12,239 research outputs found
The relation between gas density and velocity power spectra in galaxy clusters: high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations and the role of conduction
Exploring the ICM power spectrum can help us to probe the physics of galaxy
clusters. Using high-resolution 3D plasma simulations, we study the statistics
of the velocity field and its relation with the thermodynamic perturbations.
The normalization of the ICM spectrum (density, entropy, or pressure) is
linearly tied to the level of large-scale motions, which excite both gravity
and sound waves due to stratification. For low 3D Mach number M~0.25, gravity
waves mainly drive entropy perturbations, traced by preferentially tangential
turbulence. For M>0.5, sound waves start to significantly contribute, passing
the leading role to compressive pressure fluctuations, associated with
isotropic (or slightly radial) turbulence. Density and temperature fluctuations
are then characterized by the dominant process: isobaric (low M), adiabatic
(high M), or isothermal (strong conduction). Most clusters reside in the
intermediate regime, showing a mixture of gravity and sound waves, hence
drifting towards isotropic velocities. Remarkably, regardless of the regime,
the variance of density perturbations is comparable to the 1D Mach number. This
linear relation allows to easily convert between gas motions and ICM
perturbations, which can be exploited by Chandra, XMM data and by the
forthcoming Astro-H. At intermediate and small scales (10-100 kpc), the
turbulent velocities develop a Kolmogorov cascade. The thermodynamic
perturbations act as effective tracers of the velocity field, broadly
consistent with the Kolmogorov-Obukhov-Corrsin advection theory. Thermal
conduction acts to damp the gas fluctuations, washing out the filamentary
structures and steepening the spectrum, while leaving unaltered the velocity
cascade. The ratio of the velocity and density spectrum thus inverts the
downtrend shown by the non-diffusive models, allowing to probe the presence of
significant conductivity in the ICM.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 15 pages, 10 figures; added insights and references
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Mode Selection in the Spontaneous Motion of an Alcohol Droplet
An alcohol (pentanol) droplet exhibits spontaneous agitation on an aqueous
solution, driven by a solutal Marangoni effect. We found that the droplet's
mode of motion is controlled by its volume. A droplet with a volume of less
than shows irregular translational motion, whereas
intermediate-sized droplets of show vectorial motion. When
the volume is above , the droplet splits into smaller drops.
These experimental results regarding mode selection are interpreted in terms of
the wave number selection depending on the droplet volume.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Quantifying properties of ICM inhomogeneities
We present a new method to identify and characterize the structure of the
intracluster medium (ICM) in simulated galaxy clusters. The method uses the
median of gas properties, such as density and pressure, which we show to be
very robust to the presence of gas inhomogeneities. In particular, we show that
the radial profiles of median gas properties are smooth and do not exhibit
fluctuations at locations of massive clumps in contrast to mean and mode
properties. It is shown that distribution of gas properties in a given radial
shell can be well described by a log-normal PDF and a tail. The former
corresponds to a nearly hydrostatic bulk component, accounting for ~99% of the
volume, while the tail corresponds to high density inhomogeneities. We show
that this results in a simple and robust separation of the diffuse and clumpy
components of the ICM. The FWHM of the density distribution grows with radius
and varies from ~0.15 dex in cluster centre to ~0.5 dex at 2r_500 in relaxed
clusters. The small scatter in the width between relaxed clusters suggests that
the degree of inhomogeneity is a robust characteristic of the ICM. It broadly
agrees with the amplitude of density perturbations in the Coma cluster. We
discuss the origin of ICM density variations in spherical shells and show that
less than 20% of the width can be attributed to the triaxiality of the cluster
gravitational potential. As a link to X-ray observations of real clusters we
evaluated the ICM clumping factor with and without high density
inhomogeneities. We argue that these two cases represent upper and lower limits
on the departure of the observed X-ray emissivity from the median value. We
find that the typical value of the clumping factor in the bulk component of
relaxed clusters varies from ~1.1-1.2 at r_500 up to ~1.3-1.4 at r_200, in
broad agreement with recent observations.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure, accepted to MNRA
Determination of nuclear parton distribution functions and their uncertainties at next-to-leading order
Nuclear parton distribution functions (NPDFs) are determined by global
analyses of experimental data on structure-function ratios F_2^A/F_2^{A'} and
Drell-Yan cross-section ratios \sigma_{DY}^A/\sigma_{DY}^{A'}. The analyses are
done in the leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) of running
coupling constant \alpha_s. Uncertainties of the NPDFs are estimated in both LO
and NLO for finding possible NLO improvement. Valence-quark distributions are
well determined, and antiquark distributions are also determined at x<0.1.
