2385881
The Coincidence of Nuclear Star Clusters and Active Galactic Nuclei
We study galaxies that host both nuclear star clusters and AGNs, implying the presence of a massive black hole. We select a sample of 176 galaxies with previously detected nuclear star clusters that range from ellipticals to late-type spirals. We search for AGNs in this sample using optical spectroscopy and archival radio and X-ray data. We find galaxies of all Hubble types and with a wide range of masses (109-1011 M☉) hosting both AGNs and nuclear star clusters. From the optical spectra, we classify 10% of the galaxies as AGN and an additional 15% as composite, indicating a mix of AGN and star formation spectra. The fraction of nucleated galaxies with AGNs increases strongly as a function of galaxy and nuclear star cluster mass. For galaxies with both a nuclear star cluster and a black hole, we find that the masses of these two objects are quite similar. However, nondetections of black holes in Local Group nuclear star clusters show that not all clusters host black holes of similar masses. We discuss the implications of our results for the formation of nuclear star clusters and massive black holes.
53708822
A MASS-DEPENDENT YIELD ORIGIN OF NEUTRON-CAPTURE ELEMENT ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS IN ULTRA-FAINT DWARFS
One way to constrain the nature of the high-redshift progenitors of the Milky Way (MW) is to look at the low-metallicity stellar populations of the different Galactic components today. For example, high-resolution spectroscopy of very metal poor (VMP) stars demonstrates remarkable agreement between the distribution of [Ti/Fe] in the stellar populations of the MW halo and ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. In contrast, for the neutron-capture (nc) abundance ratio distributions [(Sr, Ba)/Fe], the peak of the small UFD sample (6 stars) exhibits a significant under-abundance relative to the VMP stars in the larger MW halo sample (~300 stars). We present a simple scenario that can simultaneously explain these similarities and differences by assuming: (1) that the MW VMP stars were predominately enriched by a prior generation of stars which possessed a higher total mass than the prior generation of stars that enriched the UFD VMP stars; and (2) a much stronger mass-dependent yield (MDY) for nc-elements than for the (known) MDY for Ti. Simple statistical tests demonstrate that conditions (1) and (2) are consistent with the observed abundance distributions, albeit without strong constraints on model parameters. A comparison of the broad constraints for these nc-MDY with those derived in the literature seems to rule out Ba production from low-mass supernovae (SNe) and affirms models that primarily generate yields from high-mass SNe. Our scenario can be confirmed by a relatively modest (factor of ~3-4) increase in the number of high-resolution spectra of VMP stars in UFDs.
118608523
MEASURING TRANSVERSE MOTIONS FOR NEARBY GALAXY CLUSTERS
Measuring the full three-dimensional motions of extragalactic objects in the universe presents a seemingly insurmountable challenge. In this Letter, we investigate the application of a technique to measure tangential motion that has previously only been applied nearby within the Local Group of galaxies, to clusters of galaxies far beyond its borders. We show that mapping the mean line-of-sight motion throughout a galaxy cluster could in principle be used to detect the perspective rotation induced by the projection of the cluster's tangential motion into the line of sight. The signal will be most prominent for clusters of the largest angular extent, most symmetric intrinsic velocity distribution and surveyed with the largest number of pointings possible. We investigate the feasibility of detecting this signal using three different approaches: measuring line-of-sight motions of individual cluster members, taking spectra of intracluster gas, and mapping distortions of the cosmic microwave background radiation. We conclude that future spectroscopic surveys of thousands of members of nearby galaxy clusters hold the most promise of measuring cluster tangential motions using this technique.
