Discovery of eight lensing clusters of galaxies

Clusters of galaxies have a huge mass which can act as gravitational lenses.Galaxies behind clusters can be distorted by the lenses to form arcs in images.Herein a search was done for giant lensed arcs using the SDSS data.By visually inspecting SDSS images of newly identified clusters in the SDSS DR8 and Stripe 82 data,we discover 8 strong lensing clusters together with additional 3probable and 6 possible cases.The lensed arcs show bluer colors than the member galaxies of clusters.The masses and optical luminosities of galaxy clusters interior to the arcs are calculated.The mass-to-light ratios are found to be in the range of a few tens of M⊙/L⊙,consistent with the distribution of previously known lensing clusters.     

LAMOST光谱J152238.11+333136.1 P-Cygni轮廓分析

LAMOST一期巡天成功获取河外星系光谱超过150 000条,大样本光谱数据为探索奇异、稀有的天体从而完善现有的天体演化理论提供了必要的数据条件;而先进的信息技术为从海量的数据中挖掘这些珍稀样本提供了有效途径。针对采用基于DoPS的数据挖掘方法,从LAMOST DR5星系光谱数据获得的离群数据挖掘结果中,呈现出疑似P-Cygni轮廓特征的光谱J152238.11+333136.1进行了深入讨论。首先针对该光谱的基本信息、疑似P-Cygni轮廓特征以及相应的离群数据挖掘方法进行了简要表述,光谱在Hβ和[OⅢ]λ4860处呈现P-Cygni轮廓,在NeⅢλ3869和HeⅠλ5874处呈现反P-Cygni轮廓;其次,对该特征的真实性及其生成机制从以下4个角度展开讨论。(1)交叉同源观测。Sloan巡天2004年(相差11年)的同源观测,其光谱上并未呈现对应的特征,据推测可能是正在进行的演化活动或者光纤定位误差所致;(2)通过分析光谱质量、减天光残差等方法,分析P-Cygni特征是否为观测或数据处理所致。NeⅢλ3869和HeⅠλ5874处呈现反P-Cygni轮廓可信度较低;同时,通过比较目标光谱与超级天光,以及相邻光纤观测到的光谱在对应波长处的光谱特征,说明存在P-Cygni轮廓为减天光过程导致的可能性;(3)光谱子型差异。IRAS和WISE等近红外同源观测,显示其为Seyfert 2型星系,光学波段发射线强比[NⅡ]/Hα,[OⅢ]/Hβ显示其为HⅡ区,结合光学、红外测光图像特征,推测目标可能是两个星系进行并合活动;(4)从导致P-Cygni轮廓的物理机制的角度,分析了由星系并合触发外流、由恒星形成(爆发)电离气体触发的外流以及由Wolf-Rayet特征星系的超星风等原因引起的可能性。     

Book reviews

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is making a multi-colour, three-dimensional map of the nearby Universe. The survey is in two parts. The first part is imaging one quarter of the sky in five colours from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared. This imaging survey is expected to detect around 50 million galaxies to a magnitude limit g～23. The second part of the survey, taking place concurrently with the imaging, is to obtain spectra for up to 1 million galaxies and 100 000 quasars. From these spectra one obtains redshifts and hence distances, in order to map out the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies and quasars in the Universe. These observations will be used to constrain models of cosmology and of galaxy formation and evolution. This article describes the goals and methods used by the SDSS, the current status of the survey, and highlights some exciting discoveries made from data obtained in the first two years of survey operations.     

基于多分辨率融合距离的低质量星系光谱红移测量方法

星系光谱红移测量是大规模天体光谱巡天项目中的一个重要研究内容,其目的是从在光谱中测量出对应星系由于多普勒效应引起的红移。随着银河系外巡天项目的开展,观测目标距离(红移)越来越远,其星等越来越暗,光谱的质量也随之越来越差,如何能够有效准确地从这些低质量的光谱测量出红移是河外巡天面临的一个重要问题。基于此问题,充分考虑到低质量星系光谱的特点及数据特征,新定义了一种针对低质量巡天光谱数据的多分辨率融合距离,以此为基础提出一种针对低质量星系光谱的红移测量方法。该方法充分结合不同分辨率下光谱的特征,计算距离时首先将模板光谱和待测光谱同时降到多个相同分辨率下,该分辨率下所有波长采样点都计算一个偏差进而得到一个距离,然后将多个分辨率下得到的距离通过加权得到一个融合距离。基于多分辨率融合距离提出的星系红移测量方法,能够有效的解决低质量星系光谱的红移无法准确测量的问题。研究了不同信噪比下红移测量的精度,在信噪比大于5之后,该方法测量准确率可以达到90%以上。大量实验表明,提出的方法在星系光谱质量较低的情况可以非常准确地从中测量出红移,测量误差和红移大小无关,可以很好地应用于大规模巡天数据的星系光谱红移测量中。     

