213,460 research outputs found
More evidence for hidden spiral and bar features in bright early-type dwarf galaxies
Following the discovery of spiral structure in IC3328 (Jerjen et al.~2000),
we present further evidence that a sizable fraction of bright early-type dwarfs
in the Virgo cluster are genuine disk galaxies, or are hosting a disk
component. Among a sample of 23 nucleated dwarf ellipticals and dS0s observed
with the Very Large Telescope in and , we found another four systems
exhibiting non-axisymmetric structures, such as a bar and/or spiral arms,
indicative of a disk (IC0783, IC3349, NGC4431, IC3468). Particularly remarkable
are the two-armed spiral pattern in IC0783 and the bar and trailing arms in
NGC4431. For both galaxies the disk nature has recently been confirmed by a
rotation velocity measurement (Simien & Prugniel 2002). Our photometric search
is based on a Fourier decomposition method and a specific version of unsharp
masking. Some ``early-type'' dwarfs in the Virgo cluster seem to be former
late-type galaxies which were transformed to early-type morphology, e.g. by
``harassment'', during their infall to the cluster, while maintaining part of
their disk structure.Comment: A&A accepte
Study of the coincidences between the gravitational wave detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in 2001
We report the result from a search for bursts of gravitational waves using
data collected by the cryogenic resonant detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS during
the year 2001, for a total measuring time of 90 days. With these data we
repeated the coincidence search performed on the 1998 data (which showed a
small coincidence excess) applying data analysis algorithms based on known
physical characteristics of the detectors. With the 2001 data a new interesting
coincidence excess is found when the detectors are favorably oriented with
respect to the Galactic Disk
Multiwavelength interferometric observations and modeling of circumstellar disks
We investigate the structure of the innermost region of three circumstellar
disks around pre-main sequence stars HD 142666, AS 205 N, and AS 205 S. We
determine the inner radii of the dust disks and, in particular, search for
transition objects where dust has been depleted and inner disk gaps have formed
at radii of a few tenths of AU up to several AU. We performed interferometric
observations with IOTA, AMBER, and MIDI in the infrared wavelength ranges
1.6-2.5um and 8-13um with projected baseline lengths between 25m and 102m. The
data analysis was based on radiative transfer simulations in 3D models of young
stellar objects (YSOs) to reproduce the spectral energy distribution and the
interferometric visibilities simultaneously. Accretion effects and disk gaps
could be considered in the modeling approach. Results from previous studies
restricted the parameter space. The objects of this study were spatially
resolved in the infrared wavelength range using the interferometers. Based on
these observations, a disk gap could be found for the source HD 142666 that
classifies it as transition object. There is a disk hole up to a radius of
R_in=0.30AU and a (dust-free) ring between 0.35AU and 0.80AU in the disk of HD
142666. The classification of AS 205 as a system of classical T Tauri stars
could be confirmed using the canonical model approach, i. e., there are no
hints of disk gaps in our observations.Comment: accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Modeling active electrolocation in weakly electric fish
In this paper, we provide a mathematical model for the electrolocation in
weakly electric fishes. We first investigate the forward complex conductivity
problem and derive the approximate boundary conditions on the skin of the fish.
Then we provide a dipole approximation for small targets away from the fish.
Based on this approximation, we obtain a non-iterative location search
algorithm using multi-frequency measurements. We present numerical experiments
to illustrate the performance and the stability of the proposed multi-frequency
location search algorithm. Finally, in the case of disk- and ellipse-shaped
targets, we provide a method to reconstruct separately the conductivity, the
permittivity, and the size of the targets from multi-frequency measurements.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figure
A Triple Protostar System Formed via Fragmentation of a Gravitationally Unstable Disk
Binary and multiple star systems are a frequent outcome of the star formation
process, and as a result, almost half of all sun-like stars have at least one
companion star. Theoretical studies indicate that there are two main pathways
that can operate concurrently to form binary/multiple star systems: large scale
fragmentation of turbulent gas cores and filaments or smaller scale
fragmentation of a massive protostellar disk due to gravitational instability.
Observational evidence for turbulent fragmentation on scales of 1000~AU has
recently emerged. Previous evidence for disk fragmentation was limited to
inferences based on the separations of more-evolved pre-main sequence and
protostellar multiple systems. The triple protostar system L1448 IRS3B is an
ideal candidate to search for evidence of disk fragmentation. L1448 IRS3B is in
an early phase of the star formation process, likely less than 150,000 years in
age, and all protostars in the system are separated by 200~AU. Here we
report observations of dust and molecular gas emission that reveal a disk with
spiral structure surrounding the three protostars. Two protostars near the
center of the disk are separated by 61 AU, and a tertiary protostar is
coincident with a spiral arm in the outer disk at a 183 AU separation. The
inferred mass of the central pair of protostellar objects is 1 M,
while the disk surrounding the three protostars has a total mass of 0.30
M_{\sun}. The tertiary protostar itself has a minimum mass of 0.085
M. We demonstrate that the disk around L1448 IRS3B appears susceptible
to disk fragmentation at radii between 150~AU and 320~AU, overlapping with the
location of the tertiary protostar. This is consistent with models for a
protostellar disk that has recently undergone gravitational instability,
spawning one or two companion stars.Comment: Published in Nature on Oct. 27th. 24 pages, 8 figure
Spacing affects some but not all visual searches: Implications for theories of attention and crowding
We investigated the effect of varying interstimulus spacing on an upright among inverted face search and a red–green among green–red bisected disk search. Both tasks are classic examples of serial search; however, spacing affects them very differently: As spacing increased, face discrimination performance improved significantly, whereas performance on the bisected disks remained poor. (No effect of spacing was observed for either a red among green or an L among + search tasks, two classic examples of parallel search.) In a second experiment, we precued the target location so that attention was no longer a limiting factor: Both serial search tasks were now equally affected by spacing, a result we attribute to a more classical form of crowding. The observed spacing effect in visual search suggests that for certain tasks, serial search may result from local neuronal competition between target and distractors, soliciting attentional resources; in other cases, serial search must occur for another reason, for example, because an item-by-item, attention-mediated recognition must take place. We speculate that this distinction may be based on whether or not there exist neuronal populations tuned to the relevant target–distractor distinction, and we discuss the possible relations between this spacing effect in visual search and other forms of crowding
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