10 research outputs found
Improved Limits on Spin-Dependent WIMP-Proton Interactions from a Two Liter CFI Bubble Chamber
Data from the operation of a bubble chamber filled with 3.5 kg of CFI
in a shallow underground site are reported. An analysis of ultrasound signals
accompanying bubble nucleations confirms that alpha decays generate a
significantly louder acoustic emission than single nuclear recoils, leading to
an efficient background discrimination. Three dark matter candidate events were
observed during an effective exposure of 28.1 kg-day, consistent with a neutron
background. This observation provides the strongest direct detection constraint
to date on WIMP-proton spin-dependent scattering for WIMP masses
GeV/c.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures V2 submitted to match journal versio
Primordial non-Gaussianity and Dark Energy constraints from Cluster Surveys
Galaxy cluster surveys will be a powerful probe of dark energy. At the same
time, cluster abundance is sensitive to any non-Gaussianity of the primordial
density field. It is therefore possible that non-Gaussian initial conditions
might be misinterpreted as a sign of dark energy or at least degrade the
expected constraints on dark energy parameters. To address this issue, we
perform a likelihood analysis of an ideal cluster survey similar in size and
depth to the upcoming South Pole Telescope/Dark Energy Survey (SPT-DES). We
analyze a model in which the strength of the non-Gaussianity is parameterized
by the constant fNL; this model has been used extensively to derive Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy constraints on non-Gaussianity, allowing
us to make contact with those works. We find that the constraining power of the
cluster survey on dark energy observables is not significantly diminished by
non-Gaussianity provided that cluster redshift information is included in the
analysis. We also find that even an ideal cluster survey is unlikely to improve
significantly current and future CMB constraints on non-Gaussianity. However,
when all systematics are under control, it could constitute a valuable cross
check to CMB observations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Corrected a minor discrepancy between our
earlier definition of fNL and CMB constraints. References adde
The fate of high redshift massive compact galaxies in dense environments
Massive compact galaxies seem to be more common at high redshift than in the
local universe, especially in denser environments. To investigate the fate of
such massive galaxies identified at z~2 we analyse the evolution of their
properties in three cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that form
virialised galaxy groups of mass ~10^13 Msun hosting a central massive
elliptical/S0 galaxy by redshift zero. We find that at redshift ~2 the
population of galaxies with M_*> 2 10^10 Msun is diverse in terms of mass,
velocity dispersion, star formation and effective radius, containing both very
compact and relatively extended objects. In each simulation all the compact
satellite galaxies have merged into the central galaxy by redshift 0 (with the
exception of one simulation where one of such satellite galaxy survives).
Satellites of similar mass at z = 0 are all less compact than their high
redshift counterparts. They form later than the galaxies in the z = 2 sample
and enter the group potential at z < 1, when dynamical friction times are
longer than the Hubble time. Also, by z = 0 the central galaxies have increased
substantially their characteristic radius via a combination of in situ star
formation and mergers. Hence in a group environment descendants of compact
galaxies either evolve towards larger sizes or they disappear before the
present time as a result of the environment in which they evolve. Since the
group-sized halos that we consider are representative of dense environments in
the LambdaCDM cosmology, we conclude that the majority of high redshift compact
massive galaxies do not survive until today as a result of the environment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRA
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Impact of astrophysical processes on the gamma-ray background from dark matter annihilations
We study the impact of astrophysical processes on the gamma-ray background produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles in cosmological halos, with particular attention to the consequences of the formation of supermassive black holes. In scenarios where these objects form adiabatically from the accretion of matter on small seeds, dark matter is first compressed into very dense 'spikes', then its density progressively decreases due to annihilations and scattering of stellar cusps. With respect to previous analyses, based on non-evolving halos, the predicted annihilation signal is higher and significantly distorted at low energies, reflecting the large contribution to the total flux from unevolved spikes at high redshifts. The peculiar spectral feature arising from the specific redshift distribution of the signal, would discriminate the proposed scenario from more conventional astrophysical explanations. We discuss how this affects the prospects for detection and demonstrate that the gamma-ray background from DM annihilations might be detectable even in absence of a signal from the Galactic center
Report of the Dark Energy Task Force
