Luminosity segregation in galaxy clusters as an indication of dynamical evolution

Theoretical models describing the dynamical evolution of self-gravitating systems predict a spatial mass segregation for more evolved systems, with the more massive objects concentrated toward the center of the configuration. From the observational point of view, however, the existence of mass segregation in galaxy clusters seems to be a matter of controversy. A special problem in this connection is the formation of cD galaxies in the centers of galaxy clusters. The most promising scenarios of their formation are galaxy cannibalism (merger scenario) and growing by cooling flows. It seems to be plausible to consider the swallowing of smaller systems by a dominant galaxy as an important process in the evolution of a cD galaxy. The stage of the evolution of the dominant galaxy should be reflected by the surrounding galaxy population, especially by possible mass segregation effects. Assuming that mass segregation is tantamount to luminosity segregation we analyzed luminosity segregation in roughly 40 cD galaxy clusters. Obviously there are three different groups of clusters: (1) clusters with luminosity segregation, (2) clusters without luminosity segregation, and (3) such objects exhibiting a phenomenon which we call antisegregation in luminosity, i.e. a deficiency of bright galaxies in the central regions of clusters. This result is interpreted in the sense of different degrees of mass segregation and as an indication for different evolution stages of these clusters. The clusters are arranged in the three segregation classes 2, 1, and 0 (S2 = strong mass segregation, S1 = moderate mass segregation, S0 = weak or absent mass segregation). We assume that a galaxy cluster starts its dynamical evolution after virialization without any radial mass segregation. Energy exchange during encounters of cluster members as well as merger processes between cluster galaxies lead to an increasing radial mass segregation in the cluster (S1). If a certain degree of segregation (S2) has been established, an essential number of slow-moving and relative massive cluster members in the center will be cannibalized by the initial brightest cluster galaxy. This process should lead to the growing of the predominate galaxy, which is accompanied by a diminution of the mass segregation (transition to S1 and S0, respectively) in the neighborhood of the central very massive galaxy. An increase of the areal density of brighter galaxies towards the outer cluster regions (antisegregation of luminosity), i.e. an extreme low degree of mass segregation was estimated for a substantial percentage of cD clusters. This result favors the cannibalism scenario for the formation of cD galaxies

The Nonlinear Dynamic Conversion of Analog Signals into Excitation Patterns

Local periodic perturbations induce frequency-dependent propagation waves in an excitable spatio-temporally chaotic system. We show how segments of noise-contaminated and chaotic perturbations induce characteristic sequences of excitations in the model system. Using a set of tuned excitable systems, it is possible to characterize signals by their spectral composition of excitation pattern. As an example we analyze an epileptic spike-and-wave time series.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations of the Coma Elliptical NGC 4874 and the Value of the Hubble Constant

We have used the Keck I Telescope to measure K-band surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs) of NGC 4874, the dominant elliptical galaxy in the Coma cluster. We use deep HST WFPC2 optical imaging to account for the contamination due to faint globular clusters and improved analysis techniques to derive measurements of the SBF apparent magnitude. Using a new SBF calibration which accounts for the dependence of K-band SBFs on the integrated color of the stellar population, we measure a distance modulus of 34.99+/-0.21 mag (100+/-10 Mpc) for the Coma cluster. The resulting value of the Hubble constant is 71+/-8 km/s/Mpc, not including any systematic error in the HST Cepheid distance scale.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. Uses emulateapj5.st

Magnetoelastic coupling in RETiO3 (RE = La, Nd, Sm, Gd, Y)

A detailed analysis of the crystal structure in RETiO3 with RE = La, Nd, Sm, Gd, and Y reveals an intrinsic coupling between orbital degrees of freedom and the lattice which cannot be fully attributed to the structural deformation arising from bond-length mismatch. The TiO6 octahedra in this series are all irregular with the shape of the distortion depending on the RE ionic radius. These octahedron distortions vary more strongly with temperature than the tilt and rotation angles. Around the Ti magnetic ordering all compounds exhibit strong anomalies in the thermal-expansion coefficients, these anomalies exhibit opposite signs for the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic compounds. Furthermore the strongest effects are observed in the materials close to the magnetic cross-over from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic order

