We demonstrate spatial solitons via twin-beam second-harmonic generation in hexagonal lattices realized by poling lithium niobate planar waveguides. These simultons can be steered by acting on power, direction, and wavelength of the fundamental frequency input.
The baryonic acoustic signature in the large-scale clustering pattern of galaxies has been detected in the two-point correlation function. Its precise spatial scale has been forwarded as a rigid-rod ruler test for the space-time geometry, and hence as a probe for tracking the evolution of dark energy. Percent-level shifts in the measured position can bias such a test and erode its power to constrain cosmology. This paper addresses some of the systematic effects that might induce shifts; namely, nonlinear corrections from matter evolution, redshift space distortions, and biasing. We tackle these questions through analytic methods and through a large battery of numerical simulations, with total volume of the order ˜100[Gpc3h-3]. A toy-model calculation shows that if the nonlinear corrections simply smooth the acoustic peak, then this gives rise to an “apparent” shifting to smaller scales. However if tilts in the broadband power spectrum are induced then this gives rise to more pernicious “physical” shifts. Our numerical simulations show evidence of both: in real space and at z=0, for the dark matter we find percent-level shifts; for haloes the shifts depend on halo mass, with larger shifts being found for the most biased samples, up to 3%. From our analysis we find that physical shifts are greater than ˜0.4% at z=0 for a LCDM model with σ8=0.9. In redshift space these effects are exacerbated, but at higher redshifts are alleviated. We develop an analytical model to understand this, based on solutions to the pair conservation equation using characteristic curves. When combined with modeling of pairwise velocities the model reproduces the main trends found in the data. The model may also help to unbias the acoustic peak.
To gain deeper insight into the dynamics of complex quantum systems we need a quantum leap in computer simulations. We cannot translate quantum behaviour arising from superposition states or entanglement efficiently into the classical language of conventional computers. The solution to this problem, proposed in 1982 (ref. 1), is simulating the quantum behaviour of interest in a different quantum system where the interactions can be controlled and the outcome detected sufficiently well. Here we study the building blocks for simulating quantum spin Hamiltonians with trapped ions2. We experimentally simulate the adiabatic evolution of the smallest non-trivial spin system from paramagnetic into ferromagnetic order with a quantum magnetization for two spins of 98%. We prove that the transition is not driven by thermal fluctuations but is of quantum-mechanical origin (analogous to quantum fluctuations in quantum phase transitions3). We observe a final superposition state of the two degenerate spin configurations for the ferromagnetic order (|++> + |-->), corresponding to deterministic entanglement achieved with 88% fidelity. This method should allow for scaling to a higher number of coupled spins2, enabling implementation of simulations that are intractable on conventional computers.
Solitons propagating within a confining potential undergo momentum-dependent scattering and eventually escape for large excitations. We experimentally highlight this phenomenon in the presence of a nonperturbative nonlinear response using self-confined light beams in a reorientational medium.
We investigate parton-branching methods based on transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) parton distributions and matrix elements for the Monte Carlo simulation of multi-particle final states at high-energy colliders. We observe that recently measured angular correlations in ep final states with multiple hadronic jets probe QCD coherence effects in the space-like branching, associated with finite-angle gluon radiation from partons carrying small longitudinal momenta, and not included in standard shower generators. We present Monte Carlo calculations for azimuthal two-jet and three-jet distributions, for jet multiplicities and for correlations in the transverse-momentum imbalance between the leading jets. We discuss comparisons with current experimental multi-jet data, and implications of corrections to collinear-ordered showers for LHC final states.
We study the effect of primordial non-Gaussianity on the development of large-scale cosmic structure using high-resolution N-body simulations. In particular, we focus on the topological properties of the `cosmic web', quantitatively characterized by the Minkowski functionals (MFs), for models with quadratic non-linearities with different values of the usual non-Gaussianity parameter fNL. In the weakly non-linear regime (the amplitude of mass density fluctuations σ0 < 0.1), we find that analytic formulae derived from perturbation theory agree with the numerical results within a few per cent of the amplitude of each MF when |fNL| < 1000. In the non-linear regime, the detailed behaviour of the MFs as functions of threshold density deviates more strongly from the analytical curves, while the overall amplitude of the primordial non-Gaussian effect remains comparable to the perturbative prediction. When smaller-scale information is included, the influence of primordial non-Gaussianity becomes increasingly significant statistically due to decreasing sample variance. We find that the effect of the primordial non-Gaussianity with |fNL| = 50 is comparable to the sample variance of mass density fields with a volume of 0.125(h-1 Gpc)3 when they are smoothed by Gaussian filter at a scale of 5h-1Mpc. The detectability of this effect in actual galaxy surveys will strongly depend on residual uncertainties in cosmological parameters and galaxy biasing.
We present an analysis of the Minkowski Functionals (MFs) describing the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-yr temperature maps to place limits on possible levels of primordial non-Gaussianity. In particular, we apply perturbative formulae for the MFs to give constraints on the usual non-linear coupling constant fNL. The theoretical predictions are found to agree with the MFs of simulated cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps including the full effects of radiative transfer. The agreement is also very good even when the simulation maps include various observational artefacts, including the pixel window function, beam smearing, inhomogeneous noise and the survey mask. We accordingly find that these analytical formulae can be applied directly to observational measurements of fNL without relying on non-Gaussian simulations. Considering the bin-to-bin covariance of the MFs in WMAP in a chi-square analysis, we find that the primordial non-Gaussianity parameter is constrained to lie in the range -70 < fNL < 91 [95 per cent confidence level (C.L.)] using the Q + V + W co-added maps.
We present a compilation of measurements of the stellar mass density as a function of redshift. Using this stellar mass history we obtain a star formation history and compare it to the instantaneous star formation history. For z < 0.7 there is good agreement between the two star formation histories. At higher redshifts the instantaneous indicators suggest star formation rates larger than that implied by the evolution of the stellar mass density. This discrepancy peaks at z= 3 where instantaneous indicators suggest a star formation rate around 0.6 dex higher than those of the best fit to the stellar mass history. We discuss a variety of explanations for this inconsistency, such as inaccurate dust extinction corrections, incorrect measurements of stellar masses and a possible evolution of the stellar initial mass function.
The local stellar mass density is observed to be significantly lower than the value obtained from integrating the cosmic star formation history (SFH), assuming that all the stars formed with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF). Even other favoured IMFs, more successful in reconciling the observed z= 0 stellar mass density with that inferred from the SFH, have difficulties in reproducing the stellar mass density observed at higher redshift. In this study, we investigate to what extent this discrepancy can be alleviated for any universal power-law IMF. We find that an IMF with a high-mass slope shallower (2.15) than the Salpeter slope (2.35) reconciles the observed stellar mass density with the cosmic SFH, but only at low redshifts. At higher redshifts z > 0.5, we find that the observed stellar mass densities are systematically lower than predicted from the cosmic SFH, for any universal power-law IMF.
This chapter of the report of the “Flavor in the era of the LHC” Workshop discusses the theoretical, phenomenological and experimental issues related to flavor phenomena in the charged lepton sector and in flavor conserving CP-violating processes. We review the current experimental limits and the main theoretical models for the flavor structure of fundamental particles. We analyze the phenomenological consequences of the available data, setting constraints on explicit models beyond the standard model, presenting benchmarks for the discovery potential of forthcoming measurements both at the LHC and at low energy, and exploring options for possible future experiments.
A micrometer-scale ion trap, fabricated on a monolithic chip using semiconductor micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. A single 111Cd+ ion is confined, laser cooled, and the heating measured in an integrated radiofrequency trap etched from a doped gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterostructure. Single 111Cd+ qubit ions are confined in a radiofrequency linear ion trap on a semiconductor chip by applying a combination of static and oscillating electric potentials to integrated electrodes. The electrodes are lithographically patterned from a monolithic semiconductor substrate, eliminating the need for manual assembly and alignment of individual electrodes. The scaling of this structure to hundreds or thousands of electrodes is possible with existing semiconductor fabrication technology.
We present preliminary results on the morphological characterization of a new catalog of isolated galaxies obtained through an automated search in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 (SDSS DR5). 1600 isolated galaxy candidates were found in ≃ 1.4 strad of sky in the (SDSS DR5) photometry. Our selection criteria, including a refined version of that in Karachentseva (1973), use a stronger isolation based on available redshift information. A deep and uniformly observed sample of isolated galaxies is aimed for various purposes including (i) comparative studies of environmental effects, (ii) confronting model predictions of galaxy evolution and (iii) evaluating the change of galaxy properties with redshift.
We present a re-evaluation of the optical morphology for 549 galaxies from the Catalog of Isolated Galaxies in the Northern Hemisphere (CIG) that are available in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; DR6). Both the high resolution and high dynamic range of the SDSS images and our semiautomatic image processing scheme allow for a major quality and uniform morphological analysis. The processing scheme includes (1) sky-subtracted, cleaned, and logarithmic scaled g-band images, (2) filtered-enhanced versions of the images in (1), and (3) the corresponding red-green-blue (RGB) composed images available in the SDSS database. We propose an empirical method to distinguishing between E, S0, and Sa candidates through an additional analysis of (4) the surface brightness, position angle, ellipticity and A 4 B 4 coefficients of the Fourier series expansion profiles. An atlas of mosaics containing (1), (2), and (3) images for Sab-Sm/Irr types and (1), (2), (3), (4) images for E/S0/Sa types was produced and is available on the Web. The median type in the sample corresponds to Sbc, with 65% of the sample being of this type or later. A scarce population of early-type E (3.5%) and S0 (5%) galaxies amounting to 8.5% and a non-negligible 14% fraction of early-type (SaSab) spirals are identified. We compare our results with a previous reclassification of the CIG based on the digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey II images. We calculate also the gri absolute magnitudes corrected by Galactic and internal extinctions and present the g – i color distribution and the color-magnitude diagram. Among the spirals, we find tentative fractions of strong and suspected bars of 65.8% and of 33.3% of rings. A detailed image analysis of the E galaxies (18) allows us to find a richness of distinct substructure in their isophotal shape and also of morphological distortions. At least 78% of the E galaxies show some kind of morphological distortion (shells, dust lanes, diffuse halos, etc.), suggesting that these galaxies suffered late dry mergers. The isophotes of 42% (37%) of the E galaxies are boxy (disky). Among four blue Es, three are disky. Finally, we calculate the CAS (concentration, asymmetry and clumpiness) structural parameters in the ugriz bands for the entire sample. We analyze the loci of these galaxies in different projections of the CAS volume diagram and discuss some trends of the CAS parameters with the color band, as well as with the morphological type and the galaxy color.
