Damped Lyman alpha systems and galaxy formation models - II. High ions and Lyman limit systems

We investigate a model for the high-ionization state gas associated with observed damped Lyman-alpha systems, based on a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation set within the paradigm of hierarchical structure formation. In our model, the hot gas in halos and sub-halos gives rise to CIV absorption, while the low-ionization state gas is associated with the cold gas in galaxies. The model matches the distribution of CIV column densities and leads naturally to kinematic properties that are in good agreement with the data. We examine the contribution of both hot and cold gas to sub-damped systems and suggest that the properties of these systems can be used as an important test of the model. We expect that sub-DLA systems will generally be composed of a single gas disk and thus predict that they should have markedly different kinematics than the damped systems. Finally, we find that hot halo gas produces less than one third of Lyman limit systems at redshift three. We model the contribution of mini-halos (halos with virial velocities < 35 km/s) to Lyman limit systems and find that they may contain as much gas as is observed in these systems. However, if we adopt realistic models of the gas density distribution we find that these systems are not a significant source of Lyman limit absorption. Instead we suggest that uncollapsed gas outside of virialized halos is responsible for most of the Lyman limit systems at high redshift.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to MNRA

Understanding the Structural Scaling Relations of Early-Type Galaxies

We use a large suite of hydrodynamical simulations of binary galaxy mergers to construct and calibrate a physical prescription for computing the effective radii and velocity dispersions of spheroids. We implement this prescription within a semi-analytic model embedded in merger trees extracted from the Bolshoi Lambda-CDM N-body simulation, accounting for spheroid growth via major and minor mergers as well as disk instabilities. We find that without disk instabilities, our model does not predict sufficient numbers of intermediate mass early-type galaxies in the local universe. Spheroids also form earlier in models with spheroid growth via disk instabilities. Our model correctly predicts the normalization, slope, and scatter of the low-redshift size-mass and Fundamental Plane relations for early type galaxies. It predicts a degree of curvature in the Faber-Jackson relation that is not seen in local observations, but this could be alleviated if higher mass spheroids have more bottom-heavy initial mass functions. The model also correctly predicts the observed strong evolution of the size-mass relation for spheroids out to higher redshifts, as well as the slower evolution in the normalization of the Faber-Jackson relation. We emphasize that these are genuine predictions of the model since it was tuned to match hydrodynamical simulations and not these observations.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

Advances and utility of diagnostic ultrasound in musculoskeletal medicine

Musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) can serve as an excellent imaging modality for the musculoskeletal clinician. Although MRI is more commonly ordered in the United States for musculoskeletal problems, both of these imaging modalities have advantages and disadvantages and can be viewed as complementary rather than adversarial. For diagnostic US, relative recent advances in technology have improved ultrasound’s ability to diagnose a myriad of musculoskeletal problems with enhanced resolution. The structures most commonly imaged with diagnostic musculoskeletal US, include tendon, muscle, nerve, joint, and some osseous pathology. This brief review article will discuss the role of US in imaging various common musculoskeletal disorders and will highlight, where appropriate, how recent technological advances have improved this imaging modality in musculoskeletal medicine. Additionally, clinicians practicing musculoskeletal medicine should be aware of the ability as well as limitations of this unique imaging modality and become familiar with conditions where US may be more advantageous than MRI

Quantal Consequences of Perturbations Which Destroy Structurally Unstable Orbits in Chaotic Billiards

Non-generic contributions to the quantal level-density from parallel segments in billiards are investigated. These contributions are due to the existence of marginally stable families of periodic orbits, which are structurally unstable, in the sense that small perturbations, such as a slight tilt of one of the segments, destroy them completely. We investigate the effects of such perturbation on the corresponding quantum spectra, and demonstrate them for the stadium billiard