Verification and Control of Partially Observable Probabilistic Real-Time Systems

We propose automated techniques for the verification and control of probabilistic real-time systems that are only partially observable. To formally model such systems, we define an extension of probabilistic timed automata in which local states are partially visible to an observer or controller. We give a probabilistic temporal logic that can express a range of quantitative properties of these models, relating to the probability of an event's occurrence or the expected value of a reward measure. We then propose techniques to either verify that such a property holds or to synthesise a controller for the model which makes it true. Our approach is based on an integer discretisation of the model's dense-time behaviour and a grid-based abstraction of the uncountable belief space induced by partial observability. The latter is necessarily approximate since the underlying problem is undecidable, however we show how both lower and upper bounds on numerical results can be generated. We illustrate the effectiveness of the approach by implementing it in the PRISM model checker and applying it to several case studies, from the domains of computer security and task scheduling

Total spectrum of photon emission by an ultra-relativistic positron channeling in a periodically bent crystal

We present the results of numerical calculations of the channelling and undulator radiation generated by an ultra-relativistic positron channelling along a crystal plane, which is periodically bent. The bending might be due either to the propagation of a transverse acoustic wave through the crystal, or due to the static strain as it occurs in superlattices. The periodically bent crystal serves as an undulator. We investigate the dependence of the intensities of both the ordinary channelling and the undulator radiations on the parameters of the periodically bent channel with simultaneous account for the dechannelling effect of the positrons. We demonstrate that there is a range of parameters in which the undulator radiation dominates over the channelling one and the characteristic frequencies of both types of radiation are well separated. This result is important, because the undulator radiation can be used to create a tunable source of X-ray and gamma-radiation.Comment: published in J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 26 (2000) L87-L95, http://www.iop.org ; 12 pages, 4 figures, LaTe

Single Leptoquark Production at e+e−e^+e^- and γγ\gamma\gamma Colliders

We consider single production of leptoquarks (LQ's) at $e^+e^-$ and $\gamma\gamma$ colliders, for two values of the centre-of-mass energy, $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV and 1 TeV. We find that LQ's which couple within the first generation are observable for LQ masses almost up to the kinematic limit, both at $e^+e^-$ and $\gamma\gamma$ colliders, for the LQ coupling strength equal to $\alpha_{em}$. The cross sections for single production of $2^{nd}$- and $3^{rd}$-generation LQ's at $e^+e^-$ colliders are too small to be observable. In $\gamma\gamma$ collisions, on the other hand, $2^{nd}$-generation LQ's with masses much larger than $\sqrt{s}/2$ can be detected. However, $3^{rd}$-generation LQ's can be seen at $\gamma\gamma$ colliders only for masses at most $\sim\sqrt{s}/2$, making their observation more probable via the pair production mechanism.Comment: plain TeX, 14 pages, 6 figures (not included but available on request), some minor changes to the text, one reference added, figures and conclusions unchanged, UdeM-LPN-TH-93-152, McGill-93/2

Laser photon merging in proton-laser collisions

The quantum electrodynamical vacuum polarization effects arising in the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong, linearly polarized laser field are investigated. The probability that laser photons merge into one photon by interacting with the proton`s electromagnetic field is calculated taking into account the laser field exactly. Asymptotics of the probability are then derived according to different experimental setups suitable for detecting perturbative and nonperturbative vacuum polarization effects. The experimentally most feasible setup involves the use of a strong optical laser field. It is shown that in this case measurements of the polarization of the outgoing photon and and of its angular distribution provide promising tools to detect these effects for the first time.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figure

Photon emission by an ultra-relativistic particle channeling in a periodically bent crystal

This paper is devoted to a detailed analysis of the new type of the undulator radiation generated by an ultra-relativistic charged particle channeling along a crystal plane, which is periodically bent by a transverse acoustic wave, as well as to the conditions limiting the observation of this phenomenon. This mechanism makes feasible the generation of electromagnetic radiation, both spontaneous and stimulated, emitted in a wide range of the photon energies, from X- up to gamma-rays

On Forward J/\psi Production at Fermilab Tevatron

The D0 Collaboration has recently reported the measurement of J/\psi production at low angle. We show here that the inclusion of color octet contributions in any framework is able to reproduce this data.Comment: 1 page, Revtex, uses epsfig.sty, 2 postscript figure