Evolution of the luminosity function and colours of galaxies in a Λ cold dark matter universe

The luminosity function of galaxies is derived from a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a Λ cold dark matter universe with the aid of a stellar population synthesis model. At     , the resulting B -band luminosity function has a flat faint-end slope of     with the characteristic luminosity and the normalization in fair agreement with observations, while the dark matter halo mass function is steep with a slope of     . The colour distribution of galaxies also agrees well with local observations. We also discuss the evolution of the luminosity function, and the colour distribution of galaxies from     to 5. A large evolution of the characteristic mass in the stellar mass function as a result of number evolution is compensated by luminosity evolution; the characteristic luminosity increases only by 0.8 mag from     to 2, and then declines towards higher redshift, while the B -band luminosity density continues to increase from     to 5 (but only slowly at     .     

The re-analysis of the ROSAT data of Nova Mus 1983 using white dwarf atmosphere emission models

The analyses of X-ray emission from classical novae during the outburst stage have shown that the soft X-ray emission below 1 keV, which is thought to originate from the photosphere of the white dwarf, is inconsistent with the simple blackbody model of emission. Thus, ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) archival data of the classical Nova Mus 1983 (GQ Mus) have been re-analysed in order to understand the spectral development in the X-ray wavelengths during the outburst stage. The X-ray spectra are fitted with the hot white dwarf (WD) atmosphere emission models developed for the remnants of classical novae near the Eddington luminosity. The post-outburst X-ray spectra of the remnant white dwarf are examined in the context of evolution on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram using C–O enhanced atmosphere models. The data obtained in 1991 August (during the ROSAT All Sky Survey) indicate that the effective temperature is         . The 1992 February data show that the white dwarf had reached an effective temperature in the range         with an unabsorbed X-ray flux (i.e. ∼ bolometric flux) between     and     . We show that the H burning at the surface of the WD had most likely ceased at the time of the X-ray observations. Only the 1991 August data show evidence for ongoing H burning.     

The build-up of haloes within Press–Schechter theory

Modelling the build-up of haloes is important for linking the formation of galaxies with cosmological models. A simple model of halo growth is provided by Press–Schechter (PS) theory, where the initial field of density fluctuations is smoothed using spherically symmetric filters centred on a given position to obtain information about the likelihood of later collapse on varying scales. In this paper the predicted halo mass growth is compared for three filter shapes: Gaussian, top-hat and sharp k -space. Preliminary work is also presented analysing the build-up of haloes within numerical simulations using a friends-of-friends group finder. The best-fit to the simulation mass function was obtained using PS theory with a top-hat filter. By comparing both the backwards conditional mass function, which gives the distribution of halo progenitors, and the distribution of halo mergers in time, the build-up of haloes in the simulations is shown to be better fitted by PS theory with a sharp k -space filter. This strengthens previous work, which also found the build-up of haloes in simulations to be well matched to PS theory with a sharp k -space filter by providing a direct comparison of different filters and by extending the statistical tools used to analyse halo mass growth. The usefulness of this work is illustrated by showing that the cosmological evolution in the proportion of haloes that have undergone recent merger is predicted to be independent of mass and power spectrum and to only depend upon cosmology. Recent results from observations of field galaxies are shown to match the evolution expected, but are not sufficiently accurate to distinguish usefully between cosmological parameters.     

Wolf-Rayet stars

Summary Recent literature on Population I Wolf-Rayet star research extending from the Milky Way to blue compact dwarf galaxies is reviewed, broken down into inventory, basic parameters and galactic distribution, atmospheres, binaries, intrinsic variability, mass loss, enrichment and evolution. Also the incidence of Wolf-Rayet stars with variable non-thermal radio emission, excess X-ray fluxes, and episodic/periodic IR excesses is reviewed. These phenomena appear to be associated with wind-wind interaction in wide long-period WR+OB binaries and with wind-compact object interaction in WR+c binaries, with orbit sizes of the order of magnitude of the WR radio photosphere sizes or larger.     

