5,080 research outputs found
High-Resolution Simulations of Cosmic Microwave Background non-Gaussian Maps in Spherical Coordinates
We describe a new numerical algorithm to obtain high-resolution simulated
maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), for a broad class of
non-Gaussian models. The kind of non-Gaussianity we account for is based on the
simple idea that the primordial gravitational potential is obtained by a
non-linear but local mapping from an underlying Gaussian random field, as
resulting from a variety of inflationary models. Our technique, which is based
on a direct realization of the potential in spherical coordinates and fully
accounts for the radiation transfer function, allows to simulate non-Gaussian
CMB maps down to the Planck resolution (), with
reasonable memory storage and computational time.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to ApJ. A version with higher quality
figures is available at http://www.pd.infn.it/~liguori/content.htm
Optical vortex mode generation by nanoarrays with a tailored geometry
Light generated with orbital angular momentum, commonly known as an optical vortex, is widely achieved by modifying the phase structure of a conventional laser beam through the utilization of a suitable optical element. In recent research, a process has been introduced that can produce electromagnetic radiation with a helical wave-front directly from a source. The chirally driven optical emission originates from a hierarchy of tailored nanoscale chromophore arrays arranged with a specific propeller-like geometry and symmetry. In particular, a nanoarray composed of n particles requires each component to be held in a configuration with a rotation and associated phase shift of 2 Ï/n radians with respect to its neighbor. Following initial electronic excitation, each such array is capable of supporting delocalized doubly degenerate excitons, whose azimuthal phase progression is responsible for the helical wave-front. Under identified conditions, the relaxation of the electronically-excited nanoarray produces structured light in a spontaneous manner. Nanoarrays of escalating order, i.e. those containing an increasing number of components, enable access to a set of topological charges of higher order. Practical considerations for the development of this technique are discussed, and potential new applications are identified. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Expanded horizons for generating and exploring optical angular momentum in vortex structures
Spin provides for a well-known extension to the information capacity of nanometer-scale electronic devices. Spin transfer can be effected with high fidelity between quantum dots, this type of emission being primarily associated with emission dipoles. However, in seeking to extend the more common spectroscopic connection of dipole transitions with orbital angular momentum, it has been shown impossible to securely transmit information on any other multipolar basis â partly because point detectors are confined to polarization measurement. Standard polarization methods in optics provide for only two independent degrees of freedom, such as the circular states of opposing handedness associated with photon spin. Complex light beams with structured wave-fronts or vector polarization do, however, offer a basis for additional degrees of freedom, enabling individual photons to convey far more information content. A familiar example is afforded by Laguerre-Gaussian modes, whose helically twisted wave-front and vortex fields are associated with orbital angular momentum. Each individual photon in such a beam has been shown to carry the entire spatial helical-mode information, supporting an experimental basis for sorting beams of different angular momentum content. One very recent development is a scheme for such optical vortices to be directly generated through electronic relaxation processes in structured molecular chromophore arrays. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
The Cluster Distribution as a Test of Dark Matter Models. IV: Topology and Geometry
We study the geometry and topology of the large-scale structure traced by
galaxy clusters in numerical simulations of a box of side 320 Mpc, and
compare them with available data on real clusters. The simulations we use are
generated by the Zel'dovich approximation, using the same methods as we have
used in the first three papers in this series. We consider the following models
to see if there are measurable differences in the topology and geometry of the
superclustering they produce: (i) the standard CDM model (SCDM); (ii) a CDM
model with (OCDM); (iii) a CDM model with a `tilted' power
spectrum having (TCDM); (iv) a CDM model with a very low Hubble
constant, (LOWH); (v) a model with mixed CDM and HDM (CHDM); (vi) a
flat low-density CDM model with and a non-zero cosmological
term (CDM). We analyse these models using a variety of
statistical tests based on the analysis of: (i) the Euler-Poincar\'{e}
characteristic; (ii) percolation properties; (iii) the Minimal Spanning Tree
construction. Taking all these tests together we find that the best fitting
model is CDM and, indeed, the others do not appear to be consistent
with the data. Our results demonstrate that despite their biased and extremely
sparse sampling of the cosmological density field, it is possible to use
