1,538 research outputs found
Out-of-plane thermopower of strongly correlated layered systems: an application to Bi_2(Sr,La)_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}
We calculate the out-of-plane thermopower in a quasi-two dimensional system,
and argue that this quantity is an effective probe of the asymmetry of the
single-particle spectral function. We find that the temperature and doping
dependence of the out-of-plane thermopower in Bi_2(Sr,La)_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}
single crystals is broadly consistent with the behavior of the spectral
function determined from ARPES and tunneling experiments. We also investigate
the relationship between out-of-plane thermopower and entropy in a quasi-two
dimensional material. We present experimental evidence that at moderate
temperatures, there is a qualitative correspondence between the out-of-plane
thermopower in Bi_2(Sr,La)_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}, and the entropy obtained from
specific heat measurements. Finally, we argue that the derivative of the
entropy with respect to particle number may be the more appropriate quantity to
compare with the thermopower, rather than the entropy per particle.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. v2: substantially rewritten, including a more
detailed analysis of the relationship between thermopower and entrop
Secondary CMB anisotropies in a universe reionized in patches
In a universe reionized in patches, the Doppler effect from Thomson
scattering off free electrons generates secondary cosmic microwave background
(CMB) anisotropies. For a simple model with small patches and late
reionization, we analytically calculate the anisotropy power spectrum. Patchy
reionization can, in principle, be the main source of anisotropies on arcminute
scales. On larger angular scales, its contribution to the CMB power spectrum is
a small fraction of the primary signal and is only barely detectable in the
power spectrum with even an ideal, i.e. cosmic variance limited, experiment and
an extreme model of reionization. Consequently patchy reionization is unlikely
to affect cosmological parameter estimation from the acoustic peaks in the CMB.
Its detection on small angles would help determine the ionization history of
the universe, in particular the typical size of the ionized region and the
duration of the reionization process.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Ap
Deprojection of Rich Cluster Images
We consider a general method of deprojecting 2D images to reconstruct the 3D
structure of the projected object, assuming axial symmetry. The method consists
of the application of the Fourier Slice Theorem to the general case where the
axis of symmetry is not necessarily perpendicular to the line of sight, and is
based on an extrapolation of the image Fourier transform into the so-called
cone of ignorance. The method is specifically designed for the deprojection of
X-ray, Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) and gravitational lensing maps of rich clusters
of galaxies. For known values of the Hubble constant, H0, and inclination
angle, the quality of the projection depends on how exact is the extrapolation
in the cone of ignorance. In the case where the axis of symmetry is
perpendicular to the line of sight and the image is noise-free, the
deprojection is exact. Given an assumed value of H0, the inclination angle can
be found by matching the deprojected structure out of two different images of a
given cluster, e.g., SZ and X-ray maps. However, this solution is degenerate
with respect to its dependence on the assumed H0, and a third independent image
of the given cluster is needed to determine H0 as well. The application of the
deprojection algorithm to upcoming SZ, X-ray and weak lensing projected mass
images of clusters will serve to determine the structure of rich clusters, the
value of H0, and place constraints on the physics of the intra-cluster gas and
its relation to the total mass distribution.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, 2 Postscript figures, uses as2pp4.sty. Accepted for
publication in ApJ Letters. Also available at:
http://astro.berkeley.edu:80/~squires/papers/deproj.ps.g
Evaluational adjectives
This paper demarcates a theoretically interesting class of "evaluational adjectives." This class includes predicates expressing various kinds of normative and epistemic evaluation, such as predicates of personal taste, aesthetic adjectives, moral adjectives, and epistemic adjectives, among others. Evaluational adjectives are distinguished, empirically, in exhibiting phenomena such as discourse-oriented use, felicitous embedding under the attitude verb `find', and sorites-susceptibility in the comparative form. A unified degree-based semantics is developed: What distinguishes evaluational adjectives, semantically, is that they denote context-dependent measure functions ("evaluational perspectives")âcontext-dependent mappings to degrees of taste, beauty, probability, etc., depending on the adjective. This perspective-sensitivity characterizing the class of evaluational adjectives cannot be assimilated to vagueness, sensitivity to an experiencer argument, or multidimensionality; and it cannot be demarcated in terms of pretheoretic notions of subjectivity, common in the literature. I propose that certain diagnostics for "subjective" expressions be analyzed instead in terms of a precisely specified kind of discourse-oriented use of context-sensitive language. I close by applying the account to `find x PRED' ascriptions
Gamma-ray emission from dark matter wakes of recoiled black holes
A new scenario for the emission of high-energy gamma-rays from dark matter
annihilation around massive black holes is presented. A black hole can leave
its parent halo, by means of gravitational radiation recoil, in a merger event
or in the asymmetric collapse of its progenitor star. A recoiled black hole
which moves on an almost-radial orbit outside the virial radius of its central
halo, in the cold dark matter background, reaches its apapsis in a finite time.
