On the onset of stochasticity in Λ cold dark matter cosmological simulations

The onset of stochasticity is measured in Λ cold dark matter cosmological simulations using a set of classical observables. It is quantified as the local derivative of the logarithm of the dispersion of a given observable (within a set of different simulations differing weakly through their initial realization), with respect to the cosmic growth factor. In an Eulerian framework, it is shown here that chaos appears at small scales, where dynamic is non-linear, while it vanishes at larger scales, allowing the computation of a critical transition scale corresponding to  ∼3.5 Mpc  h ⁻¹  . This picture is confirmed by Lagrangian measurements which show that the distribution of substructures within clusters is partially sensitive to initial conditions, with a critical mass upper bound scaling roughly like the perturbation's amplitude to the power 0.15. The corresponding characteristic mass,   M _crit= 2 10¹³ M_⊙  , is roughly of the order of the critical mass of non-linearities at   z = 1  and accounts for the decoupling induced by the dark energy triggered acceleration.
The sensitivity to detailed initial conditions spills to some of the overall physical properties of the host halo (spin and velocity dispersion tensor orientation) while other 'global' properties are quite robust and show no chaos (mass, spin parameter, connexity and centre-of-mass position). This apparent discrepancy may reflect the fact that quantities which are integrals over particles rapidly average out details of difference in orbits, while the other observables are more sensitive to the detailed environment of forming haloes and reflect the non-linear scale coupling characterizing the environments of haloes.     

Non-parametric strong lens inversion of Cl 0024+1654: illustrating the monopole degeneracy

The cluster lens Cl 0024+1654 is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful examples of strong gravitational lensing, providing five large images of a single source with well-resolved substructure. Using the information contained in the positions and the shapes of the images, combined with the null space information, a non-parametric technique is used to infer the strong lensing mass map of the central region of this cluster. This yields a strong lensing mass of  1.60 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙  within a 0.5  arcmin radius around the cluster centre. This mass distribution is then used as a case study of the monopole degeneracy, which may be one of the most important degeneracies in gravitational lensing studies and which is extremely hard to break. We illustrate the monopole degeneracy by adding circularly symmetric density distributions with zero total mass to the original mass map of Cl 0024+1654. These redistribute mass in certain areas of the mass map without affecting the observed images in any way. We show that the monopole degeneracy and the mass-sheet degeneracy together lie at the heart of the discrepancies between different gravitational lens reconstructions that can be found in the literature for a given object, and that many images/sources, with an overall high image density in the lens plane, are required to construct an accurate, high-resolution mass map based on strong lensing data.     

A new independent limit on the cosmological constant/dark energy from the relativistic bending of light by Galaxies and clusters of Galaxies

We derive new limits on the value of the cosmological constant, Λ, based on the Einstein bending of light by systems where the lens is a distant galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. We use an amended lens equation in which the contribution of Λ to the Einstein deflection angle is taken into account and use observations of Einstein radii around several lens systems. We use in our calculations a Schwarzschild–de Sitter vacuole exactly matched into a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker background and show that a Λ-contribution term appears in the deflection angle within the lens equation. We find that the contribution of the Λ-term to the bending angle is larger than the second-order term for many lens systems. Using these observations of bending angles, we derive new limits on the value of Λ. These limits constitute the best observational upper bound on Λ after cosmological constraints and are only two orders of magnitude away from the value determined by those cosmological constraints.     

Gravitational radiation from approaching neutron stars and the rotational explosion mechanism for collapsing supernovae

We consider the evolution of a neutron star binary system under the effect of two factors: gravitational radiation and mass transfer between the components. Gravitational radiation is specified under the justified assumption of a circular orbit and point masses and in the approximation of a weak gravitational field at nonrelativistic velocities of the binary components. During the first evolutionary phase determined only by gravitational radiation, the neutron stars approach each other according to a simple analytical solution. The second evolutionary phase begins at the time of Roche-lobe filling by the low-mass component, when the second factor, mass transfer as a result of mass loss by the latter, also begins to affect the evolution. Under the simplest assumptions of conservative mass transfer and exact equality between the Roche-lobe radius and the radius of the low-mass neutron star, it is still possible to extend the analytical solution of the problem of evolution to its second phase. We present this complete solution at both phases and, in particular, give theoretical light curves of gravitational radiation that depend only on two dimensionless parameters (m _t and δ ₀). Based on the solution found, we analyze the theoretical gravitational signals from SN 1987A; this analysis includes the hypothesis about the rotational explosion mechanism for collapsing supernovae.     