星系光谱的400.0 nm跳变点的自动测量技术

本文给出星系光谱中的400.0nm跳变点位置和跳变值的自动测量方法,利用小波变换和离散卷积等技术,避免了对每条光谱进行繁琐的测量,可以作为星系光谱研究的预处理步骤。     

Density fluctuations on mm and Mpc scales

We will in this Letter report on suggestive similarities between density fluctuation power versus wavenumber on small (mm) and large (Mpc) scales. The small scale measurements were made in fusion plasmas and compared to predictions from classical fluid turbulence theory. The data is consistent with the dissipative range of 2D turbulence. Alternatively, the results can be fitted to a functional form that cannot be explained by turbulence theory. The large scale measurements were part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy redshift examination. We found that the equations describing fusion plasmas also hold for the galaxy data. The comparable dependency of density fluctuation power on wavenumber in fusion plasmas and galaxies might indicate a common origin of these fluctuations.     

Why are spherical stellar systems relaxed?

Spherical stellar systems, from globular star dusters to compact galaxy clusters, appear to be dynamically relaxed. In galaxies and galaxy clusters, collisional relaxation acts too slowly to produce the observed result; and a new argument suggests that the same may be true of globular star clusters. Violent relaxation requires special initial conditions and seems unable to produce sufficiently extended halos. It is here proposed that dynamical relaxation may result from tidal perturbations by external systems. If this explanation is correct, it has important implications for the early history of galaxies and galaxy clusters.This essay was awarded the fourth prize for 1976 by the Gravity Research Foundation.     

漩涡星系M31和椭圆星系M32CaⅡ三重线的等值宽度

利用天文台２．１６米望远镜的卡焦摄谱仪,我们观测了著名的漩涡星系Ｍ３１核区与盘区以及椭圆星系Ｍ３２长轴方向与短轴方向的近红外光谱。对这些区域的重要光谱特征－－ＣａⅡ三重线进行了测量,得到它们的等值宽度。     

Extragalactic background light: inventory of light throughout the cosmic history

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) stands for the mean surface brightness of the sky as we would see it from a representative vantage point in the intergalactic space outside of our Milky Way Galaxy. Averaged over the whole 4π solid angle it represents the collective light from all luminous matter radiated throughout the cosmic history. Part of the EBL is resolved into galaxies that, with the increasing detecting power of giant telescopes and sensitive detectors, are seen to deeper and deeper limiting magnitudes. This resolved part is now known to contribute a substantial or even the major part of the EBL. There still remains, however, the challenge of finding out to what extent galaxies too faint or too diffuse to be discerned individually, individual stars or emission by gas outside the galaxies, or – more speculatively – some hitherto unknown light sources such as decaying elementary particles are accounting for the remaining EBL. We review the recent progress that has been made in the measurement of EBL. The current photometric results suggest that there is, beyond the resolved galaxies, an EBL component that cannot be explained by diffuse galaxy halos or intergalactic stars.     

