# Publications

## Global gyrokinetic turbulence simulations of MAST plasmas

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 54 (2012)

S Saarelma, G Colyer, AR Field, CM Roach, A Bottino, P Hill, B McMillan, A Peeters

Electrostatic gyrokinetic analyses are presented for an L-mode discharge with an internal transport barrier, from the spherical tokamak, MAST. Local and global microstability analysis finds similar linear growth rates for ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven modes. When the electron response is assumed to be adiabatic, growth rates are found to be lower than the experimental E×B flow shearing rate. Including kinetic electrons, without collisions, increases the ITG growth rates above the flow shearing rate, and these modes are found to be linearly unstable in the outer part of the plasma only. In global simulations the flow shear stabilization is found to be asymmetric with respect to the direction of the flow: there is a small destabilizing effect at low flow shear when the flow is in the co-direction. Global non-linear simulations with kinetic electrons and including the flow shear effects predict turbulent ion heat transport that is well above the neoclassical level in the region outside the internal transport barrier in this MAST plasma. In non-linear simulations we also find turbulence extending from the outer part of the plasma into the linearly stable core region. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.

ArXiv (2012)

EG Highcock

## Comparative merits of the memory function and dynamic local-field correction of the classical one-component plasma

PHYSICAL REVIEW E 85 (2012) ARTN 056407

JP Mithen, J Daligault, G Gregori

## Angular momentum transfer to a Milky Way disk at high redshift

ArXiv (2012)

H Tillson, J Devriendt, A Slyz, L Miller, C Pichon

An Adaptive Mesh Refinement cosmological resimulation is analyzed in order to test whether filamentary flows of cold gas are responsible for the build-up of angular momentum within a Milky Way like disk at z>=3. A set of algorithms is presented that takes advantage of the high spatial resolution of the simulation (12 pc) to identify: (i) the central gas disk and its plane of orientation; (ii) the complex individual filament trajectories that connect to the disk, and; (iii) the infalling satellites. The results show that two filaments at z>5.5, which later merge to form a single filament at z<4, drive the angular momentum and mass budget of the disk throughout its evolution, whereas luminous satellite mergers make negligible fractional contributions. Combined with the ubiquitous presence of such filaments in all large-scale cosmological simulations that include hydrodynamics, these findings provide strong quantitative evidence that the growth of thin disks in haloes with masses below 10^{12} M_{sun}, which host the vast majority of galaxies, is supported via inflowing streams of cold gas at intermediate and high redshifts.

## A review of Vlasov-Fokker-Planck numerical modeling of inertial confinement fusion plasma

Journal of Computational Physics 231 (2012) 1051-1079

AGR Thomas, M Tzoufras, AR Bell, APL Robinson, RJ Kingham, CP Ridgers, M Sherlock

The interaction of intense lasers with solid matter generates a hot plasma state that is well described by the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation. Accurate and efficient modeling of the physics in these scenarios is highly pertinent, because it relates to experimental campaigns to produce energy by inertial confinement fusion on facilities such as the National Ignition Facility. Calculations involving the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation are computationally intensive, but are crucial to proper understanding of a wide variety of physical effects and instabilities in inertial fusion plasmas. In this topical review, we will introduce the background physics related to Vlasov-Fokker-Planck simulation, and then proceed to describe results from numerical simulation of inertial fusion plasma in a pedagogical manner by discussing some key numerical algorithm developments that enabled the research to take place. A qualitative comparison of the techniques is also given. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

## Self-organized electromagnetic field structures in laser-produced counter-streaming plasmas

Nature Physics 8 (2012) 809-812

NL Kugland, DD Ryutov, SH Glenzer, MC Levy, C Plechaty, BA Remington, JS Ross, H-S Park, P-Y Chang, G Fiksel, DH Froula, RP Drake, M Grosskopf, C Kuranz, G Gregori, J Meinecke, B Reville, M Koenig, A Pelka, A Ravasio, Y Kuramitsu, T Morita, Y Sakawa, H Takabe, E Liang, F Miniati, R Presura, A Spitkovsky

