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Rejuvenation of spiral bulges

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 366:2 (2006) 510-520

Authors:

D Thomas, RL Davies

Abstract:

We seek to understand whether the stellar populations of galactic bulges show evidence of secular evolution triggered by the presence of the disc. For this purpose, we re-analyse the sample of Proctor and Sansom, deriving stellar population ages and element abundances from absorption-line indices as functions of central velocity dispersion and Hubble type. We obtain consistent constraints on ages from the three Balmer-line indices Hβ, Hγ and Hδ, based on stellar population models that take the abundance ratio effects on these indices into account. Emission-line contamination turns out to be a critical aspect, which favours the use of the higher order Balmer-line indices. Our derived ages are consistent with those of Proctor and Sansom based on a completely different method. In agreement with other studies in the literature, we find that bulges have relatively low luminosity weighted ages, the lowest age derived being 1.3 Gyr. Hence, bulges are not generally old, but actually rejuvenated systems. We discuss evidence that this might be true also for the bulge of the Milky Way. The data reveal clear correlations of all three parameters luminosity weighted age, total metallicity and α/Fe ratio with central velocity dispersion. The smallest bulges are the youngest with the lowest α/Fe ratios owing to late Fe enrichment from Type Ia supernovae. Using models combining recent minor star formation with a base old population, we show that the smallest bulges must have experienced significant star formation events involving 10-30 per cent of their total mass in the past 1-2 Gyr. No significant correlations of the stellar population parameters with Hubble type are found. We show that the above relationships with σ coincide perfectly with those of early-type galaxies. In other words, bulges are typically younger, metal poorer and less α/Fe enhanced than early-type galaxies because of their smaller masses. At a given velocity dispersion, bulges and elliptical galaxies are indistinguishable as far as their stellar populations are concerned. These results favour an inside-out formation scenario and indicate that the discs in spiral galaxies of Hubble types Sbc and earlier cannot have a significant influence on the evolution of the stellar populations in the bulge component. The phenomenon of pseudo-bulge formation must be restricted to spirals of types later than Sbc. © 2005 RAS.

Search for charged Higgs bosons from top quark decays in pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV

Physical Review Letters 96:4 (2006)

Authors:

A Abulencia, D Acosta, J Adelman, T Affolder, T Akimoto, MG Albrow, D Ambrose, S Amerio, D Amidei, A Anastassov, K Anikeev, A Annovi, J Antos, M Aoki, G Apollinari, JF Arguin, T Arisawa, A Artikov, W Ashmanskas, A Attal, F Azfar, P Azzi-Bacchetta, P Azzurri, N Bacchetta, H Bachacou, W Badgett, A Barbaro-Galtieri, VE Barnes, BA Barnett, S Baroiant, V Bartsch, G Bauer, F Bedeschi, S Behari, S Belforte, G Bellettini, J Bellinger, A Belloni, E Ben-Haim, D Benjamin, A Beretvas, J Beringer, T Berry, A Bhatti, M Binkley, D Bisello, M Bishai, RE Blair, C Blocker, K Bloom, B Blumenfeld, A Bocci, A Bodek, V Boisvert, G Bolla, A Bolshov, D Bortoletto, J Boudreau, S Bourov, A Boveia, B Brau, C Bromberg, E Brubaker, J Budagov, HS Budd, S Budd, K Burkett, G Busetto, P Bussey, KL Byrum, S Cabrera, M Campanelli, M Campbell, F Canelli, A Canepa, D Carlsmith, R Carosi, S Carron, M Casarsa, A Castro, P Catastini, D Cauz, M Cavalli-Sforza, A Cerri, L Cerrito, SH Chang, J Chapman, YC Chen, M Chertok, G Chiarelli, G Chlachidze, F Chlebana, I Cho, K Cho, D Chokheli, JP Chou, PH Chu, SH Chuang, K Chung, WH Chung

Abstract:

We report the results of a search for a charged Higgs boson in the decays of top quarks produced in pp̄ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. We use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 193pb-1 collected by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. No evidence for charged Higgs production is found, allowing 95% C.L. upper limits to be placed on BR(t→H+b) for different charged Higgs decay scenarios. In addition, we present in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (mH±,tan β) plane the first exclusion regions with radiative and Yukawa coupling corrections. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

Search for excited and exotic muons in the μy decay channel in pp - collisions at s=1.96 TeV

Physical Review Letters 97:19 (2006)

Authors:

A Abulencia, D Acosta, J Adelman, T Affolder, T Akimoto, MG Albrow, D Ambrose, S Amerio, D Amidei, A Anastassov, K Anikeev, A Annovi, J Antos, M Aoki, G Apollinari, JF Arguin, T Arisawa, A Artikov, W Ashmanskas, A Attal, F Azfar, P Azzi-Bacchetta, P Azzurri, N Bacchetta, H Bachacou, W Badgett, A Barbaro-Galtieri, VE Barnes, BA Barnett, S Baroiant, V Bartsch, G Bauer, F Bedeschi, S Behari, S Belforte, G Bellettini, J Bellinger, A Belloni, E Ben Haim, D Benjamin, A Beretvas, J Beringer, T Berry, A Bhatti, M Binkley, D Bisello, RE Blair, C Blocker, B Blumenfeld, A Bocci, A Bodek, V Boisvert, G Bolla, A Bolshov, D Bortoletto, J Boudreau, A Boveia, B Brau, C Bromberg, E Brubaker, J Budagov, HS Budd, S Budd, K Burkett, G Busetto, P Bussey, KL Byrum, S Cabrera, M Campanelli, M Campbell, F Canelli, A Canepa, D Carlsmith, R Carosi, S Carron, B Casal, M Casarsa, A Castro, P Catastini, D Cauz, M Cavalli-Sforza, A Cerri, L Cerrito, SH Chang, J Chapman, YC Chen, M Chertok, G Chiarelli, G Chlachidze, F Chlebana, I Cho, K Cho, D Chokheli, JP Chou, PH Chu, SH Chuang, K Chung, WH Chung, YS Chung, M Ciljak

Abstract:

We search for excited and exotic muon states * using an integrated luminosity of 371pb-1 of pp collision data at s=1.96TeV. We search for associated production of * followed by the decay *. We compare the data to model predictions as a function of the mass of the excited muon M *, the compositeness energy scale , and the gauge coupling factor f. No signal above the standard model expectation is observed. We exclude 107

Status of charm flavor physics

Frascati Physics Series 41 (2006) 135-168

Abstract:

The role of charm in testing the Standard Model description of quark mixing and CP violation through measurements of lifetimes, decay constants and semileptonic form factors is reviewed. Together with Lattice QCD, charm has the potential this decade to maximize the sensitivity of the entire flavor physics program to new physics, and pave the way for understanding physics beyond the Standard Model at the LIIC in the coming decade. The status of indirect searches for physics beyond the Standard Model through charm mixing, CP-violation and rare decays is also reported. Copyright © 2006, by INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati.

The SAURON project - VI. Line strength maps of 48 elliptical and lenticular galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 369:2 (2006) 497-528

Authors:

H Kuntschner, E Emsellem, R Bacon, M Bureau, M Cappellari, RL Davies, PT De Zeeuw, J Falcón-Barroso, D Krajnović, RM McDermid, RF Peletier, M Sarzi

Abstract:

We present absorption line strength maps of 48 representative elliptical and lenticular galaxies obtained as part of a survey of nearby galaxies using our custom-built integral-field spectrograph, SAURON, operating on the William Herschel Telescope. Using high-quality spectra, spatially binned to a constant signal-to-noise ratio, we measure four key age, metallicity and abundance ratio sensitive indices from the LickIDS system over a two-dimensional field extending up to approximately one effective radius. A discussion of calibrations and offsets is given, along with a description of error estimation and nebular emission correction. We modify the classical Fe5270 index to define a new index, , which maximizes the useable spatial coverage of SAURON. Maps of Hβ, Fe5015, Mg b and are presented for each galaxy. We use the maps to compute average line strengths integrated over circular apertures of one-eighth effective radius, and compare the resulting relations of index versus velocity dispersion with previous long-slit work. The metal line strength maps show generally negative gradients with increasing radius roughly consistent with the morphology of the light profiles. Remarkable deviations from this general trend exist, particularly the Mg b isoindex contours appear to be flatter than the isophotes of the surface brightness for about 40 per cent of our galaxies without significant dust features. Generally, these galaxies exhibit significant rotation. We infer from this that the fast-rotating component features a higher metallicity andor an increased MgFe ratio as compared to the galaxy as a whole. The Hβ maps are typically flat or show a mild positive outwards radial gradient, while a few galaxies show strong central peaks andor elevated overall Hβ strength likely connected to recent star formation activity. For the most prominent post-starburst galaxies, even the metal line strength maps show a reversed gradient. © 2006 RAS.