The excitonic radiative recombination of intercalated Cl2 molecules for two different polytypes 2H-MoS2 and 3R-MoS2 layered crystals are presented. The structure of the excitonic emission is unique and provides a robust experimental signature of crys
tal polytype investigated. This result is confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis and DFT electronic band structure calculations. Thus, the bound exciton emission provides a nondestructive fingerprint for the reliable identification of the polytype of MoS2 layered crystals.
We use recent proper motion measurements of the tangential velocity of M31, along with its radial velocity and distance, to derive the likelihood of the sum of halo masses of the Milky Way and M31. This is done using a sample halo pairs in the Bolsho
i cosmological simulation of $Lambda$CDM cosmology selected to match properties and environment of the Local Group. The resulting likelihood gives estimate of the sum of masses of $M_{rm MW,200}+M_{rm M31,200}=$ $2.40_{-1.05}^{+1.95}times10^{12},M_{odot}$ ($90%$ confidence interval). This estimate is consistent with individual mass estimates for the Milky Way and M31 and is consistent, albeit somewhat on the low side, with the mass estimated using the timing argument. We show that although the timing argument is unbiased on average for all pairs, for pairs constrained to have radial and tangential velocities similar to that of the Local Group the argument overestimates the sum of masses by a factor of $1.6$. Using similar technique we estimate the total dark matter mass enclosed within $1$ Mpc from the Local Group barycenter to be $M_{rm LG}(r<1, {rm Mpc})=4.2_{-2.0}^{+3.4}times10^{12},M_{odot}$ ($90%$ confidence interval).
We study the relationship between the iron abundance (IA) in red giant branch (RGB) stars and their radial distribution (RD) in Galactic globular clusters (GCs). We relied on publicly available archival data on IA in red giants (RGs) of GCs. We built
a sample of ten target GCs in which the number of these RGs exceeded one hundred stars. In each GC of the sample, we compared the RDs of two sub-samples of stars, more iron-rich (IR) and more iron-poor (IP) than the clusters mean values of [Fe/H]. Their RDs turned out to be different at statistically significant confidence levels in NGC 104 (47 Tuc), NGC 1851, NGC 3201, and NGC 6752 in the sense that the IP RGs were more centrally concentrated than their IR counterparts. In 47 Tuc, the difference is significant at a higher confidence level within the PRAD of R = 8.0, where the IA increases by Delta[Fe/H] ~ 0.03 dex toward the cluster outskirts. In the latter three GCs, Delta[Fe/H] ~ 0.05 dex. Interestingly, the V magnitude of the RGB bump and the horizontal branch was recently shown to fade outward in 47 Tuc and was suggested to originate from a He abundance trend. The fading caused by the IA trend is similar to that observed for the RGB bump. Although the difference between the RDs of IP and IR RGs is statistically insignificant in other GCs, NGC 288 is the only GC of the sample, in which IR RGB stars are formally more centrally concentrated. Interestingly, three of the four GCs are highly concentrated. (Abridged)
Previous studies showed that an estimate of the likelihood distribution of the Milky Way halo mass can be derived using the properties of the satellites similar to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC). However, it would be straightforw
ard to interpret such an estimate only if the properties of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) are fairly typical and are not biased by the environment. In this study we explore whether the environment of the Milky Way affects the properties of the SMC and LMC such as their velocities. To test for the effect of the environment, we compare velocity distributions for MC-sized subhalos around Milky Way hosts in a sample selected simply by mass and in the second sample of such halos selected with additional restrictions on the distance to the nearest cluster and the local galaxy density, designed to mimic the environment of the Local Group (LG). We find that satellites in halos in the LG-like environments do have somewhat larger velocities, as compared to the halos of similar mass in the sample without environmental constraints. We derive the host halo likelihood distribution for the samples in the LG-like envirionment and in the control sample and find that the environment does not significantly affect the derived likelihood. We use the updated properties of the SMC and LMC to derive the constraint on the MW halo mass $log{({rm M}_{200} /msol)}=12.06^{+0.31}_{-0.19}$ (90% confidence interval). We also explore the incidence of close pairs with relative velocities and separations similar to those of the LMC and SMC and find that such pairs are quite rare among $Lambda$CDM halos. Taking into account the close separation of the MCs in the Busha et al. 2011 method results in the shift of the MW halo mass estimate to smaller masses, with the peak shifting approximately by a factor of two.[Abridged]
The tight relation of star formation with molecular gas indicated by observations and assumed in recent models implies that the efficiency with which galaxies convert their gas into stars depends on gas metallicity. This is because the abundance of m
olecular hydrogen is sensitive to the abundance of dust, which catalyzes the formation of H_2 and helps to shield it from dissociating radiation. In this study we point out that in the absence of significant pre-enrichment by Population III stars forming out of zero metallicity gas, such H_2-based star formation is expected to leave an imprint in the form of bi-modality in the metallicity distribution among dwarf galaxies and in the metallicity distribution of stars within individual galaxies. The bi-modality arises because when gas metallicity (and dust abundance) is low, formation of molecular gas is inefficient, the gas consumption time scale is long, and star formation and metal enrichment proceed slowly. When metallicity reaches a critical threshold value star formation and enrichment accelerate, which leads to rapid increase in both stellar mass and metallicity of galaxies. We demonstrate this process both using a simple analytical model and full cosmological simulations. In contrast, observed metallicity distributions of dwarf galaxies or stars within them are not bi-modal. We argue that this discrepancy points to substantial early stochastic pre-enrichment by population III stars to levels Z ~ 0.01 Z_sun in dense, star forming regions of early galaxies.
