17,490 research outputs found
The fate of cannibalized fundamental-plane ellipticals
Evolution and disruption of galaxies orbiting in the gravitational field of a
larger cluster galaxy are driven by three coupled mechanisms: 1) the heating
due to its time dependent motion in the primary; 2) mass loss due to the tidal
strain field; and 3) orbital decay. Previous work demonstrated that tidal
heating is effective well inside the impulse approximation limit. Not only does
the overall energy increase over previous predictions, but the work is done
deep inside the secondary galaxy, e.g. at or inside the half mass radius in
most cases. Here, these ideas applied to cannibalization of elliptical galaxies
with fundamental-plane parameters. In summary, satellites which can fall to the
center of a cluster giant by dynamical friction are evaporated by internal
heating by the time they reach the center. This suggests that true
merger-produced multiple nuclei giants should be rare. Specifically,
secondaries with mass ratios as small as 1\% on any initial orbit evaporate and
those on eccentric orbits with mass ratios as small as 0.1\% evolve
significantly and nearly evaporate in a galaxian age. Captured satellites with
mass ratios smaller than roughly 1\% have insufficient time to decay to the
center. After many accretion events, the model predicts that the merged system
has a profile similar to that of the original primary with a weak increase in
concentration.Comment: 19 pages, 10 Postscript figures, uses aaspp4.sty. Submitted to
Astrophysical Journa
Production of Milky Way structure by the Magellanic Clouds
Previous attempts at disturbing the galactic disk by the Magellanic Clouds
relied on direct tidal forcing. However, by allowing the halo to actively
respond rather than remain a rigid contributor to the rotation curve, the
Clouds may produce a wake in the halo which then distorts the disk. Recent work
reported here suggests that the Magellanic Clouds use this mechanism to produce
disk distortions sufficient to account for both the radial location, position
angle and sign of the HI warp and observed anomalies in stellar kinematics
towards the galactic anticenter and LSR motion.Comment: 8 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript, no figures, html version
with figures and mpeg simulations available at
http://www-astro.phast.umass.edu/Preprints/martin/martin1/lmc_online.htm
Comment on "Scalar-tensor gravity coupled to a global monopole and flat rotation curves" by Lee and Lee
The recent paper by Lee and Lee (2004) may strongly leave the impression that
astronomers have established that the rotation curves of spiral galaxies are
flat. We show that the old paradigm of Flat Rotation Curves lacks, today, any
observational support and following it at face value leads to intrinsically
flawed alternatives to the Standard Dark Matter Scenario. On the other side, we
claim that the rich systematics of spiral galaxy rotation curves, that reveals,
in the standard Newtonian Gravity framework, the phenomenon of dark matter, in
alternative scenarios, works as a unique benchmark.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Adiabatic Modes in Cosmology
We show that the field equations for cosmological perturbations in Newtonian
gauge always have an adiabatic solution, for which a quantity is
non-zero and constant in all eras in the limit of large wavelength, so that it
can be used to connect observed cosmological fluctuations in this mode with
those at very early times. There is also a second adiabatic mode, for which
vanishes for large wavelength, and in general there may be
non-adiabatic modes as well. These conclusions apply in all eras and whatever
the constituents of the universe, under only a mild technical assumption about
the wavelength dependence of the field equations for large wave length. In the
absence of anisotropic inertia, the perturbations in the adiabatic modes are
given for large wavelength by universal formulas in terms of the
Robertson--Walker scale factor. We discuss an apparent discrepancy between
these results and what appears to be a conservation law in all modes found for
large wavelength in synchronous gauge: it turns out that, although equivalent,
synchronous and Newtonian gauges suggest inequivalent assumptions about the
behavior of the perturbations for large wavelength.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, no special macro
A Magellanic Origin for the Warp of the Galaxy
We show that a Magellanic Cloud origin for the warp of the Milky Way can
explain most quantitative features of the outer HI layer recently identified by
Levine, Blitz & Heiles (2005). We construct a model similar to that of Weinberg
(1998) that produces distortions in the dark matter halo, and we calculate the