We examine whether renormalization effects can cause Newton¿s constant to change dramatically with energy, perhaps even reducing the scale of quantum gravity to the TeV region without the introduction of extra dimensions. We examine a model that realizes this possibility and describe experimental signatures from the production of small black holes.
We report the results of a search for nu disappearance by the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search [D. G. Michael et al. (MINOS), Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 191801 (2006).]. The experiment uses two detectors separated by 734 km to observe a beam of neutrinos created by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data were collected in the first 282 days of beam operations and correspond to an exposure of 1.271020 protons on target. Based on measurements in the Near Detector, in the absence of neutrino oscillations we expected 33614 nu charged-current interactions at the Far Detector but observed 215. This deficit of events corresponds to a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. The deficit is energy dependent and is consistent with two-flavor neutrino oscillations according to |Deltam2|=2.74-0.26+0.4410-3 eV2/c4 and sin22theta>0.87 at 68% confidence level.
Dark energy models with a single scalar field cannot cross the equation of state divide set by a cosmological constant. More general models that allow crossing require additional degrees of freedom to ensure gravitational stability. We show that a parameterized post-Friedmann description of cosmic accelerzation provides a simple but accurate description of multiple scalar field crossing models. Moreover the prescription provides a well-controlled approximation for a wide range of smooth dark energy models. It conserves energy and momentum and is exact in the metric evolution on scales well above and below the transition scale to relative smoothness. Standard linear perturbation tools have been altered to include this description and made publicly available for studies of the dark energy involving cosmological structure out to the horizon scale.
A number of large current experiments aim to detect the signatures of the cosmic reionization at redshifts z > 6. Their success depends crucially on understanding the character of the reionization process and its observable consequences and designing the best strategies to use. We use large-scale simulations of cosmic reionization to evaluate the reionization signatures at redshifted 21-cm and small-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in the best current model for the background universe, with fundamental cosmological parameters given by Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe three-year results. We find that the optimal frequency range for observing the `global step of the 21-cm emission is 120150 MHz, while statistical studies should aim at 140160 MHz, observable by GMRT. Some strongly non-Gaussian brightness features should be detectable at frequencies up to ~190 MHz. In terms of sensitivity-signal trade-off relatively low resolutions, corresponding to beams of at least a few arcminutes, are preferable. The CMB anisotropy signal from the kinetic SunyaevZel'dovich effect from reionized patches peaks at tens of K at arcminute scales and has an rms of ~1 K, and should be observable by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the South Pole Telescope. We discuss the various observational issues and the uncertainties involved, mostly related to the poorly known reionization parameters and, to a lesser extend, to the uncertainties in the background cosmology.
During a strongly first-order phase transition gravitational waves are produced by bubble collisions and turbulent plasma motion. We analyze the relevant characteristics of the electroweak phase transition in the nMSSM to determine the generated gravitational wave signal. Additionally, we comment on correlations between the production of gravitational waves and baryogenesis. We conclude that the gravitational wave relic density in this model is generically too small to be detected in the near future by the LISA experiment. We also consider the case of a 'standard model' with dimension-six Higgs potential, which leads to a slightly stronger signal of gravitational waves.
We calculate the equation of state of a gas of strings at high density in a large toroidal universe and use it to determine the cosmological evolution of background metric and dilaton fields in the entire large radius Hagedorn regime, (ln¿S)1/d«R«S1/d (with S the total entropy). The pressure in this regime is not vanishing but of O(1), while the equation of state is proportional to volume, which makes our solutions significantly different from previously published approximate solutions. For example, we are able to calculate the duration of the high-density Hagedorn phase, which increases exponentially with increasing entropy, S. We go on to discuss the difficulties of the scenario, quantifying the problems of establishing thermal equilibrium and producing a large but not too weakly coupled universe.
We show that quantum mechanics and general relativity imply the existence of a minimal length. To be more precise, we show that no operational device subject to quantum mechanics, general relativity and causality could exclude the discreteness of spacetime on lengths shorter than the Planck length. We then consider the fundamental limit coming from quantum mechanics, general relativity and causality on the precision of length measurement.
This paper presents galaxy source counts at 24 mu m in the six Spitzer Wide-field InfraRed Extragalactic (SWIRE) fields. The source counts are compared to counts in other fields, and to model predictions that have been updated since the launch of Spitzer. This analysis confirms a very steep rise in the Euclidean-normalized differential number counts between 2 mJy and 0.3 mJy. Variations in the counts between fields show the effects of sample variance in the flux range of 0.5-10 mJy, up to 100% larger than Poisson errors. Nonetheless, a "shoulder" in the normalized counts persists at around 3 mJy. The peak of the normalized counts at 0.3 mJy is higher and narrower than most models predict. In the ELAIS N1 field, the 24 mu m data are combined with Spitzer-IRAC data and five-band optical imaging, and these band-merged data are fit with photometric redshift templates. Above 1 mJy the counts are dominated by galaxies at z < 0.3. By 300 mu Jy, about 25% are between z similar to 0.3 and 0.8, and a significant fraction are at z similar to 1.3-2. At low redshifts the counts are dominated by spirals, and starbursts rise in number density to outnumber the spirals' contribution to the counts below 1 mJy.
This paper presents spectroscopy of supernovae (SNe) discovered in the first season of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II SN Survey. This program searches for and measures multi-band light curves of SNe in the redshift range z = 0.05-0.4, complementing existing surveys at lower and higher redshifts. Our goal is to better characterize the SN population, with a particular focus on SNe Ia, improving their utility as cosmological distance indicators and as probes of dark energy. Our SN spectroscopy program features rapid-response observations using telescopes of a range of apertures, and provides confirmation of the SN and host-galaxy types as well as precise redshifts. We describe here the target identification and prioritization, data reduction, redshift measurement, and classification of 129 SNe Ia, 16 spectroscopically probable SNe Ia, 7 SNe Ib/c, and 11 SNe II from the first season. We also describe our efforts to measure and remove the substantial host-galaxy contamination existing in the majority of our SN spectra.
We use the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the relation between galaxy rest-frame u-r colour, morphology, as described by the concentration and Sérsic indices, and environmental density, for a sample of 79 553 galaxies at z¿ 0.1. We split the samples according to density and luminosity, and recover the expected bimodal distribution in the colour-morphology plane, shown especially clearly by this subsampling.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) has embarked on a multi-year project to identify and measure light curves for intermediate-redshift (0.05 < z < 0.35) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) using repeated five-band (ugriz) imaging over an area of 300 sq. deg. The survey region is a stripe 2.5 wide centered on the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap that has been imaged numerous times in earlier years, enabling construction of a deep reference image for the discovery of new objects. Supernova imaging observations are being acquired between September 1 and November 30 of 2005-7. During the first two seasons, each region was imaged on average every five nights. Spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine supernova type and redshift are carried out on a large number of telescopes. In its first two three-month seasons, the survey has discovered and measured light curves for 327 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia, 30 probable SNe Ia, 14 confirmed SNe Ib/c, 32 confirmed SNe II, plus a large number of photometrically identified SNe Ia, 94 of which have host-galaxy spectra taken so far. This paper provides an overview of the project and briefly describes the observations completed during the first two seasons of operation.
This Letter reports new results from the MINOS experiment based on a two-year exposure to muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. Our data are consistent with quantum-mechanical oscillations of neutrino flavor with mass splitting |m2|=(2.430.13)10-3 eV2 (68% C.L.) and mixing angle sin2(2)>0.90 (90% C.L.). Our data disfavor two alternative explanations for the disappearance of neutrinos in flight: namely, neutrino decays into lighter particles and quantum decoherence of neutrinos, at the 3.7 and 5.7 standard-deviation levels, respectively.
We systematically study the unification of gauge couplings in the presence of (one or more) effective dimension-5 operators cHGµ¿Gµ¿/4Mpl, induced into the grand unified theory by gravitational interactions at the Planck scale. These operators alter the usual condition for gauge-coupling unification, which can, depending on the Higgs content H and vacuum expectation value, result in unification at scales MX significantly different than naively expected. We find nonsupersymmetric models of SU(5) and SO(10) unification, with natural Wilson coefficients c, that easily satisfy the constraints from proton decay. Furthermore, gauge-coupling unification at scales as high as the Planck scale seems feasible, possibly hinting at simultaneous unification of gauge and gravitational interactions. In the Appendix we work out the group theoretical aspects of this scenario for SU(5) and SO(10) unified groups in detail; this material is also relevant in the analysis of nonuniversal gaugino masses obtained from supergravity.
In the HARP experiment the large-angle spectrometer is using a cylindrical TPC as main tracking and particle identification detector. The momentum scale of reconstructed tracks in the TPC is the most important systematic error for the majority of kinematic bins used for the HARP measurements of the double-differential production cross-section of charged pions in proton interactions on nuclear targets at large angle. The HARP TPC operated with a number of hardware shortfalls and operational mistakes. Thus it was important to control and characterize its momentum calibration. While it was not possible to enter a direct particle beam into the sensitive volume of the TPC to calibrate the detector, a set of physical processes and detector properties were exploited to achieve a precise calibration of the apparatus. In the following we recall the main issues concerning the momentum measurement in the HARP TPC, and describe the crosschecks made to validate the momentum scale. As a conclusion, this analysis demonstrates that the measurement of momentum is correct within the published precision of 3%.
