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General Flattened Jaffe Models for Galaxies

In this paper we extend oblate and prolate Jaffe models into more general flattened Jaffe models. Since dynamical properties of oblate and prolate Jaffe Models have been studied by Jiang & Moss, they are not repeated here.

astro-ph↗

Additional Comments on "New Limits on Spin-Independent Couplings of Low-Mass WIMP Dark Matter with a Germanium Detector at a Threshold of 200 eV"

In a previous comment (arXiv:0806.1341v1) we criticized purely technical aspects of arXiv:0712.1645 but pointed out that many other inconsistencies were readily apparent. In view of the imminent posting of another version of arXiv:0712.1645, still containing these issues, we would like to offer with this additional note a critical guide to the methodology followed by the TEXONO collaboration, in their effort to extract dark matter limits from a spectral region completely dominated by electronic noise. We find that systematics have been neglected through a combination of erroneous assumptions and failure to explore all of their possible sources.

hep-ex↗

High Longevity Microlensing Events and Dark Matter Black Holes

Gravitational microlensing has been employed to identify massive halo objects by their amplification of distant sources; MACHO searches have studied event times $2 h \lesssim t_0 \lesssim 2 y$ corresponding masses in the range $10^{-6} M_{\odot} \lesssim M \lesssim 100 M_{\odot}$. We suggest that larger masses up to $10^6 M_{\odot}$ are also of considerable interest. It has not been excluded that there is a significant number of halo black holes with such high masses as suggested by cosmological entropy considerations and potentially detectable by high longevity microlensing events.

gr-qc↗

An "Ultrasonic Image" of the Embryonic Universe: CMB Polarization Tests of the Inflationary Paradigm

This chapter describes how the Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background induces a specific type of CMB polarization and describes the first experiment dedicated to testing this most-promising signature of inflation. This experiment, the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) project, has recently embarked on its third observing season. We show preliminary data from the BICEP's first season obtained with a novel polarization modulation mechanism called the "Faraday Rotation Modulator". Our discussion ends with a description of exciting new technology with the potential to probe inflation down to the GUT-scale.

astro-ph↗

Magnetic fields and star formation in spiral galaxies

The main observational results from radio continuum and polarization observations about the magnetic field strength and large-scale pattern for face-on and edge-on spiral galaxies are summarized and compared within our sample of galaxies of different morphological types, inclinations, and star formation rates (SFR). We found that galaxies with low SFR have higher thermal fractions/smaller synchrotron fractions than those with normal or high SFR. Adopting an equipartition model, we conclude that the nonthermal radio emission and the \emph{total magnetic field} strength grow nonlinearly with SFR, while the regular magnetic field strength does not seem to depend on SFR. We also studied the magnetic field structure and disk thicknesses in highly inclined (edge-on) galaxies. We found in four galaxies that - despite their different radio appearance - the vertical scale heights for both, the thin and thick disk/halo, are about equal (0.3/1.8 kpc at 4.75 GHz), independently of their different SFR. This implies that all these galaxies host a galactic wind, in which the bulk velocity of the cosmic rays (CR) is determined by the total field strength within the galactic disk. The galaxies in our sample also show a similar large-scale magnetic field configuration, parallel to the midplane and X-shaped further away from the disk plane, independent of Hubble type and SFR in the disk. Hence we conclude that also the large-scale magnetic field pattern does not depend on the amount of SFR.

astro-ph↗

Dynamics of WIMPs in the solar system and implications for direct and indirect detection

Semi-analytic treatments of the evolution of orbits of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the solar system suggest that the WIMPs bound to the solar system may enhance the direct detection rate relative to that of the unbound population by up to a factor of order unity, and boost the flux of neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Earth by up to two orders of magnitude. To test these important but uncertain results, we perform a suite of numerical orbit integrations to explore the properties of the bound WIMP population as a function of the WIMP mass and the scattering cross section with baryonic matter. For regions of WIMP parameter space presently allowed by experiments, we find that (i) the bound WIMP population enhances the direct detection rate by at most ~1% relative to the rate from unbound halo WIMPs; (ii) it is unlikely that planned km^3-scale neutrino telescopes will detect neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Earth; (iii) the event rate from neutrinos produced by WIMP annihilation in the Sun may be much smaller than implied by the usual calculations, which assume that WIMPs scattered onto bound orbits are rapidly thermalized in the Sun.

