576 research outputs found
Spreading in Social Systems: Reflections
In this final chapter, we consider the state-of-the-art for spreading in
social systems and discuss the future of the field. As part of this reflection,
we identify a set of key challenges ahead. The challenges include the following
questions: how can we improve the quality, quantity, extent, and accessibility
of datasets? How can we extract more information from limited datasets? How can
we take individual cognition and decision making processes into account? How
can we incorporate other complexity of the real contagion processes? Finally,
how can we translate research into positive real-world impact? In the
following, we provide more context for each of these open questions.Comment: 7 pages, chapter to appear in "Spreading Dynamics in Social Systems";
Eds. Sune Lehmann and Yong-Yeol Ahn, Springer Natur
High Resolution STIS/HST and HIRES/Keck Spectra of Three Weak MgII Absorbers Toward PG 1634+706
High resolution optical (HIRES/Keck) and UV (STIS/HST) spectra, covering a
large range of chemical transitions, are analyzed for three single-cloud weak
MgII absorption systems along the line of sight toward the quasar PG 1634+706.
Weak MgII absorption lines in quasar spectra trace metal-enriched environments
that are rarely closely associated with the most luminous galaxies (>0.05L^*).
The two weak MgII systems at z=0.81 and z=0.90 are constrained to have >=solar
metallicity, while the metallicity of the z=0.65 system is not as
well-constrained, but is consistent with >1/10th solar. These weak MgII clouds
are likely to be local pockets of high metallicity in a lower metallicity
environment. All three systems have two phases of gas, a higher density region
that produces narrower absorption lines for low ionization transitions, such as
MgII, and a lower density region that produces broader absorption lines for
high ionization transitions, such as CIV. The CIV profile for one system (at
z=0.81) can be fit with a single broad component (b~10 km/s), but those for the
other two systems require one or two additional offset high ionization clouds.
Two possible physical pictures for the phase structure are discussed: one with
a low-ionization, denser phase embedded in a lower density surrounding medium,
and the other with the denser clumps surrounding more highly ionized gas.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures; to appear in ApJ on May 20, 200
Tracing the Filamentary Structure of the Galaxy Distribution at z~0.8
We study filamentary structure in the galaxy distribution at z ~ 0.8 using
data from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey
and its evolution to z ~ 0.1 using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS). We trace individual filaments for both surveys using the Smoothed
Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder, an algorithm which employs the Hessian
matrix of the galaxy density field to trace the filamentary structures in the
distribution of galaxies. We extract 33 subsamples from the SDSS data with a
geometry similar to that of DEEP2. We find that the filament length
distribution has not significantly changed since z ~ 0.8, as predicted in a
previous study using a \LamdaCDM cosmological N-body simulation. However, the
filament width distribution, which is sensitive to the non-linear growth of
structure, broadens and shifts to smaller widths for smoothing length scales of
5-10 Mpc/h from z ~ 0.8 to z ~ 0.1, in accord with N-body simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for the publication in MNRA
Present-Day Descendants of z=3 Ly-{\alpha} Emitting Galaxies in the Millennium-II Halo Merger Trees
Using the Millennium-II Simulation dark matter sub-halo merger histories, we
created mock catalogs of Lyman Alpha Emitting (LAE) galaxies at z=3.1 to study
the properties of their descendants. Several models were created by selecting
the sub-halos to match the number density and typical dark matter mass
determined from observations of these galaxies. We used mass-based and
age-based selection criteria to study their effects on descendant populations
at z~2, 1 and 0. For the models that best represent LAEs at z=3.1, the z=0
descendants have a median dark matter halo mass of 10^12.7 M_Sun, with a wide
scatter in masses (50% between 10^11.8 and 10^13.7 M_Sun). Our study
differentiated between central and satellite sub-halos and found that ~55% of
z=0 descendants are central sub-halos with M_Median~10^12 M_Sun. This confirms
that central z=0 descendants of z=3.1 LAEs have halo masses typical of L* type
galaxies. The satellite sub-halos reside in group/cluster environments with
dark matter masses around 10^14 M_Sun. The median descendant mass is robust to
various methods of age determination, but it could vary by a factor of 5 due to
current observational uncertainties in the clustering of LAEs used to determine
their typical z=3.1 dark matter mass.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Crawling the Cosmic Network: Identifying and Quantifying Filamentary Structure
We present the Smoothed Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder (SHMAFF), an
algorithm that uses the eigenvectors of the Hessian matrix of the smoothed
galaxy distribution to identify individual filamentary structures. Filaments
are traced along the Hessian eigenvector corresponding to the largest
eigenvalue, and are stopped when the axis orientation changes more rapidly than
a preset threshold. In both N-body simulations and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) main galaxy redshift survey data, the resulting filament length
distributions are approximately exponential. In the SDSS galaxy distribution,
using smoothing lengths of 10 h^{-1} Mpc and 15 h^{-1} Mpc, we find filament
lengths per unit volume of 1.9x10^{-3} h^2 Mpc^{-2} and 7.6x10^{-4} h^2
Mpc^{-2}, respectively. The filament width distributions, which are much more
sensitive to non-linear growth, are also consistent between the real and mock
galaxy distributions using a standard cosmology. In SDSS, we find mean filament
widths of 5.5 h^{-1} Mpc and 8.4 h^{-1} Mpc on 10 h^{-1} Mpc and 15 h^{-1} Mpc
smoothing scales, with standard deviations of 1.1 h^{-1} Mpc and 1.4 h^{-1}
Mpc, respectively. Finally, the spatial distribution of filamentary structure
in simulations is very similar between z=3 and z=0 on smoothing scales as large
as 15 h^{-1} Mpc, suggesting that the outline of filamentary structure is
already in place at high redshift.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted to MNRA
Crawling the Cosmic Network: Exploring the Morphology of Structure in the Galaxy Distribution
Although coherent large-scale structures such as filaments and walls are
apparent to the eye in galaxy redshift surveys, they have so far proven
difficult to characterize with computer algorithms. This paper presents a
procedure that uses the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hessian matrix of
the galaxy density field to characterize the morphology of large-scale
structure. By analysing the smoothed density field and its Hessian matrix, we
can determine the types of structure - walls, filaments, or clumps - that
dominate the large-scale distribution of galaxies as a function of scale. We
have run the algorithm on mock galaxy distributions in a LCDM cosmological
N-body simulation and the observed galaxy distributions in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey. The morphology of structure is similar between the two catalogues,
both being filament-dominated on 10-20 h^{-1} Mpc smoothing scales and
clump-dominated on 5 h^{-1} Mpc scales. There is evidence for walls in both
distributions, but walls are not the dominant structures on scales smaller than
~25 h^{-1} Mpc. Analysis of the simulation suggests that, on a given comoving
smoothing scale, structures evolve with time from walls to filaments to clumps,
where those found on smaller smoothing scales are further in this progression
at a given time.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures. Accepted to MNRAS
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