arXiv subjects

B. Nikolic

Publications and source records attributed to B. Nikolic.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Inference of Coefficients for Use in Phase Correction I

We present a Bayesian approach to calculating the coefficients that convert the outputs of ALMA 183 GHz water-vapour radiometers into estimates of path fluctuations which can then be used to correct the observed interferometric visibilities. The key features of the approach are a simple, thin-layer, three-parameter model of the atmosphere; using the absolute measurements from the radiometers to constrain the model; priors to incorporate physical constraints and ancillary information; and a Markov Chain Monte Carlo characterisation of the posterior distribution including full distributions for the phase correction coefficients. The outcomes of the procedure are therefore estimates of the coefficients and their confidence intervals. We illustrate the technique with simulations showing some degeneracies that can arise and the importance of priors in tackling them. We then apply the technique to an hour-long test observation at the Sub-Millimetre Array and find that the technique is stable and that, in this case, its performance is close to optimal. The modelling is described in detail in the appendices and all of the implementation source code is made publicly available under the GPL.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2008

The history of star formation and mass assembly in early-type galaxies

We define a volume limited sample of over 14,000 early-type galaxies (ETGs) selected from data release six of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The density of environment of each galaxy is robustly measured. By comparing narrow band spectral line indices with recent models of simple stellar populations (SSPs) we investigate trends in the star formation history as a function of galaxy mass (velocity dispersion), density of environment and galactic radius. We find that age, metallicity and alpha-enhancement all increase with galaxy mass and that field ETGs are younger than their cluster counterparts by ~2 Gyr. We find negative radial metallicity gradients for all masses and environments, and positive radial age gradients for ETGs with velocity dispersion over 180 km/s. Our results are qualitatively consistent with a relatively simple picture for ETG evolution in which the low-mass halos accreted by a proto-ETG contained not only gas but also a stellar population. This fossil population is preferentially found at large radii in massive ETGs because the stellar accretions were dissipationless. We estimate that the typical, massive ETG should have been assembled at z < 3.5. The process is similar in the cluster and the field but occurred earlier in dense environments.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Type I background fields in terms of type IIB ones

We choose such boundary conditions for open IIB superstring theory which preserve N=1 SUSY. The explicite solution of the boundary conditions yields effective theory which is symmetric under world-sheet parity transformation $Ω:σ\to-σ$. We recognize effective theory as closed type I superstring theory. Its background fields,beside known $Ω$ even fields of the initial IIB theory, contain improvements quadratic in $Ω$ odd ones.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Gauge symmetries decrease the number of Dp-brane dimensions. II. Inclusion of the Liouville term

The presence of the antisymmetric background field $B_{μν}$ leads to the noncommutativity of the Dp-brane manifold, while the linear dilaton field in the form $Φ(x)=Φ_0+a_μx^μ$, causes the appearance of the commutative Dp-brane coordinate, $x_c=a_μx^μ$. In the present article we consider the case where the conformal invariance is realized by inclusion of the Liouville term. Then, the theory is conformally invariant even in the presence of the world sheet conformal factor $F$, and it depends on the new parameter, the central charge $c$. As well as in the absence of the Liouville action, for particular relations between background fields, the local gauge symmetries appear in the theory. They turn some Neumann boundary conditions into the Dirichlet ones, and decrease the number of the Dp-brane dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Measurement of Antenna Surfaces from In- and Out-Of-Focus Beam Maps using Astronomical Sources

We present a technique for the accurate estimation of large-scale errors in an antenna surface using astronomical sources and detectors. The technique requires several out-of-focus images of a compact source and the signal-to-noise ratio needs to be good but not unreasonably high. For a given pattern of surface errors, the expected form of such images can be calculated directly. We show that it is possible to solve the inverse problem of finding the surface errors from the images in a stable manner using standard numerical techniques. To do this we describe the surface error as a linear combination of a suitable set of basis functions (we use Zernike polynomials). We present simulations illustrating the technique and in particular we investigate the effects of receiver noise and pointing errors. Measurements of the 15-m James Clerk Maxwell telescope made using this technique are presented as an example. The key result is that good measurements of errors on large spatial scales can be obtained if the input images have a signal-to-noise ratio of order 100 or more. The important advantage of this technique over transmitter-based holography is that it allows measurements at arbitrary elevation angles, so allowing one to characterise the large scale deformations in an antenna as a function of elevation.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Out-Of-Focus Holography at the Green Bank Telescope

We describe phase-retrieval holography measurements of the 100-m diameter Green Bank Telescope using astronomical sources and an astronomical receiver operating at a wavelength of 7 mm. We use the technique with parameterization of the aperture in terms of Zernike polynomials and employing a large defocus, as described by Nikolic, Hills & Richer (2006). Individual measurements take around 25 minutes and from the resulting beam maps (which have peak signal to noise ratios of 200:1) we show that it is possible to produce low-resolution maps of the wavefront errors with accuracy around a hundredth of a wavelength. Using such measurements over a wide range of elevations, we have calculated a model for the wavefront-errors due to the uncompensated gravitational deformation of the telescope. This model produces a significant improvement at low elevations, where these errors are expected to be the largest; after applying the model, the aperture efficiency is largely independent of elevation. We have also demonstrated that the technique can be used to measure and largely correct for thermal deformations of the antenna, which often exceed the uncompensated gravitational deformations during daytime observing. We conclude that the aberrations induced by gravity and thermal effects are large-scale and the technique used here is particularly suitable for measuring such deformations in large millimetre wave radio telescopes.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope limits on cool HI in galaxy groups

We present Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope 21-cm HI observations towards a sample of compact radio sources behind galaxy groups, to search for cool HI. The results -- from high dynamic range spectra for 8 lines-of-sight through 7 galaxy groups -- do not show any evidence for absorption by cool HI. At a resolution of 20 km/s, the optical depth upper limits obtained were between 0.0075 and 0.035 (3sigma); these correspond to upper limits of a few times 10**23 m**-2 for the column density of any cool HI along these lines of sight (assuming a spin temperature of 100 K).