astro-ph↗

Constraining the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy with heavy-ion reactions and its astrophysical impact

Recent analyses of several isospin effects in heavy-ion reactions have allowed us to constrain the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy at sub-saturation densities within a narrow range. Combined with constraints on the Equation of State (EOS) of symmetric nuclear matter obtained previously from analyzing the elliptic flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the EOS of neutron-rich nuclear matter is thus partially constrained. Here we report effects of the partially constrained EOS of neutron-rich nuclear matter on the mass-radius correlation, moment of inertia, elliptical deformation and gravitational radiation of (rapidly) rotating neutron stars.

nucl-th↗

From dark matter to MOND

MOND-- modified Newtonian dynamics-- may be viewed as an algorithm for calculating the distribution of force in an astronomical object from the observed distribution of baryonic matter. The fact that it works for galaxies is quite problematic for Cold Dark Matter. Moreover, MOND explains or subsumes systematic aspects of galaxy photometry and kinematics-- aspects that CDM does not address or gets wrong. I will present evidence here in support of these assertions and claim that this is effectively a falsification of dark matter that is dynamically important on the scale of galaxies.

astro-ph↗

Conformal transformations and conformal invariance in gravitation

Conformal transformations are frequently used tools in order to study relations between various theories of gravity and the Einstein relativity. In this paper we discuss the rules of these transformations for geometric quantities as well as for the matter energy-momentum tensor. We show the subtlety of the matter energy-momentum conservation law which refers to the fact that the conformal transformation "creates" an extra matter term composed of the conformal factor which enters the conservation law. In an extreme case of the flat original spacetime the matter is "created" due to work done by the conformal transformation to bend the spacetime which was originally flat. We discuss how to construct the conformally invariant gravity theories and also find the conformal transformation rules for the curvature invariants $R^2$, $R_{ab}R^{ab}$, $R_{abcd}R^{abcd}$ and the Gauss-Bonnet invariant in a spacetime of an arbitrary dimension. Finally, we present the conformal transformation rules in the fashion of the duality transformations of the superstring theory. In such a case the transitions between conformal frames reduce to a simple change of the sign of a redefined conformal factor.

gr-qc↗

Are Gamma-Ray Bursts a Standard Energy Reservoir?

One of the most important discoveries in the observation of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is that the total energy emitted by a GRB in gamma-rays has a very narrow distribution around 10^51 erg, which has led people to claim that GRBs are standard energy explosions. As people made the claim they have ignored the selection biases which must be important since GRB observations are strongly fluence or flux-limited. In this paper we show that, when the selection effects are considered, the intrinsic distribution of the GRB energy can be very broad. The number of faint GRBs has been significantly underestimated because of the fluence or flux limit. The bright part of the distribution has been affected by another important selection effect arising from the beaming of GRB jets, which is instrument-independent and caused by the fact that brighter GRBs tend to have smaller jet angles and hence smaller probabilities to be detected. Our finding indicates that GRBs are not a standard energy reservoir, and challenges the proposal that GRBs can be used as standard candles to probe cosmology.

astro-ph↗

The EDELWEISS-II experiment

EDELWEISS is a direct dark matter search situated in the low radioactivity environment of the Modane Underground Laboratory. The experiment uses Ge detectors at very low temperature in order to identify eventual rare nuclear recoils induced by elastic scattering of WIMPs from our Galactic halo. The commissioning of the second phase of the experiment, involving more than 7 kg of Ge, has been completed in 2007. Two new type of detectors with active rejection of events due to surface contamination have demonstrated the performances required to achieve the physics goal of the present phase.

