1,343 research outputs found
Concentration, Spin and Shape of Dark Matter Haloes as a Function of the Cosmological Model: WMAP1, WMAP3 and WMAP5 results
We investigate the effects of changes in the cosmological parameters between
the WMAP 1st, 3rd, and 5th year results on the structure of dark matter haloes.
We use a set of simulations that cover 5 decades in halo mass ranging from the
scales of dwarf galaxies (V_c ~30 km/s) to clusters of galaxies (V_c ~ 1000
km/s). We find that the concentration mass relation is a power law in all three
cosmologies. However the slope is shallower and the zero point is lower moving
from WMAP1 to WMAP5 to WMAP3. For haloes of mass log(M_200/Msun) = 10, 12, and
14 the differences in the concentration parameter between WMAP1 and WMAP3 are a
factor of 1.55, 1.41, and 1.29, respectively. As we show, this brings the
central densities of dark matter haloes in good agreement with the central
densities of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies inferred from their
rotation curves, for both the WMAP3 and WMAP5 cosmologies. We also show that
none of the existing toy models for the concentration-mass relation can
reproduce our simulation results over the entire range of masses probed. In
particular, the model of Bullock et al (B01) fails at the higher mass end (M >
1e13 Msun), while the NFW model of Navarro, Frenk & White (1997) fails
dramatically at the low mass end (M < 1e12 Msun). We present a new model, based
on a simple modification of that of B01, which reproduces the
concentration-mass relations in our simulations over the entire range of masses
probed (1e10 Msun < M < 1e15 Msun). Haloes in the WMAP3 cosmology (at a fixed
mass) are more flatted compared to the WMAP1 cosmology, with a medium to long
axis ration reduced by ~10 %. Finally, we show that the distribution of halo
spin parameters is the same for all three cosmologies.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, references updated, minor changes. Accepted for
publication on MNRAS. WMAP5 simulations available upon reques
What makes or breaks a campaign to stop an invading plant pathogen?
Diseases in humans, animals and plants remain an important challenge in our society. Effective control of invasive pathogens often requires coordinated concerted action of a large group of stakeholders. Both epidemiological and human behavioural factors influence the outcome of a disease control campaign. In mathematical models that are frequently used to guide such campaigns, human behaviour is often ill-represented, if at all. Existing models of human, animal and plant disease that do incorporate participation or compliance are often driven by pay-offs or direct observations of the disease state. It is however very well known that opinion is an important driving factor of human decision making. Here we consider the case study of Citrus Huanglongbing disease (HLB), which is an acute bacterial disease that threatens the sustainability of citrus production across the world. We show how by coupling an epidemiological model of this invasive disease with an opinion dynamics model we are able to answer the question: What makes or breaks the effectiveness of a disease control campaign? Frequent contact between stakeholders and advisors is shown to increase the probability of successful control. More surprisingly, we show that informing stakeholders about the effectiveness of control methods is of much greater importance than prematurely increasing their perceptions of the risk of infection. We discuss the overarching consequences of this finding and the effect on human as well as plant disease epidemics
Transferring PoS-tagging and lemmatization tools from spoken to written Dutch corpus development
Meta-Learning for Phonemic Annotation of Corpora
We apply rule induction, classifier combination and meta-learning (stacked
classifiers) to the problem of bootstrapping high accuracy automatic annotation
of corpora with pronunciation information. The task we address in this paper
consists of generating phonemic representations reflecting the Flemish and
Dutch pronunciations of a word on the basis of its orthographic representation
(which in turn is based on the actual speech recordings). We compare several
possible approaches to achieve the text-to-pronunciation mapping task:
memory-based learning, transformation-based learning, rule induction, maximum
entropy modeling, combination of classifiers in stacked learning, and stacking
of meta-learners. We are interested both in optimal accuracy and in obtaining
insight into the linguistic regularities involved. As far as accuracy is
concerned, an already high accuracy level (93% for Celex and 86% for Fonilex at
word level) for single classifiers is boosted significantly with additional
error reductions of 31% and 38% respectively using combination of classifiers,
and a further 5% using combination of meta-learners, bringing overall word
level accuracy to 96% for the Dutch variant and 92% for the Flemish variant. We
also show that the application of machine learning methods indeed leads to
increased insight into the linguistic regularities determining the variation
between the two pronunciation variants studied.Comment: 8 page
Characterisation of oxide scales resulting from the exposure of various steels to liquid lead-bismuth eutectic
Towards a Concordant Model of Halo Occupation Statistics
We use the conditional luminosity function (CLF) and data from the 2dFGRS to
constrain the average relation between light and mass in a LCDM cosmology with
Omega_m=0.23 and sigma_8=0.74 (hereafter WMAP3 cosmology). Reproducing the
observed luminosity dependence of the galaxy two-point correlation function
results in average mass-to-light ratios that are about 35 percent lower than in
a LCDM cosmology with Omega_m=0.3 and sigma_8=0.9 (hereafter WMAP1 cosmology).