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Symmetry of arbitrary layer rolled-up nanotubes

Rolling up of a layer with arbitrary lattice gives nanotube with very reach symmetry, described by a line group which is found for arbitrary diperiodic group of the layer and chiral vector. Helical axis and pure rotations are always present, while the mirror and glide planes appear only for specific chiral vectors in rhombic and rectangular lattices. Nanotubes are not translationally periodical unless layer cell satisfies very specific conditions. Physical consequences, including incommensurability of carbon nanotubes, are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Gauge symmetries decrease the number of Dp-brane dimensions

It is known that the presence of antisymmetric background field $B_{μν}$ leads to noncommutativity of Dp-brane manifold. Addition of the linear dilaton field in the form $Φ(x)=Φ_0+a_μx^μ$, causes the appearance of the commutative Dp-brane coordinate $x=a_μx^μ$. In the present article we show that for some particular choices of the background fields, $a^2\equiv G^{μν}a_μa_ν=0$ and $\tilde a^2\equiv [ (G-4BG^{-1}B)^{-1}\ ]^{μν}a_μa_ν=0$, the local gauge symmetries appear in the theory. They turn some Neuman boundary conditions into the Dirichlet ones, and consequently decrease the number of the Dp-brane dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

The star formation history of early-type galaxies as a function of mass and environment

Using the third data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) we have rigorously defined a volume limited sample of early-type galaxies in the redshift range z < 0.1. We have defined the density of the local environment for each galaxy using a method which takes account of the redshift bias introduced by survey boundaries if traditional methods are used. At luminosities greater than our absolute r-band magnitude cutoff of -20.45 the mean density of environment shows no trend with redshift. We calculate the Lick indices for the entire sample and correct for aperture effects and velocity dispersion in a model independent way. Although we find no dependence of redshift or luminosity with environment we do find that the mean velocity dispersion, sigma, of early-type galaxies in dense environments tends to be higher than in low density environments. Taking account of this effect we find that several indices show small but very significant trends with environment that are not the result of the correlation between indices and velocity dispersion. The statistical significance of the data is sufficiently high to reveal that models accounting only for alpha-enhancement struggle to produce a consistent picture of age and metallicity of the sample galaxies, whereas a model that also includes carbon enhancement fares much better. We find that early-type galaxies in the field are younger than those in environments typical of clusters but that neither metallicity, alpha-enhancement nor carbon enhancement are influenced by the environment. The youngest early-type galaxies in both field and cluster environments are those with the lowest sigma. However, there is some evidence that the objects with the largest sigma are slightly younger, especially in denser environments.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

A Simple Model For Mid-Infrared Emission from Normal Galaxies

We have combined up-to-date stellar population synthesis models, a simple radiative transfer approach, and a fully comprehensive dust model with the aim of developing a simple but quantitative way of interpreting the mid-infrared spectra of galaxies. We apply these models to the observed correlations of mid-infrared luminosities (at 8 and 24 micron) with the star-formation rate of normal galaxies and find that the observations are naturally reproduced by our models. We further find that the observed 24 micron correlation places a weak constraint on relative distribution of dust and stars.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Star Formation in Close Pairs Selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The effect of galaxy interactions on star formation has been investigated using Data Release 1 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Both the imaging and spectroscopy data products have been used to construct a catalogue of nearest companions to a volume limited (0.03 < z < 0.1) sample of galaxies drawn from the main galaxy sample of SDSS. Of the 13973 galaxies in the volume limited sample, we have identified 12492 systems with companions at projected separations less than 300 kpc. Star-formation rates for the volume-limited sample have been calculated from extinction and aperture corrected H-alpha luminosities and, where available, IRAS data. Specific star formation rates were calculated by estimating galaxy masses from z-band luminosities, and r-band concentration indices were used as an indicator of morphological class. The mean specific star-formation rate is found to be strongly enhanced for projected separations of less than 30 kpc. For late-type galaxies the correlation extends out to projected separations of 300 kpc and is most pronounced in actively star-forming systems. The specific star-formation rate is observed to decrease with increasing recessional velocity difference, but the magnitude of this effect is small compared to that associated with the projected separation. We also observe a tight relationship between the concentration index and pair separation; the mean concentration index is largest for pairs with separations of approximately 75 kpc and declines rapidly for separations smaller than this. This is interpreted as being due to the presence of tidally-triggered nuclear starbursts in close pairs. Further, we find no dependence of star formation enhancement on the morphological type or mass of the companion galaxy

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Symmetry Based Properties of the Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanotubes

The full geometrical symmetry groups (the line groups) of the monolayered, 2Hb and 3R polytypes of the inorganic MoS2 and WS2 micro- and nanotubes of arbitrary chirality are found. This is used to find the coordinates of the representative atoms sufficient to determine completely geometrical structure of tubes. Then some physical properties which can be deduced from the symmetry are discussed: electron band degeneracies, selection rules, general forms of the second rank tensors and potentials, phonon spectra.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv1998

Irreducible Representations of Diperiodic Groups

The irreducible representations of all of the 80 diperiodic groups, being the symmetries of the systems translationally periodical in two directions, are calculated. To this end, each of these groups is factorized as the product of a generalized translational group and an axial point group. The results are presented in the form of the tables, containing the matrices of the irreducible representations of the generators of the groups. General properties and some physical applications (degeneracy and topology of the energy bands, selection rules, etc.) are discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