Measurement of the Integrated Faraday Rotations of BL Lac Objects

We present the results of multi-frequency polarization VLA observations of radio sources from the complete sample of northern, radio-bright BL Lac objects compiled by H. Kuhr and G. Schmidt. These were used to determine the integrated rotation measures of 18 objects, 15 of which had never been measured previously, which hindered analysis of the intrinsic polarization properties of objects in the complete sample. These measurements make it possible to correct the observed orientations of the linear polarizations of these sources for the effect of Faraday rotation. The most probable origin for Faraday rotation in these objects is the Galactic interstellar medium. The results presented complete measurements of the integrated rotation measures for all 34 sources in the complete sample of BL Lac objects.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

The effective potential, critical point scaling and the renormalization group

The desirability of evaluating the effective potential in field theories near a phase transition has been recognized in a number of different areas. We show that recent Monte Carlo simulations for the probability distribution for the order parameter in an equilibrium Ising system, when combined with low-order renormalization group results for an ordinary $\phi^4$ system, can be used to extract the effective potential. All scaling features are included in the process.Comment: REVTEX file, 22 pages, three figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The shape of invasion perclation clusters in random and correlated media

The shape of two-dimensional invasion percolation clusters are studied numerically for both non-trapping (NTIP) and trapping (TIP) invasion percolation processes. Two different anisotropy quantifiers, the anisotropy parameter and the asphericity are used for probing the degree of anisotropy of clusters. We observe that in spite of the difference in scaling properties of NTIP and TIP, there is no difference in the values of anisotropy quantifiers of these processes. Furthermore, we find that in completely random media, the invasion percolation clusters are on average slightly less isotropic than standard percolation clusters. Introducing isotropic long-range correlations into the media reduces the isotropy of the invasion percolation clusters. The effect is more pronounced for the case of persisting long-range correlations. The implication of boundary conditions on the shape of clusters is another subject of interest. Compared to the case of free boundary conditions, IP clusters of conventional rectangular geometry turn out to be more isotropic. Moreover, we see that in conventional rectangular geometry the NTIP clusters are more isotropic than TIP clusters

The Lopsidedness of Present-Day Galaxies: Results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Large-scale asymmetries in the stellar mass distribution in galaxies are believed to trace non-equilibrium situations in the luminous and/or dark matter component. These may arise in the aftermath of events like mergers, accretion, and tidal interactions. These events are key in the evolution of galaxies. In this paper we quantify the large-scale lopsidedness of light distributions in 25155 galaxies at z < 0.06 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 using the m = 1 azimuthal Fourier mode. We show that the lopsided distribution of light is primarily due to a corresponding lopsidedness in the stellar mass distribution. Observational effects, such as seeing, Poisson noise, and inclination, introduce only small errors in lopsidedness for the majority of this sample. We find that lopsidedness correlates strongly with other basic galaxy structural parameters: galaxies with low concentration, stellar mass, and stellar surface mass density tend to be lopsided, while galaxies with high concentration, mass, and density are not. We find that the strongest and most fundamental relationship between lopsidedness and the other structural parameters is with the surface mass density. We also find, in agreement with previous studies, that lopsidedness tends to increase with radius. Both these results may be understood as a consequence of several factors. The outer regions of galaxies and low-density galaxies are more susceptible to tidal perturbations, and they also have longer dynamical times (so lopsidedness will last longer). They are also more likely to be affected by any underlying asymmetries in the dark matter halo.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted to Ap

Solving the Cooling Flow Problem of Galaxy Clusters by Dark Matter Neutralino Annihilation

Recent X-ray observations revealed that strong cooling flow of intracluster gas is not present in galaxy clusters, even though predicted theoretically if there is no additional heating source. I show that relativistic particles produced by dark matter neutralino annihilation in cluster cores provide a sufficient heating source to suppress the cooling flow, under reasonable astrophysical circumstances including adiabatic growth of central density profile, with appropriate particle physics parameters for dark matter neutralinos. In contrast to other astrophysical heat sources such as AGNs, this process is a steady and stable feedback over cosmological time scales after turned on.Comment: 4 pages, no figure. Accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. A few minor revisions and references adde

