102 research outputs found
Does the Isotropy of the CMB Imply a Homogeneous Universe? Some Generalised EGS Theorems
We demonstrate that the high isotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB), combined with the Copernican principle, is not sufficient to prove
homogeneity of the universe -- in contrast to previous results on this subject.
The crucial additional factor not included in earlier work is the acceleration
of the fundamental observers. We find the complete class of irrotational
perfect fluid spacetimes admitting an exactly isotropic radiation field for
every fundamental observer and show that are FLRW if and only if the
acceleration is zero. While inhomogeneous in general, these spacetimes all
possess three-dimensional symmetry groups, from which it follows that they also
admit a thermodynamic interpretation. In addition to perfect fluids models we
also consider multi-component fluids containing non-interacting radiation, dust
and a quintessential scalar field or cosmological constant in which the
radiation is isotropic for the geodesic (dust) observers. It is shown that the
non-acceleration of the fundamental observers forces these spacetimes to be
FLRW. While it is plausible that fundamental observers (galaxies) in the real
universe follow geodesics, it is strictly necessary to determine this from
local observations for the cosmological principle to be more than an
assumption. We discuss how observations may be used to test this.Comment: replaced with final version. Added discusion and ref
Probing Primordial Non-Gaussianity with Large-Scale Structure
We consider primordial non-Gaussianity due to quadratic corrections in the
gravitational potential parametrized by a non-linear coupling parameter fnl. We
study constraints on fnl from measurements of the galaxy bispectrum in redshift
surveys. Using estimates for idealized survey geometries of the 2dF and SDSS
surveys and realistic ones from SDSS mock catalogs, we show that it is possible
to probe |fnl|~100, after marginalization over bias parameters. We apply our
methods to the galaxy bispectrum measured from the PSCz survey, and obtain a
2sigma-constraint |fnl|< 1800. We estimate that an all sky redshift survey up
to z~1 can probe |fnl|~1. We also consider the use of cluster abundance to
constrain fnl and find that in order to be sensitive to |fnl|~100, cluster
masses need to be determined with an accuracy of a few percent, assuming
perfect knowledge of the mass function and cosmological parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
A Study of Heating and Cooling of the ISM in NGC 1097 with Herschel-PACS and Spitzer-IRS
NGC 1097 is a nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy with a bright circumnuclear starburst
ring, a strong large-scale bar and an active nucleus. We present a detailed
study of the spatial variation of the far infrared (FIR) [CII]158um and
[OI]63um lines and mid-infrared H2 emission lines as tracers of gas cooling,
and of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bands as tracers of the
photoelectric heating, using Herschel-PACS, and Spitzer-IRS infrared spectral
maps. We focus on the nucleus and the ring, and two star forming regions (Enuc
N and Enuc S). We estimated a photoelectric gas heating efficiency
([CII]158um+[OI]63um)/PAH in the ring about 50% lower than in Enuc N and S. The
average 11.3/7.7um PAH ratio is also lower in the ring, which may suggest a
larger fraction of ionized PAHs, but no clear correlation with
[CII]158{\mu}m/PAH(5.5 - 14um) is found. PAHs in the ring are responsible for a
factor of two more [CII]158um and [OI]63um emission per unit mass than PAHs in
the Enuc S. SED modeling indicates that at most 25% of the FIR power in the
ring and Enuc S can come from high intensity photodissociation regions (PDRs),
in which case G0 ~ 10^2.3 and nH ~ 10^3.5 cm^-3 in the ring. For these values
of G0 and nH PDR models cannot reproduce the observed H2 emission. Much of the
the H2 emission in the starburst ring could come from warm regions in the
diffuse ISM that are heated by turbulent dissipation or shocks.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in Ap
Density profiles of dark matter haloes: diversity and dependence on environment
(Abridged) We study the outer density profiles of dark matter haloes
predicted by a generalized secondary infall model and observed in a N-body
cosmological simulation of a \Lambda CDM model. We find substantial systematic
variations in shapes and concentrations of the halo profiles as well as a
strong correlation of the profiles with the environment. In the N-body
simulation, the average outer slope of the density profiles, \beta (\rho\propto
r^{-\beta}), of isolated haloes is \approx 2.9; 68% of these haloes have values
of \beta between 2.5 and 3.8. Haloes in dense environments of clusters are more
concentrated and exhibit a broad distribution of \beta with values larger than
for isolated haloes . Contrary to what one may expect, the haloes contained
within groups and galaxy systems are less concentrated and have flatter outer
density profiles than the isolated haloes. The concentration decreases with
M_h, but its scatter for a given mass is substantial. The mass and circular
velocity of the haloes are strongly correlated: M_h \propto V_m^{\alpha} with
\alpha ~ 3.3 (isolated) and ~3.5 (haloes in clusters). For M_h=10^12M_sun the
rms deviations from these relations are \Delta logM_h=0.12 and 0.18,
respectively. Approximately 30% of the haloes are contained within larger
haloes or have massive companions (larger than ~0.3 the mass of the current
halo) within 3 virial radii. The remaining 70% of the haloes are isolated
objects. The distribution of \beta as well as the concentration-mass and
M_h-V_m relations for the isolated haloes agree very well with the predictions
of our seminumerical approach which is based on a generalization of the
secondary infall model and on the extended Press-Schechter formalism.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures included, uses mn.sty, accepted by MNRAS. Minor
modifications, new and updated reference
Mapping far-IR emission from the central kiloparsec of NGC 1097
Using photometry of NGC 1097 from the Herschel PACS (Photodetector Array
