Rubin-LSST

Abstract:

We summarize results from McDermid et al. (2006), who present a set of follow-up observations of the sauron representative survey of early-type galaxies. We used the oasis integral-field spectrograph (while at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) to obtain high spatial resolution spectra of 28 elliptical and lenticular galaxies. These seeing-limited data have on average twice the spatial resolution of the sauron data, albeit over a smaller field. These new data reveal previously unresolved features in these objects' stellar kinematics, stellar populations, and ionized gas properties. In this contribution, we focus on the discovery of a population of compact kinematically decoupled cores in a number of our sample galaxies. These compact cores are related to regions of young stars, and counter-rotate around the host galaxy's minor axis. We compare these objects to previously known decoupled components, which in contrast are composed of old stars, and which rotate around axes unrelated to the host galaxy's kinematics or shape. A key difference between these two kinds of decoupled cores are their physical size and relative mass. The compact decoupled cores are smaller than a few hundred parsec, and constitute less than a few percent of the total galaxy mass. The classical decoupled cores exist on kiloparsec scales, and comprise around a factor 10 more mass. We suggest that the small components are only found with young ages because of their low mass-to-light ratio. We show that after a few Gyrs, these components fade into the background galaxy, making them more difficult to detect. We draw the following conclusions: 1) young stars found in early-type galaxies are very often associated with centrally-concentrated counter-rotating components; 2) the small mass fraction and kinematic decoupling of these cores suggests that the star formation is associated to minor accretion events, which effectively drive the spread in luminosity-weighted ages found in early-type galaxies; and 3) such decoupled components may be common in all early-type galaxies, but not directly observed due to their small contribution to the total galaxy light at older ages. © 2007 International Astronomical Union.

Abstract:

We discuss SAURON absorption line strength maps of a sample of 24 early-type spirals, mostly Sa. From the Lick indices H, Mgb and Fe 5015 we derive SSP-ages and metallicities. By comparing the scaling relations of Mg b and H and central velocity dispersion with the same relation for the edge-on sample of Falcn-Barroso et al. (2002) we derive a picture in which the central regions of Sa galaxies contain at least 2 components: one (or more) thin, disc-like component, often containing recent star formation, and another, elliptical-like component, consisting of old stars and rotating more slowly, dominating the light above the plane. If one defines a bulge to be the component responsible for the light in excess of the outer exponential disc, then many Sa-bulges are dominated by a thin, disc-like component containing recent star formation. © 2007 International Astronomical Union.

Abstract:

We present measurements of the inclusive branching fractions for the decays D+-->Xe+ nu(e) and D0-->Xe+ nu(e), using 281 pb(-1) of data collected on the psi(3770) resonance with the CLEO-c detector. We find B(D0-->Xe+ nu(e)) = (6.46+/-0.17+/-0.13)% and B(D+-->Xe+ nu(e)) = (16.13+/-0.20+/-0.33)%. Using the known D meson lifetimes, we obtain the ratio Gamma(D+)sl/Gamma(D0)sl = 0.985+/-0.028+/-0.015, confirming isospin invariance at the level of 3%. The positron momentum spectra from D+ and D0 have consistent shapes.

Abstract:

A long-standing question is whether active galactic nuclei (AGN) vary like Galactic black hole systems when appropriately scaled up by mass. If so, we can then determine how AGN should behave on cosmological timescales by studying the brighter and much faster varying Galactic systems. As X-ray emission is produced very close to the black holes, it provides one of the best diagnostics of their behaviour. A characteristic timescale--which potentially could tell us about the mass of the black hole--is found in the X-ray variations from both AGN and Galactic black holes, but whether it is physically meaningful to compare the two has been questioned. Here we report that, after correcting for variations in the accretion rate, the timescales can be physically linked, revealing that the accretion process is exactly the same for small and large black holes. Strong support for this linkage comes, perhaps surprisingly, from the permitted optical emission lines in AGN whose widths (in both broad-line AGN and narrow-emission-line Seyfert 1 galaxies) correlate strongly with the characteristic X-ray timescale, exactly as expected from the AGN black hole masses and accretion rates. So AGN really are just scaled-up Galactic black holes.

Abstract:

We search for decays of the type B(s)0-->h+ h'- (where h,h' = K or pi) in 180 pb(-1) of pp collisions collected at the Tevatron by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. We report the first observation of the new mode B(s)0-->K+ K- with a yield of 236+/-32 events, corresponding to (fs/fd) x B(B(s)0-->K+ K-)/B(B0-->K+ pi-) = 0.46+/-0.08stat+/-0.07syst, where fs/fd is the ratio of production fractions of B(s)0 and B0. We find results in agreement with world averages for the B0 modes, and set the following new limits at 90% C.L.: B(B(s)0-->K- pi+) < 5.6 x 10(-6) and B(B(s)0-->pi+ pi-) < 1.7 x 10(-6).