Discovery of a Quadruple Lens in CANDELS with a Record Lens Redshift z=1.53

Using spectroscopy from the Large Binocular Telescope and imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope we discovered the first strong galaxy lens at z(lens)>1. The lens has a secure photometric redshift of z=1.53+/-0.09 and the source is spectroscopically confirmed at z=3.417. The Einstein radius (0.35"; 3.0 kpc) encloses 7.6 x 10^10 Msol, with an upper limit on the dark matter fraction of 60%. The highly magnified (40x) source galaxy has a very small stellar mass (~10^8 Msol) and shows an extremely strong [OIII]_5007A emission line (EW_0 ~ 1000A) bolstering the evidence that intense starbursts among very low-mass galaxies are common at high redshift.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Radio Galaxy Zoo: Cosmological Alignment of Radio Sources

We study the mutual alignment of radio sources within two surveys, FIRST and TGSS. This is done by producing two position angle catalogues containing the preferential directions of respectively $30\,059$ and $11\,674$ extended sources distributed over more than $7\,000$ and $17\,000$ square degrees. The identification of the sources in the FIRST sample was performed in advance by volunteers of the Radio Galaxy Zoo project, while for the TGSS sample it is the result of an automated process presented here. After taking into account systematic effects, marginal evidence of a local alignment on scales smaller than $2.5\deg$ is found in the FIRST sample. The probability of this happening by chance is found to be less than $2$ per cent. Further study suggests that on scales up to $1.5\deg$ the alignment is maximal. For one third of the sources, the Radio Galaxy Zoo volunteers identified an optical counterpart. Assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with $\Omega_m = 0.31, \Omega_\Lambda = 0.69$, we convert the maximum angular scale on which alignment is seen into a physical scale in the range $[19, 38]$ Mpc $h_{70}^{-1}$. This result supports recent evidence reported by Taylor and Jagannathan of radio jet alignment in the $1.4$ deg$^2$ ELAIS N1 field observed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. The TGSS sample is found to be too sparsely populated to manifest a similar signal

Dimensional crossover in dipolar magnetic layers

We investigate the static critical behaviour of a uniaxial magnetic layer, with finite thickness L in one direction, yet infinitely extended in the remaining d dimensions. The magnetic dipole-dipole interaction is taken into account. We apply a variant of Wilson's momentum shell renormalisation group approach to describe the crossover between the critical behaviour of the 3-D Ising, 2-d Ising, 3-D uniaxial dipolar, and the 2-d uniaxial dipolar universality classes. The corresponding renormalisation group fixed points are in addition to different effective dimensionalities characterised by distinct analytic structures of the propagator, and are consequently associated with varying upper critical dimensions. While the limiting cases can be discussed by means of dimensional epsilon expansions with respect to the appropriate upper critical dimensions, respectively, the crossover features must be addressed in terms of the renormalisation group flow trajectories at fixed dimensionality d.Comment: 25 pages, Latex, 12 figures (.eps files) and IOP style files include

The Critical Finite Size Scaling Relation of the Order-Parameter Probability Distribution for the Three-Dimensional Ising Model on the Creutz Cellular Automaton

We study the order parameter probability distribution at the critical point for the three-dimensional spin-1/2 and spin-1 Ising models on the simple cubic lattice with periodic boundary conditions. The finite size scaling relation for the order parameter probability distribution is tested and verified numerically by microcanonical Creutz cellular automata simulations. The state critical exponent \delta, which characteries the far tail regime of the scaling order parameter probability distribution, is estimated for 3-d Ising models using the cellular automaton simulations at the critical temperature. The results are in good agreement with the monte carlo calculations.Comment: 8 pages 5 figure

Theory of monolayers with boundaries: Exact results and Perturbative analysis

Domains and bubbles in tilted phases of Langmuir monolayers contain a class of textures knows as boojums. The boundaries of such domains and bubbles may display either cusp-like features or indentations. We derive analytic expressions for the textures within domains and surrounding bubbles, and for the shapes of the boundaries of these regions. The derivation is perturbative in the deviation of the bounding curve from a circle. This method is not expected to be accurate when the boundary suffers large distortions, but it does provide important clues with regard to the influence of various energetic terms on the order-parameter texture and the shape of the domain or bubble bounding curve. We also look into the effects of thermal fluctuations, which include a sample-size-dependent effective line tension.Comment: replaced with published version, 21 pages, 16 figures include