374 research outputs found
Vertical distribution of stars and gas in a galactic disk
We study the vertical density distribution of stars and gas (HI and H_2) in a
galactic disk which is embedded in a dark matter halo. The new feature of this
work is the inclusion of gas, and the gravitational coupling between stars and
gas, which has led to a more realistic treatment of a multi-component galactic
disk. The gas gravity is shown to be crucially important despite the low gas
mass fraction. This approach physically explains the observed scaleheight
distribution of all the three disk components, including the long-standing
puzzle (Oort 1962) of a constant HI scaleheight observed in the inner Galaxy.
The above model is applied to two external galaxies: NGC 891 and NGC 4565, and
the stellar disk is shown to be not strictly flat as was long believed but
rather it shows a moderate flaring of a factor of about 2 within the optical
radius.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of "Island
Universes: Structure and evolution of disk galaxies" (Terschelling, The
Netherlands, July 2005), ed. R. de Jon
Spintessence: a possible candidate as a driver of the late time cosmic acceleration
In this paper, it is shown completely analytically that a spintessence model
can very well serve the purpose of providing an early deceleration and the
present day acceleration.Comment: 5 pages, no figure. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
Constraints on mixing angles of Majorana neutrinos
By combining the inputs from the neutrinoless double beta decay and the fits
of cosmological models of dark matter with solar and atmospheric neutrino data,
we obtain constraints on two of the mixing angles of Majorana neutrinos, which
become stronger when coupled with the reactor neutrino data. These constraints
are strong enough to rule out Majorana neutrinos if the small angle solution of
solar neutrino puzzle is borne out.Comment: Some corrections and clarifications adde
Alternative Technique for "Complex" Spectra Analysis
. The choice of a suitable random matrix model of a complex system is very
sensitive to the nature of its complexity. The statistical spectral analysis of
various complex systems requires, therefore, a thorough probing of a wide range
of random matrix ensembles which is not an easy task. It is highly desirable,
if possible, to identify a common mathematcal structure among all the ensembles
and analyze it to gain information about the ensemble- properties. Our
successful search in this direction leads to Calogero Hamiltonian, a
one-dimensional quantum hamiltonian with inverse-square interaction, as the
common base. This is because both, the eigenvalues of the ensembles, and, a
general state of Calogero Hamiltonian, evolve in an analogous way for arbitrary
initial conditions. The varying nature of the complexity is reflected in the
different form of the evolution parameter in each case. A complete
investigation of Calogero Hamiltonian can then help us in the spectral analysis
of complex systems.Comment: 20 pages, No figures, Revised Version (Minor Changes
Three Generation Neutrino Oscillation Parameters after SNO
We examine the solar neutrino problem in the context of the realistic three
neutrino mixing scenario including the SNO charged current (CC) rate. The two
independent mass squared differences and are taken to be in the solar and atmospheric ranges
respectively. We incorporate the constraints on m as obtained
by the SuperKamiokande atmospheric neutrino data and determine the allowed
values of , and from a combined
analysis of solar and CHOOZ data. Our aim is to probe the changes in the values
of the mass and mixing parameters with the inclusion of the SNO data as well as
the changes in the two-generation parameter region obtained from the solar
neutrino analysis with the inclusion of the third generation. We find that the
inclusion of the SNO CC rate in the combined solar + CHOOZ analysis puts a more
restrictive bound on . Since the allowed values of
are constrained to very small values by the CHOOZ experiment there is no
qualitative change over the two generation allowed regions in the plane. The best-fit comes in the LMA region and
no allowed area is obtained in the SMA region at 3 level from combined
solar and CHOOZ analysis.Comment: One reference added. Version to apprear in PR
Collapse of non-spherically symmetric scalar field distributions
In the present work the collapse scenario of some exact non-spherical models
with a minimally coupled scalar field is studied. Scalar field collapse with
planar as well as toroidal, cylindrical and pseudoplanar symmetries have been
investigated. It is shown that the scalar field may have collapsing modes even
if it has the equation of state corresponding to that of a dark energy.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures; Accepted for publication in Gen Relativ Gravit
(2011
Random walks and polymers in the presence of quenched disorder