astro-ph↗

Jets and environment of microquasars

Two relativistic X-ray jets have been detected with the Chandra X-ray observatory from the black hole X-ray transient XTE J1550-564. We report a full analysis of the evolution of the two jets with a gamma-ray burst external shock model. A plausible scenario suggests a cavity outside the central source and the jets first travelled with constant velocity and then are slowed down by the interactions between the jets and the interstellar medium (ISM). The best fitted radius of the cavity is $\sim$0.36 pc on the eastern side and $\sim$0.46 pc on the western side, and the densities also show asymmetry, of $\sim$0.015 cm$^{-3}$ on the east to $\sim$0.21 cm$^{-3}$ on the west. A large scale low density region is also found in another microquasar system, H 1743-322. These results are consistent with previous suggestions that the environment of microquasars should be rather vacuous, compared to the normal Galactic environment. A generic scenario for microquasar jets is proposed, classifying the observed jets into three main categories, with different jet morphologies (and sizes) corresponding to different scales of vacuous environments surrounding them.

astro-ph↗

Kaluza-Klein Contamination in Fermi Accelerated Environments

Astrophysical constraints of new physics are often limited to weakly interacting light particles, such as axions, the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons from the ADD model, sterile neutrinos and unparticles. We discuss the possibility for an astrophysical scenario to (dis)confirm new physics for heavy particles beyond TeV energy scale. In our scenario, the KK protons (the KK excited quarks/gluons within protons) within the framework of universal extra dimensions (UEDs), are produced by high energy p + p collisions in Fermi accelerated environments, with protonic isotropic spectrum d N / d E \propto E^-2 up to at least 10^18 eV. Thus, because they are also electrically charged, they should be re-accelerated by mechanism similar to normal protons. The KK states (no matter whether they have already decayed to the lightest KK particle or not) should contaminate 10^-5 to 10^-2 of cosmic-ray events for some fixed energy E (within some suitable assumptions). Hence, if we have techniques to identify them from air shower data, we can constrain UEDs scenario. Our method is an "existence proof" that we can constrain new physics beyond TeV scale or much higher by classical astrophysical scenarios, which can also be generalized to supersymmetric models, the bulk Standard Model fields within the RS model, and the endlessly emerging new models. Moreover, it can exploit domains which have no possibility to be studied in terrestrial experiments.

hep-ph↗

On the product of two gamma variate with argument 2: Application to the luminosity function for galaxies

A new luminosity function for galaxies can be built starting from the product of two random variables X and Y represented by a gamma variate with argument 2 >. The mean, the standard deviation and the distribution function of this new distribution are computed. This new probability density function is assumed to describe the mass distribution of galaxies. Through a non linear rule of conversion from mass to luminosity a second new luminosity function for galaxies is derived. The test of reliability of these two luminosity functions was made on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in five different bands. The Schechter function gives a better fit with respect to the two new luminosity functions for galaxies here derived.

astro-ph↗

QUIET - Measuring the CMB polarization with coherent detector arrays

The footprint of inflation in the polarization pattern of the CMB is expected at more than an order of magnitude below the limits of current polarization measurements. Large receiver arrays are mandatory for achieving the required sensitivity. We describe here the approach of the Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) which will use coherent detector arrays. Pseudo-correlation receivers have been produced at 40 (90) GHz in small massproducable chip packages. Deployment of the first arrays with 19 (91) receivers is taking place in 2008 in the Atacama Desert in Chile and an expansion to $\sim$1000 receivers is foreseen for the future. The two frequencies and the selection of observing regions with minimal foreground and good overlap with other upcoming experiments will enable the detection of tensor to scalar ratios $r\sim10^{-2}$.

astro-ph↗

White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters

We review empirical and theoretical findings concerning white dwarfs in Galactic globular clusters. Since their detection is a critical issue we describe in detail the various efforts to find white dwarfs in globular clusters. We then outline the advantages of using cluster white dwarfs to investigate the formation and evolution of white dwarfs and concentrate on evolutionary channels that appear to be unique to globular clusters. We also discuss the usefulness of globular cluster white dwarfs to provide independent information on the distances and ages of globular clusters, information that is very important far beyond the immediate field of white dwarf research. Finally, we mention possible future avenues concerning globular cluster white dwarfs, like the study of strange quark matter or plasma neutrinos.

astro-ph↗

Hubble's Cosmology: From a Finite Expanding Universe to a Static Endless Universe

We analyze Hubble's approach to cosmology. In 1929 he accepted a finite expanding universe in order to explain the redshifts of distant galaxies. Later on he turned to an infinite stationary universe due to observational constraints. We show, by quoting his works, that he remained cautiously against the big bang until the end of his life.

astro-ph↗