1,721,075 research outputs found
An inventory of the stellar initial mass function in early-type galaxies
Get PDFGiven a flurry of recent claims for systematic variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF), we carry out the first inventory of the observational evidence using different approaches. This includes literature results, as well as our own new findings from combined stellar population synthesis (SPS) and Jeans dynamical analyses of data on 4500 early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the SPIDER project. We focus on the mass-to-light ratio mismatch relative to the Milky Way IMF, δIMF, correlated against the central stellar velocity dispersion, σ*. We find a strong correlation between δIMFand σ*, for a wide set of dark matter (DM) model profiles. These results are robust if a uniform halo response to baryons is adopted across the sample. The overall normalization of δIMFand the detailed DM profile are less certain, but the data are consistent with standard cold DM halos and a central DM fraction that is roughly constant with σ*. For a variety of related studies in the literature, using SPS, dynamics, and gravitational lensing, similar results are found. Studies based solely on spectroscopic line diagnostics agree on a Salpeter-like IMF at high σ* but differ at low σ*. Overall, we find that multiple independent lines of evidence appear to be converging on a systematic variation in the IMF, such that high-σ* ETGs have an excess of low-mass stars relative to spirals and low- σ* ETGs. Robust verification of super-Salpeter IMFs in the highest-σ* galaxies will require additional scrutiny of scatter and systematic uncertainties. The implications for the distribution of DM are still inconclusive. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The SLUGGS survey: Breaking degeneracies between dark matter, anisotropy and the IMF using globular cluster subpopulations in the giant elliptical NGC 5846
Get PDFWe study the mass and anisotropy distribution of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5846 using stars, as well as the red and blue globular cluster (GC) subpopulations. We break degeneracies in the dynamical models by taking advantage of the different phase space distributions of the two GC subpopulations to unambiguously constrain the mass of the galaxy and the anisotropy of the GC system. Red GCs show the same spatial distribution and behaviour as the starlight, whereas blue GCs have a shallower density profile, a larger velocity dispersion and a lower kurtosis, all of which suggest a different orbital distribution. We use a dispersion-kurtosis Jeans analysis and find that the solutions of separate analyses for the two GC subpopulations overlap in the halo parameter space. The solution converges on a massive dark matter halo, consistent with expectations from Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) and 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7) cosmology in terms of virial mass (logMDM ~ 13.3M⊙) and concentration (cvir ~ 8). This is the first such analysis that solves the dynamics of the different GC subpopulations in a self-consistent manner. Our method improves the uncertainties on the halo parameter determination by a factor of 2 and opens new avenues for the use of elliptical galaxy dynamics as tests of predictions from cosmological simulations. The implied stellar mass-to-light ratio derived from the dynamical modelling is fully consistent with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) and rules out a bottom light IMF. The different GC subpopulations show markedly distinct orbital distributions at large radii, with red GCs having an anisotropy parameter β ~ 0.4 outside ~ 3Re (Re is the effective radius), and the blue GCs having β ~0.15 at the same radii, while centrally (~1Re) they are both isotropic. We discuss the implications of our findings within the two-phase formation scenario for early-type galaxies. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
SPIDER - VI. The central dark matter content of luminous early-type galaxies: Benchmark correlations with mass, structural parameters and environment
No full textWe analyse the central dark-matter (DM) content of ∼4500 massive (M{black star} ≳ 1010M⊙), low-redshift (z < 0.1), early-type galaxies (ETGs), with high-quality ugrizY JHK photometry and optical spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). We estimate the 'central' fraction of DM within the K-band effective radius, Reff, using spherically symmetric isotropic galaxy models. We discuss the role of systematics in stellar mass estimates, dynamical modelling, and velocity dispersion anisotropy. The main results of the present work are the following: (1) DM fractions increase systematically with both structural parameters (i.e. Reff and Sérsic index, n) and mass proxies (central velocity dispersion, stellar and dynamical mass), as in previous studies, and decrease with central stellar density. (2) All correlations involving DM fractions are caused by two fundamental ones with galaxy effective radius and central velocity dispersion. These correlations are independent of each other, so that ETGs populate a central-DM plane (DMP), i.e. a correlation among fraction of total-to-stellar mass, effective radius, and velocity dispersion, whose scatter along the total-to-stellar mass axis amounts to ∼0.15 dex. (3) In general, under the assumption of an isothermal or a constant M/L profile for the total mass distribution, a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) is favoured with respect to a bottom-heavier Salpeter IMF, as the latter produces negative (i.e. unphysical) DM fractions for more than 50 per cent of the galaxies in our sample. For a Chabrier IMF, the DM estimates agree with Λ cold dark matter toy-galaxy models based on contracted DM-halo density profiles. We also find agreement with predictions from hydrodynamical simulations. (4) The central DM content of ETGs does not depend significantly on the environment where galaxies reside, with group and field ETGs having similar DM trends. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
MOND and IMF variations in early-type galaxies from ATLAS3D
Get PDFModified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) represents a phenomenological alternative to dark matter (DM) for the missing mass problem in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. We analyse the central regions of a local sample of ̃220 early-type galaxies from the ATLAS3D survey, to see if the data can be reproduced without recourse to DM. We estimate dynamical masses in the MOND context through Jeans analysis and compare to ATLAS3D stellar masses from stellar population synthesis. We find that the observed stellar mass-velocity dispersion relation is steeper than expected assuming MOND with a fixed stellar initial mass function (IMF) and a standard value for the acceleration parameter a0. Turning from the space of observables to model space (a) fixing the IMF, a universal value for a0 cannot be fitted, while, (b) fixing a0 and leaving the IMF free to vary, we find that it is 'lighter' (Chabrier like) for low-dispersion galaxies and 'heavier' (Salpeter like) for high dispersions. This MOND-based trend matches inferences from Newtonian dynamics with DM and from the detailed analysis of spectral absorption lines, adding to the converging lines of evidence for a systematically varying IMF. © 2013 The Authors
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