Self-organization occurs in plasmas when energy progressively transfers from smaller to larger scales in an inverse cascade. Global structures that emerge from turbulent plasmas can be found in the laboratory and in astrophysical settings; for example, the cosmic magnetic field, collisionless shocks in supernova remnants and the internal structures of newly formed stars known as Herbig-Haro objects. Here we show that large, stable electromagnetic field structures can also arise within counter-streaming supersonic plasmas in the laboratory. These surprising structures, formed by a yet unexplained mechanism, are predominantly oriented transverse to the primary flow direction, extend for much larger distances than the intrinsic plasma spatial scales and persist for much longer than the plasma kinetic timescales. Our results challenge existing models of counter-streaming plasmas and can be used to better understand large-scale and long-time plasma self-organization. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

## Dynamics of secular evolution

ArXiv (2012)

J Binney

The text of lectures to the 2011 Tenerife Winter School. The School's theme was "Secular Evolution of Galaxies" and my task was to present the underlying stellar-dynamical theory. Other lecturers were speaking on the role of bars and chemical evolution, so these topics are avoided here. We start with an account of the connections between isolating integrals, quasiperiodicity and angle-action variables - these variables played a unifying role throughout the lectures. This leads on to the phenomenon of resonant trapping and how this can lead to chaos in cuspy potentials and phase-space mixing in slowly evolving potentials. Surfaces of section and frequency analysis are introduced as diagnostics of phase-space structure. Real galactic potentials include a fluctuating part that drives the system towards unattainable thermal equilibrium. Two-body encounters are only one source of fluctuations, and all fluctuations will drive similar evolution. We derive the orbit-averaged Fokker-Planck equation and relations that hold between the second-order diffusion coefficients and both the power spectrum of the fluctuations and the first-order diffusion coefficients. From the observed heating of the solar neighbourhood we show that the second-order diffusion coefficients must scale as J^{1/2}. We show that periodic spiral structure shifts angular momentum outwards, heating at the Lindblad resonances and mixing at corotation. The equation that would yield the normal modes of a stellar disc is first derived and then used to discuss the propagation of tightly-wound spiral waves. The winding up of such waves is explains why cool stellar discs are responsive systems that amplify ambient noise. An explanation is offered of why the Lin-Shu-Kalnajs dispersion relation and even global normal-mode calculations provide a very incomplete understanding of the dynamics of stellar discs.

## Diffusive shock acceleration and magnetic field amplification

Space Science Reviews 173 (2012) 491-519

KM Schure, AR Bell, AM Bykov, L O'C Drury

Diffusive shock acceleration is the theory of particle acceleration through multiple shock crossings. In order for this process to proceed at a rate that can be reconciled with observations of high-energy electrons in the vicinity of the shock, and for cosmic rays protons to be accelerated to energies up to observed galactic values, significant magnetic field amplification is required. In this review we will discuss various theories on how magnetic field amplification can proceed in the presence of a cosmic ray population. On both short and long length scales, cosmic ray streaming can induce instabilities that act to amplify the magnetic field. Developments in this area that have occurred over the past decade are the main focus of this paper. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

## The Epoch of Disk Settling: z~1 to Now

ArXiv (2012)

SA Kassin, BJ Weiner, SM Faber, JP Gardner, CNA Willmer, AL Coil, MC Cooper, J Devriendt, AA Dutton, P Guhathakurta, DC Koo, AJ Metevier, KG Noeske, JR Primack

We present evidence from a sample of 544 galaxies from the DEEP2 Survey for evolution of the internal kinematics of blue galaxies with stellar masses ranging 8.0 < log M* (M_Sun) < 10.7 over 0.2<z<1.2. DEEP2 provides galaxy spectra and Hubble imaging from which we measure emission-line kinematics and galaxy inclinations, respectively. Our large sample allows us to overcome scatter intrinsic to galaxy properties in order to examine trends in kinematics. We find that at a fixed stellar mass galaxies systematically decrease in disordered motions and increase in rotation velocity and potential well depth with time. Massive galaxies are the most well-ordered at all times examined, with higher rotation velocities and less disordered motions than less massive galaxies. We quantify disordered motions with an integrated gas velocity dispersion corrected for beam smearing (sigma_g). It is unlike the typical pressure-supported velocity dispersion measured for early type galaxies and galaxy bulges. Because both seeing and the width of our spectral slits comprise a significant fraction of the galaxy sizes, sigma_g integrates over velocity gradients on large scales which can correspond to non-ordered gas kinematics. We compile measurements of galaxy kinematics from the literature over 1.2<z<3.8 and do not find any trends with redshift, likely for the most part because these datasets are biased toward the most highly star-forming systems. In summary, over the last ~8 billion years since z=1.2, blue galaxies evolve from disordered to ordered systems as they settle to become the rotation-dominated disk galaxies observed in the Universe today, with the most massive galaxies being the most evolved at any time.

