Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Parallaxes And Distance Estimates For 14 Cataclysmic Variable Stars, John R. Thorstensen

Dartmouth Scholarship

I used the 2.4 m Hiltner Telescope at MDM Observatory in an attempt to measure trigonometric parallaxes for 14 cataclysmic variable stars. Techniques are described in detail. In the best cases the parallax uncertainties are below 1 mas, and significant parallaxes are found for most of the program stars. A Bayesian method that combines the parallaxes together with proper motions and absolute magnitude constraints is developed and used to derive distance estimates and confidence intervals. The most precise distance derive here is for WZ Sge, for which I find 43: 3.1:6 1:5 pc. Six Luyten Half-Second stars with previous precise …

Redshift-Distance Survey Of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data, G. Wegner, M. Bernardi, C. N. A. Willmer, L. N. Da Costa

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present central velocity dispersions and Mg₂ line indices for an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984 had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set of homogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of elliptical galaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part of the ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internal properties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeated observations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the data are brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, taken during the many runs …

Stellar Pollution And [Fe/H] In The Hyades, Aaron Dotter, Brian Chaboyer

Dartmouth Scholarship

The Hyades open cluster presents a unique laboratory for planet formation and stellar pollution studies because all of the stars have essentially the same age and were born from the same cloud of gas. Furthermore, with an age of ~650 Myr, most of the intermediate- and low-mass stars are on the main sequence. Given these assumptions, the accretion of metal-rich material onto the surface of a star during and shortly after the formation of planetary systems should be evident via the enhanced metallicity of the star. Building on previous work, stellar evolution models that include the effects of stellar pollution …

Gauge-Invariant Initial Conditions And Early Time Perturbations In Quintessence Universes, Michael Doran, Christian M. Müller, Gregor Schäfer, Christof Wetterich

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a systematic treatment of the initial conditions and evolution of cosmological perturbations in a universe containing photons, baryons, neutrinos, cold dark matter, and a scalar quintessence field. By formulating the evolution in terms of a differential equation involving a matrix acting on a vector comprised of the perturbation variables, we can use the familiar language of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. As the largest eigenvalue of the evolution matrix is fourfold degenerate, it follows that there are four dominant modes with a nondiverging gravitational potential at early times, corresponding to adiabatic, cold dark matter isocurvature, baryon isocurvature and neutrino isocurvature …

A Model Of Zebra Emission In Solar Type Iv Radio Bursts, J. Labelle, R. A. Treumann, P. H. Yoon, M. Karlicky

Dartmouth Scholarship

Solar type IV radio bursts present a theoretical challenge because they are composed of both continuum emission and fine structures. The latter include "zebra bursts," which appear as harmonically spaced multiplets that shift in frequency with time. Similarities between these features and terrestrial auroral emissions suggest a new model to explain zebra-structured type IV emissions. In this model, the basic generation mechanism is identical with that proposed by Winglee and Dulk: mode conversion of Z-mode waves generated by the cyclotron maser mechanism under the condition fuh = Nfce, with N an integer; however, we propose a twist …

Phantom Energy: Dark Energy With W < − 1 Causes A Cosmic Doomsday, Robert R. Caldwell, Marc Kamionkowski, Nevin N. Weinberg

Dartmouth Scholarship

We explore the consequences that follow if the dark energy is phantom energy, in which the sum of the pressure and energy density is negative. The positive phantom-energy density becomes infinite in finite time, overcoming all other forms of matter, such that the gravitational repulsion rapidly brings our brief epoch of cosmic structure to a close. The phantom energy rips apart the Milky Way, solar system, Earth, and ultimately the molecules, atoms, nuclei, and nucleons of which we are composed, before the death of the Universe in a “big rip.”

Early Quintessence In Light Of Thewilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, Robert R. Caldwell, Michael Doran, Christian M. Mller, Gregor Schfer, Christof Wetterich

Dartmouth Scholarship

We examine the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy for signatures of early quintessence dark energy—a nonnegligible quintessence energy density during the recombination and structure formation eras. Only very recently does the quintessence overtake the dark matter and push the expansion into overdrive. Because the presence of early quintessence exerts an influence on the clustering of dark matter and the baryon-photon fluid, we may expect to find trace signals in the CMB and the mass fluctuation power spectrum. In detail, we demonstrate that suppressed clustering power on small length scales, as suggested by the combined Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe/CMB/large-scale structure …

Grb 021004: A Possible Shell Nebula Around A Wolf‐Rayet Star Gamma‐Ray Burst Progenitor, N. Mirabal, J. P. Halpern, Ryan Chornock, Alexei V. Filippenko, D. M. Terndrup, E. Armstrong, J. Kemp, J. R. Thorstensen, M. Tavarez, C. Espaillat

Dartmouth Scholarship

The rapid localization of GRB 021004 by the HETE-2 satellite allowed nearly continuous monitoring of its early optical afterglow decay, as well as high-quality optical spectra that determined a redshift of z_{3 =} 2.328 for its host galaxy, an active starburst galaxy with strong Ly emission and several absorption lines. Spectral observations show multiple absorbers at z_3A = 2.323, z_3B= 2.317, and z_3C = 2.293 blueshifted by ~450, ~990, and ~3155 km s^-1, respectively, relative to the host galaxy Lyα emission. We argue that these correspond to a fragmented shell nebula that has …

Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy Of Coma Cluster Early-Type Galaxies - Iii. The Stellar Population Gradients, D. Mehlert, D. Thomas, R. P. Saglia, R. Bender, G Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Based on Paper I of this series (Mehlert et al. 2000), we derive central values and logarithmic gradients for the Hβ, Mg and Fe indices of 35 early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster. We find that pure elliptical galaxies have on average slightly higher velocity dispersions, lower Hβ, and higher metallic line-strengths than galaxies with disks (S0). The latter form two families, one comparable to the ellipticals and a second one with significantly higher Hβ, and weaker metallic lines. Our measured logarithmic gradients within the effective radius are ⟨△Mg b⟩ ≈ −0.037, ⟨△⟨Fe⟩⟩ ≈ −0.029, ⟨△Hβ⟩ ≈ +0.017 and ⟨△σ⟩ …

Effects Of The Sound Speed Of Quintessence On The Microwave Background And Large Scale Structure, Simon Dedeo, R. R. Caldwell, Paul J. Steinhardt

Dartmouth Scholarship

We consider how quintessence models in which the sound speed differs from the speed of light and varies with time affect the cosmic microwave background and the fluctuation power spectrum. Significant modifications occur on length scales related to the Hubble radius during epochs in which the sound speed is near zero and the quintessence contributes a non-negligible fraction of the total energy density. For the microwave background, we find that the usual enhancement of the lowest multipole moments by the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect can be modified, resulting in suppression or bumps instead. Also, the sound speed can produce oscillations and …

Redshift-Distance Survey Of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry, M. V. Alonso, M. Bernardi, L. N. Da Costa, G. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present R -band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observed as part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-type galaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to trace the surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by a two-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structural parameters required to estimate galaxy distances using the Dn - and fundamental plane relations. We find that about 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4 law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356 repeated observations of 257 galaxies …

Spectroscopy Of Kiss Emission-Line Galaxy Candidates. I. Mdm Observations, Gary Wegner, John J. Salzer, Anna Jangren, Caryl Gronwall, Jason Melbourne

Dartmouth Scholarship

Spectroscopic observations for 351 emission-line galaxy candidates from the KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey (KISS) have been obtained using the MDM Observatory 2.4 m telescope on Kitt Peak. KISS is an ongoing wide-field objective-prism survey for extragalactic emission-line objects, which has cataloged over 2200 emission-line galaxy (ELG) candidates to date. Spectroscopic follow-up observations are being carried out to study the characteristics of the survey objects. The observational data presented here include redshifts, reddening estimates, line equivalent widths, Hα line fluxes, and emission-line ratios. The galaxies have been classified based on their emission-line characteristics. The procedure for selecting the ELG candidates in …

Chandra Observations Of The Luminous, Oxygen‐Rich Supernova Remnants In The Irregular Galaxy Ngc 4449, Daniel J. Patnaude, Robert A. Fesen

Dartmouth Scholarship

An analysis of a 29 ks Chandra ACIS-S observation of the young, Cassiopeia A–like supernova remnant in the irregular galaxy NGC 4449 is presented. The observed 0.5–2.1 keV spectrum reveals the likely presence of several emission lines. A nonequilibrium ionization fit to the spectrum suggests an overabundance of oxygen around 20 times solar, consistent with the remnant’s UV and optical emission-line properties. We discuss the remnant’s approximate X-ray–derived elemental abundances and compare its X-ray spectrum and luminosity with other oxygen-rich remnants

An Efficient Targeting Strategy For Multiobject Spectrograph Surveys: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey “Tiling” Algorithm, Michael R. Blanton, Huan Lin, Robert H. Lupton, F. Miller Maley, Neal Young

Dartmouth Scholarship

Large surveys using multiobject spectrographs require automated methods for deciding how to efficiently point observations and how to assign targets to each pointing. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will observe around 106 spectra from targets distributed over an area of about 10,000 deg2 , using a multiobject fiber spectrograph that can simultaneously observe 640 objects in a circular field of view (referred to as a ‘‘ tile ’’) 1= 49 in radius. No two fibers can be placed closer than 5500 during the same observation; multiple targets closer than this distance are said to ‘‘ collide.’’ We present here …

Observational Constraints On General Relativistic Energy Conditions, Cosmic Matter Density And Dark Energy From X-Ray Clusters Of Galaxies And Type-La Supernovae, P. Schuecker, R. R. Caldwell, H. Böhringer, C. A. Collins

Dartmouth Scholarship

New observational constraints on the cosmic matter density Ωm and an effectively redshift-independent equation

of state parameter wx of the dark energy are obtained while simultaneously testing the strong and null energy conditions of

general relativity on macroscopic scales. The combination of REFLEX X-ray cluster and type-Ia supernova data shows that

for a flat Universe the strong energy condition might presently be violated whereas the null energy condition seems to be

fulfilled. This provides another observational argument for the present accelerated cosmic expansion and the absence of exotic

physical phenomena related to a broken null energy condition. The marginalization of …

The Impact Of Pollution On Stellar Evolution Models, Aaron Dotter, Brian Chaboyer

Dartmouth Scholarship

An approach is introduced for incorporating the concept of stellar pollution into stellar evolution models. The approach involves enhancing the metal content of the surface layers of stellar models. In addition, the surface layers of stars in the mass range of 0.5-2.0 M_☉ are mixed to an artificial depth motivated by observations of lithium abundance. The behavior of polluted stellar evolution models is explored assuming the pollution occurs after the star has left the fully convective pre-main-sequence phase. Stellar models polluted with a few Earth masses (M_⊕) of iron are significantly hotter than stars of the …