We present the results of an analysis of Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey multi-band (g,r,i,z,y) images of a sample of 698 low-redshift disk galaxies that span broad ranges in stellar mass, star-formation rate, and bulge/disk ratio. We use population s
ynthesis SED fitting techniques to explore the radial distribution of the light, color, surface mass density, mass/light ratio, and age of the stellar populations. We characterize the structure and stellar content of the galaxy disks out to radii of about twice Petrosian r90, beyond which the halo light becomes significant. We measure normalized radial profiles for sub-samples of galaxies in three bins each of stellar mass and concentration. We also fit radial profiles to each galaxy. The majority of galaxies have down-bending radial surface brightness profiles in the bluer bands with a break radius at roughly r90. However, they typically show single unbroken exponentials in the reddest bands and in the stellar surface mass density. We find that the mass/light ratio and stellar age radial profiles have a characteristic U-shape. There is a good correlation between the amplitude of the down-bend in the surface brightness profile and the rate of the increase in the M/L ratio in the outer disk. As we move from late- to early-type galaxies, the amplitude of the down-bend and the radial gradient in M/L both decrease. Our results imply a combination of stellar radial migration and suppression of recent star formation can account for the stellar populations of the outer disk.
We propose a Raman quantum memory scheme that uses several atomic ensembles to store and retrieve the multimode highly entangled state of an optical quantum frequency comb, such as the one produced by parametric down-conversion of a pump frequency co
mb. We analyse the efficiency and the fidelity of such a quantum memory. Results show that our proposal may be helpful to multimode information processing using the different frequency bands of an optical frequency comb.
The recently discovered fast radio bursts (FRBs), presumably of extra-galactic origin, have the potential to become a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We point out a few such potential applications. We provide expressions for the dis
persion measure and rotation measure as a function of redshift, and we discuss the sensitivity of these measures to the HeII reionization and the IGM magnetic field. Finally we calculate the microlensing effect from an isolate, extragalctic stellar-mass compact object on the FRB spectrum. The time delays between the two lensing images will induce constructive and destructive interference, leaving a specific imprint on the spectra of FRBs. With a high all-sky rate, a large statistical sample of FRBs is expected to make these applications feasible.
Upcoming large imaging surveys will allow detailed studies of the structure and morphology of galaxies aimed at addressing how galaxies form and evolve. Computational approaches are needed to characterize their morphologies over large samples. We int
roduce an automatic method to quantify the outer structure of galaxies. The key to our approach is the division of a galaxy image into two sections delineated by the isophote which encloses half the total brightness of the galaxy. We call the central section the inner half-flux region (IHR) and the outer section the outer half-flux region (OHR). From this division, we derive two parameters: $A_{rm o}$, which measures the asymmetry of the OHR, and $D_{rm o}$, which measures the deviation of the intensity weighted centroid of the OHR from that of the IHR relative to the effective radius. We derive the two parameters from $HST$/ACS $z_{850}$-band images for a sample of 764 galaxies with $z_{850}<22$ mag and $0.35<z<0.9$ selected from GEMS and GOODS-South surveys. We show that the sample galaxies having strong asymmetric structures, in particular tidal tails, are well-separated from those with regular morphologies in the $A_{rm o}$-$D_{rm o}$ space. Meanwhile, the widely used $CAS$ and Gini-$M_{20}$ methods turn out to be insensitive to such morphological features. We stress that the $A_{rm o}$-$D_{rm o}$ method is an efficient way to select galaxies with significant asymmetric features like tidal tails and study galaxy mergers in the dynamical phase traced by these delicate features.
A study of [S III]$lambdalambda9096,9532$ emitters at $z$ = 1.34 and 1.23 is presented using our deep narrow-band $H_2S1$ (centered at 2.13 $mu$m) imaging survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS). We combine our data with multi-wavelen
gth data of ECDFS to build up spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from the $U$ to the $K_{s}$-band for emitter candidates selected with strong excess in $H_2S1 - K_{s}$ and derive photometric redshifts, line luminosities, stellar masses and extinction. A sample of 14 [S III] emitters are identified with $H_2S1<22.8$ and $K_{rm s}<24.8$ (AB) over 381 arcmin$^{2}$ area, having [S III] line luminosity $L_{[SIII]}= sim 10^{41.5-42.6}$erg s$^{-1}$. None of the [S III] emitters is found to have X-ray counterpart in the deepest Chandra 4 Ms observation, suggesting that they are unlikely powered by AGN. HST/ACS F606W and HST/WFC3 F160W images show their rest-frame UV and optical morphologies. About half of the [S III] emitters are mergers and at least one third are disk-type galaxies. Nearly all [S III] emitters exhibit a prominent Balmer break in their SEDs, indicating the presence of a significant post-starburst component. Taken together, our results imply that both shock heating in post-starburst and photoionization caused by young massive stars are likely to excite strong [S III] emission lines. We conclude that the emitters in our sample are dominated by star-forming galaxies with stellar mass $8.7<log (M/M_{sun})<9.9$.