However, the antiquark distributions have large uncertainties at x>0.2. Gluon
modifications cannot be fixed at this stage. Although the advantage of the NLO
analysis, in comparison with the LO one, is generally the sensitivity to the
gluon distributions, gluon uncertainties are almost the same in the LO and NLO.
It is because current scaling-violation data are not accurate enough to
determine precise nuclear gluon distributions. Modifications of the PDFs in the
deuteron are also discussed by including data on the proton-deuteron ratio
F_2^D/F_2^p in the analysis. A code is provided for calculating the NPDFs and
their uncertainties at given x and Q^2 in the LO and NLO.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 22 eps files, to appear in PRC. A code for
calculating our nuclear parton distribution functions and their uncertainties
can be obtained from http://research.kek.jp/people/kumanos/nuclp.htm
Calibration of the galaxy cluster M_500-Y_X relation with XMM-Newton
The quantity Y_ X, the product of the X-ray temperature T_ X and gas mass M_
g, has recently been proposed as a robust low-scatter mass indicator for galaxy
clusters. Using precise measurements from XMM-Newton data of a sample of 10
relaxed nearby clusters, spanning a Y_ X range of 10^13 -10^15 M_sun keV, we
investigate the M_500-Y_ X relation. The M_500 - Y_ X data exhibit a power law
relation with slope alpha=0.548 \pm 0.027, close to the self-similar value
(3/5) and independent of the mass range considered. However, the normalisation
is \sim 20% below the prediction from numerical simulations including cooling
and galaxy feedback. We discuss two effects that could contribute to the
normalisation offset: an underestimate of the true mass due to the HE
assumption used in X-ray mass estimates, and an underestimate of the hot gas
mass fraction in the simulations. A comparison of the functional form and
scatter of the relations between various observables and the mass suggest that
Y_ X may indeed be a better mass proxy than T_ X or M_g,500.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Analysis of electron-positron momentum spectra of metallic alloys as supported by first-principles calculations
Electron-positron momentum distributions measured by the coincidence Doppler
broadening method can be used in the chemical analysis of the annihilation
environment, typically a vacancy-impurity complex in a solid. In the present
work, we study possibilities for a quantitative analysis, i.e., for
distinguishing the average numbers of different atomic species around the
defect. First-principles electronic structure calculations self-consistently
determining electron and positron densities and ion positions are performed for
vacancy-solute complexes in Al-Cu, Al-Mg-Cu, and Al-Mg-Cu-Ag alloys. The
ensuing simulated coincidence Doppler broadening spectra are compared with
measured ones for defect identification. A linear fitting procedure, which uses
the spectra for positrons trapped at vacancies in pure constituent metals as
components, has previously been employed to find the relative percentages of
different atomic species around the vacancy [A. Somoza et al. Phys. Rev. B 65,
094107 (2002)]. We test the reliability of the procedure by the help of
first-principles results for vacancy-solute complexes and vacancies in
constituent metals.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B on September 19 2006. Revised version
submitted on November 8 2006. Published on February 14 200
The relation between gas density and velocity power spectra in galaxy clusters: qualitative treatment and cosmological simulations
We address the problem of evaluating the power spectrum of the velocity field
of the ICM using only information on the plasma density fluctuations, which can
be measured today by Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories. We argue that for
relaxed clusters there is a linear relation between the rms density and
velocity fluctuations across a range of scales, from the largest ones, where
motions are dominated by buoyancy, down to small, turbulent scales:
, where
is the spectral amplitude of the density perturbations at wave number ,
is the mean square component of the velocity field,
is the sound speed, and is a dimensionless constant of order unity.
Using cosmological simulations of relaxed galaxy clusters, we calibrate this
relation and find . We argue that this value is set at
large scales by buoyancy physics, while at small scales the density and
velocity power spectra are proportional because the former are a passive scalar
advected by the latter. This opens an interesting possibility to use gas
density power spectra as a proxy for the velocity power spectra in relaxed
clusters, across a wide range of scales.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter
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