4,826 research outputs found
Closed-cycle gas flow system for cooling of high Tc d.c. SQUID magnetometers
A high Tc.d.c SQUID based magnetometer for magnetocardiography is currently under development at the University of Twente. Since such a magnetometer should be simple to use, the cooling of the system can be realized most practically by means of a cryocooler. A closed-cycle gas flow cooling system incorporating such a cooler has been designed, constructed and tested. The aimed resolution of the magnetometer is 0.1 pT Hzâ1/2. The required operating temperature for the SQUIDs is 30 to about 77 K with a stability of 2 Ă 10â4 K Hzâ1/2. After a cool-down time of 1â2 h, a stationary cooling power of at least 0.2 W is required. In the design, helium gas is cooled by a Leybold Heraeus RG 210 cryocooler, transported through a gas line, and subsequently passed through a heat exchanger on which SQUIDs can be installed. The lowest obtainable SQUID heat exchanger temperature is 31 ± 2 K. This can be reached in roughly 2â3 h with an optimal mass flow with respect to the cooling power of 6 Ă 10â6 kg sâ1. At this mass flow the cooling power at the SQUID heat exchanger is 0.2 W at 42 K and roughly 1.2 W at 77 K. A temperature stability of 0.05 K was measured at a SQUID heat exchanger temperature of 54 K and a mass flow of 3 Ă 10kg sâ5. The experience gained with this large cooling system will be used in the design of a smaller configuration cooling system, incorporating miniature Stirling cryocoolers. In this paper the design and the construction of the present closed-cycle system are described and test results are presented.\ud
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Reconstructing the Initial Density Field of the Local Universe: Method and Test with Mock Catalogs
Our research objective in this paper is to reconstruct an initial linear
density field, which follows the multivariate Gaussian distribution with
variances given by the linear power spectrum of the current CDM model and
evolves through gravitational instability to the present-day density field in
the local Universe. For this purpose, we develop a Hamiltonian Markov Chain
Monte Carlo method to obtain the linear density field from a posterior
probability function that consists of two components: a prior of a Gaussian
density field with a given linear spectrum, and a likelihood term that is given
by the current density field. The present-day density field can be
reconstructed from galaxy groups using the method developed in Wang et al.
(2009a). Using a realistic mock SDSS DR7, obtained by populating dark matter
haloes in the Millennium simulation with galaxies, we show that our method can
effectively and accurately recover both the amplitudes and phases of the
initial, linear density field. To examine the accuracy of our method, we use
-body simulations to evolve these reconstructed initial conditions to the
present day. The resimulated density field thus obtained accurately matches the
original density field of the Millennium simulation in the density range 0.3 <=
rho/rho_mean <= 20 without any significant bias. Especially, the Fourier phases
of the resimulated density fields are tightly correlated with those of the
original simulation down to a scale corresponding to a wavenumber of ~ 1 h/Mpc,
much smaller than the translinear scale, which corresponds to a wavenumber of ~
0.15 h\Mpc.Comment: 43 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Evidence for a 3 x 10^8 solar mass black hole in NGC 7052 from HST observations of the nuclear gas disk
We present an HST study of the nuclear region of the E4 radio galaxy NGC
7052, which has a nuclear disk of dust and gas. The WFPC2 was used to obtain B,
V and I broad-band images and an H_alpha+[NII] narrow-band image. The FOS was
used to obtain H_alpha+[NII] spectra along the major axis, using a 0.26 arcsec
diameter circular aperture. The observed rotation velocity of the ionized gas
is V = 155 +/- 17 km/s at r = 0.2 arcsec from the nucleus. The Gaussian
dispersion of the emission lines increases from sigma = 70 km/s at r=1 arcsec,
to sigma = 400 km/s on the nucleus.
To interpret the gas kinematics we construct axisymmetric models in which the
gas and dust reside in a disk in the equatorial plane of the stellar body. It
is assumed that the gas moves on circular orbits, with an intrinsic velocity
dispersion due to turbulence. The circular velocity is calculated from the
combined gravitational potential of the stars and a possible nuclear black hole
(BH). Models without a BH predict a rotation curve that is shallower than
observed (V_pred = 92 km/s at r = 0.2 arcsec), and are ruled out at > 99%
confidence. Models with a BH of 3.3^{+2.3}_{-1.3} x 10^8 solar masses provide
an acceptable fit.