This biennial Review summarizes much of particle physics. Using data from previous editions., plus 2778 new measurements from 645 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We also summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as Higgs bosons, heavy neutrinos, and supersymmetric particles. All the particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We also give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as the Standard Model, particle detectors., probability, and statistics. Among the 108 reviews are many that are new or heavily revised including those on CKM quark-mixing matrix, V-ud & V-us, V-cb & V-ub, top quark, muon anomalous magnetic moment, extra dimensions, particle detectors, cosmic background radiation, dark matter, cosmological parameters, and big bang cosmology.
The present report documents the results of Working Group 2: B, D and K decays, of the workshop on Flavor in the Era of the LHC, held at CERN from November 2005 through March 2007. With the advent of the LHC, we will be able to probe New Physics (NP) up to energy scales almost one order of magnitude larger than it has been possible with present accelerator facilities. While direct detection of new particles will be the main avenue to establish the presence of NP at the LHC, indirect searches will provide precious complementary information, since most probably it will not be possible to measure the full spectrum of new particles and their couplings through direct production. In particular, precision measurements and computations in the realm of flavor physics are expected to play a key role in constraining the unknown parameters of the Lagrangian of any NP model emerging from direct searches at the LHC. The aim of Working Group 2 was twofold: on the one hand, to provide a coherent up-to-date picture of the status of flavor physics before the start of the LHC; on the other hand, to initiate activities on the path towards integrating information on NP from high-pT and flavor data. This report is organized as follows: in Sect. 1, we give an overview of NP models, focusing on a few examples that have been discussed in some detail during the workshop, with a short description of the available computational tools for flavor observables in NP models. Section 2 contains a concise discussion of the main theoretical problem in flavor physics: the evaluation of the relevant hadronic matrix elements for weak decays. Section 3 contains a detailed discussion of NP effects in a set of flavor observables that we identified as "benchmark channels" for NP searches. The experimental prospects for flavor physics at future facilities are discussed in Sect. 4. Finally, Sect. 5 contains some assessments on the work done at the workshop and the prospects for future developments. 2008 Springer-Verlag / Societ Italiana di Fisica.
Microwave background temperature and polarization observations are a powerful way to constrain cosmological parameters if the likelihood function can be calculated accurately. The temperature and polarization fields are correlated, partial-sky coverage correlates power spectrum estimators at different l, and the likelihood function for a theory spectrum given a set of observed estimators is non-Gaussian. An accurate analysis must model all these properties. Most existing likelihood approximations are good enough for a temperature-only analysis, however they cannot reliably handle temperature-polarization correlations. We give a new general approximation applicable for correlated Gaussian fields observed on part of the sky. The approximation models the non-Gaussian form exactly in the ideal full-sky limit and is fast to evaluate using a precomputed covariance matrix and set of power spectrum estimators. We show with simulations that it is good enough to obtain correct results at l¿30 where an exact calculation becomes impossible. We also show that some Gaussian approximations give reliable parameter constraints even though they do not capture the shape of the likelihood function at each l accurately. Finally we test the approximations on simulations with realistically anisotropic noise and asymmetric foreground mask.
The CALICE collaboration is studying the design of high performance electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for future International Linear Collider detectors. For the electromagnetic calorimeter, the current baseline choice is a high granularity sampling calorimeter with tungsten as absorber and silicon detectors as sensitive material. A ``physics prototype'' has been constructed, consisting of thirty sensitive layers. Each layer has an active area of 18 × 18 cm2 and a pad size of 1 × 1 cm2. The absorber thickness totals 24 radiation lengths. It has been exposed in 2006 and 2007 to electron and hadron beams at the DESY and CERN beam test facilities, using a wide range of beam energies and incidence angles. In this paper, the prototype and the data acquisition chain are described and a summary of the data taken in the 2006 beam tests is presented. The methods used to subtract the pedestals and calibrate the detector are detailed. The signal-over-noise ratio has been measured at 7.63±0.01. Some electronics features have been observed; these lead to coherent noise and crosstalk between pads, and also crosstalk between sensitive and passive areas. The performance achieved in terms of uniformity and stability is presented.
We report the first detailed comparisons of the rates and spectra of neutral-current neutrino interactions at two widely separated locations. A depletion in the rate at the far site would indicate mixing between and a sterile particle. No anomalous depletion in the reconstructed energy spectrum is observed. Assuming oscillations occur at a single mass-squared splitting, a fit to the neutral- and charged-current energy spectra limits the fraction of oscillating to a sterile neutrino to be below 0.68 at 90% confidence level. A less stringent limit due to a possible contribution to the measured neutral-current event rate at the far site from e appearance at the current experimental limit is also presented.
High-dispersion time-resolved spectroscopy of the unique magnetic cataclysmic variable AE Aqr is presented. A radial velocity analysis of the absorption lines yields K2= 168.7 ± 1 km s−1. Substantial deviations of the radial velocity curve from a sinusoid are interpreted in terms of intensity variations over the secondary star's surface. A complex rotational velocity curve as a function of orbital phase is detected which has a modulation frequency of twice the orbital frequency, leading to an estimate of the binary inclination angle that is close to 70°. The minimum and maximum rotational velocities are used to indirectly derive a mass ratio of q= 0.6 and a radial velocity semi-amplitude of the white dwarf of K1= 101 ± 3 km s−1. We present an atmospheric temperature indicator, based on the absorption-line ratio of Fe I and Cr I lines, whose variation indicates that the secondary star varies from K0 to K4 as a function of orbital phase. The ephemeris of the system has been revised, using more than 1000 radial velocity measurements, published over nearly five decades. From the derived radial velocity semi-amplitudes and the estimated inclination angle, we calculate that the masses of the stars are M1= 0.63 ± 0.05 M⊙; M2= 0.37 ± 0.04 M⊙, and their separation is a= 2.33 ± 0.02 R⊙. Our analysis indicates the presence of a late-type star whose radius is larger, by a factor of nearly 2, than the radius of a normal main-sequence star of the same mass. Finally, we discuss the possibility that the measured variations in the rotational velocity, temperature and spectral type of the secondary star as functions of orbital phase may, like the radial velocity variations, be attributable to regions of enhanced absorption on the star's surface.
We present Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Linear Ramp Filter images of high surface brightness emission lines (either [O II], [O III], or H alpha + [N II]) in 80 3CR radio sources. We overlay the emission-line images on high-resolution VLA radio images (eight of which are new reductions of archival data) in order to examine the spatial relationship between the optical and radio emission. We confirm that the radio and optical emission-line structures are consistent with weak alignment at low redshift (z < 0.6) except in the compact steep-spectrum (CSS) radio galaxies where both the radio source and the emission-line nebulae are on galactic scales and strong alignment is seen at all redshifts. There are weak trends for the aligned emission-line nebulae to be more luminous and for the emission-line nebula size to increase with redshift and/or radio power. The combination of these results suggests that there is a limited but real capacity for the radio source to influence the properties of the emission-line nebulae at these low redshifts (z < 0.6). Our results are consistent with previous suggestions that both mechanical and radiant energy are responsible for generating alignment between the radio source and emission-line gas.
We present the results of IRS low-resolution spectroscopy of 51 Seyfert galaxies, part of a large Spitzer observing program to determine the mid-to-far infrared spectral energy distributions of a well-defined sample of 87 nearby, 12 mu m-selected Seyferts. We find that the spectra clearly divide into groups based on their continuum shapes and spectral features. The infrared spectral types appear to be related to the Seyfert types. Some features are clearly related to a starburst contribution to the IR spectrum, while the observed power-law continuum shapes, attributed to the AGN, may be dust or non-thermal emission. Principal component analysis results suggest that the relative contribution of starburst emission is the dominant cause of variance in the spectra. We find that the Sy 2's show on average stronger starburst contributions than the Sy 1's.
We present the optical-to-submillimetre spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 33 radio and mid-infrared (mid-IR) identified submillimetre galaxies discovered via the SHADES 850-mu m SCUBA imaging in the Subaru-XMM Deep Field (SXDF). Optical data for the sources come from the SXDF and mid- and far-IR fluxes from SWIRE. We obtain photometric redshift estimates for our sources using optical and IRAC 3.6- and 4.5-mu m fluxes. We then fit SED templates to the longer wavelength data to determine the nature of the far-IR emission that dominates the bolometric luminosity of these sources. The IR template fits are also used to resolve ambiguous identifications and cases of redshift aliasing. The redshift distribution obtained broadly matches previous results for submillimetre sources and on the SHADES SXDF field. Our template fitting finds that active galactic nuclei, while present in about 10 per cent of our sources, do not contribute significantly to their bolometric luminosity. Dust heating by starbursts, with either Arp220 or M82 type SEDs, appears to be responsible for the luminosity in most sources (23/33 are fitted by Arp220 templates, 2/33 by the warmer M82 templates). 8/33 sources, in contrast, are fitted by a cooler cirrus dust template, suggesting that cold dust has a role in some of these highly luminous objects. Three of our sources appear to have multiple identifications or components at the same redshift, but we find no statistical evidence that close associations are common among our SHADES sources. Examination of rest-frame K-band luminosity suggests that 'downsizing' is underway in the submillimetre galaxy population, with lower redshift systems lying in lower mass host galaxies. Of our 33 identifications six are found to be of lower reliability but their exclusion would not significantly alter our conclusions
We present a careful analysis of the point-source detection limit of the AKARI All-Sky Survey in the WIDE-S 90-µm band near the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP). Timeline analysis is used to detect IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) sources and then a conversion factor is derived to transform the peak timeline signal to the interpolated 90-µm flux of a source. Combined with a robust noise measurement, the point-source flux detection limit at signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) > 5 for a single detector row is 1.1 ± 0.1 Jy which corresponds to a point-source detection limit of the survey of ~0.4 Jy. Wavelet transform offers a multiscale representation of the Time Series Data (tsd). We calculate the continuous wavelet transform of the tsd and then search for significant wavelet coefficients considered as potential source detections. To discriminate real sources from spurious or moving objects, only sources with confirmation are selected. In our multiscale analysis, IRAS sources selected above 4s can be identified as the only real sources at the Point Source Scales. We also investigate the correlation between the non-IRAS sources detected in timeline analysis and cirrus emission using wavelet transform and contour plots of wavelet power spectrum. It is shown that the non-IRAS sources are most likely to be caused by excessive noise over a large range of spatial scales rather than real extended structures such as cirrus clouds
In this paper we derive a bound using data from cosmic rays physics on a model recently proposed to solve the hierarchy problem by lowering the Planck scale to the TeV region without the introduction of extra dimensions. We show that the nonobservation of small black holes by AGASA implies a model independent limit for the four-dimensional reduced Planck mass of roughly 488 GeV.