基于粒子群优化算法的测光红移回归预测

星系的红移在天文研究中极其重要,星系测光红移的预测对研究宇宙大尺度结构及演变有着重要的研究意义。利用斯隆巡天项目发布的SDSS DR13的150 000个星系的测光及光谱数据进行分析,首先根据颜色特征并基于聚类的方法对星系进行分类,由分类结果可知早型星系的占比较大。对比了三种不同的机器学习算法对早型星系进行测光红移回归预测实验,并找出最优的方法。实验中将星系样本中u, g, r, i, z五个波段的测光值以及两两做差得到的10个颜色特征作为输入数据,首先构建BP网络,使用BP算法对星系的测光红移进行回归预测;然后利用遗传算法（GA）优化BP网络各层参数,将优化后的GA-BP算法应用于早型星系的回归预测试验中。考虑到GA算法的复杂操作会影响预测效率,并且粒子群算法（PSO）不仅稳定性高且操作简单,因此将粒子群算法应用到星系样本中早型星系的测光红移回归预测实验中,进而采用粒子群算法优化BP网络（PSO-BP）。实验中将光谱红移作为期望值,采用均方差（MSE）作为误差分析指标来评判三种算法的精度,将PSO-BP回归预测结果与BP网络模型、GA-BP网络模型进行比较。由实验结果可知,BP网络的MSE值为0.001 92,GA-BP网络的MSE值0.001 728,PSO-BP网络的MSE值为0.001 708。实验结果表明,所用到的PSO-BP优化模型在精度上优于BP神经网络模型和GA-BP神经网络模型,分别提高了11.1%和1.2%;在效率上优于传统的K近邻（KNN）测光红移估计算法, 克服了KNN算法中遍历所有数据样本进行训练的缺点并且其泛化性能优于其它BP网络优化模型。     

基于相似性度量的星系光谱红移估计

光谱的自动分析对大规模的光谱巡天有着非常重要的意义。文章提出了一种基于相似性度量的星系光谱红移测量方法。方法中采用主分量分析构造星系光谱的静止模板,利用谱线特征确定观测光谱的红移候选,然后根据红移候选进行观测光谱与模板光谱间的相似性度量,所采取的相似性度量策略类似于证据积累的思想,定义为几个相似证据的加权和,从而降低了观测光谱与模板光谱之间的误匹配,提高了红移估计的正确率。通过实验将所提出方法与基于谱线匹配的方法和传统的交叉相关方法进行了比较,实验结果表明：本文方法的正确率较之基于谱线匹配的方法和传统相关法有较大提高。     

Cosmic lacunarity

The present distribution of galaxies in space is a remnant of their formation and interaction. On a large enough scale, we may represent the galaxies as a set of points and quantify the structures in this set by its generalized dimensions [Beck and Schlogl, Thermodynamics of Chaotic Systems (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986); Paladin and Vulpiani, Phys. Rep. 156, 147 (1987)]. The results of such evaluation are often taken to be evidence of a fractal (or multifractal) distribution of galaxies. However, those results, for some scales, may also reveal the presence of singularities formed in the gravitational processes that produce structure in the galaxy distribution. To try to make some decision about this issue, we look for the more subtle galactic lacunarity. We believe that this quantity is discernible in the currently available data and that it provides important evidence on the galaxy formation process. (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics.     

Comparing dark matter models,modified Newtonian dynamics and modified gravity in accounting for galaxy rotation curves

We compare six models(including the baryonic model,two dark matter models,two modified Newtonian dynamics models and one modified gravity model) in accounting for galaxy rotation curves.For the dark matter models,we assume NFW profile and core-modified profile for the dark halo,respectively.For the modified Newtonian dynamics models,we discuss Milgrom's MOND theory with two different interpolation functions,the standard and the simple interpolation functions.For the modified gravity,we focus on Moffat's MSTG theory.We fit these models to the observed rotation curves of 9 high-surface brightness and 9 low-surface brightness galaxies.We apply the Bayesian Information Criterion and the Akaike Information Criterion to test the goodness-of-fit of each model.It is found that none of the six models can fit all the galaxy rotation curves well.Two galaxies can be best fitted by the baryonic model without involving nonluminous dark matter.MOND can fit the largest number of galaxies,and only one galaxy can be best fitted by the MSTG model.Core-modified model fits about half the LSB galaxies well,but no HSB galaxies,while the NFW model fits only a small fraction of HSB galaxies but no LSB galaxies.This may imply that the oversimplified NFW and core-modified profiles cannot model the postulated dark matter haloes well.     

Constraints on dark matter annihilation from M87

As the largest mass concentrations in the local Universe, nearby clusters of galaxies and their central galaxies are prime targets in searching for indirect signatures of dark matter annihilation (DMA). We seek to constrain the dark matter annihilation emission component from multi-frequency observations of the central galaxy of the Virgo cluster. The annihilation emission component is modeled by the prompt and inverse-Compton gamma rays from the hadronization of annihilation products from generic weakly interacting dark matter particles. This component is fitted to the excess of the observed data above the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the jet in M87, described with a best-fit synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) spectrum. While this result is not sufficiently significant to claim a detection, we emphasize that a dark matter “double hump signature” can be used to unambiguously discriminate the dark matter emission component from the variable jet-related emission of M87 in future, more extended observation campaigns.     

