Arp 65 interaction debris: massive HI displacement and star formation

Context: Pre-merger interactions between galaxies can induce significant changes in the morphologies and kinematics of the stellar and ISM components. Large amounts of gas and stars are often found to be disturbed or displaced as tidal debris. This debris then evolves, sometimes forming stars and occasionally tidal dwarf galaxies. Here we present results from our HI study of Arp 65, an interacting pair hosting extended HI tidal debris. Aims: In an effort to understand the evolution of tidal debris produced by interacting pairs of galaxies, including in situ star and tidal dwarf galaxy formation, we are mapping HI in a sample of interacting galaxy pairs. The Arp 65 pair is one of them. Methods: Our resolved HI 21 cm line survey is being carried out using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We used our HI survey data as well as available SDSS optical, Spitzer infra-red and GALEX UV data to study the evolution of the tidal debris and the correlation of HI with the star-forming regions within it. Results: In Arp 65 we see a high impact pre-merger interaction involving a pair of massive galaxies (NGC 90 and NGC 93) that have a stellar mass ratio of ~ 1:3. The interaction, which probably occurred ~ 1.0 -- 2.5 $\times$ 10$^8$ yr ago, appears to have displaced a large fraction of the HI in NGC 90 (including the highest column density HI) beyond its optical disk. We also find extended ongoing star formation in the outer disk of NGC 90. In the major star-forming regions, we find the HI column densities to be ~ 4.7 $\times$ 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ or lower. But no signature of star formation was found in the highest column density HI debris, SE of NGC 90. This indicates conditions within the highest column density HI debris remain hostile to star formation and it reaffirms that high HI column densities may be a necessary but not sufficient criterion for star formation.Comment: Accepted in A&

Scalable Mining of Common Routes in Mobile Communication Network Traffic Data

A probabilistic method for inferring common routes from mobile communication network traffic data is presented. Besides providing mobility information, valuable in a multitude of application areas, the method has the dual purpose of enabling efficient coarse-graining as well as anonymisation by mapping individual sequences onto common routes. The approach is to represent spatial trajectories by Cell ID sequences that are grouped into routes using locality-sensitive hashing and graph clustering. The method is demonstrated to be scalable, and to accurately group sequences using an evaluation set of GPS tagged data

Hot Populations in M87 Globular Clusters

We have obtained HST/STIS far- and near-UV photometry of globular clusters in four fields in the gE galaxy M87. To a limit of m(FUV) = 25 we detect a total of 66 globular clusters (GCs) in common with the deep HST optical-band study of Kundu et al. (1999). Despite strong overlap in V- and I-band properties, the M87 GCs have UV/optical properties that are distinct from clusters in the Milky Way and in M31. M87 clusters, especially metal-poor ones, produce larger hot HB populations than do Milky Way analogues. Cluster mass is probably not a factor in these distinctions. The most metal-rich M87 GCs in our sample are near Z_sun and overlap the local E galaxy sample in estimated Mg_2 line indices. Nonetheless, the clusters produce much more UV light at a given Mg_2, being up to 1 mag bluer than any gE galaxy in (FUV-V) color. The M87 GCs do not appear to represent a transition between Milky Way-type clusters and E galaxies. The differences are in the correct sense if the clusters are significantly older than the E galaxies. Comparisons with Galactic open clusters indicate that the hot stars lie on the extreme horizontal branch, rather than being blue stragglers, and that the EHB becomes well populated for ages > 5 Gyr. We find that 43 of our UV detections have no optical-band counterparts. Most appear to be UV-bright background galaxies, seen through M87. Eleven NUV variable sources detected at only one epoch in the central field are probably classical novae. [Abridged]Comment: 70 pages, 25 figures (including 4 jpgs), 7 tables. To appear in AJ. Full resolution version available at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~rwo/m87/m87-hotpops.pd

