1,458 research outputs found
Power law correlations in galaxy distribution and finite volume effects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Four
We discuss the estimation of galaxy correlation properties in several volume
limited samples, in different sky regions, obtained from the Fourth Data
Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The small scale properties are
characterized through the determination of the nearest neighbor probability
distribution. By using a very conservative statistical analysis, in the range
of scales [0.5,~30] Mpc/h we detect power-law correlations in the conditional
density in redshift space, with an exponent \gamma=1.0 \pm 0.1. This behavior
is stable in all different samples we considered thus it does not depend on
galaxy luminosity. In the range of scales [~30,~100] Mpc/h we find evidences
for systematic unaveraged fluctuations and we discuss in detail the problems
induced by finite volume effects on the determination of the conditional
density. We conclude that in such range of scales there is an evidence for a
smaller power-law index of the conditional density. However we cannot
distinguish between two possibilities: (i) that a crossover to homogeneity
(corresponding to \gamma=0 in the conditional density) occurs before 100 Mpc/h,
(ii) that correlations extend to scales of order 100 Mpc/h (with a smaller
exponent 0 < \gamma <1). We emphasize that galaxy distributions in these
samples present large fluctuations at the largest scales probed, corresponding
to the presence of large scale structures extending up to the boundaries of the
present survey. Finally we discuss several differences between the behavior of
the conditional density in mock galaxy catalogs built from cosmological N-body
simulations and real data. We discuss some theoretical implications of such a
fact considering also the super-homogeneous features of primordial density
fields.Comment: 13 pages, 19 figures, to be publsihed in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Some results of cislunar plasma research
The main results of plasma cislunar investigations, carried out during Luna-19 and Luna-22 spacecraft flights by means of dual frequency dispersion interferrometry, are briefly outlined. It is shown that a thin layer of plasma, with a height of several tens of kilometers and a maximum concentration of the order 1,000 electrons/cu cm exists above the solar illuminated lunar surface. A physical model of the formation and existence of such a plasma in cislunar space is proposed, taking into account the influence of local magnetic areas on the moon
The nighttime ionosphere of Mars from Mars-4 and Mars-5 radio occultation dual-frequency measurements
Dual frequency radio sounding of the Martian nighttime ionosphere was carried out during the exits from behind the planet of the Mars-4 spacecraft on February 2, 1974 and the Mars-5 spacecraft on February 18, 1974. In these experiments, the spacecraft transmitter emitted two coherent monochromatic signals in decimeter and centimeter wavelength ranges. At the Earth receiving station, the reduced phase difference (or frequencies) of these signals was measured. The nighttime ionosphere of Mars measured in both cases had a peak electron density of approximately 5 X 1,000/cu cm at an altitude of 110 to 130 km. At the times of spacecraft exit, the solar zenith angles at the point of occultation were 127 deg and 106 deg, respectively. The height profiles of electron concentration were obtained assuming spherical symmetry of the Martian ionosphere
Tunability of Critical Casimir Interactions by Boundary Conditions
We experimentally demonstrate that critical Casimir forces in colloidal
systems can be continuously tuned by the choice of boundary conditions. The
interaction potential of a colloidal particle in a mixture of water and
2,6-lutidine has been measured above a substrate with a gradient in its
preferential adsorption properties for the mixture's components. We find that
the interaction potentials at constant temperature but different positions
relative to the gradient continuously change from attraction to repulsion. This
demonstrates that critical Casimir forces respond not only to minute
temperature changes but also to small changes in the surface properties.Comment: 4 figures;
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0295-5075/88/2/26001/epl_88_2_26001.htm
Galaxy distribution and extreme value statistics
We consider the conditional galaxy density around each galaxy, and study its
fluctuations in the newest samples of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release
7. Over a large range of scales, both the average conditional density and its
variance show a nontrivial scaling behavior, which resembles to criticality.
