Neutral Gas Distributions and Kinematics of Five Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies

We present the results of high spatial resolution HI observations of five intrinsically compact dwarf galaxies which are currently experiencing a strong burst of star formation. The HI maps indicate that these systems have a complex and clumpy interstellar medium. Unlike typical dwarf irregular galaxies, these Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) galaxies exhibit strong central concentrations in their neutral gas distributions which may provide a clue to the origin of their strong star-burst activity. Furthermore, while all of the systems do appear to be rotating, based on observed velocity gradients, the kinematics are complex. All systems have non-ordered kinematic structure at some level; some of the extended gas is not necessarily kinematically connected to the main system. The observed gas distributions and kinematics place constraints on evolutionary scenarios for BCDs. Evolutionary links between BCDs, dwarf irregulars, and dwarf ellipticals have been postulated to explain their high star formation rates and low luminosity, low metallicity nature. The BCDs appear to have higher central mass concentrations in both gas and stellar content than the dwarf irregulars, indicating that evolutionary scenarios connecting these two classes will require mass redistribution. In addition, the fact that BCDs are rotationally supported systems indicates that BCDs are unlikely to evolve into dwarf ellipticals without substantial loss of angular momentum. Thus, while such evolutionary scenarios may still be possible with the aid of mergers or tidal interactions, the isolated nature of BCDs suggests that the majority of BCDs will not fade to become objects similar to the present day dwarf ellipticals.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures. To appear in A

Stochastic modeling of soil salinity

A minimalist stochastic model of primary soil salinity is proposed, in which the rate of soil salinization is determined by the balance between dry and wet salt deposition and the intermittent leaching events caused by rainfall events. The long term probability density functions of salt mass and concentration are found by reducing the coupled soil moisture and salt mass balance equation to a single stochastic differential equation driven by multiplicative Poisson noise. The novel analytical solutions provide insight on the interplay of the main soil, plant and climate parameters responsible for long-term soil salinization. In particular, they show the existence of two distinct regimes, one where the mean salt mass remains nearly constant (or decreases) with increasing rainfall frequency, and another where mean salt content increases markedly with increasing rainfall frequency. As a result, relatively small reductions of rainfall in drier climates may entail dramatic shifts in long-term soil salinization trends, with significant consequences e.g. for climate change impacts on rain-fed agricultur

Electromagnetic Structure of Light Baryons in Lattice QCD

A method in which electromagnetic properties of hadrons are studied by direct simulation of dynamical photon effects is applied to the extraction of the isomultiplet structure of the octet baryons. Using 187 configurations at $\beta=5.7$ with Wilson action, and up and down quark masses determined from the meson spectrum, the nucleon splitting is found to be $1.55(\pm 0.56\; \rm stat)$ MeV; the hyperon splittings are found to be $\Sigma^{0}-\Sigma^{+}=2.47\pm 0.39$, $\Sigma^{-}-\Sigma^{0}=4.63\pm 0.36$, $\Xi^{-}-\Xi^{0}=5.68\pm 0.24$ MeV. Estimated systematic corrections arising from finite volume and the quenched approximation are included in these results.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE96(phenomenology

Renormalizing Rectangles and Other Topics in Random Matrix Theory

We consider random Hermitian matrices made of complex or real $M\times N$ rectangular blocks, where the blocks are drawn from various ensembles. These matrices have $N$ pairs of opposite real nonvanishing eigenvalues, as well as $M-N$ zero eigenvalues (for $M>N$.) These zero eigenvalues are ``kinematical" in the sense that they are independent of randomness. We study the eigenvalue distribution of these matrices to leading order in the large $N,M$ limit, in which the ``rectangularity" $r={M\over N}$ is held fixed. We apply a variety of methods in our study. We study Gaussian ensembles by a simple diagrammatic method, by the Dyson gas approach, and by a generalization of the Kazakov method. These methods make use of the invariance of such ensembles under the action of symmetry groups. The more complicated Wigner ensemble, which does not enjoy such symmetry properties, is studied by large $N$ renormalization techniques. In addition to the kinematical $\delta$-function spike in the eigenvalue density which corresponds to zero eigenvalues, we find for both types of ensembles that if $|r-1|$ is held fixed as $N\rightarrow\infty$, the $N$ non-zero eigenvalues give rise to two separated lobes that are located symmetrically with respect to the origin. This separation arises because the non-zero eigenvalues are repelled macroscopically from the origin. Finally, we study the oscillatory behavior of the eigenvalue distribution near the endpoints of the lobes, a behavior governed by Airy functions. As $r\rightarrow 1$ the lobes come closer, and the Airy oscillatory behavior near the endpoints that are close to zero breaks down. We interpret this breakdown as a signal that $r\rightarrow 1$ drives a cross over to the oscillation governed by Bessel functions near the origin for matrices made of square blocks.Comment: LateX, 34 pages, 3 ps figure

Phase transitions in spinor quantum gravity on a lattice

We construct a well-defined lattice-regularized quantum theory formulated in terms of fundamental fermion and gauge fields, the same type of degrees of freedom as in the Standard Model. The theory is explicitly invariant under local Lorentz transformations and, in the continuum limit, under diffeomorphisms. It is suitable for describing large nonperturbative and fast-varying fluctuations of metrics. Although the quantum curved space turns out to be on the average flat and smooth owing to the non-compressibility of the fundamental fermions, the low-energy Einstein limit is not automatic: one needs to ensure that composite metrics fluctuations propagate to long distances as compared to the lattice spacing. One way to guarantee this is to stay at a phase transition. We develop a lattice mean field method and find that the theory typically has several phases in the space of the dimensionless coupling constants, separated by the second order phase transition surface. For example, there is a phase with a spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. The effective low-energy Lagrangian for the ensuing Goldstone field is explicitly diffeomorphism-invariant. We expect that the Einstein gravitation is achieved at the phase transition. A bonus is that the cosmological constant is probably automatically zero.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures Discussion of dimensions and of the Berezinsky--Kosterlitz--Thouless phase adde