The Extended Shapes of Galactic Satellites

We are exploring the extended stellar distributions of Galactic satellite galaxies and globular clusters. For seven objects studied thus far, the observed profile departs from a King function at large r, revealing a ``break population'' of stars. In our sample, the relative density of the ``break'' correlates to the inferred M/L of these objects. We discuss opposing hypotheses for this trend: (1) Higher M/L objects harbor more extended dark matter halos that support secondary, bound, stellar ``halos''. (2) The extended populations around dwarf spheroidals (and some clusters) consist of unbound, extratidal debris from their parent objects, which are undergoing various degrees of tidal disruption. In this scenario, higher M/L ratios reflect higher degrees of virial non-equilibrium in the parent objects, thus invalidating a precept underlying the use of core radial velocities to obtain masses.Comment: 8 pages, including 2 figures Yale Cosmology Workshop: The Shapes of Galaxies and Their Halo

The Different Structures of the Two Classes of Starless Cores

We describe a model for the thermal and dynamical equilibrium of starless cores that includes the radiative transfer of the gas and dust and simple CO chemistry. The model shows that the structure and behavior of the cores is significantly different depending on whether the central density is either above or below about 10^5 cm-3. This density is significant as the critical density for gas cooling by gas-dust collisions and also as the critical density for dynamical stability, given the typical properties of the starless cores. The starless cores thus divide into two classes that we refer to as thermally super-critical and thermally sub-critical.This two-class distinction allows an improved interpretation of the different observational data of starless cores within a single model.Comment: ApJ in pres

Orientational pinning and transverse voltage: Simulations and experiments in square Josephson junction arrays

We study the dependence of the transport properties of square Josephson Junctions arrays with the direction of the applied dc current, both experimentally and numerically. We present computational simulations of current-voltage curves at finite temperatures for a single vortex in the array ($Ha^2/\Phi_0=f=1/L^2$), and experimental measurements in $100\times1000$ arrays under a low magnetic field corresponding to $f\approx0.02$. We find that the transverse voltage vanishes only in the directions of maximum symmetry of the square lattice: the [10] and [01] direction (parallel bias) and the [11] direction (diagonal bias). For orientations different than the symmetry directions, we find a finite transverse voltage which depends strongly on the angle $\phi$ of the current. We find that vortex motion is pinned in the [10] direction ($\phi=0$), meaning that the voltage response is insensitive to small changes in the orientation of the current near $\phi=0$. We call this phenomenon orientational pinning. This leads to a finite transverse critical current for a bias at $\phi=0$ and to a transverse voltage for a bias at $\phi\not=0$. On the other hand, for diagonal bias in the [11] direction the behavior is highly unstable against small variations of $\phi$, leading to a rapid change from zero transverse voltage to a large transverse voltage within a few degrees. This last behavior is in good agreement with our measurements in arrays with a quasi-diagonal current drive.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

On the structure of tidal tails

We examine the longitudinal distribution of the stars escaping from a cluster along tidal tails. Using both theory and simulations, we show that, even in the case of a star cluster in a circular galactic orbit, when the tide is steady, the distribution exhibits maxima at a distance of many tidal radii from the cluster.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Structural and dielectric properties of Sr2_{2}TiO4_{4} from first principles

We have investigated the structural and dielectric properties of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$,the first member of the Sr$_{n+1}$Ti$_{n}$O$_{3n+1}$ Ruddlesden-Popper series, within density functional theory. Motivated by recent work in which thin films of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$ were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on SrTiO$_{3}$ substrates, the in-plane lattice parameter was fixed to the theoretically optimized lattice constant of cubic SrTiO$_{3}$ (n=$\infty$), while the out-of-plane lattice parameter and the internal structural parameters were relaxed. The fully relaxed structure was also investigated. Density functional perturbation theory was used to calculate the zone-center phonon frequencies, Born effective charges, and the electronic dielectric permittivity tensor. A detailed study of the contribution of individual infrared-active modes to the static dielectric permittivity tensor was performed. The calculated Raman and infrared phonon frequencies were found to be in agreement with experiment where available. Comparisons of the calculated static dielectric permittivity with experiments on both ceramic powders and epitaxial thin films are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 8 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.