2,542 research outputs found
MOND and Cosmology
I review various ideas on MOND cosmology and structure formation beginning
with non-relativistic models in analogy with Newtonian cosmology. I discuss
relativistic MOND cosmology in the context of Bekenstein's theory and propose
an alternative biscalar effective theory of MOND in which the acceleration
parameter is identified with the cosmic time derivative of a matter coupling
scalar field. Cosmic CDM appears in this theory as scalar field oscillations of
the auxiliary "coupling strength" field.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of IAP05 in
Paris: Mass Profiles and Shapes of Cosmological Structures, G. Mamon, F.
Combes, C. Deffayet and B. Fort (eds), (EDP-Sciences 2005
A SINFONI view of circum-nuclear star-forming rings in spiral galaxies
We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) SINFONI integral-field observations
of the circumnuclear star formation rings in five nearby spiral galaxies. We
made use of the relative intensities of different emission lines (i.e. [FeII],
HeI, Brg) to age date the stellar clusters present along the rings. This
qualitative, yet robust, method allows us to discriminate between two distinct
scenarios that describe how star formation progresses along the rings. Our
findings favour a model where star formation is triggered predominantly at the
intersection between the bar major axis and the inner Lindblad resonance and
then passively evolves as the clusters rotate around the ring ('Pearls on a
string' scenario), although models of stochastically distributed star formation
('Popcorn' model) cannot be completely ruled out.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the Proceedings of the IAU
Symposium 245, "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges", held at Oxford,
U.K., July 2007, Eds. M. Bureau, E. Athanassoula, B. Barbu
On compressive radial tidal forces
Radial tidal forces can be compressive instead of disruptive, a possibility
that is frequently overlooked in high level physics courses. For example,
radial tidal compression can emerge in extended stellar systems containing a
smaller stellar cluster. For particular conditions the tidal field produced by
this extended mass distribution can exert on the cluster it contains
compressive effects instead of the common disruptive forces. This interesting
aspect of gravity can be derived from standard relations given in many
textbooks and introductory courses in astronomy and can serve as an opportunity
to look closer at some aspects of gravitational physics, stellar dynamics, and
differential geometry. The existence of compressive tides at the center of huge
stellar systems might suggest new evolutionary scenarios for the formation of
stars and primordial galactic formation processes.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure
Atomic Hydrogen Properties of AGN Host Galaxies: HI in 16 NUclei of GAlaxies (NUGA) Sources
We present a comprehensive spectroscopic imaging survey of the distribution
and kinematics of atomic hydrogen (HI) in 16 nearby spiral galaxies hosting low
luminosity AGN, observed with high spectral and spatial resolution (resolution:
~20 arcsec, 5 km/s) using the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA). The sample contains
a range of nuclear types, ranging from Seyfert to star-forming nuclei and was
originally selected for the NUclei of GAlaxies project (NUGA) - a spectrally
and spatially resolved interferometric survey of gas dynamics in nearby
galaxies designed to identify the fueling mechanisms of AGN and the relation to
host galaxy evolution. Here we investigate the relationship between the HI
properties of these galaxies, their environment, their stellar distribution and
their AGN type. The large-scale HI morphology of each galaxy is classified as
ringed, spiral, or centrally concentrated; comparison of the resulting
morphological classification with AGN type reveals that ring structures are
significantly more common in LINER than in Seyfert host galaxies, suggesting a
time evolution of the AGN activity together with the redistribution of the
neutral gas. Dynamically disturbed HI disks are also more prevalent in LINER
host galaxies than in Seyfert host galaxies. While several galaxies are
surrounded by companions (some with associated HI emission), there is no
correlation between the presence of companions and the AGN type
(Seyfert/LINER).Comment: 54 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in AJ. The
full-resolution version is available at
http://www.mpia.de/homes/haan/research.htm
Polar ring galaxies as tests of gravity
Polar ring galaxies are ideal objects with which to study the
three-dimensional shapes of galactic gravitational potentials since two
rotation curves can be measured in two perpendicular planes. Observational
studies have uncovered systematically larger rotation velocities in the
extended polar rings than in the associated host galaxies. In the dark matter
context, this can only be explained through dark halos that are systematically
flattened along the polar rings. Here, we point out that these objects can also
be used as very effective tests of gravity theories, such as those based on
Milgromian dynamics (MOND). We run a set of polar ring models using both
Milgromian and Newtonian dynamics to predict the expected shapes of the
rotation curves in both planes, varying the total mass of the system, the mass
of the ring with respect to the host, as well as the size of the hole at the
center of the ring. We find that Milgromian dynamics not only naturally leads
to rotation velocities being typically higher in the extended polar rings than
in the hosts, as would be the case in Newtonian dynamics without dark matter,
but that it also gets the shape and amplitude of velocities correct. Milgromian
dynamics thus adequately explains this particular property of polar ring
galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 8 Figures, 1 Table, Accepted for publication by MNRA
Characterization of a qubit Hamiltonian using adaptive measurements in a fixed basis
We investigate schemes for Hamiltonian parameter estimation of a two-level
system using repeated measurements in a fixed basis. The simplest (Fourier
based) schemes yield an estimate with a mean square error (MSE) that decreases
at best as a power law ~N^{-2} in the number of measurements N. By contrast, we
present numerical simulations indicating that an adaptive Bayesian algorithm,
where the time between measurements can be adjusted based on prior measurement
results, yields a MSE which appears to scale close to \exp(-0.3 N). That is,
measurements in a single fixed basis are sufficient to achieve exponential
scaling in N.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Published versio
A view of the narrow-line region in the infrared: active galactic nuclei with resolved fine-structure lines in the Spitzer archive
We queried the Spitzer archive for high-resolution observations with the
Infrared Spectrograph of optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) for
the purpose of identifying sources with resolved fine-structure lines that
would enable studies of the narrow-line region (NLR) at mid-infrared
wavelengths. By combining 298 Spitzer spectra with 6 Infrared Space Observatory
spectra, we present kinematic information of the NLR for 81 z<=0.3 AGN. We used
the [NeV], [OIV], [NeIII], and [SIV] lines, whose fluxes correlate well with
each other, to probe gas photoionized by the AGN. We found that the widths of
the lines are, on average, increasing with the ionization potential of the
species that emit them. No correlation of the line width with the critical
density of the corresponding transition was found. The velocity dispersion of
the gas, sigma, is systematically higher than that of the stars, sigma_*, in
the AGN host galaxy, and it scales with the mass of the central black hole,
M_BH. Further correlations between the line widths and luminosities L, and
between L and M_BH, are suggestive of a three dimensional plane connecting
log(M_BH) to a linear combination of log(sigma) and log(L). Such a plane can be
understood within the context of gas motions that are driven by AGN feedback
mechanisms, or virialized gas motions with a power-law dependence of the NLR
radius on the AGN luminosity. The M_BH estimates obtained for 35 type 2 AGN
from this plane are consistent with those obtained from the M_BH-sigma_*
relation.Comment: ApJ, revised to match the print versio
H\"older equicontinuity of the integrated density of states at weak disorder
H\"older continuity, , with
a constant independent of the disorder strength is proved for the
integrated density of states associated to a discrete random
operator consisting of a translation invariant hopping
matrix and i.i.d. single site potentials with an absolutely
continuous distribution, under a regularity assumption for the hopping term.Comment: 15 Pages, typos corrected, comments and ref. [1] added, theorems 3,4
combine
Simplicity of eigenvalues in the Anderson model
We give a simple, transparent, and intuitive proof that all eigenvalues of
the Anderson model in the region of localization are simple
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