11,337 research outputs found
Mass function of haloes: scale invariant models
Press-Schechter theory gives a simple, approximate functional form of the
mass function of dark matter haloes. Sheth and Tormen (ST) refined this mass
function to give an improved analytical fit to results of N-body simulations.
These forms of the halo mass function are universal (independent of cosmology
and power spectrum) when scaled in suitable variables. Using large suites of
LCDM N-body simulations, studies in the last few years have shown that this
universality is only approximate. We explore whether some of the deviations
from universality can be attributed to the power spectrum by computing the mass
function in N-body simulations of various scale-free models in an Einstein-de
Sitter cosmology. This choice of cosmology does not introduce any scale into
the problem. These models have the advantage of being self-similar, hence
stringent checks can be imposed while running these simulations. This set of
numerical experiments is designed to isolate any power spectrum dependent
departures from universality of mass functions. We show explicitly that the
best fit ST parameters have a clear dependence on power spectrum. Our results
also indicate that an improved analytical theory with more parameters is
required in order to provide better fits to the mass function.Comment: 8 pages, four figure
Deep narrow band imagery of the diffuse ISM in M33
Very deep narrow band images were obtained for several fields in the local group spiral galaxy M33 using a wide field reimaging Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera on the 1.5 m telescope at Palomar Observatory. The reimaging system uses a 306 mm collimator and a 58 mm camera lens to put a 16 minute by 16 minute field onto a Texas Instruments 800 x 800 pixel CCD at a resolution of 1.2 arcseconds pixel (-1). The overall system is f/1.65. Images were obtained in the light of H alpha (S II) lambda lambda 6717, 6731, (O III) lambda 5007, and line-free continuum bands 100A wide, centered at 6450A and 5100A. Assuming a distance of 600 kpc to M33 (Humphreys 1980, Ap. J., 241, 587), this corresponds to a linear scale of 3.5 pc pixel (-1), and a field size of 2.8 kpc x 2.8 kpc. Researchers discuss the H alpha imagery of a field centered approx. equal to 8 minutes NE of the nucleus, including the supergiant HII region complex NGC 604. Two 2000 second H alpha images and two 300 second red continuum images were obtained of two slightly offset fields. The fields were offset to allow for discrimination between real emission and possible artifacts in the images. All images were resampled to align them with one of the H alpha frames. The continuum images were normalized to the line images using the results of aperture photometry on a grid of stars in the field, then the rescaled continuum data were directly subtracted from the line data
J0041+3224: a new double-double radio galaxy
We report the discovery of a double-double radio galaxy (DDRG), J0041+3224,
with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and subsequent high-frequency
observations with the Very Large Array (VLA). The inner and outer doubles are
aligned within about 4 deg and are reasonably collinear with the parent optical
galaxy. The outer double has a steeper radio spectrum compared with the inner
one. Using an estimated redshift of 0.45, the projected linear sizes of the
outer and inner doubles are 969 and 171 kpc respectively. The time scale of
interruption of jet activity has been estimated to be about 20 Myr, similar to
other known DDRGs. We have compiled a sample of known DDRGs, and have
re-examined the inverse correlation between the ratio of the luminosities of
the outer to the inner double and the size of the inner double, l_{in}. Unlike
the other DDRGs with l_{in} larger than about 50 kpc, the inner double of
J0041+3224 is marginally more luminous than the outer one. The two DDRGs with
l_{in} less than about a few kpc have a more luminous inner double than the
outer one, possibly due to a higher efficiency of conversion of beam energy as
the jets propagate through the dense interstellar medium. We have examined the
symmetry parameters and find that the inner doubles appear to be more
asymmetric in both its armlength and flux density ratios compared with the
outer doubles, although they appear marginally more collinear with the core
than the outer double. We discuss briefly possible implications of these
trends.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 9 pages, 10 figure
Carbon nanotubes for stabilization of nanostructured lipid particles
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are increasingly studied for innovative biotechnological applications particularly where they are combined with essential biological materials like lipids. Lipids have been used earlier for enhancing the dispersibility of CNTs in aqueous solutions. Here we report a novel application of CNTs for stabilization of internally self-assembled nanostructured lipid particles of 2–5 μm size. Single-walled (pristine) as well as –OH and –COOH functionalized multi-walled CNTs were employed to produce nanostructured emulsions which stayed stable for months and could be re-dispersed after complete dehydration. Concentrations of CNTs employed for stabilization were very low; moreover CNTs were well-decorated with lipid molecules. These features contribute towards reducing their toxicity and improving biocompatibility for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Our approach paves the way for future development of combination therapies employing both CNTs and nanostructured lipid self-assembly together as carriers of different drugs
An Analysis of the Statistics of the Hubble Space Telescope Kuiper Belt Object Search
We calculate statistical limits to the detection of Kuiper belt objects in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data of Cochran et al., in which they report the discovery of a population of Halley-sized objects in Pluto-like orbits. Detection of a population of faint objects in these data is limited by the number of false objects that appear owing only to random noise; the number of real objects must exceed the uncertainty in the number of these false objects for the population to be observable. We determine the number of false objects expected owing to random noise in the data of Cochran et al. by measuring the pixel-to-pixel noise level in the raw HST data and propagating this noise through the detection method employed by Cochran et al. We find that the uncertainty in the number of false objects exceeds by 2 orders of magnitude the reported number of objects detected by Cochran et al. The detection of such a population of Halley-sized Kuiper belt objects with these data is therefore not possible
The interstellar halo of spiral galaxies: NGC 891
Researchers have detected the Warm Ionized Medium (WIM) phase in the galaxy NGC 891. They found that the radial distribution of the WIM follows the molecular or young star distribution - an expected dependence. The amount of the WIM in this galaxy exceeds that in our Galaxy. The major surprize is the large thickness of the WIM phase - about 9 kpc instead 3 kpc as in our Galaxy. Clearly, this is the most significant result of the observations. The presence of low ionization gas at high z as well as at large galactocentric radii (where young stars are rare) is an important clue to the origin of the halo and observations such as the one reported here provide important data on this crucial question. In particular, the ionization of gas at high absolute z implies that either the UV photons manage to escape from the disk of the galaxy or that the extragalactic UV background plays an important role. The bulk of the WIM in spiral galaxies is a result of star-formation activity and thus these results can be understood by invoking a high star formation rate in NGC 891. Only the concerted action of supernovae can get the gas to the large z-heights as is observed in this galaxy. Support for this view comes from our detection of many worms i.e., bits and pieces of supershells in the form of kilo-parsec long vertical filaments. Researchers also saw a 600-pc size supershell located nearly one kpc above the plane of the galaxy
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