Gravitational Lens Time Delays in CDM

In standard CDM halo models, the time delay of a gravitational lens is determined by the cold baryon mass fraction, f, of the visible galaxy relative to the overall halo. The observed time delays in PG1115+080, SBS1520+530, B1600+434 and HE2149-2745 give Hubble constants consistent with the HST Key Project value of H0=72+/-8 km/s Mpc only if f>0.2 (1-sided 68% confidence), which is larger than the upper bound of fmax=Omega_b/Omega_0=0.15+/-0.05 estimated from the CMB. If all available baryons cool and f=fmax then the time delays imply H0=65+/-6 km/s Mpc (95% confidence). If local inventories of cold baryons, f=0.013/h70, are correct, then H0=52+/-6 km/s Mpc and the halo parameters closely match isothermal mass models. Isothermal models are also consistent with strong and weak lens studies, stellar dynamics and X-ray observations on these scales, while significantly more centrally concentrated models are not. There is a a conflict between gravitational lens time delays, the local distance scale and standard CDM halo models.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 22 pages, 7 figure

Controlling skyrmion bubble confinement by dipolar interactions

Large skyrmion bubbles in confined geometries of various sizes and shapes are investigated, typically in the range of several micrometers. Two fundamentally different cases are studied to address the role of dipole-dipole interactions: (I) when there is no magnetic material present outside the small geometries and (II) when the geometries are embedded in films with a uniform magnetization. It is found that the preferential position of the skyrmion bubbles can be controlled by the geometrical shape, which turns out to be a stronger influence than local variations in material parameters. In addition, independent switching of the direction of the magnetization outside the small geometries can be used to further manipulate these preferential positions, in particular with respect to the edges. We show by numerical calculations that the observed interactions between the skyrmion bubbles and structure edge including the overall positioning of the bubbles are fully controlled by dipole-dipole interactions

Hierarchical Bayesian inference of the Initial Mass Function in Composite Stellar Populations

The initial mass function (IMF) is a key ingredient in many studies of galaxy formation and evolution. Although the IMF is often assumed to be universal, there is continuing evidence that it is not universal. Spectroscopic studies that derive the IMF of the unresolved stellar populations of a galaxy often assume that this spectrum can be described by a single stellar population (SSP). To alleviate these limitations, in this paper we have developed a unique hierarchical Bayesian framework for modelling composite stellar populations (CSPs). Within this framework we use a parameterized IMF prior to regulate a direct inference of the IMF. We use this new framework to determine the number of SSPs that is required to fit a set of realistic CSP mock spectra. The CSP mock spectra that we use are based on semi-analytic models and have an IMF that varies as a function of stellar velocity dispersion of the galaxy. Our results suggest that using a single SSP biases the determination of the IMF slope to a higher value than the true slope, although the trend with stellar velocity dispersion is overall recovered. If we include more SSPs in the fit, the Bayesian evidence increases significantly and the inferred IMF slopes of our mock spectra converge, within the errors, to their true values. Most of the bias is already removed by using two SSPs instead of one. We show that we can reconstruct the variable IMF of our mock spectra for signal-to-noise ratios exceeding $\sim$75.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages, 8 figure

Precession-torque-driven domain-wall motion in out-of-plane materials

Domain-wall (DW) motion in magnetic nanostrips is intensively studied, in particular because of the possible applications in data storage. In this work, we will investigate a novel method of DW motion using magnetic field pulses, with the precession torque as the driving mechanism. We use a one dimensional (1D) model to show that it is possible to drive DWs in out-of-plane materials using the precession torque, and we identify the key parameters that influence this motion. Because the DW moves back to its initial position at the end of the field pulse, thereby severely complicating direct detection of the DW motion, depinning experiments are used to indirectly observe the effect of the precession torque. The 1D model is extended to include an energy landscape in order to predict the influence of the precession torque in the depinning experiments. Although preliminary experiments did not yet show an effect of the precession torque, our calculations indicate that depinning experiments can be used to demonstrate this novel method of DW motion in out-of-plane materials, which even allows for coherent motion of multiple domains when the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is taken into account

