118705938
FINDING DWARF GALAXIES FROM THEIR TIDAL IMPRINTS
We describe ongoing work on a new method that allows one to approximately determine the mass and relative position (in galactocentric radius and azimuth) of galactic companions purely from analysis of observed disturbances in gas disks. We demonstrate the validity of this method, which we call Tidal Analysis, by applying it to local spirals with known optical companions, namely M51 and NGC 1512. These galaxies span the range from having a very low mass companion (~one-hundredth the mass of the primary galaxy) to a fairly massive companion (~one-third the mass of the primary galaxy). This approach has broad implications for many areas of astrophysics—for the indirect detection of dark matter (or dark-matter-dominated dwarf galaxies), and for galaxy evolution in its use to decipher the dynamical impact of satellites on galactic disks. Here, we provide a proof of principle of the method by applying it to infer and quantitatively characterize optically visible galactic companions of local spirals, from the analysis of observed disturbances in outer gas disks.
118984787
A NEW PROBE OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER IN GALAXIES
The scale radius of dark matter halos is a critical parameter for specifying the density distribution of dark matter, and is therefore a fundamental parameter for modeling galaxies. We develop here a novel, observationally motivated probe to quantitatively infer its value within the context of the Navarro, Frenk, & White profile. We demonstrate that disturbances in the extended atomic hydrogen gas disks of galaxies can be analyzed to infer the scale radius of the dark matter halo. Our primary metric is the phase (i.e., the shape of the spiral) of the m = 1 mode of the disturbance in the outskirts of the gas disk, which we take to be produced by a tidal interaction. We apply the method to the Whirlpool galaxy, which has an optically visible satellite. We infer a scale radius of ~17 kpc for M51, which is consistent with expectations from dissipationless cosmological simulations. We explore potential degeneracies due to orbital inclination, initial conditions, satellite mass, and pericenter approach distance, and find our results to be relatively insensitive to these considerations. Our method of tracing the dark potential well through observed disturbances in outer gas disks is complementary to gravitational lensing.
118956575
Simulating Merging Galaxies: The Infrared View
We calculate multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs) (spanning optical to millimeter wavelengths) from simulations of major galaxy mergers using a three-dimensional radiative transfer code, which treats the absorption and scattering of radiation as well as the reemission from dust grains self-consistently. These calculations allow us to deduce correlations from the X-rays to millimeter wavelengths. We confirm observed correlations for Spitzer Space Telescope’s IRAC bands, as well as correlations observed in the IRAS era. We also make predictions that should be testable by future instruments. The power of the dynamical approach afforded by calculating fluxes from the merger simulations is that we can directly correlate observed clustering in the data as seen in IRAC color-color plots with the relative amount of time the system spends in a region of color-color space. We also present photo albums spanning the lifetime of SMGs, from its infancy in the pre-merger phase to its final stage as an elliptical galaxy, as seen in various bands. Finally, we compare the SEDs from the simulations to recent observations of SMGs. Our calculations, which match observed correlations both for local ULIRGs and higher redshift systems, suggest that simulations of major mergers with black hole feedback provide an excellent framework within which to understand the emission from local ULIRGs, and their high redshift cousins, the submillimeter galaxies.
119086181
Geodesic deviation in Regge calculus
Geodesic deviation is the most basic manifestation of the influence of gravitational fields on matter. We investigate geodesic deviation within the framework of Regge calculus, and compare the results with the continuous formulation of general relativity on two different levels. We show that the continuum and simplicial descriptions coincide when the cumulative effect of the Regge contributions over an infinitesimal element of area is considered. This comparison provides a quantitative relation between the curvature of the continuous description and the deficit angles of Regge calculus. The results presented might also be of help in developing generic ways of including matter terms in the Regge equations.
