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Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy

Erasing Dark Matter Cusps In Cosmological Galactic Halos With Baryons, Emilio Romano-Diaz, Isaac Shlosman, Yehuda Hoffman, Clayton Heller Oct 2008

Erasing Dark Matter Cusps In Cosmological Galactic Halos With Baryons, Emilio Romano-Diaz, Isaac Shlosman, Yehuda Hoffman, Clayton Heller

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We study the central dark matter (DM) cusp evolution in cosmologically grown galactic halos. Numerical models with and without baryons (baryons+DM, hereafter BDM model, and pure DM, PDM model, respectively) are advanced from identical initial conditions, obtained using the Constrained Realization method. The DM cusp properties are contrasted by a direct comparison of pure DM and baryonic models. We find a divergent evolution between the PDM and BDM models within the inner few × 10 kpc region. The PDM model forms an R−1 cusp as expected, while the DM in the BDM model forms a larger isothermal cusp R …


Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems: Theory, Martin D. Weinberg Jan 2008

Noise-Driven Evolution In Stellar Systems: Theory, Martin D. Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We present a theory for describing the evolution of a galaxy caused by stochastic events such as weak mergers, transient spiral structure, orbiting blobs, etc. This noise excites large-scale patterns that drives the evolution of the galactic density profile. In dark-matter haloes, the repeated stochastic perturbations preferentially ring the lowest-order modes of the halo with only a very weak dependence on the details of their source. Shaped by these modes, the profile quickly takes on a nearly self-similar form. We show that this form has the features of the “universal profile” reported by Navarro, Frenk, & White independent of initial …


Evolution Of Stellar Bars In Live Axisymmetric Halos: Recurrent Buckling And Secular Growth, Inma Martinez-Valpuesta, Isaac Shlosman, Clayton Heller Jan 2006

Evolution Of Stellar Bars In Live Axisymmetric Halos: Recurrent Buckling And Secular Growth, Inma Martinez-Valpuesta, Isaac Shlosman, Clayton Heller

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Evolution of stellar bars in disk galaxies is accompanied by dynamical instabilities and secular changes. Following the vertical buckling instability, the bars are known to weaken dramatically and develop a pronounced boxy/ peanut shape when observed edge-on. Using high-resolution N-body simulations of stellar disks embedded in live axisymmetric dark matter halos, we have investigated the long-term changes in the bar morphology, specifically the evolution of the bar size, its vertical structure, and the exchange of angular momentum. We find that following the initial buckling, the bar resumes its growth from deep inside the corotation radius and follows the ultraharmonic resonance …


Regularized Orbit Models Unveiling The Stellar Structure And Dark Matter Halo Of The Coma Elliptical Ngc 4807, J. Thomas, R. P. Saglia, R. Bender, D. Thomas, K. Gebhardt, J. Magorrian, E. M. Corsini, G. Wegner Mar 2005

Regularized Orbit Models Unveiling The Stellar Structure And Dark Matter Halo Of The Coma Elliptical Ngc 4807, J. Thomas, R. P. Saglia, R. Bender, D. Thomas, K. Gebhardt, J. Magorrian, E. M. Corsini, G. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

This is the second in a series of papers dedicated to unveiling the mass structure and orbital content of a sample of flattened early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster. The ability of our orbit libraries to reconstruct internal stellar motions and the mass composition of a typical elliptical in the sample is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations of isotropic rotator models. The simulations allow a determination of the optimal amount of regularization needed in the orbit superpositions. It is shown that under realistic observational conditions and with the appropriate regularization, internal velocity moments can be reconstructed to an …


Co Distribution And Kinematics Along The Bar In The Strongly Barred Spiral Ngc 7479, S Laine, J D P Kenny, Min S. Yun, S T. Gottesman Feb 1999

Co Distribution And Kinematics Along The Bar In The Strongly Barred Spiral Ngc 7479, S Laine, J D P Kenny, Min S. Yun, S T. Gottesman

Min S. Yun

We report on the 2farcs5 (400 pc) resolution CO (J=1→0) observations covering the whole length of the bar in the strongly barred late-type spiral galaxy NGC 7479. CO emission is detected only along a dust lane that traverses the whole length of the bar, including the nucleus. The emission is strongest in the nucleus. The distribution of emission is clumpy along the bar outside the nucleus and consists of gas complexes that are unlikely to be gravitationally bound. The CO kinematics within the bar consist of two separate components. A kinematically distinct circumnuclear disk, <500 pc in diameter, is undergoing predominantly circular motion with a maximum rotational velocity of 245 km s-1 at a radius of 1'' (160 pc). The CO-emitting gas in the bar outside the circumnuclear disk has substantial noncircular motions that are consistent with a large radial velocity component, directed inward. The CO emission has a large velocity gradient across the bar dust lane, ranging from 0.5 to 1.9 km s-1 pc-1 after correcting for inclination, and the projected velocity change across the dust lane is as high as 200 km s-1. This sharp velocity gradient is consistent with a shock front at the location of the bar dust lane. A comparison of Hα and CO kinematics across the dust lane shows that, although the Hα emission is often observed both upstream and downstream from the dust lane, the CO emission is observed only where the velocity gradient is large. We also compare the observations with hydrodynamic models and discuss star formation along the bar.


Fluctuations In Finite N Equilibrium Stellar Systems, Martin D. Weinberg Jul 1997

Fluctuations In Finite N Equilibrium Stellar Systems, Martin D. Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Gravitational amplification of Poisson noise in stellar systems is important on large scales. For example, it increases the dipole noise power by roughly a factor of six and the quadrupole noise by 50% for a King model profile. The dipole noise is amplified by a factor of fifteen for the core-free Hernquist model. The predictions are computed using the dressed-particle formalism of Rostoker & Rosenbluth (1960) and are demonstrated by n-body simulation. This result implies that a collisionless n-body simulation is impossible; The fluctuation noise which causes relaxation is an intrinic part of self gravity. In other words, eliminating two-body …


Fabry-Perot Images Of Ngc 1275 And Its Puzzling High-Velocity System, Adeline Caulet, Bruce E. Woodgate, Larry W. Brown, Theodore R. Gull, Paul Hintzen, James D. Lowenthal, Ronald J. Oliversen, Michael M. Ziegler Apr 1992

Fabry-Perot Images Of Ngc 1275 And Its Puzzling High-Velocity System, Adeline Caulet, Bruce E. Woodgate, Larry W. Brown, Theodore R. Gull, Paul Hintzen, James D. Lowenthal, Ronald J. Oliversen, Michael M. Ziegler

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We report the first images obtained with the Goddard Fabry-Perot imager, a very sensitive and tunable imaging system designed to achieve the high levels of performance required in the optical studies of faint emission-line extragalactic objects. A velocity sequence of calibrated narrow-band CCD images (FWHM ∼7 Å) has been obtained to cover the 3000 km s-1 velocity space between the redshifted Hα emission lines of NGC 1275 (the central dominant galaxy of the Perseus Cluster), its extended associated system of low-velocity (LV) filaments and the high-velocity (HV) system of knots, projected on the same line of sight in the sky. …