The one-pion and two-pion production in the p(alpha, alpha prime)X reaction at an energy of E{alpha} = 4.2 GeV has been studied by simultaneous registration of the scattered alpha particles and the secondary pion or proton. The obtained results demon
strate that the inelastic alpha-particle scattering on the proton at the energy of the experiment proceeds either through excitation and decay of Delta resonance in the projectile or through excitation in the target proton of the Roper resonance, which decays mainly on a nucleon and a pion or a nucleon and a sigma meson - system of two pions in the isospin I = 0, S-wave.
We investigate the new and still poorly studied matter of so-called multiple stellar populations (MSPs) in Galactic globular clusters (GGCs). Studying MSPs and their accumulated data can shed more light on the formation and evolution of GGCs and othe
r closely related fundamental problems. We focus on the strong relation between the radial distribution of evolutionary homogeneous stars and their U-based photometric characteristics in the nearby GGC NGC 6752 and compare this with a similar relation we found in NGC 3201 and NGC 1261. We use our new multi-color photometry in a fairly wide field of NGC 6752, with particular emphasis on the U band and our recent and already published photometry made in NGC 3201 and NGC 1261. We found and report here for the first time a strong difference in the radial distribution between the sub-populations of red giant branch (RGB) stars that are bluer and redder in color U-B, as well as between sub-giant branch (SGB) stars brighter and fainter in the U-magnitude in NGC 6752. Moreover, the fainter SGB and redder RGB stars are similarly much more centrally concentrated than their respective brighter and bluer counterparts. Virtually the same applies to NGC 3201. We find evidence in NGC 6752 as in NGC 3201 that a dramatic change in the proportion of the two sub-populations of SGB and RGB stars occurs at a radial distance close to the half-mass radius, R_h, of the cluster. These results are the first detections of the radial trend of the particular photometric properties of stellar populations in GGCs. They imply a radial dependence of the main characteristics of the stellar populations in these GGCs, primarily of the abundance, and (indirectly) presumably of the kinematics.
It is a well established empirical fact that the surface density of the star formation rate, Sigma_SFR, strongly correlates with the surface density of molecular hydrogen, Sigma_H2, at least when averaged over large (~kpc) scales. Much less is known,
however, if (and how) the Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation depends on environmental parameters, such as the metallicity or the UV radiation field in the interstellar medium (ISM). Furthermore, observations indicate that the scatter in the Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation increases rapidly with decreasing averaging scale. How the scale-dependent scatter is generated and how one recovers a tight ~ kpc scale Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation in the first place is still largely debated. Here, these questions are explored with hydrodynamical simulations that follow the formation and destruction of H2, include radiative transfer of UV radiation, and resolve the ISM on ~60 pc scales. We find that within the considered range of H2 surface densities (10-100 Msun/pc^2) the Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation is steeper in environments of low metallicity and/or high radiation fields (compared to the Galaxy), that the star formation rate at a given H2 surface density is larger, and the scatter is increased. Deviations from a universal Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation should be particularly relevant for high redshift galaxies or for low-metallicity dwarfs at z~0. We also find that the use of time-averaged SFRs produces a large, scale dependent scatter in the Sigma_SFR-Sigma_H2 relation. Given the plethora of observational data expected from upcoming surveys such as ALMA the scale-scatter relation may indeed become a valuable tool for determining the physical mechanisms connecting star formation and H2 formation.
We calculate the probability distribution function (PDF) of the expected annihilation luminosities of dark matter subhalos as a function of subhalo mass and distance from the Galactic center using a semi-analytical model of halo evolution. We find th
at the PDF of luminosities is relatively broad, exhibiting a spread of as much as an order of magnitude at fixed subhalo mass and halo-centric distance. The luminosity PDF allows for simple construction of mock samples of gamma-ray luminous subhalos and assessment of the variance in among predicted gamma-ray signals from dark matter annihilation. Other applications include quantifying the variance among the expected luminosities of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, assessing the level at which dark matter annihilation can be a contaminant in the expected gamma-ray signal from other astrophysical sources, as well as estimating the level at which nearby subhalos can contribute to the antimatter flux.
(Abriged)This work studies in more detail the stellar population, including its photometric properties and characteristics, in the rarely studied southern Galactic globular cluster NGC 1261. We focus on the brighter sequences of the clusters color-ma
gnitude diagram (CMD). Like in our previous works, we rely upon photometry in several passbands to achieve more reliable results and conclusions. We carried out and analyzed new multi-color photometry of NGC 1261 in UBVI reaching below the turnoff point in all passbands in a fairly extended cluster field, about 14x14. We found several signs of the inhomogeneity (multiplicity) in the stellar population. The most prominent of them are: (1) the dependence of the radial distribution of sub-giant branch (SGB) stars in the cluster on their U magnitude, with brighter stars less centrally concentrated at the 99.9 % level than their fainter counterparts; (2) the dependence of the location of red giant branch (RGB) stars in the U-(U-B) CMD on their radial distance from the cluster center, with the portion of stars bluer in the (U-B) color increasing towards the cluster outskirts. Additionally, the radial variation of the RGB luminosity function in the bump region is suspected. We assume that both the SGB stars brighter in the U and the RGB stars bluer in the (U-B) color are probably associated with blue horizontal branch stars, because of a similarity in their radial distribution in the cluster. We estimated the metalicity of NGC 1261 from the slope of the RGB in U-based CMDs and the location of the RGB bump on the branch. These metallicity indicators give [Fe/H]zw = -1.34 +/- 0.16 dex and [Fe/H]zw = -1.41 +/- 0.10 dex, respectively. We isolated 18 probable blue straggler candidates. They are more centrally concentrated than the lower red giants of comparable brightness at the 97.9 % level.