Dark energy appears to be the dominant component of the physical Universe, yet there is no persuasive theoretical explanation for its existence or magnitude. The acceleration of the Universe is, along with dark matter, the observed phenomenon that most directly demonstrates that our theories of fundamental particles and gravity are either incorrect or incomplete. Most experts believe that nothing short of a revolution in our understanding of fundamental physics will be required to achieve a full understanding of the cosmic acceleration. For these reasons, the nature of dark energy ranks among the very most compelling of all outstanding problems in physical science. These circumstances demand an ambitious observational program to determine the dark energy properties as well as possible
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Fossils of reionization in the local group
We use a combination of high-resolution gas dynamics simulations of high-redshift dwarf galaxies and dissipationless simulations of a Milky Way sized halo to estimate the expected abundance and spatial distribution of the dwarf satellite galaxies that formed most of their stars around z {approx} 8 and evolved only little since then. Such galaxies can be considered as fossils of the reionization era, and studying their properties could provide a direct window into the early, pre-reionization stages of galaxy formation. We show that 5-15% of the objects existing at z {approx} 8 do indeed survive until the present in the MW like environment without significant evolution. This implies that it is plausible that the fossil dwarf galaxies do exist in the Local Group. Because such galaxies form their stellar systems early during the period of active merging and accretion, they should have spheroidal morphology regardless of their current distance from the host galaxy. We show that both the expected luminosity function and spatial distribution of dark matter halos which are likely to host fossil galaxies agree reasonably well with the observed distributions of the luminous (L{sub V} > 10{sup 6} Lsun) Local Group fossil candidates near the host galaxy (d<200 kpc). However, the predicted abundance is substantially larger (by a factor of 2-3) for fainter galaxies (L{sub V} < 10{sup 6} Lsun) at larger distances (d>300 kpc). We discuss several possible explanations for this discrepancy
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Computational Eulerian Hydrodynamics and Galilean Invariance
Eulerian hydrodynamical simulations are a powerful and popular tool for modeling fluids in astrophysical systems. In this work, we critically examine recent claims that these methods violate Galilean invariance of the Euler equations. We demonstrate that Eulerian hydrohynamics methods do converge to a Galilean-invariant solution,provided a well-defined convergent solutions exists. Specifically, we show that numerical diffusion, resulting from diffusion-like terms in the discretized hydrodynamical equations solved by Eulerian methods, accounts for the effects previously identified as evidence for the Galilean non-inveriance of these methods. These velocity-dependent diffusive terms lead to different results for different bulk velocities when the spatial resolution of the simulation is kept fixed, but their effect become negligible as the resolution of the simulation is increased to obtain a converged solution. In particular, we find that Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities develop properly in realistic Eulerian calculations regardless of the bulk velocity provided the problem is simulated with sufficient resolution (a factor of 2-4 increase compared to the case without bulk flows for realistic velocities). Our results reiterate that high-resolution Eulerian methods can perform well and obtain a convergent solution, even in the presence of highly supersonic bulk flows
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An universal description of the particle flux distributions in extended air showers
It is shown that the electromagnetic and muonic fluxes in extended air showers (EAS) can be described using a simple model incorporating attenuation and geometrical dispersion. The model uses a reduced set of parameters including the primary energy E, the position of shower maximum X{sub max} relative to the ground, and a muon flux normalization N{sub {mu}}. To a good approximation, this set of three physical parameters is sufficient to predict the variability of the particle fluxes due to systematic differences between different models of composition and hadronic interactions, and due to statistical event-by-event differences in shower development. Measurements of these three physical observables are therefore unbiased and very nearly model-independent, in contrast with standard measurement techniques. The theoretical problem of determining primary composition is thus deconvolved from the measurement procedure, and may be approached in a subsequent analysis of the measured distributions of (E, X{sub max}, N{sub {mu}})
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A GMBCG galaxy cluster catalog of 55,880 rich clusters from SDSS DR7
We present a large catalog of optically selected galaxy clusters from the application of a new Gaussian Mixture Brightest Cluster Galaxy (GMBCG) algorithm to SDSS Data Release 7 data. The algorithm detects clusters by identifying the red sequence plus Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) feature, which is unique for galaxy clusters and does not exist among field galaxies. Red sequence clustering in color space is detected using an Error Corrected Gaussian Mixture Model. We run GMBCG on 8240 square degrees of photometric data from SDSS DR7 to assemble the largest ever optical galaxy cluster catalog, consisting of over 55,000 rich clusters across the redshift range from 0.1 < z < 0.55. We present Monte Carlo tests of completeness and purity and perform cross-matching with X-ray clusters and with the maxBCG sample at low redshift. These tests indicate high completeness and purity across the full redshift range for clusters with 15 or more members