Using deep narrow-band $H_2S1$ and $K_{s}$-band imaging data obtained with CFHT/WIRCam, we identify a sample of 56 H$alpha$ emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at $z=2.24$ with the 5$sigma$ depths of $H_2S1=22.8$ and $K_{s}=24.8$ (AB) over 383 arcmin$^{2}$
area in the ECDFS. A detailed analysis is carried out with existing multi-wavelength data in this field. Three of the 56 H$alpha$ ELGs are detected in Chandra 4 Ms X-ray observation and two of them are classified as AGNs. The rest-frame UV and optical morphologies revealed by HST/ACS and WFC3 deep images show that nearly half of the H$alpha$ ELGs are either merging systems or with a close companion, indicating that the merging/interacting processes play a key role in regulating star formation at cosmic epoch z=2-3; About 14% are too faint to be resolved in the rest-frame UV morphology due to high dust extinction. We estimate dust extinction from SEDs. We find that dust extinction is generally correlated with H$alpha$ luminosity and stellar mass (SM). Our results suggest that H$alpha$ ELGs are representative of star-forming galaxies (SFGs). Applying extinction correction for individual objects, we examine the intrinsic H$alpha$ luminosity function (LF) at $z=2.24$, obtaining a best-fit Schechter function characterized by a faint-end slope of $alpha=-1.3$. This is shallower than the typical slope of $alpha sim -1.6$ in previous works based on constant extinction correction. We demonstrate that this difference is mainly due to the different extinction corrections. The proper extinction correction is thus key to recovering the intrinsic LF as the extinction globally increases with H$alpha$ luminosity. Moreover, we find that our H$alpha$ LF mirrors the SM function of SFGs at the same cosmic epoch. This finding indeed reflects the tight correlation between SFR and SM for the SFGs, i.e., the so-called main sequence.
We study the far-infrared properties of 498 Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5 in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South, using 250, 350 and 500 micron data from the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) and 870 micron dat
a from the LABOCA ECDFS Submillimeter Survey (LESS). None of the 126, 280 or 92 LAEs at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5, respectively, are individually detected in the far-infrared data. We use stacking to probe the average emission to deeper flux limits, reaching $1sigma$ depths of ~0.1 to 0.4 mJy. The LAEs are also undetected at $ge3sigma$ in the stacks, although a $2.5sigma$ signal is observed at 870 micron for the z=2.8 sources. We consider a wide range of far-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs), including a M82 and an Sd galaxy template, to determine upper limits on the far-infrared luminosities and far-infrared-derived star-formation rates of the LAEs. These star-formation rates are then combined with those inferred from the Ly$alpha$ and UV emission to determine lower limits on the LAEs Ly$alpha$ escape fraction ($f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$)). For the Sd SED template, the inferred LAEs $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) are $gtrsim30%$ ($1sigma$) at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5, which are all significantly higher than the global $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) at these redshifts. Thus, if the LAEs $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) follows the global evolution then they have warmer far-infrared SEDs than the Sd galaxy template. The average and M82 SEDs produce lower limits on the LAE $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) of ~10 to 20% ($1sigma$), all of which are slightly higher than the global evolution of $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) but consistent with it at the 2 to 3$sigma$ level.
We demonstrate the fabrication of graphene nanogap with crystallographically matching edges on SiO2Si substrates by divulsion. The current-voltage measurement is then performed in a high-vacuum chamber for a graphene nanogap with few hundred nanomete
rs separation. The parallel edges help to build uniform electrical field and allow us to perform electron emission study on individual graphene. It was found that current-voltage characteristics are governed by the space-charge-limited flow of current at low biases while the FN model fits the I-V curves in high voltage regime. We also examined electrostatic gating effect of the vacuum electronic device. Graphene nanogap with atomically parallel edges may open up opportunities for both fundamental and applied research of vacuum nanoelectronics.
The star formation rate (SFR) and black hole accretion rate (BHAR) functions are measured to be proportional to each other at z < ~3. This close correspondence between SF and BHA would naturally yield a BH mass-galaxy mass correlation, whereas a BH m
ass-bulge mass correlation is observed. To explore this apparent contradiction we study the SF in spheroid-dominated galaxies between z=1 and the present day. We use 903 galaxies from the COMBO-17 survey with M* >2x10^10M_sun, ultraviolet and infrared-derived SFRs from Spitzer and GALEX, and morphologies from GEMS HST/ACS imaging. Using stacking techniques, we find that <25% of all SF occurs in spheroid-dominated galaxies (Sersic index n>2.5), while the BHAR that we would expect if the global scalings held is three times higher. This rules out the simplest picture of co-evolution, in which SF and BHA trace each other at all times. These results could be explained if SF and BHA occur in the same events, but offset in time, for example at different stages of a merger event. However, one would then expect to see the corresponding star formation activity in early-stage mergers, in conflict with observations. We conclude that the major episodes of SF and BHA occur in different events, with the bulk of SF happening in isolated disks and most BHA occurring in major mergers. The apparent global co-evolution results from the regulation of the BH growth by the potential well of the galactic spheroid, which includes a major contribution from disrupted disk stars.
