No. 230: Populations of High Energy Sources in
Galaxies". Edited by Evert J.A. Meurs & Giuseppina Fabbian
Extreme intranight variability in the BL Lacertae object AO 0235+164
We present results of two-colour photometry with high time resolution of the
violently variable BL Lac object AO 0235+164. We have found extreme intranight
variability with amplitudes of ~ 100 % over time scales of 24 hours. Changes of
0.5 magnitudes in both R and V bands were measured within a single night, and
variations up to 1.2 magnitudes occurred from night to night. A complete
outburst with an amplitude ~ 30 % was observed during one of the nights, while
the spectrum remained unchanged. This seems to support an origin based on a
thin relativistic shock propagating in such a way that it changes the viewing
angle, as recently suggested by Kraus et al. (1999) and Qian et al. (2000).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics (Letters
Microquasar models for 3EG J1828+0142 and 3EG J1735-1500
Microquasars are promising candidates to emit high-energy gamma-rays.
Moreover, statistical studies show that variable EGRET sources at low galactic
latitudes could be associated with the inner spiral arms. The variable nature
and the location in the Galaxy of the high-mass microquasars, concentrated in
the galactic plane and within 55 degrees from the galactic center, give to
these objects the status of likely counterparts of the variable low-latitude
EGRET sources. We consider in this work the two most variable EGRET sources at
low-latitudes: 3EG J1828+0142 and 3EG J1735-1500, proposing a microquasar model
to explain the EGRET data in consistency with the observations at lower
energies (from radio frequencies to soft gamma-rays) within the EGRET error
box.Comment: (1)Universitat de Barcelona, (2)Instituto Argentino de
Radioastronomia (3) Facultad de Ciencias Astronomicas y Geofisicas
(4)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 6 pages, 2 figures. Presented as a
poster at the V Microquasar Workshop, Beijing, June 2004. Accepted for
publication in the Chinese Journal of Astronomy & Astrophysic
Microwave Photon Detector in Circuit QED
Quantum optical photodetection has occupied a central role in understanding
radiation-matter interactions. It has also contributed to the development of
atomic physics and quantum optics, including applications to metrology,
spectroscopy, and quantum information processing. The quantum microwave regime,
originally explored using cavities and atoms, is seeing a novel boost with the
generation of nonclassical propagating fields in circuit quantum
electrodynamics (QED). This promising field, involving potential developments
in quantum information with microwave photons, suffers from the absence of
photodetectors. Here, we design a metamaterial composed of discrete
superconducting elements that implements a high-efficiency microwave photon
detector. Our design consists of a microwave guide coupled to an array of
metastable quantum circuits, whose internal states are irreversibly changed due
to the absorption of photons. This proposal can be widely applied to different
physical systems and can be generalized to implement a microwave photon
counter.Comment: accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
LeMoMaF: Lensed Mock Map Facility
We present the Lensed Mock Map Facility (LeMoMaF), a tool designed to perform
mock weak lensing measurements on numerically simulated chunks of the universe.
Coupling N-body simulations to a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation,
LeMoMaF can create realistic lensed images and mock catalogues of galaxies, at
wavelengths ranging from the UV to the submm. To demonstrate the power of such
a tool we compute predictions of the source-lens clustering effect on the
convergence statistics, and quantify the impact of weak lensing on galaxy
counts in two different filters. We find that the source-lens clustering effect
skews the probability density function of the convergence towards low values,
with an intensity which strongly depends on the redshift distribution of
galaxies. On the other hand, the degree of enhancement or depletion in galaxy
counts due to weak lensing is independent of the source-lens clustering effect.
We discuss the impact on the two-points shear statistics to be measured by
future missions like SNAP and LSST. The source-lens clustering effect would
bias the estimation of sigma_8 from two point statistics by 2% -5%. We conclude
that accurate photometric redshifts for individual galaxies are necessary in
order to quantify and isolate the source-lens clustering effect.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRA
- …