## Inelastic x-ray scattering from shocked liquid deuterium

Physical Review Letters 109 (2012)

SP Regan, PB Radha, SX Hu, TR Boehly, DD Meyerhofer, TC Sangster, K Falk, G Gregori, BJB Crowley, CD Murphy, SH Glenzer, OL Landen, T Döppner, DO Gericke, J Vorberger

The Fermi-degenerate plasma conditions created in liquid deuterium by a laser-ablation - driven shock wave were probed with noncollective, spectrally resolved, inelastic x-ray Thomson scattering employing Cl Ly line emission at 2.96 keV. These first x-ray Thomson scattering measurements of the microscopic properties of shocked deuterium show an inferred spatially averaged electron temperature of 8±5 eV, an electron density of 2.2(±0.5)×1023 cm3, and an ionization of 0.8 (-0.25, +0.15). Two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations using equation-of-state models suited for the extreme parameters occurring in inertial confinement fusion research and planetary interiors are consistent with the experimental results. © 2012 American Physical Society.

## Constraining stellar assembly and active galactic nucleus feedback at the peak epoch of star formation

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 425 (2012) L96-L100

T Kimm, S Kaviraj, JEG Devriendt, SH Cohen, RA Windhorst, Y Dubois, A Slyz, NP Hathi, RRE Jr, RW O'Connell, MA Dopita, J Silk

## Feeding compact bulges and supermassive black holes with low angular-momentum cosmic gas at high redshift

ArXiv (2011)

Y Dubois, C Pichon, M Haehnelt, T Kimm, A Slyz, J Devriendt, D Pogosyan

We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to show that a significant fraction of the gas in high redshift rare massive halos falls nearly radially to their very centre on extremely short timescales. This process results in the formation of very compact bulges with specific angular momentum a factor 5-30$smaller than the average angular momentum of the baryons in the whole halo. Such low angular momentum originates both from segregation and effective cancellation when the gas flows to the centre of the halo along well defined cold filamentary streams. These filaments penetrate deep inside the halo and connect to the bulge from multiple rapidly changing directions. Structures falling in along the filaments (satellite galaxies) or formed by gravitational instabilities triggered by the inflow (star clusters) further reduce the angular momentum of the gas in the bulge. Finally, the fraction of gas radially falling to the centre appears to increase with the mass of the halo; we argue that this is most likely due to an enhanced cancellation of angular momentum in rarer halos which are fed by more isotropically distributed cold streams. Such an increasingly efficient funnelling of low-angular momentum gas to the centre of very massive halos at high redshift may account for the rapid pace at which the most massive supermassive black holes grow to reach observed masses around$10^9$M$_\odot\$ at an epoch when the Universe is barely 1 Gyr old.

## Self-organized electromagnetic field structures in laser-produced counter-streaming plasmas

Nature Physics (2012)

NL Kugland, DD Ryutov, P-Y Chang, RP Drake, G Fiksel, DH Froula, SH Glenzer, G Gregori, M Grosskopf, M Koenig, Y Kuramitsu, C Kuranz, MC Levy, E Liang, J Meinecke, F Miniati, T Morita, A Pelka, C Plechaty, R Presura, A Ravasio, BA Remington, B Reville, JS Ross, Y Sakawa, A Spitkovsky, H Takabe, H-S Park