After a general introduction to the field, we describe some recent results
concerning disorder effects on both `random walk models', where the random walk
is a dynamical process generated by local transition rules, and on `polymer
models', where each random walk trajectory representing the configuration of a
polymer chain is associated to a global Boltzmann weight. For random walk
models, we explain, on the specific examples of the Sinai model and of the trap
model, how disorder induces anomalous diffusion, aging behaviours and Golosov
localization, and how these properties can be understood via a strong disorder
renormalization approach. For polymer models, we discuss the critical
properties of various delocalization transitions involving random polymers. We
first summarize some recent progresses in the general theory of random critical
points : thermodynamic observables are not self-averaging at criticality
whenever disorder is relevant, and this lack of self-averaging is directly
related to the probability distribution of pseudo-critical temperatures
over the ensemble of samples of size . We describe the
results of this analysis for the bidimensional wetting and for the
Poland-Scheraga model of DNA denaturation.Comment: 17 pages, Conference Proceedings "Mathematics and Physics", I.H.E.S.,
France, November 200
Atomic X-ray Spectroscopy of Accreting Black Holes
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous
objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion
disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious
radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, each energy band providing
access to rather distinct regimes of physical conditions and geometric scale.
X-ray emission probes the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where
relativistic effects prevail. While this has been known for decades, it also
has been acknowledged that inferring physical conditions in the relativistic
regime from the behavior of the X-ray continuum is problematic and not
satisfactorily constraining. With the discovery in the 1990s of iron X-ray
lines bearing signatures of relativistic distortion came the hope that such
emission would more firmly constrain models of disk accretion near black holes,
as well as provide observational criteria by which to test general relativity
in the strong field limit. Here we provide an introduction to this phenomenon.
While the presentation is intended to be primarily tutorial in nature, we aim
also to acquaint the reader with trends in current research. To achieve these
ends, we present the basic applications of general relativity that pertain to
X-ray spectroscopic observations of black hole accretion disk systems, focusing
on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions to the Einstein field equations. To
this we add treatments of the fundamental concepts associated with the
theoretical and modeling aspects of accretion disks, as well as relevant topics
from observational and theoretical X-ray spectroscopy.Comment: 63 pages, 21 figures, Einstein Centennial Review Article, Canadian
Journal of Physics, in pres
Comparison of advanced gravitational-wave detectors
We compare two advanced designs for gravitational-wave antennas in terms of
their ability to detect two possible gravitational wave sources. Spherical,
resonant mass antennas and interferometers incorporating resonant sideband
extraction (RSE) were modeled using experimentally measurable parameters. The
signal-to-noise ratio of each detector for a binary neutron star system and a
rapidly rotating stellar core were calculated. For a range of plausible
parameters we found that the advanced LIGO interferometer incorporating RSE
gave higher signal-to-noise ratios than a spherical detector resonant at the
same frequency for both sources. Spheres were found to be sensitive to these
sources at distances beyond our galaxy. Interferometers were sensitive to these
sources at far enough distances that several events per year would be expected
Deep level emission of ZnO nanoparticles deposited inside UV opal
The temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectra of zinc oxide (ZnO)
nanocrystals deposited inside the ultraviolet (UV) opal were studied. ZnO was
grown in the voids between FCC packed silicon dioxide spheres using spray
pyrolysis under ultrasonic vibration in the solution containing a zinc nitrate
precursor. The ZnO nanoparticles inside opal matrix with UV photonic band-gap
exhibit suppression of the excitonic emission and enhancement of the deep level
emission. Suppression of the excitonic lines is due to the inhibition of
spontaneous emission, while enhancement and broadening of the DL emission in
the green spectral region is due to Purcell effect. The infiltration of ZnO
inside the photonic crystal may be a useful technique to increase its emission
efficiency in the selected spectral region.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
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