利用CHAMP卫星星历及加速度计数据推求地球重力场模型

讨论基于CHAMP卫星星历和加速度计数据推求地球重力场模型的数值微分算法.首先利用牛顿内插公式,根据CHAMP卫星星历观测值求解卫星运动加速度.在计算卫星加速度时,建议采用速度数据内插加速度.扣除其他非地球引力摄动加速度后,基于牛顿运动定律建立观测方程.利用GFZ数据中心提供的24天CHAMP星历数据和加速度计数据解算出50×50阶地球重力场模型,并与EGM96模型进行比较,结果表明两者在低阶位系数上有较好的一致性.     

河南省嵩山区五佛山群内的砂岩岩墙及构造解释

河南省嵩山地区中—新元古代五佛山群沉积岩中发育几百条砂岩岩墙、砂岩岩脉和砂岩岩床 ,形成一个壮观的砂岩岩墙群。它们的地质关系、几何学、组成和结构特征显示 ,其母源层是骆驼畔组含砾中粗粒砂岩及中细粒砂岩 ,主要是在五佛山群重力滑动构造发育过程中 ,准稳定的骆驼畔组砂岩经液化及流体化 ,由上向下注入到下伏的葡峪组页岩等岩层内断层、裂隙和节理中形成的。砂岩岩墙群的发育证明 ,五佛山群区域变形时 ,其整个地层序列的岩石虽已具有一定强度 ,可形成较规律性的重力滑动构造几何学和运动学图像 ,但是 ,总体尚未完全固结成岩。因此 ,五佛山群复杂的阿尔卑斯型构造属于软沉积变形 ,在中朝克拉通尺度上 ,乃是地壳局部力学不稳定性的结果     

黔东南地区Au,Sb,Pb,Zn矿床分布与重力场关系的初步分析

本文根据1／20万区域重力资料所圈定的异常及其对深部构造的初步解译等,结合该区Au,Sb,Pb,Zn等矿床的空间分布,初步探讨其与区域重力场等的关系,对黔东南地区上述矿床的研究和找矿有一定的参考价值。     

Detecting mass substructure in galaxy clusters: an aperture mass statistic for gravitational flexion

Gravitational flexion has been introduced as a technique by which one can map out and study substructure in clusters of galaxies. Previous analyses involving flexion have measured the individual galaxy–galaxy flexion signal, or used either parametric techniques or a Kaiser, Squires and Broadhurst (KSB)-type inversion to reconstruct the mass distribution in Abell 1689. In this paper, we present an aperture mass statistic for flexion, and apply it to the lensed images of background galaxies obtained by ray-tracing simulations through a simple analytic mass distribution and through a galaxy cluster from the Millennium Simulation. We show that this method is effective at detecting and accurately tracing structure within clusters of galaxies on subarcminute scales with high signal to noise even using a moderate background source number density and image resolution. In addition, the method provides much more information about both the overall shape and the small-scale structure of a cluster of galaxies than can be achieved through a weak lensing mass reconstruction using gravitational shear data. Lastly, we discuss how the zero-points of the aperture mass might be used to infer the masses of structures identified using this method.     

A metric and optimization scheme for microlens planet searches

OGLE III and MOA-II are discovering 600–1000 Galactic bulge microlens events each year. This stretches the resources available for intensive follow-up monitoring of the light curves in search of anomalies caused by planets near the lens stars. We advocate optimizing microlens planet searches by using an automatic prioritization algorithm based on the planet detection zone area probed by each new data point. This optimization scheme takes account of the telescope and detector characteristics, observing overheads, sky conditions and the time available for observing on each night. The predicted brightness and magnification of each microlens target are estimated by fitting to available data points. The optimization scheme then yields a decision on which targets to observe and which to skip, and a recommended exposure time for each target, designed to maximize the planet detection capability of the observations. The optimal strategy maximizes detection of planet anomalies, and this must be coupled with rapid data reduction to trigger continuous follow-up of anomalies that are thereby found. A web interface makes the scheme available for use by human or robotic observers at any telescope. We also outline a possible self-organizing scheme that may be suitable for coordination of microlens observations by a heterogeneous telescope network.