Dark energy in systems of galaxies

The precise observational data of the Hubble Space Telescope have been used to study nearby galaxy systems. The main result is the detection of dark energy in groups, clusters, and flows of galaxies on a spatial scale of about 1–10 Mpc. The local density of dark energy in these systems, which is determined by various methods, is close to the global value or even coincides with it. A theoretical model of the nearby Universe has been constructed, which describes the Local Group of galaxies with the flow of dwarf galaxies receding from this system. The key physical parameter of the group-flow system is zero gravity radius, which is the distance at which the gravity of dark matter is compensated by dark-energy antigravity. The model predicts the existence of local regions of space where Einstein antigravity is stronger than Newton gravity. Six such regions have been revealed in the data of the Hubble space telescope. The nearest of these regions is at a distance of 1–3 Mpc from the center of the Milky Way. Antigravity in this region is several times stronger than gravity. Quasiregular flows of receding galaxies, which are accelerated by the dark-energy antigravity, exist in these regions. The model of the nearby Universe at the scale of groups of galaxies (～1 Mpc) can be extended to the scale of clusters (～10 Mpc). The systems of galaxies with accelerated receding flows constitute a new and probably widespread class of metagalactic populations. Strong dynamic effects of local dark energy constitute the main characteristic feature of these systems.     

Searching for Constraints on Starobinsky’s Model with a Disappearing Cosmological Constant on Galaxy Cluster Scales

Predictions of the f(R)-gravity model with a disappearing cosmological constant (Starobinsky’s model) on scales characteristic of galaxies and their clusters are considered. The absence of a difference in the mass dependence of the turnaround radius between Starobinsky’s model and General Relativity accessible to observation at the current accuracy of measurements has been established. This is true both for small masses (from 10⁹M_Sun) corresponding to an individual galaxy and for masses corresponding to large galaxy clusters (up to 10¹⁵M_Sun). The turnaround radius increases with parameter n for all masses. Despite the fact that some models give a considerably smaller turnaround radius than does General Relativity, none of the models goes beyond the bounds specified by the observational data.     

Dark matter and inflation

I demonstrate that dark matter consisting of any type or types of stable weakly interacting elementary particle is incompatible with the minimal predictions of inflation, based on present observation of galaxy clustering, and assuming galaxies are good tracers of mass in the universe. If we wish to resolve this problem by particle physics alone, we seem to be driven to the possibility that the initial dark matter was unstable.Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-82-15249 and also by the NSERC (Canada).This essay received the first award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1984-Ed.     

Darwin curves and galaxy arms

In the natural world, there exists one kind of structure which is beyond the scope of human laboratorial experiment. It is the structure of galaxies which is usually composed of billions of stars. Spiral galaxies are flat disk-shaped. There are two types of spiral galaxies. The spiral galaxies with some bar-shaped pattern are called barred spirals, and the ones without the pattern are called ordinary spirals. Longer-wavelength galaxy images (infrared, for example) show that ordinary spiral galaxies are basically an axi-symmetric disk that is called exponential disk. For a planar distribution of matter, Jin He defined Darwin curves in the plane as such that the ratio of the matter densities at both sides of the curve is constant along the curve. Therefore, the arms of ordinary spiral galaxies are Darwin curves. Now an important question is that: Are the arms of barred spiral galaxies the Darwin curves too? Fortunately, Jin He designed a piece of Galaxy Anatomy graphic software. With the software, not only can people simulate the stellar density distribution of barred spiral galaxies but also can draw the Darwin curves of the simulated galaxy structure. This paper shows partial evidence that the arms of galaxy NGC 3275, 4548 and 5921 follow Darwin curves.     

On the investigations of galaxy redshift periodicity

In this article we present a historical review of study of the redshift periodicity of galaxies, starting from the first works performed in the 1970s until the present day. We discuss the observational data and methods used, showing in which cases the discretization of redshifts was observed. We conclude that galaxy redshift periodization is an effect which can really exist. We also discussed the redshift discretization in two different structures: the Local Group of galaxies and the Hercules Supercluster. Contrary to the previous studies, we consider all galaxies which can be regarded as a structure member disregarding the accuracy of velocity measurements. We applied the power spectrum analysis using the Hann function for weighting, together with the jack-knife error estimator. In both structures we found weak effects of redshift periodization. The text was submitted by the authors in English.