Clustering of luminous red galaxies – II. Small-scale redshift-space distortions

This is the second paper of a series where we study the clustering of luminous red galaxies (LRG) in the recent spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release, DR6, which has 75 000 LRG covering over  1 Gpc³  h ⁻³  for  0.15 < z < 0.47  . Here, we focus on modelling redshift-space distortions in  ξ(σ, π)  , the two-point correlation in separate line-of-sight and perpendicular directions, at small scales and in the line-of-sight. We show that a simple Kaiser model for the anisotropic two-point correlation function in redshift space, convolved with a distribution of random peculiar velocities with an exponential form, can describe well the correlation of LRG on all scales. We show that to describe with accuracy the so-called 'fingers-of-God' (FOG) elongations in the radial direction, it is necessary to model the scale dependence of both bias b and the pairwise rms peculiar velocity σ₁₂ with the distance. We show how both quantities can be inferred from the  ξ(σ, π)  data. From   r ≃ 10 Mpc  h ⁻¹  to   r ≃ 1 Mpc  h ⁻¹  , both the bias and σ₁₂ are shown to increase by a factor of 2: from   b = 2  to 4 and from  σ₁₂= 400  to  800 km s⁻¹  . The latter is in good agreement, within a 5 per cent accuracy in the recovered velocities, with direct velocity measurements in dark matter simulations with  Ω_m= 0.25  and  σ₈= 0.85  .     

Linear vertical vibrations of suspension bridges: A review of continuum models and some new results

The classical continuum model for the linear vertical vibrations of a suspension bridge (Bleich et al., 1950 [1]) is re-examined. The primary objective of the study is to extend the definitive analytical and numerical results of Irvine and Caughey (1974) [2], Irvine and Griffin (1976) [3] and Irvine (1980, 1981) [4], [5] for the natural frequencies, mode shapes, and modal participation factors for an extensible suspension cable, which depend on one dimensionless parameter related to the elasticity of the cable, to the case of a stiffened suspension bridge in which the response depends also on a second dimensionless parameter related to the stiffness of the girder. The continuum suspension bridge model is also used to understand the pattern of variation of mode shapes as a function of cable elasticity and girder stiffness, which has been shown by West et al. (1984) [6] to be considerably more complex than that for a suspension cable. Finally, the threshold amplitudes of free vibrations that would result in the incipient slackening of the hangers are determined.