Camera and Spectrometer) instrument, we study the resolved properties of
thermal dust continuum emission from a circumnuclear starburst ring with a
radius ~ 900 pc. These observations are the first to resolve the structure of a
circumnuclear ring at wavelengths that probe the peak (i.e. lambda ~ 100
micron) of the dust spectral energy distribution. The ring dominates the
far-infrared (far-IR) emission from the galaxy - the high angular resolution of
PACS allows us to isolate the ring's contribution and we find it is responsible
for 75, 60 and 55% of the total flux of NGC 1097 at 70, 100 and 160 micron,
respectively. We compare the far-IR structure of the ring to what is seen at
other wavelengths and identify a sequence of far-IR bright knots that
correspond to those seen in radio and mid-IR images. The mid- and far-IR band
ratios in the ring vary by less than +/- 20% azimuthally, indicating modest
variation in the radiation field heating the dust on ~ 600 pc scales. We
explore various explanations for the azimuthal uniformity in the far-IR colors
of the ring including a lack of well-defined age gradients in the young stellar
cluster population, a dominant contribution to the far-IR emission from dust
heated by older (> 10 Myr) stars and/or a quick smoothing of local enhancements
in dust temperature due to the short orbital period of the ring. Finally, we
improve previous limits on the far-IR flux from the inner ~ 600 pc of NGC 1097
by an order of magnitude, providing a better estimate of the total bolometric
emission arising from the active galactic nucleus and its associated central
starburst.Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel Special Editio
X-ray emission from star-forming galaxies - III. Calibration of the Lx-SFR relation up to redshift z1.3
We investigate the relation between total X-ray emission from star-forming
galaxies and their star formation activity. Using nearby late-type galaxies and
ULIRGs from Paper I and star-forming galaxies from Chandra Deep Fields, we
construct a sample of 66 galaxies spanning the redshift range z~0-1.3 and the
star-formation rate (SFR) range ~0.1-10^3 M_sun/yr. In agreement with previous
results, we find that the Lx-SFR relation is consistent with a linear law both
at z=0 and for the z=0.1-1.3 CDF galaxies, within the statistical accuracy of
~0.1 in the slope of the Lx-SFR relation. For the total sample, we find a
linear scaling relation Lx/SFR~(4.0\pm 0.4)x10^{39}(erg/s)/(Msun/yr), with a
scatter of ~0.4 dex. About ~2/3 of the 0.5-8 keV luminosity generated per unit
SFR is expected to be due to HMXBs. We find no statistically significant trends
in the mean Lx/SFR ratio with the redshift or star formation rate and constrain
the amplitude of its variations by <0.1-0.2 dex. These properties make X-ray
observations a powerful tool to measure the star formation rate in normal
star-forming galaxies that dominate the source counts at faint fluxes.Comment: 11 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS.
Substantial changes since the last version, including the authors lis
Influenza, Winter Olympiad, 2002
Prospective surveillance for influenza was performed during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Oseltamivir was administered to patients with influenzalike illness and confirmed influenza, while their close contacts were given oseltamivir prophylactically. Influenza A/B was diagnosed in 36 of 188 patients, including 13 athletes. Prompt management limited the spread of this outbreak
Bulk Motions of Spiral Galaxies in the z = 0.03 Volume
We analyze the peculiar velocity field for 2400 flat spiral galaxies selected
from an infrared sky survey (2MFGC). The distances to the galaxies have been
determined from the Tully-Fisher relation in the photometric J band with a
dispersion of 0.45 mag. The bulk motion of this sample relative to the cosmic
microwave background (3K) frame has an amplitude of 199+/-37 km/s in the
direction l = 290 +/- 11, b = +1 +/- 9 degree. The amplitude of the dipole
motion tends to decrease with distance in accordance with the expected
convergence of bulk flows in the 3K frame. We believe that external massive
attractors similar to the Shapley cluster concentration are responsible for
\~60% of the local flow velocity in the z = 0.03 volume.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Big-bang Nucleosynthesis Enters the Precision Era
The last parameter of big-bang nucleosynthesis, the baryon density, is being
pinned down by measurements of the deuterium abundance in high-redshift
hydrogen clouds. When it is determined, it will fix the primeval light-element
abundances. D, ^3He and ^7Li will become ``tracers'' for the study of Galactic
and stellar chemical evolution, and big-bang nucleosynthesis will become an
even sharper probe of particle physics, e.g., the bound to the number of light
neutrino species will be tightened significantly. Two key tests of the
consistency of the standard theory are on the horizon: an independent,
high-precision determination of the baryon density from anisotropy of the
cosmic background radiation and a precision determination of the primeval
He abundance.Comment: 19 pages Latex; 8 eps figures; submitted to Rev Mod Phys (Colloquia
Microflares and the Statistics of X-ray Flares
This review surveys the statistics of solar X-ray flares, emphasising the new
views that RHESSI has given us of the weaker events (the microflares). The new
data reveal that these microflares strongly resemble more energetic events in
most respects; they occur solely within active regions and exhibit
high-temperature/nonthermal emissions in approximately the same proportion as
major events. We discuss the distributions of flare parameters (e.g., peak
flux) and how these parameters correlate, for instance via the Neupert effect.
We also highlight the systematic biases involved in intercomparing data
representing many decades of event magnitude. The intermittency of the
flare/microflare occurrence, both in space and in time, argues that these
discrete events do not explain general coronal heating, either in active
regions or in the quiet Sun.Comment: To be published in Space Science Reviews (2011
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