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) used an array of He3 proportional counters to measure the rate of neutral-current interactions in heavy water and precisely determined the total active (x) B8 solar neutrino flux. This technique is independent of previous methods employed by SNO. The total flux is found to be 5.54-0.31+0.33(stat)-0.34+0.36(syst)106cm-2s-1, in agreement with previous measurements and standard solar models. A global analysis of solar and reactor neutrino results yields m2=7.59-0.21+0.1910-5eV2 and =34.4-1.2+1.3 degrees. The uncertainty on the mixing angle has been reduced from SNO's previous results.
Perturbative estimates suggest that extended topological defects such as cosmic strings emit few particles, but numerical simulations of the fields from which they are constructed suggest the opposite. In this paper we study the decay of the two-dimensional prototype of strings, domain walls in a simple scalar theory, solving the underlying quantum field theory in the Hartree approximation. We conclude that including the quantum effects makes the picture clear: the defects do not directly transform into particles, but there is a nonperturbative channel to microscopic classical structures in the form of propagating waves and persistent localized oscillations, which operates over a huge separation of scales. When quantum effects are included, the microscopic classical structures can decay into particles.
This paper investigates the possibility that ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies in the Fornax cluster are formed by the threshing of nucleated, early-type dwarf galaxies (hereafter dwarf galaxies). Similar to the results of Côté et al. for the Virgo cluster, we show that the Fornax cluster observations are consistent with a single population in which all dwarfs are nucleated, with a ratio of nuclear to total magnitude that varies slowly with magnitude. Importantly, the magnitude distribution of the UCD population is similar to that of the dwarf nuclei in the Fornax cluster. The joint population of UCDs and the dwarfs from which they may originate is modelled and shown to be consistent with a Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) profile with a characteristic radius of 5 kpc. Furthermore, a steady-state dynamical model reproduces the known mass profile of Fornax. However, there are a number of peculiarities in the velocity dispersion data that remain unexplained. The simplest possible threshing model is tested, in which dwarf galaxies move on orbits in a static cluster potential and are threshed if they pass within a radius at which the tidal force from the cluster exceeds the internal gravity at the core of their dark matter halo. This fails to reproduce the observed fraction of UCDs at radii greater than 30 kpc from the core of Fornax.
We study the dynamics of a pair of atoms, resonantly interacting with a single mode cavity, in the situation where the atoms enter the cavity with a time delay between them. Using time dependent coupling functions to represent the spatial profile of the mode, we considered the adiabatic limit of the system. Although the time evolution is mostly adiabatic, energy crossings play an important role in the system dynamics. Following from this, entanglement, and a procedure for cavity state teleportation are considered. We examine the behaviour of the system when we introduce decoherence, a finite detuning, and potential asymmetries in the coupling profiles of the atoms.
The τ-→ηπ-π+π-ντ decay with the η→γγ mode is studied using 384 fb-1 of data collected by the BABAR detector. The branching fraction is measured to be (1.60±0.05±0.11)×10-4. It is found that τ-→f1(1285)π-ντ→ηπ-π+π-ντ is the dominant decay mode with a branching fraction of (1.11±0.06±0.05)×10-4. The first error on the branching fractions is statistical and the second systematic. Note that no particle identification algorithm is applied to the charged tracks to distinguish pions from kaons. In addition, a 90% confidence level upper limit on the branching fraction of the τ-→η′(958)π-ντ decay is measured to be 7.2×10-6. This last decay proceeds through a second-class current and is expected to be forbidden in the limit of isospin symmetry.
The dynamic process of unstable D-branes decaying into stable ones with one dimension lower can be described by a tachyon field with a Dirac-Born-Infeld effective action. In this paper we investigate the fluctuation modes of the tachyon field around a two-parameter family of static solutions representing an array of brane-antibrane pairs. Besides a pair of zero modes associated with the parameters of the solution, and instabilities associated with annihilation of the brane-antibrane pairs, we find states corresponding to excitations of the tachyon field around the brane and in the bulk. In the limit that the brane thickness tends to zero, the support of the eigenmodes is limited to the brane, consistent with the idea that propagating tachyon modes drop out of the spectrum as the tachyon field approaches its ground state. The zero modes, and other low-lying excited states, show a fourfold degeneracy in this limit, which can be identified with some of the massless superstring modes in the brane-antibrane system. Finally, we also discuss the slow motion of the solution corresponding to the decay process in the moduli space, finding a trajectory which oscillates periodically between the unstable D-brane and the brane-antibrane pairs of one dimension lower.
We show that the gauge hierarchy problem can be solved in the framework of scalar-tensor theories of gravity very much in the same way as it is solved in the Randall-Sundrum scenario. Our solution involves a fine-tuning of the gravitational sector which can, however, be avoided if a supergravity extension of the dilaton sector is considered. However our mechanism does not require the introduction of extra dimensions or new physics strongly coupled to the standard model in the low energy regime. We do introduce a new scalar field which is, however, coupled only gravitationally to regular matter. The physical reason for the splitting between the weak scale and the Planck scale is a violation of Einstein's equivalence principle.
We present results for a galaxy formation model that includes a simple treatment for the disruption of dwarf galaxies by gravitational forces and galaxy encounters within galaxy clusters. This is implemented a posteriori in a semi-analytic model by considering the stability of cluster dark matter subhaloes at z= 0. We assume that a galaxy whose dark matter substructure has been disrupted will itself disperse, while its stars become part of the population of intracluster stars responsible for the observed intracluster light. Despite the simplicity of this assumption, our results show a substantial improvement over previous models and indicate that the inclusion of galaxy disruption is indeed a necessary ingredient of galaxy formation models. We find that galaxy disruption suppresses the number density of dwarf galaxies by about a factor of 2. This makes the slope of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function shallower, in agreement with observations. In particular, the abundance of faint, red galaxies is strongly suppressed. As a result, the luminosity function of red galaxies and the distinction between the red and the blue galaxy populations in colour¿magnitude relationships are correctly predicted. Finally, we estimate a fraction of intracluster light comparable to that found in clusters of galaxies.
We calculate the tree-level bispectrum of the inflaton field perturbation directly from the field equations, and construct the corresponding f NL parameter. Our results agree with previous ones derived from the Lagrangian. We argue that quantum theory should only be used to calculate the correlators when they first become classical a few Hubble times after horizon exit, the classical evolution taking over thereafter
Penning traps offer unique possibilities for storing, manipulating and investigating charged particles with high sensitivity and accuracy. The widespread applications of Penning traps in physics and chemistry comprise e.g. mass spectrometry, laser spectroscopy, measurements of electronic and nuclear magnetic moments, chemical sample analysis and reaction studies. We have developed a method, based on the Green's function approach, which allows for the analytical calculation of the electrostatic properties of a Penning trap with arbitrary electrodes. The ansatz features an extension of Dirichlet's problem to nontrivial geometries and leads to an analytical solution of the Laplace equation. As an example we discuss the toroidal hybrid Penning trap designed for our planned measurements of the magnetic moment of the (anti)proton. As in the case of cylindrical Penning traps, it is possible to optimize the properties of the electric trapping fields, which is mandatory for high-precision experiments with single charged particles. Of particular interest are the anharmonicity compensation, orthogonality and optimum adjustment of frequency shifts by the continuous SternGerlach effect in a quantum jump spectrometer. The mathematical formalism developed goes beyond the mere design of novel Penning traps and has potential applications in other fields of physics and engineering.
Observations of high-redshift Lya sources are a major tool for studying the high-redshift universe and are one of the most promising ways to constrain the later stages of reionization. The understanding and interpretation of the data is far from straightforward, however. We discuss the effect of the reionizing intergalactic medium (IGM) on the observability of Lya sources based on large simulations of early structure formation with radiative transfer. This takes into account self-consistently the reionization history, density, velocity and ionization structures and non-linear source clustering. We find that all fields are highly anisotropic and as a consequence there are very large variations in opacity among the different lines of sight. The velocity effects, from both infall and source peculiar velocity are most important for the luminous sources, affecting the line profile and depressing the bright end of the luminosity function. The line profiles are generally asymmetric and the line centres of the luminous sources are always absorbed due to the high density of the local IGM. For both luminous and average sources the damping wing effects are of similar magnitude and remain significant until fairly late, when the IGM is ionized between 30 and 70 per cent by mass.
We present the SWIRE Photometric Redshift Catalogue 1 025 119 redshifts of unprecedented reliability and of accuracy comparable with or better than previous work. Our methodology is based on fixed galaxy and quasi-stellar object templates applied to data at 0.36¿4.5 µm, and on a set of four infrared emission templates fitted to infrared excess data at 3.6¿170 µm. The galaxy templates are initially empirical, but are given greater physical validity by fitting star formation histories to them, which also allows us to estimate stellar masses. The code involves two passes through the data, to try to optimize recognition of active galactic nucleus (AGN) dust tori. A few carefully justified priors are used and are the key to supression of outliers. Extinction, AV, is allowed as a free parameter. The full reduced ¿2¿ (z) distribution is given for each source, so the full error distribution can be used, and aliases investigated.