Near or at the apapsis passage, a high-density wake extending over a large
radius of influence, forms around the black hole. It is shown that significant
gamma-ray emission can result from the enhancement of neutralino annihilation
in these wakes. At its apapsis passage, a black hole is shown to produce a
flash of high-energy gamma-rays whose duration is determined by the mass of the
black hole and the redshift at which it is ejected. The ensemble of such black
holes in the Hubble volume is shown to produce a diffuse high-energy gamma-ray
background whose magnitude is compared to the diffuse emission from dark matter
haloes alone.Comment: version to appear in Astrophysical Journal letters (labels on Fig. 3
corrected
Probing the Primordial Power Spectrum with Cluster Number Counts
We investigate how well galaxy cluster number counts can constrain the
primordial power spectrum. Measurements of the primary anisotropies in the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) may be limited, by the presence of
foregrounds from secondary sources, to probing the primordial power spectrum at
wave numbers less than about 0.30 h Mpc^{-1}. We break up the primordial power
spectrum into a number of nodes and interpolate linearly between each node.
This allows us to show that cluster number counts could then extend the
constraints on the form of the primordial power spectrum up to wave numbers of
about 0.45 h Mpc^{-1}. We estimate combinations of constraints from PLANCK and
SPT primary CMB and their respective SZ surveys. We find that their
constraining ability is limited by uncertainties in the mass scaling relations.
We also estimate the constraint from clusters detected from a SNAP like
gravitational lensing survey. As there is an unambiguous and simple
relationship between the filtered shear of the lensing survey and the cluster
mass, it may be possible to obtain much tighter constraints on the primordial
power spectrum in this case.Comment: Clarifications added and a few minor corrections made. Matches
version to appear in PR
Probing spin-charge separation in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid
In a one-dimensional (1D) system of interacting electrons, excitations of
spin and charge travel at different speeds, according to the theory of a
Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid (TLL) at low energies. However, the clear observation
of this spin-charge separation is an ongoing challenge experimentally. We have
fabricated an electrostatically-gated 1D system in which we observe spin-charge
separation and also the predicted power-law suppression of tunnelling into the
1D system. The spin-charge separation persists even beyond the low-energy
regime where the TLL approximation should hold. TLL effects should therefore
also be important in similar, but shorter, electrostatically gated wires, where
interaction effects are being studied extensively worldwide.Comment: 11 pages, 4 PDF figures, uses scicite.sty, Science.bs
The Black Hole Mass - Galaxy Bulge Relationship for QSOs in the SDSS DR3
We investigate the relationship between black hole mass and host galaxy
velocity dispersion for QSOs in Data Release 3 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
We derive black hole mass from the broad Hbeta line width and continuum
luminosity, and the bulge stellar velocity dispersion from the [OIII] narrow
line width. At higher redshifts, we use MgII and [OII] in place of Hbeta and
[OIII]. For redshifts z < 0.5, our results agree with the black hole mass -
bulge velocity dispersion relationship for nearby galaxies. For 0.5 < z < 1.2,
this relationship appears to show evolution with redshift in the sense that the
bulges are too small for their black holes. However, we find that part of this
apparent trend can be attributed to observational biases, including a Malmquist
bias involving the QSO luminosity. Accounting for these biases, we find ~0.2
dex evolution in the black hole mass-bulge velocity dispersion relationship
between now and redshift z ~ 1.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 15 pages, 9 figure
Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity With the Abundance of High Redshift Clusters
We show how observations of the evolution of the galaxy cluster number
abundance can be used to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity in the universe.
We carry out a maximum likelihood analysis incorporating a number of current
datasets and accounting for a wide range of sources of systematic error. Under
the assumption of Gaussianity, the current data prefer a universe with matter
density and are inconsistent with at the
level. If we assume , the predicted degree of cluster
evolution is consistent with the data for non-Gaussian models where the
primordial fluctuations have at least two times as many peaks of height
or more as a Gaussian distribution does. These results are robust to
almost all sources of systematic error considered: in particular, the
Gaussian case can only be reconciled with the data if a number of
systematic effects conspire to modify the analysis in the right direction.
Given an independent measurement of , the techniques described here
represent a powerful tool with which to constrain non-Gaussianity in the
primordial universe, independent of specific details of the non-Gaussian
physics. We discuss the prospects and strategies for improving the constraints
with future observations.Comment: Minor revisions to match published ApJ version, 14 pages emulateap
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