532 research outputs found
New Cosmology with Clusters of Galaxies
The review summarizes present and future applications of galaxy clusters to
cosmology with emphasis on nearby X-ray clusters. The discussion includes the
density of dark matter, the normalization of the matter power spectrum,
neutrino masses, and especially the equation of state of the dark energy, the
interaction between dark energy and ordinary matter, gravitational holography,
and the effects of extra-dimensions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, invited review at the joint conference of the
Czech Astron. Society and the Astron. Gesell. To appear in Reviews in Modern
Astronomy 18 on "From Cosmolgical Structures to the Milky Way", ed. S. Roese
Detection of X-ray Clusters of Galaxies by Matching RASS Photons and SDSS Galaxies within GAVO
A new method for a simultaneous search for clusters of galaxies in X-ray
photon maps and optical galaxy maps is described. The merging of X-ray and
optical data improves the source identification so that a large amount of
telescope time for spectroscopic follow-up can be saved. The method appears
thus ideally suited for the analysis of the recently proposed wide-angle X-ray
missions like DUO and ROSITA. As a first application, clusters are extracted
from the 3rd version of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and the Early Date Release of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The time-consuming computations are
performed within the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO). On a test
area of 140 square degrees, 75 X-ray clusters are detected down to an X-ray
flux limit of in the
ROSAT energy band 0.1-2.4 keV. The clusters have redshifts . The
survey thus fills the gap between traditional large-area X-ray surveys and
serendipitous X-ray cluster searches based on pointed observations, and has the
potential to yield about 4,000 X-ray clusters after completion of SDSS.Comment: 19 pages, low-resolution figures, accepted for publication in
Astronomy and Astrophysic
The X-ray Luminosity - Velocity Dispersion relation in the REFLEX Cluster Survey
We present an estimate of the bolometric X-ray luminosity - velocity
dispersion L_x - sigma_v relation measured from a new, large and homogeneous
sample of 171 low redshift, X-ray selected galaxy clusters. The linear fitting
of log(L_x) - log(sigma_v) gives L_x = 10^{32.72 \pm 0.08} sigma^{4.1 \pm
0.3}_v erg s^{-1} h^{-2}_{50}. Furthermore, a study of 54 clusters, for which
the X-ray temperature of the intracluster medium T is available, allows us to
explore two other scaling relations, L_x -T and sigma_v -T. From this sample we
obtain L_x \propto T^{3.1 \pm 0.2} and sigma_v \propto T^{1.00 \pm 0.16}, which
are fully consistent with the above result for the L_x-sigma_v. The slopes of
L_x -T and sigma_v -T are incompatible with the values predicted by
self-similarity (L_x \propto T^{2} \propto \sigma_v^4), thus suggesting the
presence of non-gravitational energy sources heating up the intracluster
medium, in addition to the gravitational collapse, in the early stages of
cluster formation. On the other hand, the result on log(L_x) - log(sigma_v)
supports the self-similar model.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
Probing Turbulence in the Coma Galaxy Cluster
Spatially-resolved gas pressure maps of the Coma galaxy cluster are obtained
from a mosaic of XMM-Newton observations in the scale range between a
resolution of 20 kpc and an extent of 2.8 Mpc. A Fourier analysis of the data
reveals the presence of a scale-invariant pressure fluctuation spectrum in the
range between 40 and 90 kpc and is found to be well described by a projected
Kolmogorov/Oboukhov-type turbulence spectrum. Deprojection and integration of
the spectrum yields the lower limit of percent of the total
intracluster medium pressure in turbulent form. The results also provide
observational constraints on the viscosity of the gas.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures (low resolution), version accepted by Astron.
Astrophy
Non-Markov Excursion Set Model of Dark Matter Halo Abundances
The excursion set model provides a convenient theoretical framework to derive
dark matter halo abundances. This paper generalizes the model by introducing a
more realistic merging and collapse process. A new parameter regulates the
influence of the environment and thus the coherence (non-Markovianity) of the
merging and the collapse of individual mass shells. The model mass function
also includes the effects of an ellipsoidal collapse. Analytic approximations
of the halo mass function are derived for scale-invariant power spectra with
the slopes . The mass function can be compared with the
results obtained from the `Hubble volume' simulations. A significant detection
of non-Markovian effects is found for an assumed accuracy of the simulated mass
function of 10%.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Diffuse radio emission in a REFLEX cluster
Deep Very Large Array radio observations are presented for the REFLEX
clusters RXCJ0437.1+0043 and RXCJ1314.4-2515. They are at similar distance and
show similar X-ray luminosity, but they are quite different in X-ray structure.
Indeed RXCJ0437.1+0043 is regular and relaxed, whereas RXCJ1314.4-2515 is
characterized by substructure and possible merging processes. The radio images
reveal no diffuse emission in RXCJ0437.1+0043, and a complex diffuse structure
in RXCJ1314.4-2515. The diffuse source in the latter cluster consists of a
central radio halo which extends to the West toward the cluster periphery and
bends to the North to form a possible relic. Another extended source is
detected in the eastern cluster peripheral region. Although there could be
plausible optical identifications for this source, it might also be a relic
candidate owing to its very steep spectrum. The present results confirm the
tight link between diffuse cluster radio sources and cluster merger processes.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. Figures here have been degraded to
reduce their size. A version with full resolution figures is available at
http://www.ira.cnr.it/~lferetti/OUTGOING/papREFLEX.ps.g
Fundamental activity constraints lead to specific interpretations of the connectome
The continuous integration of experimental data into coherent models of the
brain is an increasing challenge of modern neuroscience. Such models provide a
bridge between structure and activity, and identify the mechanisms giving rise
to experimental observations. Nevertheless, structurally realistic network
models of spiking neurons are necessarily underconstrained even if experimental
data on brain connectivity are incorporated to the best of our knowledge.
Guided by physiological observations, any model must therefore explore the
parameter ranges within the uncertainty of the data. Based on simulation
results alone, however, the mechanisms underlying stable and physiologically
realistic activity often remain obscure. We here employ a mean-field reduction
of the dynamics, which allows us to include activity constraints into the
process of model construction. We shape the phase space of a multi-scale
network model of the vision-related areas of macaque cortex by systematically
refining its connectivity. Fundamental constraints on the activity, i.e.,
prohibiting quiescence and requiring global stability, prove sufficient to
obtain realistic layer- and area-specific activity. Only small adaptations of
the structure are required, showing that the network operates close to an
instability. The procedure identifies components of the network critical to its
collective dynamics and creates hypotheses for structural data and future
experiments. The method can be applied to networks involving any neuron model
with a known gain function.Comment: J. Schuecker and M. Schmidt contributed equally to this wor
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