The ATLAS detector as installed in its experimental cavern at point 1 at CERN is described in this paper. A brief overview of the expected performance of the detector when the Large Hadron Collider begins operation is also presented.
The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment uses an accelerator-produced neutrino beam to perform precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters in the atmospheric neutrino sector associated with muon neutrino disappearance. This long-baseline experiment measures neutrino interactions in Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam with a near detector at Fermilab and again 735 km downstream with a far detector in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota. The two detectors are magnetized steel-scintillator tracking calorimeters. They are designed to be as similar as possible in order to ensure that differences in detector response have minimal impact on the comparisons of event rates, energy spectra and topologies that are essential to MINOS measurements of oscillation parameters. The design, construction, calibration and performance of the far and near detectors are described in this paper.
We use a simple optical/infrared (IR) photometric selection of high-redshift QSOs that identifies a Lyman break in the optical photometry and requires a red IR color to distinguish QSOs from common interlopers. The search yields 100 z similar to 3 ( U-dropout) QSO candidates with 19 < r ' < 22 over 11.7 deg(2) in the ELAIS-N1 (EN1) and ELAIS-N2 (EN2) fields of the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy Survey. The z similar to 3 selection is reliable, with spectroscopic follow-up of 10 candidates confirming that they are all QSOs at 2.83 < z < 3.44. We find that our z similar to 4 (g '-dropout) sample suffers from both unreliability and incompleteness but present seven previously unidentified QSOs at 3.50 < z < 3.89. Detailed simulations show our z similar to 3 completeness to be similar to 80%-90% from 3.0 < z < 3.5, significantly better than the similar to 30%-80% completeness of the SDSS at these redshifts. The resulting luminosity function extends 2 mag fainter than SDSS and has a faint-end slope of beta = -1.42 +/- 0.15, consistent with values measured at lower redshift. Therefore, we see no evidence for evolution of the faint-end slope of the QSO luminosity function. Including the SDSS QSO sample, we have now directly measured the space density of QSOs responsible for similar to 70% of the QSO UV luminosity density at z similar to 3. We derive a maximum rate of H I photoionization from QSOs at z similar to 3.2, Gamma = 4.8 x 10(-13) s(-1), about half of the total rate inferred through studies of the Ly alpha forest. Therefore, star-forming galaxies and QSOs must contribute comparably to the photoionization of H I in the inter-galactic medium at z similar to 3.
We show that during inflation, a quantum fluctuation becomes classical at all orders if it becomes classical at first order. Implications are discussed.
We present a measurement of the muon neutrino-nucleon inclusive charged current cross section, off an isoscalar target, in the neutrino energy range 2.5 <= E-v <= 40 GeV. The significance of this measurement is its precision, +/- 4% in 2.5 <= E-v <= 10 GeV, and +/- 2.6% in 10 <= E-v <= 40 GeV regions, where significant uncertainties in previous experiments still exist, and its importance to the current and proposed long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.
This paper describes the Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With this data release, the imaging of the northern Galactic cap is now complete. The survey contains images and parameters of roughly 287 million objects over 9583 deg(2), including scans over a large range of Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The survey also includes 1.27 million spectra of stars, galaxies, quasars, and blank sky ( for sky subtraction) selected over 7425 deg2. This release includes much more stellar spectroscopy than was available in previous data releases and also includes detailed estimates of stellar temperatures, gravities, and metallicities. The results of improved photometric calibration are now available, with uncertainties of roughly 1% in g, r, i, and z, and 2% in u, substantially better than the uncertainties in previous data releases. The spectra in this data release have improved wavelength and flux calibration, especially in the extreme blue and extreme red, leading to the qualitatively better determination of stellar types and radial velocities. The spectrophotometric fluxes are now tied to point-spread function magnitudes of stars rather than fiber magnitudes. This gives more robust results in the presence of seeing variations, but also implies a change in the spectrophotometric scale, which is now brighter by roughly 0.35 mag. Systematic errors in the velocity dispersions of galaxies have been fixed, and the results of two independent codes for determining spectral classifications and red-shifts are made available. Additional spectral outputs are made available, including calibrated spectra from individual 15 minute exposures and the sky spectrum subtracted from each exposure. We also quantify a recently recognized underestimation of the brightnesses of galaxies of large angular extent due to poor sky subtraction; the bias can exceed 0.2 mag for galaxies brighter than r = 14 mag.
We present the second part of an H-band (1.6 mu m) "atlas'' of z < 0.3 3CR radio galaxies, using the Hubble Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (HST NICMOS2). We present new imaging for 21 recently acquired sources and host galaxy modeling for the full sample of 101 (including 11 archival)-an 87% completion rate. Two different modeling techniques are applied, following those adopted by the galaxy morphology and the quasar host galaxy communities. Results are compared and found to be in excellent agreement, although the former breaks down in the case of sources with strong active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Companion sources are tabulated, and the presence of mergers, tidal features, dust disks, and jets are cataloged. The tables form a catalog for those interested in the structural and morphological dust-free host galaxy properties of the 3CR sample, and for comparison with morphological studies of quiescent galaxies and quasar host galaxies. Host galaxy masses are estimated and found to typically lie at around 2 x 10(11) M-circle dot. In general, the population is found to be consistent with the local population of quiescent elliptical galaxies, but with a longer tail to low Sersic index, mainly consisting of low-redshift (z < 0: 1) and low-radio-power (FR I) sources. A few unusually disky FR II host galaxies are picked out for further discussion. Nearby external sources are identified in the majority of our images, many of which we argue are likely to be companion galaxies or merger remnants. The reduced NICMOS data are now publicly available from our Web site.
We construct an explicit scenario whereby the same material driving inflation in the early universe can comprise dark matter in the present universe, using a simple quadratic potential. Following inflation and preheating, the density of inflaton/dark matter particles is reduced to the observed level by a period of thermal inflation, of a duration already invoked in the literature for other reasons. Within the context of the string landscape, one can further argue for a nonzero vacuum energy of this field, thus unifying inflation, dark matter, and dark energy into a single fundamental field.
We derive the properties of dusty tori in active galactic nuclei from the comparison of observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of SDSS quasars and a precomputed grid of torus models. The observed SEDs comprise SDSS photometry, Two-Micron All-Sky Survey J, H and K data, whenever available, and mid-infrared (mid-IR) data from the Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic Survey. The adopted model is that of Fritz, Franceschini & Hatziminaoglou. The fit is performed by standard chi(2)-minimization; the model, however, can be a multicomponent comprising a stellar and a starburst component, whenever necessary. Models with low equatorial optical depth, tau(9.7), were allowed as well as 'traditional' models with tau(9.7) >= 1.0, corresponding to A(V) >= 22 and the results were compared. Fits using high optical depth tori models only produced dust more compactly distributed than in the configuration where all tau(9.7) models were permitted. Tori with decreasing dust density with the distance from the centre were favoured while there was no clear preference for models with or without angular variation of the dust density. The computed outer radii of the tori are of some tens of parsecs large but can reach, in a few cases, a few hundreds of parsecs. The mass of dust, M-Dust, and IR luminosity, L-IR, integrated in the wavelength range between 1 and 1000 mu m, do not show significant variations with redshift, once the observational biases are taken into account. Objects with 70-mu m detections, representing 25 per cent of the sample, are studied separately and the starburst contribution (whenever present) to the IR luminosity can reach, in the most extreme but very few cases, 80 per cent.
Trapped atomic ions have become one of the most promising architectures for a quantum computer, and current effort is now devoted to the transport of trapped ions through complex segmented ion trap structures in order to scale up to much larger numbers of trapped ion qubits. This paper covers several important issues relevant to ion transport in any type of complex multidimensional rf (Paul) ion trap array. We develop a general theoretical framework for the application of time-dependent electric fields to shuttle laser-cooled ions along any desired trajectory, and describe a method for determining the effect of arbitrary shuttling schedules on the quantum state of trapped ion motion. In addition to the general case of linear shuttling over short distances, we introduce issues particular to the shuttling through multidimensional junctions, which are required for the arbitrary control of the positions of large arrays of trapped ions. This includes the transport of ions around a corner, through a cross or T junction, and the swapping of positions of multiple ions in a laser-cooled crystal. Where possible, we make connections to recent experimental results in a multidimensional T junction trap, where arbitrary 2-dimensional transport was realized.
The Cosmic Dark Ages and the Epoch of Reionization constitute a crucial missing link in our understanding of the evolution of the intergalactic medium and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Due to the complex nature of this global process it is best studied through large-scale numerical simulations. This presents considerable computational challenges. The dominant contributors of ionizing radiation were dwarf galaxies. These tiny galaxies must be resolved in very large cosmological volumes in order to derive their clustering properties and the corresponding observational signatures correctly, which makes this one of the most challenging problems of numerical cosmology. We have recently performed the largest and most detailed simulations of the formation of early cosmological large-scale structures and their radiative feedback leading to cosmic reionization. This was achieved by running extremely large (up to 29 billion-particle) N-body simulations of the formation of the Cosmic Web, with enough particles and sufficient force resolution to resolve all the galactic halos with total masses larger than 10^8 Solar masses in computational volumes of up to (163 Mpc)^3. These results were then post-processed by propagating the ionizing radiation from all sources by using fast and accurate ray-tracing radiative transfer method. Both of our codes are parallelized using a combination of MPI and OpenMP and to this date have been run efficiently on up to 2048 cores (N-body) and up to 10000 cores (radiative transfer) on the newly-deployed Sun Constellation Linux Cluster at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. In this paper we describe our codes, parallelization strategies, scaling and some preliminary scientific results. (abridged)
Using isospin relations, we predict the standard model correlation between Sπ0KS≡(sin2β)π0KS and Aπ0KS, the mixing-induced and direct CP asymmetries of B0→π0KS. The calculation uses flavor SU(3) only to fix the isospin-3/2 amplitude through the B±→π±π0 branching ratio, and thus has a small irreducible theoretical error. It can reach percent level precision thanks to expected future lattice-QCD progress for the calculation of the relevant SU(3)-breaking form-factor ratio, and serves as a benchmark for new-physics searches. We obtain an interesting picture in the Aπ0KS–Sπ0KS plane, where the current experimental data show a discrepancy with the standard model, and comment on the direct CP asymmetries of B0→π-K+ and B+→π0K+. A modified electroweak penguin with a large new CP-violating phase can explain the discrepancy and allows us to accommodate also the corresponding data for other b→s penguin-dominated decays.
