17,568 research outputs found
A Multi-coloured survey of NGC 253 with XMM-Newton
There is a large body of work that has used the excellent Chandra
observations of nearby galaxies with neglible low mass X-ray binary (LMXB)
populations. This has culminated in a ``Universal'' X-ray luminosity function
(XLF) for high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). However, a number of methods have
been used to convert from source intensities to luminosities when creating
these XLFs. We have taken advantage of the XMM-Newton observations of the
nearby starbursting spiral galaxy NGC 253 to test some of these methods. We
find the luminosities derived from these various methods to vary by a factor of
3. We also find the most influential factor in the conversion from
intensity to luminosity to be the absorption. We therefore conclude that a more
consistent approach is required for determining the true Universal XLF for
HMXBs. Ideally, this would involve individual spectral fitting of each X-ray
source. Certainly, the line-of-sight absorption should be determined from the
observations rather than assuming Galactic absorption. We find the best
approach for obtaining an XLF from low-count data to be the splitting of the
X-ray sources into two or more intensity intervals, and obtaining a conversion
from intensity to flux for each group from spectral modelling of the summed
spectrum of that group.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "X-rays from Nearby Galaxies", 4-7
Septembeer 2007, 4 page
Benchmark experiments with global climate models applicable to extra-solar gas giant planets in the shallow atmosphere approximation
The growing field of exoplanetary atmospheric modelling has seen little work on standardised benchmark tests for its models, limiting understanding of the dependence of results on specific models and conditions. With spatially resolved observations as yet difficult to obtain, such a test is invaluable. Although an intercomparison test for models of tidally locked gas giant planets has previously been suggested and carried out, the data provided were limited in terms of comparability. Here, the shallow PUMA model is subjected to such a test, and detailed statistics produced to facilitate comparison, with both time means and the associated standard deviations displayed, removing the time dependence and providing a measure of the variability. Model runs have been analysed to determine the variability between resolutions, and the effect of resolution on the energy spectra studied. Superrotation is a robust and reproducible feature at all resolutions
Dilaton dominance in the early Universe dilutes Dark Matter relic abundances
The role of the dilaton field and its coupling to matter may result to a
dilution of Dark Matter (DM) relic densities. This is to be contrasted with
quintessence scenarios in which relic densities are augmented, due to
modification of the expansion rate, since Universe is not radiation dominated
at DM decoupling. Dilaton field, besides this, affects relic densities through
its coupling to dust which tends to decrease relic abundances. Thus two
separate mechanisms compete each other resulting, in general, to a decrease of
the relic density. This feature may be welcome and can rescue the situation if
Direct Dark Matter experiments point towards small neutralino-nucleon cross
sections, implying small neutralino annihilation rates and hence large relic
densities, at least in the popular supersymmetric scenarios. In the presence of
a diluting mechanism both experimental constraints can be met. The role of the
dilaton for this mechanism has been studied in the context of the non-critical
string theory but in this work we follow a rather general approach assuming
that the dilaton dominates only at early eras long before Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, 4 figures: Comments and references added, version to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Elliptic flow of thermal photons and dileptons
In this talk we describe the recently discovered rich phenomenology of
elliptic flow of electromagnetic probes of the hot matter created in
relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Using a hydrodynamic model for the
space-time dynamics of the collision fireball created in Au+Au collisions at
RHIC, we compute the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of thermal
photons and dileptons. These observables are shown to provide differential
windows into various stages of the fireball expansion.Comment: 8 pages, including 9 figures. Invited talk at the Hard Probes 2006
Conference (Asilomar, June 9-16, 2006), to appear in the Proceedings
(Elsevier
Consequences of energy conservation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
Complete characterization of particle production and emission in relativistic
heavy-ion collisions is in general not feasible experimentally. This work
demonstrates, however, that the availability of essentially complete
pseudorapidity distributions for charged particles allows for a reliable
estimate of the average transverse momenta and energy of emitted particles by
requiring energy conservation in the process. The results of such an analysis
for Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}}= 130 and 200 GeV are compared with
measurements of mean-p_T and mean-E_T in regions where such measurements are
available. The mean-p_T dependence on pseudorapidity for Au+Au collisions at
130 and 200 GeV is given for different collision centralities.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Asymmetric Dark Matter and Effective Operators
In order to annihilate in the early Universe to levels well below the
measured dark matter density, asymmetric dark matter must possess large
couplings to the Standard Model. In this paper, we consider effective operators
which allow asymmetric dark matter to annihilate into quarks. In addition to a
bound from requiring sufficient annihilation, the energy scale of such
operators can be constrained by limits from direct detection and monojet
searches at colliders. We show that the allowed parameter space for these
operators is highly constrained, leading to non-trivial requirements that any
model of asymmetric dark matter must satisfy.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. V2 replacement: Citations added. Shading error in
Fig. 1 (L_FV panel) corrected. Addition of direct detection bounds on m_chi
<5 GeV added, minor alterations in text to reflect these change
Bulk viscosity of a gas of neutrinos and coupled scalar particles, in the era of recombination
Bulk viscosity may serve to damp sound waves in a system of neutrinos coupled
to very light scalar particles, in the era after normal neutrino decoupling but
before recombination. We calculate the bulk viscosity parameter in a minimal
scheme involving the coupling of the two systems. We add some remarks on the
bulk viscosity of a system of fully ionized hydrogen plus photons.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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