The density depends, for 10 < r < 80 Mpc/h, only weakly (logarithmically) on
the system size. Correspondingly, we find that the density fluctuations follow
the Gumbel distribution of extreme value statistics. This distribution is
clearly distinguishable from a Gaussian distribution, which would arise for a
homogeneous spatial galaxy configuration. We also point out similarities
between the galaxy distribution and critical systems of statistical physics
Thermodynamics and Topology of Disordered Systems: Statistics of the Random Knot Diagrams on Finite Lattice
The statistical properties of random lattice knots, the topology of which is
determined by the algebraic topological Jones-Kauffman invariants was studied
by analytical and numerical methods. The Kauffman polynomial invariant of a
random knot diagram was represented by a partition function of the Potts model
with a random configuration of ferro- and antiferromagnetic bonds, which
allowed the probability distribution of the random dense knots on a flat square
lattice over topological classes to be studied. A topological class is
characterized by the highest power of the Kauffman polynomial invariant and
interpreted as the free energy of a q-component Potts spin system for
q->infinity. It is shown that the highest power of the Kauffman invariant is
correlated with the minimum energy of the corresponding Potts spin system. The
probability of the lattice knot distribution over topological classes was
studied by the method of transfer matrices, depending on the type of local
junctions and the size of the flat knot diagram. The obtained results are
compared to the probability distribution of the minimum energy of a Potts
system with random ferro- and antiferromagnetic bonds.Comment: 37 pages, latex-revtex (new version: misprints removed, references
added
Breaking the self-averaging properties of spatial galaxy fluctuations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - Data Release Six
Statistical analyses of finite sample distributions usually assume that
fluctuations are self-averaging, i.e. that they are statistically similar in
different regions of the given sample volume. By using the scale-length method,
we test whether this assumption is satisfied in several samples of the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release Six. We find that the probability density
function (PDF) of conditional fluctuations, filtered on large enough spatial
scales (i.e., r>30 Mpc/h), shows relevant systematic variations in different
sub-volumes of the survey. Instead for scales r<30 Mpc/h the PDF is
statistically stable, and its first moment presents scaling behavior with a
negative exponent around one. Thus while up to 30 Mpc/h galaxy structures have
well-defined power-law correlations, on larger scales it is not possible to
consider whole sample average quantities as meaningful and useful statistical
descriptors. This situation is due to the fact that galaxy structures
correspond to density fluctuations which are too large in amplitude and too
extended in space to be self-averaging on such large scales inside the sample
volumes: galaxy distribution is inhomogeneous up to the largest scales, i.e. r
~ 100 Mpc/h, probed by the SDSS samples. We show that cosmological corrections,
as K-corrections and standard evolutionary corrections, do not qualitatively
change the relevant behaviors. Finally we show that the large amplitude galaxy
fluctuations observed in the SDSS samples are at odds with the predictions of
the standard LCDM model of structure formation.(Abridged version).Comment: 32 pages, 28 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics. A higher resolution version is available at
http://pil.phys.uniroma1.it/~sylos/fsl_highlights.html . Version v2 has been
corrected to match the published on
Time- and momentum-resolved photoemission studies using time-of-flight momentum microscopy at a free-electron laser
Time-resolved photoemission with ultrafast pump and probe pulses is an emerging technique with wide application potential. Real-time recording of nonequilibrium electronic processes, transient states in chemical reactions, or the interplay of electronic and structural dynamics offers fascinating opportunities for future research. Combining valence-band and core-level spectroscopy with photoelectron diffraction for electronic, chemical, and structural analyses requires few 10 fs soft X-ray pulses with some 10 meV spectral resolution, which are currently available at high repetition rate free-electron lasers. We have constructed and optimized a versatile setup commissioned at FLASH/PG2 that combines free-electron laser capabilities together with a multidimensional recording scheme for photoemission studies. We use a full-field imaging momentum microscope with time-of-flight energy recording as the detector for mapping of 3D band structures in (kx, ky, E) parameter space with unprecedented efficiency. Our instrument can image full surface Brillouin zones with up to 7 Å−1 diameter in a binding-energy range of several eV, resolving about 2.5 × 105 data voxels simultaneously. Using the ultrafast excited state dynamics in the van der Waals semiconductor WSe2 measured at photon energies of 36.5 eV and 109.5 eV, we demonstrate an experimental energy resolution of 130 meV, a momentum resolution of 0.06 Å−1, and a system response function of 150 fs
- …