A High-Abundance Arc in the Compact Group of Galaxies HCG 62: An AGN- or Merger-Induced Metal Outflow?
We present a Chandra study of the metal distribution in the X-ray bright compact group of galaxies HCG 62. We find that the diffuse X-ray emission is peaked at the core of the central galaxy NGC 4778 and is dominated by the contribution of the hot gas. The diffuse emission is roughly symmetric within similar or equal to 0.25', which is straddled by double-sided X-ray cavities aligned in the northeast-southwest direction. By mapping the emission hardness ratio distributions and by performing a two-dimensional spectral analysis, we identify a remarkable high-abundance arc region at about 2' (33: 6 h(70)(-1) kpc) from the X-ray peak that spans over a vast region from south to northwest, a part of which roughly coincides with the outer edge of the southwest X-ray cavity. The measured average abundance in this arc is higher than that in its neighboring regions by a factor of about 2, and the abundance ratios therein are nicely consistent with the dominance of the SN Ia yields. We estimate that the mass of iron contained in the arc is > 3 x 10(6) h(70)(-2.5) M-circle dot, which accounts for > 3% of the iron synthesized in the galaxy. The high-abundance arc could have been formed by AGN activity. However, it is also possible that the arc was formed in a recent merger, as implied by the recent optical kinematic study by Spavone and colleagues, which suggests that mergers may be as important as AGN activity in metal redistributions in early-type galaxies and their associated groups or clusters.

title: Are GRB 090423 and similar bursts due to superconducting cosmic strings?
abstract: Superconducting cosmic strings may be able to power energetic gamma-ray bursts, in particular at high-redshifts ($z>6$). The ultra-relativistic outflows driven by the superconducting cosmic strings, however, seem too narrow to be consistent with the afterglow data of GRB 090423 and GRB 080913.

title: The Cross-Correlation between Galaxies of Different Luminosities and Colors
abstract: We study the cross-correlation between galaxies of different luminosities and colors, using a sample of 284,489 galaxies selected from SDSS DR4. Galaxies are divided into six samples according to luminosity, and each of these samples is further divided into red and blue subsamples according to their (g-r) colors. Projected autocorrelation is estimated for each subsample, and projected cross-correlation is estimated for each pair of subsamples. At projected separations r(p) greater than or similar to 1 h(-1) Mpc, all correlation functions are roughly parallel, although the correlation amplitude depends systematically on both luminosity and color. On r(p) less than or similar to 1 h(-1) Mpc, the autocorrelation and cross- correlation functions of red galaxies are significantly enhanced relative to the corresponding power laws obtained on larger scales. Such enhancement is absent for blue galaxies and in the cross- correlation between red and blue galaxies. We estimate the relative bias factor on scales r(p) greater than or similar to 1 h(-1) Mpc for each subsample using its autocorrelation function as well as its cross-correlation functions with other subsamples. The relative bias factors obtained from different methods are similar. For blue galaxies the luminosity dependence of the relative bias is strong over the entire luminosity range probed (-23.0 < M-r <= -18.0), while for red galaxies the dependence is weaker and becomes insignificant for luminosities below L*. In order to examine whether a significant stochastic/nonlinear component exists in the bias relation, we study the ratio R-ij equivalent to WiiWjj/W-ij(2), where W-ij is the projected correlation between subsample "i" and "j." Results suggest that a significant stochastic/nonlinear component exists in the relationship between red and blue galaxies, particularly on small scales.

title: A CHANDRA STUDY OF TEMPERATURE SUBSTRUCTURES IN INTERMEDIATE-REDSHIFT GALAXY CLUSTERS
abstract: By analyzing the gas temperature maps created from the Chandra archive data, we reveal the prevailing existence of temperature substructures on ~100 h –1 70 kpc scales in the central regions of nine intermediate-redshift (z ≈ 0.1) galaxy clusters, which resemble those found in the Virgo and Coma Clusters. Each substructure contains a clump of hot plasma whose temperature is about 2-3 keV higher than the environment, corresponding to an excess thermal energy of ~1058-1060 erg per clump. If there were no significant nongravitational heating sources, these substructures would have perished in 108-109 yr due to thermal conduction and turbulent flows, whose velocity is found to range from about 200 to 400 km s–1, we conclude that the substructures cannot be created and sustained by inhomogeneous radiative cooling. We also eliminate the possibilities that the temperature substructures are caused by supernova explosions, or by the nonthermal X-ray emission due to the inverse-Comptonization of the cosmic microwave background photons. By calculating the rising time of active galactic nucleus (AGN)-induced buoyant bubbles, we speculate that the intermittent AGN outbursts (≥1060 erg per burst) may have played a crucial role in the formation of the high-temperature substructures. Our results are supported by the recent study of McNamara and Nulsen, posing a tight observational constraint on future theoretical and numerical studies.