We consider the effect of radiation pressure from ionizing photons on black hole (BH) mass estimates based on the application of the virial theorem to broad emission lines in AGN spectra. BH masses based only on the virial product Delta(VR)-R-2 and neglecting the effect of radiation pressure can be severely underestimated, especially in objects close to the Eddington limit. We provide an empirical calibration of the correction for radiation pressure, and we show that it is consistent with a simple physical model in which BLR clouds are optically thick to ionizing radiation and have average column densities of N-H similar to 10(23) cm(-2). This value is remarkably similar to what is required in standard BLR photoionization models to explain observed spectra. With the inclusion of radiation pressure, the discrepancy between virial BH masses based on single-epoch spectra and on reverberation mapping data drops from 0.4 to 0.2 dex rms. The use of single-epoch observations as surrogates of reverberation mapping campaigns can thus provide more accurate BH masses than previously thought. Finally, we show that narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies have apparently low BH masses because they are radiating close to their Eddington limit. After the radiation pressure correction, NLS1 galaxies have BH masses similar to other broad-line AGNs and follow the same M-BH-sigma(e)/L-sph relations as other active and normal galaxies. Radiation forces arising from ionizing photon momentum deposition constitute an important physical effect which must be taken into account when computing virial BH masses.
In grand unified theories with large numbers of fields, renormalization effects significantly modify the scale at which quantum gravity becomes strong. This in turn can modify the boundary conditions for coupling constant unification, if higher dimensional operators induced by gravity are taken into consideration. We show that the generic size of, and the uncertainty in, these effects from gravity can be larger than the two-loop corrections typically considered in renormalization group analyses of unification. In some cases, gravitational effects of modest size can render unification impossible.
We use empirical techniques to interpret the near-infrared (near-IR) colours of a sample of 5800 galaxies drawn from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) main spectroscopic sample with YJHK photometry from the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) data release 1. Our study focuses on the inner 3 arcsec regions of the galaxies sampled by the SDSS fibre spectra. We study correlations between near-IR colours measured within this aperture and physical parameters derived from the spectra. These parameters include specific star formation rate (SFR), stellar age, metallicity and dust attenuation. All correlations are analysed for samples of galaxies that are closely matched in redshift, in stellar mass and in concentration index. Whereas more strongly star-forming galaxies have bluer optical colours, the opposite is true at near-IR wavelengths ¿ galaxies with higher specific SFR have redder near-IR colours. This result agrees qualitatively with the predictions of models in which thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars dominate the H- and K-band light of a galaxy following a burst of star formation. We also find a surprisingly strong correlation between the near-IR colours of star-forming galaxies and their dust attenuation as measured from the Balmer decrement. Unlike optical colours, however, near-IR colours exhibit very little dependence on galaxy inclination. This suggests that the correlation of near-IR colours with dust attenuation arises because TP-AGB stars are the main source of dust in the galaxy. Finally, we compare the near-IR colours of the galaxies in our sample to the predictions of three different stellar population models: the Bruzual & Charlot model, a preliminary version of a new model under development which includes a new prescription for AGB star evolution, and the Maraston model.
The redshifted 21-cm line of distant neutral H atoms provides a probe of the cosmic "dark ages" and the epoch of reionization ("EOR") which ended them, within the first billion years of cosmic time. The radio continuum produced by this redshifted line can be seen in absorption or emission against the cosmic microwave background ("CMB") at meterwaves, yielding information about the thermal and ionization history of the universe and the primordial density perturbation spectrum that led to galaxy and large-scale structure formation. Observing this 21-cm background is a great challenge, as it is necessary to detect a diffuse signal at a brightness temperature that differs from that of the CMB at millikelvin levels and distinguish this from foreground continuum sources. A new generation of low-frequency radio arrays is currently under development to search for this background. Accurate theoretical predictions of the spectrum and anisotropy of this background, necessary to guide and interpret future observations, are also quite challenging. Toward this end, it is necessary to model the inhomogeneous reionization of the intergalactic medium and determine the spin temperature of the 21-cm transition and its variations in time and space as it decouples from the temperature of the CMB. In my talk, I summarized some of the theoretical progress in this area. Here, I will focus on just a few of the predictions for the 21-cm background from the EOR, based on our newest, large-scale simulations of patchy reionization. These simulations are the first with enough N-body particles (from 5 to 29 billion) and radiative transfer rays to resolve the formation of and trace the ionizing radiation from each of the millions of dwarf galaxies believed responsible for reionization, down to 108 M[sun], in a cubic volume large enough (90 and 163 comoving Mpc on a side) to make meaningful statistical predictions of the fluctuating 21-cm background.
An estimate of the one-loop correction to the power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation is given, assuming it is generated during a phase of single-field, slow-roll inflation. The loop correction splits into two parts, which can be calculated separately: a purely quantum-mechanical contribution which is generated from the interference among quantized field modes around the time when they cross the horizon, and a classical contribution which comes from integrating the effect of field modes which have already passed far beyond the horizon. The loop correction contains logarithms which may invalidate the use of naive perturbation theory for cosmic microwave background (CMB) predictions when the scale associated with the CMB is exponentially different from the scale at which the fundamental theory governing inflation is formulated. This may have important consequences for the comparison of chaotic inflationary models with forthcoming high-precision satellite data
We examine the LHC phenomenology of quantum black holes in models of TeV gravity. By quantum black holes we mean black holes of the smallest masses and entropies, far from the semiclassical regime. These black holes are formed and decay over short distances, and typically carry SU(3) color charges inherited from their parton progenitors. Based on a few minimal assumptions, such as gauge invariance, we identify interesting signatures for quantum black hole decay such as 2 jets, jet + hard photon, jet + missing energy and jet + charged lepton, which should be readily visible above background. The detailed phenomenology depends heavily on whether one requires a Lorentz invariant, low-energy effective field theory description of black hole processes.
We explore the stability properties of multifield solutions of assisted inflation type, where several fields collectively evolve to the same configuration. In the case of noninteracting fields, we show that the condition for such solutions to be stable is less restrictive than that required for tracking in quintessence models. Our results, which do not rely on the slow-roll approximation, further indicate that to linear order in homogeneous perturbations the fields are in fact unaware of each other's existence. We end by generalizing our results to some cases of interacting fields and to other background solutions and dynamics, including the high-energy braneworld.
Mid-infrared polarimetry remains an underexploited technique; where available it is limited in spectral coverage from the ground, and conspicuously absent from the Spitzer, JWST and Herschel instrument suites. The unique characteristics of SOFIA afford unprecedented spectral coverage and sensitivity in the mid-infrared waveband. We discuss the preliminary optical design for a 5-40 mu m spectro-polarimeter for use on SOFIA, the SOFIA Mid-InfraRed Polarimeter (SMIRPh). The design furthers the existing 5-40 mu m imaging and spectroscopic capabilities of SOFIA, and draws on experience gained through the University of Florida's mid-IR imagers, spectrometer and polarimeter designs of T-ReCS and CanariCam. We pay special attention to the challenges of obtaining polarimetric materials suitable at both these wavelengths and cryogenic temperatures. Finally, we (briefly) present an overview of science highlights that could be performed from a 5-40 mu m imaging- and spectro-polarimeter on SOFIA. Combined with the synergy between the possible future far-IR polarimeter, Hale, this instrument would provide the SOFIA community with unique and exciting science capabilities, leaving a unique scientific legacy.
We consider the well-known JaynesCummings model and ask if it can display randomness. As a solvable Hamiltonian system, it does not display chaotic behaviour in the ordinary sense. Here, however, we look at the distribution of values taken up during the total time evolution. This evolution is determined by the eigenvalues distributed as the square roots of integers and leads to a seemingly erratic behaviour. That this may display a random Gaussian value distribution is suggested by an exactly provable result by Kac. In order to reach our conclusion we use the Kac model to develop tests for the emergence of a Gaussian. Even if the consequent double limits are difficult to evaluate numerically, we find definite indications that the JaynesCummings case also produces a randomness in its value distributions. Numerical methods do not establish such a result beyond doubt, but our conclusions are definite enough to suggest strongly an unexpected randomness emerging in a dynamic time evolution.
While observations indicate that the predominant source of cosmic inhomogeneities are adiabatic perturbations, there are a variety of candidates to provide auxiliary trace effects, including inflation-generated primordial tensors and cosmic defects which both produce B-mode cosmic microwave background polarization. We investigate whether future experiments may suffer confusion as to the true origin of such effects, focusing on the ability of Planck to distinguish tensors from cosmic strings, and show that there is no significant degeneracy.
