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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Model-Independent Plotting Of The Cosmological Scale Factor As A Function Of Lookback Time, H. I. Ringermacher, L. R. Mead Nov 2014

Model-Independent Plotting Of The Cosmological Scale Factor As A Function Of Lookback Time, H. I. Ringermacher, L. R. Mead

Faculty Publications

In this work we describe a model-independent method of developing a plot of scale factor a(t) versus lookback time tL from the usual Hubble diagram of modulus data against redshift. This is the first plot of this type. We follow the model-independent methodology of Daly & Djorgovski used for their radio-galaxy data. Once the a(t)data plot is completed, any model can be applied and will display as described in the standard literature. We then compile an extensive data set to z = 1.8 by combining Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data from SNLS3 …


Observational Signatures From Self-Gravitating Protostellar Disks, Alexander L. Desouza Aug 2014

Observational Signatures From Self-Gravitating Protostellar Disks, Alexander L. Desouza

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Protostellar disks are the ubiquitous corollary outcome of the angular momentum conserving, gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores into stars. Disks are an essential component of the star formation process, mediating the accretion of material onto the protostar, and for redistributing excess angular momentum during the collapse. We present a model to explain the observed correlation between mass accretion rates and stellar mass that has been inferred from observations of intermediate to upper mass T Tauri stars. We explain this correlation within the framework of gravitationally driven torques parameterized in terms of Toomre’s Q criterion. Our models reproduce both the …


The Photon Underproduction Crisis, Juna A. Kollmeier, David H. Weinberg, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Francesco Haardt, Neal S. Katz, Rameel A. Dave, Mark Fardal, Piero Madau, Charles Danforth, Amanda B. Ford, Molly S. Peeples, Joseph Mcewen Jan 2014

The Photon Underproduction Crisis, Juna A. Kollmeier, David H. Weinberg, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Francesco Haardt, Neal S. Katz, Rameel A. Dave, Mark Fardal, Piero Madau, Charles Danforth, Amanda B. Ford, Molly S. Peeples, Joseph Mcewen

Neal S. Katz

We examine the statistics of the low-redshift Lyα forest from smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations in light of recent improvements in the estimated evolution of the cosmic ultraviolet background (UVB) and recent observations from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). We find that the value of the metagalactic photoionization rate (ΓHI) required by our simulations to match the observed properties of the low-redshift Lyα forest is a factor of five larger than the value predicted by state-of-the art models for the evolution of this quantity. This mismatch in ΓHI results in the mean flux decrement of the Lyα forest being overpredicted by …


Elvis: Exploring The Local Volume In Simulations, Shea Garrison-Kimmel, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, James S. Bullock, Kyle Lee Jan 2014

Elvis: Exploring The Local Volume In Simulations, Shea Garrison-Kimmel, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, James S. Bullock, Kyle Lee

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We introduce a set of high-resolution dissipationless simulations that model the Local Group (LG) in a cosmological context: Exploring the Local Volume in Simulations (ELVIS). The suite contains 48 Galaxy-size haloes, each within high-resolution volumes that span 2-5 Mpc in size, and each resolving thousands of systems with masses below the atomic cooling limit. Half of the ELVIS galaxy haloes are in paired configurations similar to the Milky Way (MW) and M31; the other half are isolated, mass-matched analogues. We find no difference in the abundance or kinematics of substructure within the virial radii of isolated versus paired hosts. On …