Ellerman Bombs,Type Ⅱ White—light Flares and Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Lower Atmosphere

Ellerman bombs and type Ⅱ white-light flares share many common features despite the large energy gap between them.Both are considered to result from local heation in the solar lower atmosphere.This paper presents numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection occurring in such a deep atmosphere,with the aim to account for the common features of the two phenomena.Our numerical results manifest the following two typical characteristics of the assumed reconnection process:(1)magnetic reconnection saturates in-600-900s,which is just the lifetime of the two phenomens;(2)ionization in the upper chromosphere consumes quite a large part of the energy released through reconnection,making the heation effect most significant in the lower chromosphere.The applicationof the reconnection model to the two phenomena is discussed in detail.     

The β Cephei instability strip

We carried out a series of linear stability analyses of the radial and low-degree non-radial p modes for stellar models with initial masses of     . The stellar models were computed by using convective overshoot distance     , 0.25 and 0.40  H _P. Our numerical results show that the β Cephei instability strip forms a horn-shaped region pointing upwards near the main sequence on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (HRD). The lower part of the instability strip for the radial modes join the zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) at     , while the top of the instability strip extends up to     . The instability strip for the non-radial modes is even wider. The overall instability strip is dominated by the radial and non-radial fundamental modes. The first overtone (the radial-order index     is also pulsationally unstable. We have shown that the β Cephei stability is almost independent of the overshoot parameter d _over used for the stellar models, while it depends critically on the metal abundance. With decreasing metal abundance, the instability region shrinks and eventually disappears for     .     

The SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey – III. Astrometry

In this, the third in a series of three papers concerning the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey, we describe the astrometric properties of the data base. We describe the algorithms employed in the derivation of the astrometric parameters of the data, and demonstrate their accuracies by comparison with external data sets using the first release of data, the South Galactic Cap survey. We show that the celestial coordinates, which are tied to the International Celestial Reference Frame via the Tycho–2 reference catalogue, are accurate to better than ±0.2 arcsec at J , R ∼19,18 , rising to ±0.3 arcsec at J , R ∼22,21 , with positional-dependent systematic effects from bright to faint magnitudes at the ∼0.1-arcsec level. The proper motion measurements are shown to be accurate to typically ±10 mas yr⁻¹ at J , R ∼19,18 , rising to ±50 mas yr⁻¹ at J , R ∼22,21 , and are tied to zero using the extragalactic reference frame. We show that the zero-point errors in the proper motions are ≤1 mas yr⁻¹ for R >17 , and are no larger than ∼10 mas yr⁻¹ for R <17 mas yr⁻¹ .     

Starburst activity in a ROSAT narrow emission-line galaxy

We present multiwaveband photometric and optical spectropolarimetric observations of the R =15.9 narrow emission-line galaxy R117_A which lies on the edge of the error circle of the ROSAT X-ray source R117. The overall spectral energy distribution of the galaxy is well modelled by a combination of a normal spiral galaxy and a moderate-strength burst of star formation. The far-infrared and radio emission is extended along the major axis of the galaxy, indicating an extended starburst.
On positional grounds, the galaxy is a good candidate for the identification of R117, and the observed X-ray flux is very close to what would be expected from a starburst of the observed far-infrared and radio fluxes. Although an obscured high-redshift QSO cannot be entirely ruled out as contributing some fraction of the X-ray flux, we find no candidates to K =20.8 within the X-ray error box, and so conclude that R117_A is responsible for a large fraction, if not all, of the X-ray emission from R117.
Searches for indicators of an obscured AGN in R117_A have so far proven negative; deep spectropolarimetric observations show no signs of broad lines to a limit of 1 per cent and, for the observed far-infrared and radio emission, we would expect 10 times greater X-ray flux if the overall emission were powered by an AGN. We therefore conclude that the X-ray emission from R117 is dominated by starburst emission from the galaxy R117_A.     

Nature of microstructure in pulsar radio emission

We present a model for microstructure in pulsar radio emission. We propose that micropulses result from alteration of the radio wave generation region by nearly transverse drift waves propagating across the pulsar magnetic field and encircling the bundle of the open magnetic field lines. It is demonstrated that such waves can modify the curvature of the field lines significantly. This, in turn, affects strongly fulfilment of the resonance conditions necessary for the excitation of radio waves. The time-scale of micropulses is therefore determined by the wavelength of the drift waves. The main features of the microstructure are naturally explained within the framework of this model.