clusters to probe subtle statistical diagnostics of models which go far beyond
the low-order correlation functions usually applied to study superclustering.Comment: 17 pages, 7 postscript figures, uses mn.sty, MNRAS in pres
Topology of Neutral Hydrogen Within the Small Magellanic Cloud
In this paper, genus statistics have been applied to an HI column density map
of the Small Magellanic Cloud in order to study its topology. To learn how
topology changes with the scale of the system, we provide the study of topology
for column density maps at varying resolution. To evaluate the statistical
error of the genus we randomly reassign the phases of the Fourier modes while
keeping the amplitudes. We find, that at the smallest scales studied () the genus shift is in all regions negative,
implying a clump topology. At the larger scales () the topology shift is detected to be negative in 4 cases and positive
(``swiss cheese'' topology) in 2 cases. In 4 regions there is no statistically
significant topology shift at large scales
Cluster Correlations in the Zel'dovich Approximation
We show how to simulate the clustering of rich clusters of galaxies using a
technique based on the Zel'dovich approximation. This method well reproduces
the spatial distribution of clusters obtainable from full N-body simulations at
a fraction of the computational cost. We use an ensemble of large--scale
simulations to assess the level and statistical significance of cluster
clustering in open, tilted and flat versions of the Cold Dark Matter (CDM)
model, as well as a model comprising a mixture of Cold and Hot Dark Matter
(CHDM). We find the open and flat CDM models are excluded by the data. The
tilted CDM model with a slight tilt is in marginal agreement, while larger tilt
produces the right amount of clustering; CHDM is the best of all our models at
reproducing the observations of cluster clustering. We find that {\em all} our
models display a systematically weaker relationship between clustering length
and mean cluster separation than seems to be implied by observations. We also
note that the cluster bias factor, is not constant in any of the models,
showing that one needs to be very careful when relating cluster clustering
statistics to primordial density fluctuations.Comment: 9 pages including 6 figures, uuencoded compressed postscript file,
Ref. DFUPG 85-9
Small Deviations from Gaussianity and The Galaxy Cluster Abundance Evolution
We raise the hypothesis that the density fluctuations field which originates
the growth of large scale structures is a combination of two or more
distributions. By applying the statistical analysis of finite mixture
distributions to a specific combination of Gaussian plus non-Gaussian random
fields, we studied the case where just a small departure from Gaussianity is
allowed. Our results suggest that even a very small level of non-Gaussianity
may introduce significant changes in the cluster abundance evolution rate.Comment: 10 pages with 2 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Bias and Hierarchical Clustering
It is now well established that galaxies are biased tracers of the
distribution of matter, although it is still not known what form this bias
takes. In local bias models the propensity for a galaxy to form at a point
depends only on the overall density of matter at that point. Hierarchical
scaling arguments allow one to build a fully-specified model of the underlying
distribution of matter and to explore the effects of local bias in the regime
of strong clustering. Using a generating-function method developed by
Bernardeau & Schaeffer (1992), we show that hierarchical models lead one
directly to the conclusion that a local bias does not alter the shape of the
galaxy correlation function relative to the matter correlation function on
large scales. This provides an elegant extension of a result first obtained by
Coles (1993) for Gaussian underlying fields and confirms the conclusions of
Scherrer & Weinberg (1998) obtained using a different approach. We also argue
that particularly dense regions in a hierarchical density field display a form
of bias that is different from that obtained by selecting such peaks in
Gaussian fields: they are themselves hierarchically distributed with scaling
parameters . This kind of bias is also factorizable, thus in
principle furnishing a simple test of this class of models.Comment: Latex, accepted for publication in ApJL; moderate revision
Moments of the Cluster Distribution as a Test of Dark Matter Models
We estimate the variance and the skewness of the cluster distribution in
several dark matter (DM) models. The cluster simulations are based on the
Zel'dovich approximation, the low computational cost of which allows us to run
50 random realizations of each model. We compare our results with those coming
from a similar analysis of a redshift sample of Abell/ACO clusters. Within the
list of the considered models, we find that only the model based on Cold+Hot DM
(with ) provides a good fit to the data. The standard CDM
model and the low-density () CDM models, both with and
without a cosmological constant term () are ruled out. The
tilted CDM model with primordial spectral index and a low Hubble
constant () CDM model are only marginally consistent with the data.Comment: 11 pages + 1 figure, uuencoded compressed postscript, ApJ Letters in
press. Replaced because results are changed for the CDM mode
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