119836609
Deuterium atoms and molecules in nanoclusters of molecular deuterium
Impurity-helium solids created by injecting deuterium atoms and molecules into superfluid 4 He have been studied via x-ray-diffraction and electron-spin-resonance (ESR) techniques. X-ray-diffraction measurements show thatthese solids are highly porous gel-like structures consisting of D 2 clusters with the characteristic cluster size of 90′ 30 A. The densities of D 2 molecules in the samples are 7 × 10 2 0 -3 × 10 2 1 cm - 3 . Each of the D 2 clusters are either partially or totally surrounded by thin layers of adsorbed helium which may play an important role in preventing the coalescence of the clusters into larger crystallites of solid D 2 . Using ESR, we find that average concentrations of D atoms of order I × 10 1 8 cm - 3 can be achieved in our samples. Measurements of the ground-state spectroscopic parameters and relaxation times of atomic deuterium show that the D atoms reside in the D 2 clusters. The combined x-ray and ESR data show that local concentrations of D atoms as large as 2 × 10 1 9 cm - 3 are obtained in our experiments. The highly porous deuterium nanostructures studied in this work are promising for the production of high concentrations of ultracold neutrons and for significant nuclear polarization of D 2 molecules by the "brute force method" at low temperatures.
43493679
Precision benchmark calculations for four particles at unitarity
The unitarity limit describes interacting particles where the range of the interaction is zero and the scattering length is infinite. We present precision benchmark calculations for two-component fermions at unitarity using three different ab initio methods: Hamiltonian lattice formalism using iterated eigenvector methods, Euclidean lattice formalism with auxiliary-field projection Monte Carlo methods, and continuum diffusion Monte Carlo methods with fixed and released nodes. We have calculated the ground-state energy of the unpolarized four-particle system in a periodic cube as a dimensionless fraction of the ground-state energy for the noninteracting system. We obtain values of 0.211(2) and 0.210(2) using two different Hamiltonian lattice representations, 0.206(9) using Euclidean lattice formalism, and an upper bound of 0.212(2) from fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo methods. Released-node calculations starting from the fixed-node result yield a decrease of less than 0.002 over a propagation of 0.4E{sub F}{sup -1} in Euclidean time, where E{sub F} is the Fermi energy. We find good agreement among all three ab initio methods.
16441248
Nuclear lattice simulations with chiral effective field theory
We study nuclear and neutron matter by combining chiral effective field theory with nonperturbative lattice methods. In our approach, nucleons and pions are treated as point particles on a lattice. This allows us to probe larger volumes, lower temperatures, and greater nuclear densities than in lattice QCD. The low-energy interactions of these particles are governed by chiral effective theory, and operator coefficients are determined by fitting to zero temperature few-body scattering data. The leading dependence on the lattice spacing can be understood from the renormalization group and absorbed by renormalizing operator coefficients. In this way, we have a realistic simulation of many-body nuclear phenomena with no free parameters, a systematic expansion, and a clear theoretical connection to QCD. We present results for hot neutron matter at temperatures 20-40 MeV and densities below twice the nuclear matter density.
118515210
Dilute neutron matter on the lattice at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory
Abstract.We discuss lattice simulations of the ground state of dilute neutron matter at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory. In a previous paper the coefficients of the next-to-leading-order lattice action were determined by matching nucleon-nucleon scattering data for momenta up to the pion mass. Here the same lattice action is used to simulate the ground state of up to 12 neutrons in a periodic cube using Monte Carlo simulations. We explore the density range from 2% to 8% of normal nuclear density and analyze the ground-state energy as an expansion about the unitarity limit with corrections due to finite scattering length, effective range, and P -wave interactions.
110867317
Fail-safe ion chamber errant beam detector tailored for personnel protection
A description is given of a fail-safe ion chamber system designed to be part of the personnel safety system (PSS) for the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It protects the occupants of experiment areas from large radiation doses caused by errant beam conditions during beam transport from the proton storage ring to the LANSCE neutron spallation target. The layered system consists of three types of highly reliable detector systems: a current limiter system located in the beam line, a neutron detector system located in experimental areas, and an ion chamber system located on the walls of the beam line tunnels. The ion chamber system is capable of shutting off the beam in less that 0.5 s, resulting in a worst-case personnel exposure of 0.005 Gys (0.5 rd).<<ETX>>