We present KPNO 4-m and LBT/MODS spectroscopic observations of an HII region in the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy Leo P discovered recently in the Arecibo ALFALFA survey. In both observations, we are able to accurately measure the temperature sensiti
ve [O III] 4363 Angstrom line and determine a direct oxygen abundance of 12 + log(O/H) = 7.17 +/- 0.04. Thus, Leo P is an extremely metal deficient (XMD) galaxy, and, indeed, one of the most metal deficient star-forming galaxies ever observed. For its estimated luminosity, Leo P is consistent with the relationship between luminosity and oxygen abundance seen in nearby dwarf galaxies. Leo P shows normal alpha element abundance ratios (Ne/O, S/O, and Ar/O) when compared to other XMD galaxies, but elevated N/O, consistent with the delayed release hypothesis for N/O abundances. We derive a helium mass fraction of 0.2509 +0.0184 -0.0123 which compares well with the WMAP + BBN prediction of 0.2483 +/- 0.0002 for the primordial helium abundance. We suggest that surveys of very low mass galaxies compete well with emission line galaxy surveys for finding XMD galaxies. It is possible that XMD galaxies may be divided into two classes: the relatively rare XMD emission line galaxies which are associated with starbursts triggered by infall of low-metallicity gas and the more common, relatively quiescent XMD galaxies like Leo P, with very low chemical abundances due to their intrinsically small masses.
We determine the time evolution of fluctuations of the Polyakov loop after a quench into the deconfined phase of SU(3) gauge theory from a simple classical relativistic Lagrangian. We compare the structure factors, which indicate spinodal decompositi
on followed by relaxation, to those obtained via Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques in SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We find that the time when the structure factor peaks diverges like $sim 1/k^2$ in the long-wavelength limit. This is due to formation of competing Z(3) domains for configurations where the Polyakov loop exhibits non-perturbatively large variations in space, which delay thermalization of long wavelength modes. For realistic temperatures, and away from the extreme weak-coupling limit, we find that even modes with $k$ on the order of $T$ experience delayed thermalization. Relaxation times of very long wavelength modes are found to be on the order of the size of the system; thus, the dynamics of competing domains should accompany the hydrodynamic description of the deconfined vacuum.