## Feeding compact bulges and supermassive black holes with low angular momentum cosmic gas at high redshift

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 423 (2012) 3616-3630

Y Dubois, C Pichon, T Kimm, A Slyz, J Devriendt, M Haehnelt, D Pogosyan

We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to show that a significant fraction of the gas in high redshift rare massive haloes falls nearly radially to their very centre on extremely short time-scales. This process results in the formation of very compact bulges with specific angular momentum a factor of 5-30 smaller than the average angular momentum of the baryons in the whole halo. Such low angular momentum originates from both segregation and effective cancellation when the gas flows to the centre of the halo along well-defined cold filamentary streams. These filaments penetrate deep inside the halo and connect to the bulge from multiple rapidly changing directions. Structures falling in along the filaments (satellite galaxies) or formed by gravitational instabilities triggered by the inflow (star clusters) further reduce the angular momentum of the gas in the bulge. Finally, the fraction of gas radially falling to the centre appears to increase with the mass of the halo; we argue that this is most likely due to an enhanced cancellation of angular momentum in rarer haloes which are fed by more isotropically distributed cold streams. Such an increasingly efficient funnelling of low angular momentum gas to the centre of very massive haloes at high redshift may account for the rapid pace at which the most massive supermassive black holes grow to reach observed masses around 10 M at an epoch when the Universe is barely 1 Gyr old. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.

## Inverse Compton X-ray halos around high-z radio galaxies: A feedback mechanism powered by far-infrared starbursts or the CMB?

ArXiv (2012)

I Smail, KM Blundell, BD Lehmer, DM Alexander

We report the detection of extended X-ray emission around two powerful high-z radio galaxies (HzRGs) at z~3.6 (4C03.24 & 4C19.71) and use these to investigate the origin of extended, Inverse Compton (IC) powered X-ray halos at high z. The halos have X-ray luminosities of Lx~3e44 erg/s and sizes of ~60kpc. Their morphologies are broadly similar to the ~60-kpc long radio lobes around these galaxies suggesting they are formed from IC scattering by relativistic electrons in the radio lobes, of either CMB or FIR photons from the dust-obscured starbursts in these galaxies. These observations double the number of z>3 HzRGs with X-ray detected IC halos. We compare the IC X-ray to radio luminosity ratios for these new detections to the two previously detected z~3.8 HzRGs. Given the similar redshifts, we would expect comparable X-ray IC luminosities if CMB mm photons are the seed field for the IC emission. Instead the two z~3.6 HzRGs, which are ~4x fainter in the FIR, also have ~4x fainter X-ray IC emission. Including a further six z>2 radio sources with IC X-ray halos from the literature, we suggest that in the more compact (lobe sizes <100-200kpc), majority of radio sources, the bulk of the IC emission may be driven by scattering of locally produced FIR photons from luminous, dust-obscured starbursts within these galaxies, rather than CMB photons. The resulting X-ray emission can ionise the gas on ~100-200-kpc scales around these systems and thus form their extended Ly-alpha emission line halos. The starburst and AGN activity in these galaxies are thus combining to produce an effective and wide-spread "feedback" process, acting on the long-term gas reservoir for the galaxy. If episodic radio activity and co-eval starbursts are common in massive, high-z galaxies, then this IC-feedback mechanism may affect the star-formation histories of massive galaxies. [Abridged]

## The detection and treatment of distance errors in kinematic analyses of stars

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 420 (2012) 1281-1293

R Schönrich, J Binney, M Asplund

We present a new method for detecting and correcting systematic errors in the distances to stars when both proper motions and line-of-sight velocities are available. The method, which is applicable for samples of 200 or more stars that have a significant extension on the sky, exploits correlations between the measured U, V and W velocity components that are introduced by distance errors. We deliver a formalism to describe and interpret the specific imprints of distance errors including spurious velocity correlations and shifts of mean motion in a sample. We take into account correlations introduced by measurement errors, Galactic rotation and changes in the orientation of the velocity ellipsoid with position in the Galaxy. Tests on pseudo-data show that the method is more robust and sensitive than traditional approaches to this problem. We investigate approaches to characterizing the probability distribution of distance errors, in addition to the mean distance error, which is the main theme of the paper. Stars with the most overestimated distances bias our estimate of the overall distance scale, leading to the corrected distances being slightly too small. We give a formula that can be used to correct for this effect. We apply the method to samples of stars from the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) survey, exploring optimal gravity cuts, sample contamination, and correcting the used distance relations. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

## Self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes by a dual jet-heating active galactic nucleus feedback mechanism: Methods, tests and implications for cosmological simulations