title: A joint Chandra and XMM-Newton view of Abell 3158: a massive off-centre cool gas clump as a robust diagnostic of a merger stage
abstract: In previous works, the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 3158 was reported to possess a relatively regular, relaxed morphology in the X-ray band. By analysing the Chandra and XMM-Newton archived data of Abell 3158, we have identified a bow-edge-shaped discontinuity in the X-ray surface brightness distribution about 120 h -1 71 kpc west of the X-ray peak. This feature is found to be associated with a massive, off-centre cool gas clump, and actually forms the west boundary of the cool clump. By calculating the thermal gas pressures in the cool clump and in the free-stream region, we determine that the cool gas clump is moving at a subsonic velocity of 700 +140 -340 km s -1 (M = 0.6 +0.1 -0.3 ) towards west on the sky plane. We exclude the possibility that this cool clump was formed by local inhomogeneous radiative cooling in the intracluster medium, because of the effectiveness of the thermal conduction on the time-scale of ∼.3 Gyr. As no evidence for central active galactic nucleus activity has been found in Abell 3158, and this cool clump bears many similarities to the off-centre cool gas clumps detected in other merging clusters in terms of their mass, size, location and thermal properties (e.g. lower temperature and higher abundance as compared with the environment), we speculate that the cool clump in Abell 3158 was caused by a merger event, and is the remnant of the original central cool-core of the main cluster or the infalling subcluster. This idea is supported not only by the study of the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the cluster member galaxies, but also by the study of the gas entropy-temperature correlation. This example shows that the appearance of such massive, off-centre cool gas clumps can be used to diagnose the dynamical state of a cluster, especially when prominent shocks and cold fronts are absent.

title: Metal enrichment via ram pressure stripping in the IGM of the compact galaxy group RGH 80
abstract: By creating and analyzing two dimensional gas temperature and abundance maps of the RGH 80 compact galaxy group with high-quality Chandra data, we detect a high-abundance (≃0.7 Z ⊙ ) arc, where the metal abundance is significantly higher than the surrounding regions by ≃0.3 Z ⊙ . This structure shows tight spatial correlations with the member galaxy PGC 046529, as well as with the arm-like feature identified on the X-ray image in the previous work of Randall et al. (2009). Since no apparent signature of AGN activity is found to be associated with PGC 046529 in multi-band observations, and the gas temperature, metallicity, and mass of the high-abundance arc resemble those of the ISM of typical early-type galaxies, we conclude that this high-abundance structure is the remnant of the ISM of PGC 046529, which was stripped out of the galaxy by ram pressure stripping due to the motion of PGC 046529 in RGH 80. This novel case shows that ram pressure stripping can work as efficiently in the metal enrichment process in galaxy groups as it can in galaxy clusters.

title: A possible mechanism for the mass ratio limitation in early type galaxies
abstract: There is an interesting correlation between the central objects and their host galaxies in recent high resolution HST photometry of early type galaxies and Near-IR images of nearby quasar hosts. It has been shown that a) the hosts of these very luminous quasars are likely to be early type galaxies and that b) the mass ratio of central black holes (BHs) and their host spheroidal components (M-bh/M-spheroid) is similar to 0.002 within a factor of three. Using the hierarchical galaxy evolution scheme for the formation of early-type galaxies, we present here a general viscous accretion disk model to trace the star formation and central engine evolution before and after mergers. In our model, starbursts and AGN coexist; these two activities compete for the gas supply, interact with each other, probably feed back on each other and lock into a final status. They thus constrain the ratio of central black hole mass and its host spheroidal mass to a universal value of order 10(-3).

title: Infrared–red cores in nearby elliptical galaxies
abstract: We present the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera observations for a sample of local elliptical galaxies to study later stages of active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. A sample of 36 elliptical galaxies is selected from the Palomar spectroscopic survey. We detect nuclear non-stellar infrared emission in nine of them. There is unambiguous evidence of circumnuclear dust in these nine galaxies in their optical images. We also find a remarkable correlation between the infrared excess emission and the nuclear radio/X-ray emission, suggesting that infrared excess emission is tightly related to nuclear activity. The possible origin of infrared excess emission from hot dust heated by the central AGN is supported by the spectral indices of the infrared excess emission.

title: Neutron production by cosmic-ray muons at shallow depth
abstract: The yield of neutrons produced by cosmic ray muons at a shallow depth of 32 meters of water equivalent has been measured. The Palo Verde neutrino detector, containing 11.3 tons of Gd loaded liquid scintillator and 3.5 tons of acrylic, served as a target. The rate of one and two neutron captures was determined. Modeling the neutron capture efficiency allowed us to deduce the total yield of neutrons, Ytot=(3.60±0.09±0.31)×10^-5 neutrons per muon and g/cm^2. This yield is consistent with previous measurements at similar depths.

title: Strangelet search at RHIC

title: Experimental measurement of the mass of the tau lepton at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider (BEPC)