This removes an important problem with previous halo occupation models which
had a tendency to predict cluster mass-to-light ratios that were too high. For
the WMAP3 cosmology our model yields average mass-to-light ratios, central
galaxy luminosities, halo occupation numbers, satellite fractions, and
luminosity-gap statistics, that are all in excellent agreement with those
obtained from a 2dFGRS group catalogue and from other independent studies. We
also use our CLF model to compute the probability distribution P(M|L_cen), that
a central galaxy of luminosity L_cen resides in a halo of mass M. We find this
distribution to be much broader than what is typically assumed in HOD models,
which has important implications for the interpretation of galaxy-galaxy
lensing data. Finally, reproducing the luminosity dependence of the pairwise
velocity dispersions in the 2dFGRS requires relatively low mass-to-light ratios
for clusters and a satellite fraction that decreases strongly with increasing
luminosity. This is only marginally consistent with our CLF constraints. We
argue that a cosmology with parameters between those of the WMAP1 and WMAP3
cosmologies is likely to yield results with a higher level of consistency.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures. Submitted for publication in MNRA
The Population of Dark Matter Subhaloes: Mass Functions and Average Mass Loss Rates
Using a cosmological N-Body simulation and a sample of re-simulated
cluster-like haloes, we study the mass loss rates of dark matter subhaloes, and
interpret the mass function of subhaloes at redshift zero in terms of the
evolution of the mass function of systems accreted by the main halo progenitor.
When expressed in terms of the ratio between the mass of the subhalo at the
time of accretion and the present day host mass the unevolved subhalo mass
function is found to be universal. However, the subhalo mass function at
redshift zero clearly depends on , in that more massive host haloes host
more subhaloes. To relate the unevolved and evolved subhalo mass functions, we
measure the subhalo mass loss rate as a function of host mass and redshift. We
find that the average, specific mass loss rate of dark matter subhaloes depends
mainly on redshift. These results suggest a pleasingly simple picture for the
evolution and mass dependence of the evolved subhalo mass function. Less
massive host haloes accrete their subhaloes earlier, which are thus subjected
to mass loss for a longer time. In addition, their subhaloes are typically
accreted by denser hosts, which causes an additional boost of the mass loss
rate. To test the self-consistency of this picture, we use a merger trees
constructed using the extended Press-Schechter formalism, and evolve the
subhalo populations using the average mass loss rates obtained from our
simulations, finding the subhalo mass functions to be in good agreement with
the simulations. [abridged]Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures; submitted to MNRA
Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Formation
The formation of supermassive black holes (SMBH) is intimately related to
galaxy formation, although precisely how remains a mystery. I speculate that
formation of, and feedback from, SMBH may alleviate problems that have arisen
in our understanding of the cores of dark halos of galaxies.Comment: Talk at conference on Matter in the Universe, March 2001, ISSI Ber
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