combined effect of these dark-halo distortions and the direct tidal forcing by
the Magellanic Clouds on the disk warp in the linear regime. The interaction of
the dark matter halo with the disk and resonances between the orbit of the
Clouds and the disk account for the large amplitudes observed for the vertical
m=0,1,2 harmonics. The observations lead to six constraints on warp forcing
mechanisms and our model reasonably approximates all six. The disk is shown to
be very dynamic, constantly changing its shape as the Clouds proceed along
their orbit. We discuss the challenges to MOND placed by the observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letters. Additional graphics, 3d
visualizations and movies available at
http://www.astro.umass.edu/~weinberg/lm
The resultant parameters of effective theory
This is the 4-th paper in the series devoted to a systematic study of the
problem of mathematically correct formulation of the rules needed to manage an
effective field theory. Here we consider the problem of constructing the full
set of essential parameters in the case of the most general effective
scattering theory containing no massless particles with spin J > 1/2. We
perform the detailed classification of combinations of the Hamiltonian coupling
constants and select those which appear in the expressions for renormalized
S-matrix elements at a given loop order.Comment: 21 pages, 4 LaTeX figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Novel applications of the NASA/GSFC Viterbi decoder hardware simulator
The NASA/GSFC developed an all digital, real time, programmable Viterbi decoder simulator operating at rates up to 6 Msps. With this simulator, the bit error rate (BER) performance of convolutionally encoded/Viterbi decoded Shuttle-TDRSS return link channels under pulsed radio frequency interference (RFI) conditions has been predicted. The principles of the simulator are described with special emphasis on the channel simulator and the essential interaction between CLASS software and the simulator. The sensitivity of coded BER as function of several illustrative RFI parameters is discussed for two typical Shuttle-TDRSS return link configurations
The Fed's entry into check clearing reconsidered
Check collection systems ; Federal Reserve System
On the Evolutionary History of Stars and their Fossil Mass and Light
The total extragalactic background radiation can be an important test of the
global star formation history (SFH). Using direct observational estimates of
the SFH, along with standard assumptions about the initial mass function (IMF),
we calculate the total extragalactic background radiation and the observed
stellar density today. We show that plausible SFHs allow a significant range in
each quantity, but that their ratio is very tightly constrained. Current
estimates of the stellar mass and extragalactic background are difficult to
reconcile, as long as the IMF is fixed to the Salpeter slope above 1 Msun. The
joint confidence interval of these two quantities only agrees with that
determined from the allowed range of SFH fits at the 3-sigma level, and for our
best-fit values the discrepancy is about a factor of two. Alternative energy
sources that contribute to the background, such as active galactic nuclei
(AGN), Population III stars, or decaying particles, appear unlikely to resolve
the discrepancy. However, changes to the IMF allow plausible solutions to the
background problem. The simplest is an average IMF with an increased
contribution from stars around 1.5--4 Msun. A ``paunchy'' IMF of this sort
could emerge as a global average if low mass star formation is suppressed in
galaxies experiencing rapid starbursts. Such an IMF is consistent with
observations of star-forming regions, and would help to reconcile the fossil
record of star formation with the directly observed SFH.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; submitted to Monthly Notice
A response to arXiv:1310.2791: A self-consistent public catalogue of voids and superclusters in the SDSS Data Release 7 galaxy surveys
Recently, Nadathur & Hotchkiss (2013) submitted a paper discussing a new
cosmic void catalog. This paper includes claims about the void catalog
described in Sutter et al. (2012). In this note, we respond to those claims,
clarify some discrepancies between the text of Sutter et al. (2012) and the
most recent version of the catalog, and provide some comments on the
differences between our catalog and that of Nadathur & Hotchkiss (2013). All
updates and documentation for our catalog are available at
http://www.cosmicvoids.net.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, public catalog available at
http://www.cosmicvoids.ne
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