The X-shooter Lens Survey - II. Sample presentation and spatially resolved kinematics

We present the X-shooter Lens Survey (XLENS) data. The main goal of XLENS is to disentangle the stellar and dark matter content of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs), through combined strong gravitational lensing, dynamics and spectroscopic stellar population studies. The sample consists of 11 lens galaxies covering the redshift range from $0.1$ to $0.45$ and having stellar velocity dispersions between $250$ and $380\,\mathrm{km}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$. All galaxies have multi-band, high-quality HST imaging. We have obtained long-slit spectra of the lens galaxies with X-shooter on the VLT. We are able to disentangle the dark and luminous mass components by combining lensing and extended kinematics data-sets, and we are also able to precisely constrain stellar mass-to-light ratios and infer the value of the low-mass cut-off of the IMF, by adding spectroscopic stellar population information. Our goal is to correlate these IMF parameters with ETG masses and investigate the relation between baryonic and non-baryonic matter during the mass assembly and structure formation processes. In this paper we provide an overview of the survey, highlighting its scientific motivations, main goals and techniques. We present the current sample, briefly describing the data reduction and analysis process, and we present the first results on spatially resolved kinematics.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Spin motive forces due to magnetic vortices and domain walls

We study spin motive forces, i.e, spin-dependent forces, and voltages induced by time-dependent magnetization textures, for moving magnetic vortices and domain walls. First, we consider the voltage generated by a one-dimensional field-driven domain wall. Next, we perform detailed calculations on field-driven vortex domain walls. We find that the results for the voltage as a function of magnetic field differ between the one-dimensional and vortex domain wall. For the experimentally relevant case of a vortex domain wall, the dependence of voltage on field around Walker breakdown depends qualitatively on the ratio of the so-called $\beta$-parameter to the Gilbert damping constant, and thus provides a way to determine this ratio experimentally. We also consider vortices on a magnetic disk in the presence of an AC magnetic field. In this case, the phase difference between field and voltage on the edge is determined by the $\beta$ parameter, providing another experimental method to determine this quantity.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PR

Anomalous direction for skyrmion bubble motion

Magnetic skyrmions are localized topological excitations that behave as particles and can be mobile, with great potential for novel data storage devices. In this work, the current-induced dynamics of large skyrmion bubbles is studied. When skyrmion motion in the direction opposite to the electron flow is observed, this is usually interpreted as a perpendicular spin current generated by the spin Hall effect exerting a torque on the chiral N\'{e}el skyrmion. By designing samples in which the direction of the net generated spin current can be carefully controlled, we surprisingly show that skyrmion motion is always against the electron flow, irrespective of the net vertical spin-current direction. We find that a negative bulk spin-transfer torque is the most plausible explanation for the observed results, which is qualitatively justified by a simple model that captures the essential behaviour. These findings demonstrate that claims about the skyrmion chirality based on their current-induced motion should be taken with great caution

Lens Galaxy Properties of SBS1520+530: Insights from Keck Spectroscopy and AO Imaging

We report on an investigation of the SBS 1520+530 gravitational lens system and its environment using archival HST imaging, Keck spectroscopic data, and Keck adaptive-optics imaging. The AO imaging has allowed us to fix the lens galaxy properties with a high degree of precision when performing the lens modeling, and the data indicate that the lens has an elliptical morphology and perhaps a disk. The new spectroscopic data suggest that previous determinations of the lens redshift may be incorrect, and we report an updated, though inconclusive, value z_lens = 0.761. We have also spectroscopically confirmed the existence of several galaxy groups at approximately the redshift of the lens system. We create new models of the lens system that explicitly account for the environment of the lens, and we also include improved constraints on the lensing galaxy from our adaptive-optics imaging. Lens models created with these new data can be well-fit with a steeper than isothermal mass slope (alpha = 2.29, with the density proportional to r^-alpha) if H_0 is fixed at 72 km/s/Mpc; isothermal models require H_0 ~ 50 km/s/Mpc. The steepened profile may indicate that the lens is in a transient perturbed state caused by interactions with a nearby galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap