The observed properties of high redshift galaxies depend on the underlying foreground distribution of large scale structure, which distorts their intrinsic properties via gravitational lensing. We focus on the regime where the dominant contribution o
riginates from a single lens and examine the statistics of gravitational lensing by a population of virialized and non-virialized structures using sub-mm galaxies at z ~ 2.6 and Lyman-break galaxies at redshifts z ~ 6 - 15 as the background sources. We quantify the effect of lensing on the luminosity function of the high redshift sources, focusing on the intermediate and small magnifications, mu < 2, which affect the majority of the background galaxies, and comparing to the case of strong lensing. We show that, depending on the intrinsic properties of the background galaxies, gravitational lensing can significantly affect the observed luminosity function even when no obvious strong lenses are present. Finally, we find that in the case of the Lyman-break galaxies it is important to account for the surface brightness profiles of both the foreground and the background galaxies when computing the lensing statistics, which introduces a selection criterion for the background galaxies that can actually be observed. Not taking this criterion into account leads to an overestimation of the number densities of very bright galaxies by nearly two orders of magnitude.
New infrared absorption measurements of oxygen isotope ratios in CO gas from individual young stellar objects confirm that the solar system is anomalously high in its 18O/17O ratio compared with extra-solar oxygen in the Galaxy. We show that this dif
ference in oxygen isotope ratios is best explained by 1 per cent enrichment of the proto-solar molecular cloud by ejecta from type II supernovae from a cluster having of order a few hundred stars that predated the Sun by at least 10 to 20 Myr. The likely source of exogenous oxygen was the explosion of one or more B stars during a process of propagating star formation.
We investigate the phases of the ionic Hubbard model in a two-dimensional square lattice using determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC). At half-filling, when the interaction strength or the staggered potential dominate we find Mott and band insulators
, respectively. When these two energies are of the same order we find a metallic region. Charge and magnetic structure factors demonstrate the presence of antiferromagnetism only in the Mott region, although the externally imposed density modulation is present everywhere in the phase diagram. Away from half-filling, other insulating phases are found. Kinetic energy correlations do not give clear signals for the existence of a bond-ordered phase.