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 420 (2012) 2662-2683

Y Dubois, J Devriendt, A Slyz, R Teyssier

We develop a subgrid model for the growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) and their associated active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback in hydrodynamical cosmological simulations. This model transposes previous attempts to describe BH accretion and AGN feedback with the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique to the adaptive mesh refinement framework. It also furthers their development by implementing a new jet-like outflow treatment of the AGN feedback which we combine with the heating mode traditionally used in the SPH approach. Thus, our approach allows one to test the robustness of the conclusions derived from simulating the impact of self-regulated AGN feedback on galaxy formation vis-à-vis the numerical method. Assuming that BHs are created in the early stages of galaxy formation, they grow by mergers and accretion of gas at a Eddington-limited Bondi accretion rate. However this growth is regulated by AGN feedback which we model using two different modes: a quasar-heating mode when accretion rates on to the BHs are comparable to the Eddington rate, and a radio-jet mode at lower accretion rates which not only deposits energy, but also deposits mass and momentum on the grid. In other words, our feedback model deposits energy as a succession of thermal bursts and jet outflows depending on the properties of the gas surrounding the BHs. We assess the plausibility of such a model by comparing our results to observational measurements of the co-evolution of BHs and their host galaxy properties, and check their robustness with respect to numerical resolution. We show that AGN feedback must be a crucial physical ingredient for the formation of massive galaxies as it appears to be able to efficiently prevent the accumulation of and/or expel cold gas out of haloes/galaxies and significantly suppress star formation. Our model predicts that the relationship between BHs and their host galaxy mass evolves as a function of redshift, because of the vigorous accretion of cold material in the early Universe that drives Eddington-limited accretion on to BHs. Quasar activity is also enhanced at high redshift. However, as structures grow in mass and lose their cold material through star formation and efficient BH feedback ejection, the AGN activity in the low-redshift Universe becomes more and more dominated by the radio mode, which powers jets through the hot circumgalactic medium. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.

## THE EPOCH OF DISK SETTLING: z similar to 1 TO NOW

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 758 (2012) ARTN 106

SA Kassin, BJ Weiner, SM Faber, JP Gardner, CNA Willmer, AL Coil, MC Cooper, J Devriendt, AA Dutton, P Guhathakurta, DC Koo, AJ Metevier, KG Noeske, JR Primack

## Zero-Turbulence Manifold in a Toroidal Plasma

ArXiv (2012)

EG Highcock, AA Schekochihin, SC Cowley, M Barnes, FI Parra, CM Roach, W Dorland

Sheared toroidal flows can cause bifurcations to zero-turbulent-transport states in tokamak plasmas. The maximum temperature gradients that can be reached are limited by subcritical turbulence driven by the parallel velocity gradient. Here it is shown that q/\epsilon (magnetic field pitch/inverse aspect ratio) is a critical control parameter for sheared tokamak turbulence. By reducing q/\epsilon, far higher temperature gradients can be achieved without triggering turbulence, in some instances comparable to those found experimentally in transport barriers. The zero-turbulence manifold is mapped out, in the zero-magnetic-shear limit, over the parameter space (\gamma_E, q/\epsilon, R/L_T), where \gamma_E is the perpendicular flow shear and R/L_T is the normalised inverse temperature gradient scale. The extent to which it can be constructed from linear theory is discussed.

## Accretion by the Galaxy

ArXiv (2011)

J Binney, F Fraternali

Cosmology requires at least half of the baryons in the Universe to be in the intergalactic medium, much of which is believed to form hot coronae around galaxies. Star-forming galaxies must be accreting from their coronae. HI observations of external galaxies show that they have HI halos associated with star formation. These halos are naturally modelled as ensembles of clouds driven up by supernova bubbles. These models can fit the data successfully only if clouds exchange mass and momentum with the corona. As a cloud orbits, it is ablated and forms a turbulent wake where cold high-metallicity gas mixes with hot coronal gas causing the prompt cooling of the latter. As a consequence the total mass of HI increases. This model has recently been used to model the Leiden-Argentina-Bonn survey of Galactic HI. The values of the model's parameters that are required to model NGC 891, NGC 2403 and our Galaxy show a remarkable degree of consistency, despite the very different natures of the two external galaxies and the dramatic difference in the nature of the data for our Galaxy and the external galaxies. The parameter values are also consistent with hydrodynamical simulations of the ablation of individual clouds. The model predicts that a galaxy that loses its cool-gas disc for instance through a major merger cannot reform it from its corona; it can return to steady star formation only if it can capture a large body of cool gas, for example by accreting a gas-rich dwarf. Thus the model explains how major mergers can make galaxies "red and dead."