Oscillons, extremely long-lived localized oscillations of a scalar field, are shown to be produced by evolving domain wall networks in phi(4) theory in two spatial dimensions. We study the oscillons in frequency space using the classical spectral function at zero momentum, and obtain that the velocity distribution is suppressed as gamma(-2) at large Lorentz factor gamma, with oscillons produced up to at least gamma similar to 10. This leads us to speculate that oscillons are produced at cusps, regions of the domain wall travelling near the speed of light. In order to gain some insight onto the dilute oscillon "gas" produced by the domain walls, we prepare a denser gas by filling the simulation volume with oscillons boosted in random directions. We finish the study by revisiting collisions between oscillons and between an oscillon and a domain wall, showing that in the latter case they can pass straight through with minimal distortion.
We review the asymptotic safety scenario for quantum gravity and the role and implications of an underlying ultraviolet fixed point. We discuss renormalisation group techniques employed in the fixed point search, analyse the main picture at the example of the Einstein-Hilbert theory, and provide an overview of the key results in four and higher dimensions. We also compare findings with recent lattice simulations and evaluate phenomenological implications for collider experiments.
We derive the Klein-Gordon equation for a single scalar field coupled to gravity at second order in perturbation theory and leading order in slow-roll. This is done in two ways: we derive the Klein-Gordon equation first using the Einstein field equation and then directly from the action after integrating out the constraint equations. We also point out an unexpected result regarding the treatment of the field equations
The first, self-consistent calculations of the cosmological H2 dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization are presented. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~108 M[sun], identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous background in the Lyman-Werner band of H2 between 11 and 13.6 eV.
Measurements of the double-differential pi(+/-) production cross-section in the range of momentum 100 MeV/c <= p < 800 MeV/c and angle 0.35 rad <= theta < 2.15 rad in proton-beryllium, proton-aluminium and proton-lead collisions are presented. The data were taken with the HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The pions were produced by proton beams in a momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 12.9 GeV/c hitting a target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using a small-radius cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed inside a solenoidal magnet. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections d(2)sigma/dpd theta at six incident proton beam momenta (3 GeV/c, 5 GeV/c, 8 GeV/c, 8.9 GeV/c (Be only), 12 GeV/c and 12.9 GeV/c (Al only)) and compared to previously available data.
We analyze the problem of a single mode field interacting with a pair of two level atoms. The atoms enter and exit the cavity at different times. Instead of using constant coupling, we use time-dependent couplings which represent the spatial dependence of the mode. Although the system evolution is adiabatic for most of the time, a previously unstudied energy crossing plays a key role in the system dynamics when the atoms have a time delay. We show that conditional atom-cavity entanglement can be generated, while for large photon numbers the entangled system has a behavior which can be mapped onto the single atom Jaynes-Cummings model. Exploring the main features of this system we propose simple and fairly robust methods for entangling atoms independently of the cavity, for quantum state mapping, and for implementing SWAP and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates with atomic qubits.
As part of a large study to investigate the nature of the longer wavelength continuum emission of radio-loud AGNs, we present new mid- to far-infrared (MFIR) and high-frequency radio observations for a complete sample of 2 Jy powerful southern radio galaxies at intermediate redshifts (0.05 < z < 0.7). Utilizing the sensitivity of the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have made deep MIPS observations at wavelengths of 24, 70, and 160 mu m, detecting 100% of our sample at 24 mu m and 90% at 70 mu m. This high detection rate at MFIR wavelengths is unparalleled in samples of intermediate-redshift radio galaxies. Complementing these results, we also present new high-frequency observations (15-24 GHz) from the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Very Large Array, which are used to investigate the potential contamination of the MFIR continuum by nonthermal synchrotron emission. With the latter observations we detect compact cores in 59% of our complete sample and deduce that nonthermal contamination of the MFIR continuum is significant in a maximum of 30% of our total sample. MFIR fluxes, radio fluxes, and spectral energy distributions for the complete sample are presented here, while in a second paper we will analyze these data and discuss the implications for our understanding of the heating mechanism for the warm/cool dust, star formation in the host galaxies, and the unified schemes for powerful radio sources.
The relativistic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect offers a method, independent of X-ray, for measuring the temperature of the intracluster medium (ICM) in the hottest systems. Here, using N-body/hydrodynamic simulations of three galaxy clusters, we compare the two quantities for a non-radiative ICM, and for one that is subject both to radiative cooling and to strong energy feedback from galaxies. Our study has yielded two interesting results. First, in all cases, the SZ temperature is hotter than the X-ray temperature and is within 10 per cent of the virial temperature of the cluster. Secondly, the mean SZ temperature is less affected by cooling and feedback than the X-ray temperature. Both these results can be explained by the SZ temperature being less sensitive to the distribution of cool gas associated with cluster substructure. A comparison of the SZ and X-ray temperatures (measured for a sample of hot clusters) would therefore yield interesting constraints on the thermodynamic structure of the intracluster gas.
We present mid-infrared spectra of 32 high-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies, selected via the stellar photospheric feature at rest-frame 1.6 mu m, and an observed-frame 24 mu m flux of > 500 mu Jy. Nearly all the sample reside in a redshift range of < z > 1.71 +/-0.15 and have rest-frame 1-1000 mu m luminosities of 10(12.9)-10(13.8) L-circle dot. Most of the spectra exhibit prominent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission features and weak silicate absorption, consistent with a starburst origin for the IR emission. Our selection method appears to be a straightforward and efficient way of finding distant, IR-luminous, star-forming galaxies in narrow redshift ranges. There is, however, evidence that the mid-IR spectra of our sample differ systematically from those of local ULIRGs; our sample have comparable PAH equivalent widths but weaker apparent silicate absorption, and (possibly) enhanced PAH 6.2 mu m/7.7 mu m and 6.2 mu m/11.2 mu m flux ratios. Furthermore, the composite mid-IR spectrum of our sample is almost identical to that of local starbursts with IR luminosities of 10(10)-10(11) L-circle dot, rather than that of local ULIRGs. These differences are consistent with a reduced dust column, which can plausibly be obtained via some combination of (1) star formation that is extended over spatial scales of 1-4 kpc and (2) star formation in unusually gas-rich regions.
In recent years there has been considerable progress in our understanding of the nature and properties of the reionization process. In particular, the numerical simulations of this epoch have made a qualitative leap forward, reaching sufficiently large scales to derive the characteristic scales of the reionization process and thus allowing for realistic observational predictions. Our group has recently performed the first such large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization, run on top of state-of-the-art simulations of early structure formation. This allowed us to make the first realistic observational predictions about the Epoch of Reionization based on detailed radiative transfer and structure formation simulations. We discuss the basic features of reionization derived from our simulations and some recent results on the observational implications for the high-redshift Ly-alpha sources.
Distances in cosmology are usually inferred from observed redshifts - an estimate that is dependent on the local peculiar motion - giving a distorted view of the three dimensional structure and affecting basic observables such as the correlation function and power spectrum. We calculate the full non-linear redshift-space power spectrum for Gaussian fields, giving results for both the standard flat sky approximation and the directly-observable angular correlation function and angular power spectrum. Coupling between large and small scale modes boosts the power on small scales when the perturbations are small, and small scale velocities slightly suppress power on large scales. The analysis is general, but we comment specifically on the implications for future high-redshift observations, and show that the non-linear spectrum has significantly more complicated angular structure than in linear theory. We comment on the implications for using the angular structure to separate cosmological and astrophysical components of 21 cm observations.
The results of the measurements of the double-differential production cross-sections of pions, d(2)sigma(pi)/dpd Omega, in p-C and pi(+/-)-C interactions using the forward spectrometer of the HARP experiment are presented. The incident particles are 12 GeV/c protons and charged pions directed onto a carbon target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. For p-C interactions the analysis is performed using 100,035 reconstructed secondary tracks, while the corresponding numbers of tracks for pi(-)-C and pi(+)-C analyses are 106,534 and 10,122, respectively. Cross-section results are presented in the kinematic range 0.5 GeV/c <= p(pi) < 8 GeV/c and 30 mrad <= theta(pi) < 240 mrad in the laboratory frame. The measured cross-sections have a direct impact on the precise calculation of atmospheric neutrino fluxes and on the improved reliability of extensive air shower simulations by reducing the uncertainties of hadronic interaction models in the low energy range
We use Bayesian model selection tools to forecast the Planck satellite's ability to distinguish between different models for the re-ionization history of the Universe, using the large angular scale signal in the cosmic microwave background polarization spectrum. We find that Planck is not expected to be able to distinguish between an instantaneous re-ionization model and a two-parameter smooth re-ionization model, except for extreme values of the additional re-ionization parameter. If it cannot, then it will be unable to distinguish between different two-parameter models either. However, Bayesian model averaging will be needed to obtain unbiased estimates of the optical depth to re-ionization. We also generalize our results to a hypothetical future cosmic variance limited microwave anisotropy survey, where the outlook is more optimistic.
We re-examine the production of gravitational waves by bubble collisions during a first-order phase transition. The spectrum of the gravitational radiation is determined by numerical simulations using the 'envelope approximation'. We find that the spectrum rises as f3.0 for small frequencies and decreases as f-1.0 for high frequencies. Thus, the fall-off at high frequencies is significantly slower than previously stated in the literature. This result has direct impact on detection prospects for gravity waves originating from a strong first-order electroweak phase transition at space-based interferometers, such as LISA and BBO. In addition, we observe a slight dependence of the peak frequency on the bubble wall velocity.
A search for a sidereal modulation in the MINOS near detector neutrino data was performed. If present, this signature could be a consequence of Lorentz and CPT violation as predicted by the effective field theory called the standard-model extension. No evidence for a sidereal signal in the data set was found, implying that there is no significant change in neutrino propagation that depends on the direction of the neutrino beam in a sun-centered inertial frame. Upper limits on the magnitudes of the Lorentz and CPT violating terms in the standard-model extension lie between 10-4 and 10-2 of the maximum expected, assuming a suppression of these signatures by a factor of 10-17.