NGC 7052 can be added to the list of active galaxies for which HST spectra of
a nuclear gas disk provide evidence for the presence of a central BH. The BH
masses inferred for M87, M84, NGC 6251, NGC 4261 and NGC 7052 span a range of a
factor 10, with NGC 7052 falling on the low end. By contrast, the luminosities
of these galaxies are identical to within 25%. Any relation between BH mass and
luminosity, as suggested by independent arguments, must therefore have a
scatter of at least a factor 10.Comment: 39 pages, LaTeX, with 16 PostScript figures. Submitted to the
Astronomical Journal. Postscript version with higher resolution figures
available from http://sol.stsci.edu/~marel/abstracts/abs_R22.htm
Properties of Galaxy Groups in the SDSS: I.-- The Dependence of Colour, Star Formation, and Morphology on Halo Mass
Using a large galaxy group catalogue constructed from the SDSS, we
investigate the correlation between various galaxy properties and halo mass. We
split the population of galaxies in early types, late types, and intermediate
types, based on their colour and specific star formation rate. At fixed
luminosity, the early type fraction increases with increasing halo mass. Most
importantly, this mass dependence is smooth and persists over the entire mass
range probed, without any break or feature at any mass scale. We argue that the
previous claim of a characteristic feature on galaxy group scales is an
artefact of the environment estimators used. At fixed halo mass, the luminosity
dependence of the type fractions is surprisingly weak: galaxy type depends more
strongly on halo mass than on luminosity. We also find that the early type
fraction decreases with increasing halo-centric radius. Contrary to previous
studies, we find that this radial dependence is also present in low mass
haloes. The properties of satellite galaxies are strongly correlated with those
of their central galaxy. In particular, the early type fraction of satellites
is significantly higher in a halo with an early type central galaxy than in a
halo of the same mass but with a late type central galaxy. This phenomenon,
which we call `galactic conformity', is present in haloes of all masses and for
satellites of all luminosities. Finally, the fraction of intermediate type
galaxies is always ~20 percent, independent of luminosity, independent of halo
mass, independent of halo-centric radius, and independent of whether the galaxy
is a central galaxy or a satellite galaxy. We discuss the implications of all
these findings for galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures. Submitted for publication in MNRA
A Stellar Dynamical Mass Measurement of the Black Hole in NGC 3998 from Keck Adaptive Optics Observations
We present a new stellar dynamical mass measurement of the black hole in the
nearby, S0 galaxy NGC 3998. By combining laser guide star adaptive optics
observations obtained with the OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph on
the Keck II telescope with long-slit spectroscopy from the Hubble Space
Telescope and the Keck I telescope, we map out the stellar kinematics on both
small spatial scales, well within the black hole sphere of influence, and on
large scales. We find that the galaxy is rapidly rotating and exhibits a sharp
central peak in the velocity dispersion. Using the kinematics and the stellar
luminosity density derived from imaging observations, we construct
three-integral, orbit-based, triaxial stellar dynamical models. We find the
black hole has a mass of M_BH = (8.1_{-1.9}^{+2.0}) x 10^8 M_sun, with an
I-band stellar mass-to-light ratio of M/L = 5.0_{-0.4}^{+0.3} M_sun/L_sun
(3-sigma uncertainties), and that the intrinsic shape of the galaxy is very
round, but oblate. With the work presented here, NGC 3998 is now one of a very
small number of galaxies for which both stellar and gas dynamical modeling have
been used to measure the mass of the black hole. The stellar dynamical mass is
nearly a factor of four larger than the previous gas dynamical black hole mass
measurement. Given that this cross-check has so far only been attempted on a
few galaxies with mixed results, carrying out similar studies in other objects
is essential for quantifying the magnitude and distribution of the cosmic
scatter in the black hole mass - host galaxy relations.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Deepening, Broadening and Scaling up: a Framework for Steering Transition Experiments.
This essay presents a conceptual framework for analyzing and influencing the contribution of small-scale experiments to transitions towards a more sustainable society. This framework is aimed at providing academics and practitioners with a theoretical and practice oriented perspective to both understand and âsteerâ the contribution of experiments to transitions. The central instrument in this framework are âtransition experimentsâ, which provide an alternative approach to classical innovation projects that are aimed at realizing short-term solutions. A transition experiment is an innovation project with a societal challenge as a starting point for learning aimed at contributing to a transition
FOSE: a framework for open science evaluation
Pre-publication peer review of scientific literature in its present state suffers from a lack of evaluation validity and transparency to the community. Inspired by social networks, we propose a framework for the open exchange of post-publication evaluation to complement the current system. We first formulate a number of necessary conditions that should be met by any design dedicated to perform open scientific evaluation. To introduce our framework, we provide a basic data standard and communication protocol. We argue for the superiority of a provider-independent framework, over a few isolated implementations, which allows the collection and analysis of open evaluation content across a wide range of diverse providers like scientific journals, research institutions, social networks, publishers websites, and more. Furthermore, we describe how its technical implementation can be achieved by using existing web standards and technology. Finally, we illustrate this with a set of examples and discuss further potential
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