Academia Sinica

About: Academia Sinica is a facility organization based out in Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 52086 authors who have published 65998 publications receiving 1728114 citations. The organization is also known as: Central Research Academy.

The Surprisingly Steep Mass Profile of A1689, from a Lensing Analysis of Subaru Images*

Abstract: Subaru observations of A1689 (z = 0.183) are used to derive an accurate, model-independent mass profile for the entire cluster, r 2 Mpc h-1, by combining magnification bias and distortion measurements. The projected mass profile steepens quickly with increasing radius, falling away to zero at r ~ 1.0 Mpc h-1, well short of the anticipated virial radius. Our profile accurately matches the inner profile, r 200 kpc h-1, derived from deep Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) images. The combined ACS and Subaru information is well fitted by a Navarro-Frenk-White profile with virial mass, (1.93 ± 0.20) × 1015 M☉, and surprisingly high concentration, cvir = 13.7, significantly larger than theoretically expected (cvir 4), corresponding to a relatively steep overall profile. A slightly better fit is achieved with a steep power-law model, d log Σ(θ)/d log θ -3, with a core θc 17 (rc 210 kpc h-1), whereas an isothermal profile is strongly rejected. These results are based on a reliable sample of background galaxies selected to be redder than the cluster E/S0 sequence. By including the faint blue galaxy population, a much smaller distortion signal is found, demonstrating that blue cluster members significantly dilute the true signal for r 400 kpc h-1. This contamination is likely to affect most weak lensing results to date.

Past and future contribution of global groundwater depletion to sea-level rise

Abstract: [1] Recent studies suggest the increasing contribution of groundwater depletion to global sea-level rise. Groundwater depletion has more than doubled during the last decades, primarily due to increase in water demand, while the increase in water impoundments behind dams has been tapering off since the 1990s. As a result, the contribution of groundwater depletion to sea-level rise is likely to dominate over those of other terrestrial water sources in the coming decades. Yet, no projections into the 21st century are available. Here we present a reconstruction of past groundwater depletion and its contribution to global sea-level variation, as well as 21st century projections based on three combined socio-economic and climate scenarios (SRES) with transient climate forcing from three General Circulation Models (GCMs). We validate and correct estimated groundwater depletion with independent local and regional assessments, and place our results in context of other terrestrial water contributions to sea-level variation. Our results show that the contribution of groundwater depletion to sea-level increased from 0.035 (±0.009) mm yr−1 in 1900 to 0.57 (±0.09) mm yr−1 in 2000, and is projected to increase to 0.82 (±0.13) mm yr−1 by the year 2050. We estimate the net contribution of terrestrial sources to be negative of order −0.15 (±0.09) mm yr−1 over 1970–1990 as a result of dam impoundment. However, we estimate this to become positive of order +0.25 (±0.09) mm yr−1 over 1990–2000 due to increased groundwater depletion and decreased dam building. We project the net terrestrial contribution to increase to +0.87 (±0.14) mm yr−1 by 2050. As a result, the cumulative contribution will become positive by 2015, offsetting dam impoundment (maximum −31 ± 3.1 mm in 2010), and resulting in a total rise of +31 (±11) mm by 2050.

A size of ∼1 au for the radio source Sgr A* at the centre of the Milky Way

Abstract: Although it is widely accepted that most galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centres, concrete proof has proved elusive. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), an extremely compact radio source at the centre of our Galaxy, is the best candidate for proof, because it is the closest. Previous very-long-baseline interferometry observations (at 7 mm wavelength) reported that Sgr A* is ~2 astronomical units (au) in size, but this is still larger than the 'shadow' (a remarkably dim inner region encircled by a bright ring) that should arise from general relativistic effects near the event horizon of the black hole. Moreover, the measured size is wavelength dependent. Here we report a radio image of Sgr A* at a wavelength of 3.5 mm, demonstrating that its size is ~1 au. When combined with the lower limit on its mass11, the lower limit on the mass density is 6.5 × 10^21 M_⊙ pc^-3 (where M_⊙ is the solar mass), which provides strong evidence that Sgr A* is a supermassive black hole. The power-law relationship between wavelength and intrinsic size (size proportional to wavelength^1.09) explicitly rules out explanations other than those emission models with stratified structure, which predict a smaller emitting region observed at a shorter radio wavelength.

Non-ideal mhd effects and magnetic braking catastrophe in protostellar disk formation

Abstract: Dense, star-forming cores of molecular clouds are observed to be significantly magnetized. A realistic magnetic field of moderate strength has been shown to suppress, through catastrophic magnetic braking, the formation of a rotationally supported disk (RSD) during the protostellar accretion phase of low-mass star formation in the ideal MHD limit. We address, through two-dimensional (axisymmetric) simulations, the question of whether realistic levels of non-ideal effects, computed with a simplified chemical network including dust grains, can weaken the magnetic braking enough to enable an RSD to form. We find that ambipolar diffusion (AD), the dominant non-ideal MHD effect over most of the density range relevant to disk formation, does not enable disk formation, at least in two dimensions. The reason is that AD allows the magnetic flux that would be dragged into the central stellar object in the ideal MHD limit to pile up instead in a small circumstellar region, where the magnetic field strength (and thus the braking efficiency) is greatly enhanced. We also find that, on the scale of tens of AU or more, a realistic level of Ohmic dissipation does not weaken the magnetic braking enough for an RSD to form, either by itself or in combination with AD. The Hall effect, the least explored of these three non-ideal MHD effects, can spin up the material close to the central object to a significant, supersonic rotation speed, even when the core is initially non-rotating, although the spun-up material remains too sub-Keplerian to form an RSD. The problem of catastrophic magnetic braking that prevents disk formation in dense cores magnetized to realistic levels remains unresolved. Possible resolutions of this problem are discussed.