We study quantum-gravitational signatures at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the context of theories with extra spatial dimensions and a low fundamental Planck scale in the TeV range. Implications of a gravitational fixed point at high energies are worked out using Wilson¿s renormalization group. We find that relevant cross sections involving virtual gravitons become finite. Based on gravitational lepton pair production we conclude that the LHC is sensitive to a fundamental Planck scale of up to 6 TeV.
We present an analysis of the small-to-intermediate scale clustering of samples of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey (2SLAQ) survey carefully matched to have the same rest-frame colours and luminosity. We study the spatial two-point autocorrelation function in both redshift space [xi(s)] and real space [xi(r)] of a combined sample of over 10 000 LRGs, which represent the most massive galaxies in the universe with stellar masses > 10(11) h(-1) M-circle dot and space densities similar or equal to 10(-4) h(3) Mpc(-3). We find no significant evolution in the amplitude (r(0)) of the correlation function with redshift, but do see a slight decrease in the slope (gamma) with increasing redshift over 0.19 < z < 0.55 and scales of 0.32 < r < 32 h(-1) Mpc. We compare our measurements with the predicted evolution of dark matter clustering and use the halo model to interpret our results. We find that our clustering measurements are inconsistent (> 99.9 per cent significance) with a passive model whereby the LRGs do not merge with one another; a model with a merger rate of 7.5 +/- 2.3 per cent from z = 0.55 to 0.19 (i.e. an average rate of 2.4 per cent Gyr(-1)) provides a better fit to our observations. Our clustering and number density measurements are consistent with the hypothesis that the merged LRGs were originally central galaxies in different haloes which, following the merger of these haloes, merged to create a single brightest cluster galaxy. In addition, we show that the small-scale clustering signal constrains the scatter in halo merger histories. When combined with measurements of the luminosity function, our results suggest that this scatter is sub-Poisson. While this is a generic prediction of hierarchical models, it has not been tested before.
SPIRE, the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, is a submillimetre camera and spectrometer for Herschel. It comprises a three-band camera operating at 250, 350 and 500 µm, and an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer covering 194-672 µm. The photometer field of view is 4×8 arcmin., viewed simultaneously in the three bands. The FTS has an approximately circular field of view of 2.6 arcmin. diameter and spectral resolution adjustable between 0.04 and 2 cm¿1 (¿/¿¿. =20-1000 at 250 µm). Following successful testing in a dedicated facility designed to simulate the in-flight operational conditions, SPIRE has been integrated in the Herschel spacecraft and is now undergoing system-level testing prior to launch. The main design features of SPIRE are reviewed, the key results of instrument testing are outlined, and a summary of the predicted in-flight performance is given.
We demonstrate how a time-dependent dissipative environment may be used as a tool for controlling the quantum state of a two-level atom. In our model system the frequency and coupling strength associated with microscopic reservoir modes are modulated, while the principal features of the reservoir structure remain fixed in time. Physically, this may be achieved by containing a static atom-cavity system inside an oscillating external bath. We show that it is possible to dynamically decouple the atom from its environment, despite the fact that the two remain resonant at all times. This can lead to Markovian dynamics, even for a strong atom-bath coupling, as the atomic decay becomes inhibited into all but a few channels; the reservoir occupation spectrum consequently acquires a sideband structure, with peaks separated by the frequency of the environmental modulation. The reduction in the rate of spontaneous emission using this approach can be significantly greater than could be achieved with an oscillatory atom-bath detuning using the same parameters.
We revisit the distant future of the Sun and the Solar system, based on stellar models computed with a thoroughly tested evolution code. For the solar giant stages, mass loss by the cool (but not dust-driven) wind is considered in detail. Using the new and well-calibrated mass-loss formula of Schröder & Cuntz, we find that the mass lost by the Sun as a red giant branch (RGB) giant (0.332 M⊙, 7.59 Gyr from now) potentially gives planet Earth a significant orbital expansion, inversely proportional to the remaining solar mass.
According to these solar evolution models, the closest encounter of planet Earth with the solar cool giant photosphere will occur during the tip-RGB phase. During this critical episode, for each time-step of the evolution model, we consider the loss of orbital angular momentum suffered by planet Earth from tidal interaction with the giant Sun, as well as dynamical drag in the lower chromosphere. As a result of this, we find that planet Earth will not be able to escape engulfment, despite the positive effect of solar mass loss. In order to survive the solar tip-RGB phase, any hypothetical planet would require a present-day minimum orbital radius of about 1.15 au. The latter result may help to estimate the chances of finding planets around white dwarfs.
Furthermore, our solar evolution models with detailed mass-loss description predict that the resulting tip-AGB (asymptotic giant branch) giant will not reach its tip-RGB size. Compared to other solar evolution models, the main reason is the more significant amount of mass lost already in the RGB phase of the Sun. Hence, the tip-AGB luminosity will come short of driving a final, dust-driven superwind, and there will be no regular solar planetary nebula (PN). The tip-AGB is marked by a last thermal pulse, and the final mass loss of the giant may produce a circumstellar (CS) shell similar to, but rather smaller than, that of the peculiar PN IC 2149 with an estimated total CS shell mass of just a few hundredths of a solar mass.
We perform a multi-parameter likelihood analysis to compare measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra with predictions from models involving cosmic strings. We explore the addition of strings to the inflationary concordance model, involving an adiabatic primordial power spectrum with a power-law tilt n, as well as the Harrison-Zeldovich (HZ) case n=1. Using ACBAR, BOOMERANG, CBI, VSA and WMAP data we show that of the models investigated, the HZ case with strings provides the best fit to the data relative to the freedom in the model, having a moderately higher Bayesian evidence than the concordance model. For HZ plus strings, CMB data then implies a (10+/-3)% string contribution to the temperature power spectrum at multipole l=10. However, with non-CMB data included, finite tilt and finite strings are approximately on par with each other. Considering variable $\\\\ns$, we then find a 95% upper limit of the string fraction of 11%, corresponding to $G\\\\mu
Inflationary observables, like the power spectrum, computed at one-order and higher-order loop level seem to be plagued by large infra-red corrections. In this short note, we point out that these large infra-red corrections appear only in quantities which are not directly observable. This is in agreement with general expectations concerning infra-red effects
We present the first ever calculation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy power spectra from semilocal cosmic strings, obtained via simulations of a classical field theory. Semilocal strings are a type of non-topological defect arising in some models of inflation motivated by fundamental physics, and are thought to relax the constraints on the symmetry breaking scale as compared to models with (topological) cosmic strings. We derive constraints on the model parameters, including the string tension parameter mu, from fits to cosmological data, and find that in this regard Bogomol'nyi-Prasad -Sommerfield (BPS) semilocal strings resemble global textures more than topological strings. The observed microwave anisotropy at l = 10 is reproduced if mu = 5.3 x 10(-6) (G is Newton's constant). However as with other defects the spectral shape does not match observations, and in models with inflationary perturbations plus semilocal strings the 95% confidence level upper bound is G mu < 2.0 x 10(-6) when CMB, Hubble key project and big bang nucleosynthesis data are used (cf G mu < 0.9 x 10(-6) for cosmic strings). We additionally carry out a Bayesian model comparison of several models with and without defects, showing that models with defects are neither conclusively favoured nor disfavoured at present.
We describe a model in which the fundamental scale M, of the theory which unifies gravity and quantum mechanics is in the TeV range, but without requiring additional spacetime dimensions. The weakness of gravity at low energies is due to a large vacuum expectation of a dilaton like field. The model requires a small dimensionless parameter (the self-coupling of the dilaton) but no fine-tuning. We discuss in detail the dynamical assumptions about non-perturbative quantum gravity required within the model. We observe that M. could be quite small, less than a TeV, and that the model could lead to copious strong coupling effects at the LHC. However, semiclassical black holes will not be produced.
Across a largely pacified international landscape, nuclear proliferation remains one of the few issues capable of igniting military conflagration. It was yellowcake uranium that headlined Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN of the casus belli against Iraq in February 2003. Clinton signalled a war alert over North Korea’s research reactor in 1994, while Bush followed suit in lower key in 2002. Embryonic nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria have been bombed by the IDF. Iran’s uranium-enrichment programme incurs threats and sanctions from Congress and the Security Council, and more sabre-rattling from Israel. American officials have begun to speak of a zero-enrichment option for selected states.
The normative legal framework at stake in these conflicts is the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. A product of détente-era American–Soviet diplomacy, famously privileging the rights of the established nuclear powers over all newcomers, the NPT has been given a new lease of life since the end of the Cold War; its abrogation of national sovereignties chiming well with current superpower needs. Yet with scant exception, states facing UN-sanctioned coercion for breaching their obligations under the Treaty—Iran, for instance—still cling to it, rather than exercise their right to withdraw; while the Bush Administration has regularly been accused of flouting its provisions. For mainstream and much liberal-left opinion, the NPT betokens a moral pledge to a future world without weapons, as much as a shield against the calamity of nuclear war. Yet the Treaty itself has received little attention since its unconditional extension in 1995. With this number, New Left Review begins a discussion on the political meaning of the NPT, the evolution of its institutional apparatus, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and broader questions of nuclear non-proliferation. In his opening contribution Norman Dombey, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Sussex, surveys the aims, limitations and achievements of the Treaty, while Peter Gowan, author of The Global Gamble, argues that attempts by the Bush Administration to bypass the NPT have ended in failure. The editors hope to return to this theme in future issues.
The physical processes that define the spine of the galaxy cluster X‐ray luminosity–temperature (L–T) relation are investigated using a large hydrodynamical simulation of the universe. This simulation models the same volume and phases as the millennium simulation and has a linear extent of 500 h−1 Mpc. We demonstrate that mergers typically boost a cluster along but also slightly below the L–T relation. Due to this boost, we expect that all of the very brightest clusters will be near the peak of a merger. Objects from near the top of the L–T relation tend to have assembled much of their mass earlier than an average halo of similar final mass. Conversely, objects from the bottom of the relation are often experiencing an ongoing or recent merger.