116898833
Spectral energy distributions of embedded protostars and dusty galaxies
16317166
Far-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions and Photometric Redshifts of Dusty Galaxies
We infer the large-scale source parameters of dusty galaxies from their observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using the analytic radiative transfer methodology presented by Chakrabarti and McKee. For local ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), we show that the millimeter to far-infrared (FIR) SEDs can be well fit using the standard dust opacity index of 2 when self-consistent radiative transfer solutions are employed, indicating that the cold dust in local ULIRGs can be described by a single-grain model. We develop a method for determining photometric redshifts of ULIRGs and submillimeter galaxies from the millimeter-FIR SED; the resulting value of 1 + z is typically accurate to about 10% . As such, it is comparable to the accuracy of near-IR photometric redshifts and provides a complementary means of deriving redshifts from far-IR data, such as those from the upcoming Herschel Space Observatory. Since our analytic radiative transfer solution is developed for homogeneous, spherically symmetric, centrally heated, dusty sources, it is relevant for infrared bright galaxies that are primarily powered by compact sources of luminosity that are embedded in a dusty envelope. We discuss how deviations from spherical symmetry may affect the applicability of our solution, and we contrast our self-consistent analytic solution with standard approximations to demonstrate the main differences.
118544491
Proof of universality of electrical conductivity at finite chemical potential
It was proposed in [1] that, for certain gauge theories with gravity duals, electrical conductivity at finite chemical potential is universal. Here we provide a general proof that, when matter stress tensor satisfies a compact constraint, electrical conductivity is universal. We further elaborate our result with several conformal as well as non-conformal gauge theories. We also discuss how boundary conductivity and universal conductivity of stretched horizon are related.
13926216
Asymptotic Quasinormal Modes of d-Dimensional Schwarzschild Black Hole with Gauss-Bonnet Correction
We obtain an analytic expression for the highly damped asymptotic quasinormal mode frequencies of the (d ≥ 5)-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole modified by the Gauss–Bonnet term, which appears in string derived models of gravity. The analytic expression is obtained under the string inspired assumption that there exists a minimum length scale in the system and in the limit when the coupling in front of the Gauss–Bonnet term in the action is small. Although there are several similarities of this geometry with that of the Schwarzschild black hole, the asymptotic quasinormal mode frequencies are quite different. In particular, the real part of the asymptotic quasinormal frequencies for this class of single horizon black holes is not proportional to log(3).
10835186
A comparative study of Dirac quasinormal modes of charged black holes in higher dimensions
In this work we study the Dirac quasinormal modes of higher dimensional charged black holes. Higher dimensional Reissner–Nordström type black holes as well as charged black holes in Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theories are studied for fermionic perturbations using WKB method. A comparative study of the quasinormal modes in the two different theories of gravity has been performed. The behavior of the frequencies with the variation of black hole parameters as well as with the variation of space-time dimensions is studied. We also study the large multipole number limit of the black hole potential in order to look for an analytic expression for the frequencies.
115159980
QUANTIZATION OF EXCITON IN MAGNETIC FIELD BACKGROUND
The possible mismatch between the theoretical and experimental absorption edge peaks in semiconductors in a magnetic field background may arise due to the approximation scheme used to analytically calculate the absorption coefficient. As a possible remedy we suggest to consider nontrivial boundary conditions on x–y plane by in-equivalently quantizing the exciton in background magnetic field. This inequivalent quantization is based on von Neumann's method of self-adjoint extension, which is characterized by a parameter Σ. We obtain bound state solution and scattering state solution, which in general depend upon the self-adjoint extension parameter Σ. The parameter Σ can be used to fine tune the optical absorption coefficient K(Σ) to match with the experiment.
119181389
A new approach to modified gravity models
We investigate f (R)-gravity models performing the ADM-slicing of standard General Relativity. We extract the static, spherically-symmetric vacuum solutions in the general case, which correspond to either Schwarzschild de-Sitter or Schwarzschild anti-de-Sitter ones. Additionally, we study the cosmological evolution of a homogeneous and isotropic universe, which is governed by an algebraic and not a differential equation. We show that the universe admits solutions corresponding to acceleration at late cosmological epochs, without the need of fine-tuning the model-parameters or the initial conditions.