28,121 research outputs found
Constraints on the origin of the massive, hot, and rapidly rotating magnetic white dwarf RE J 0317-853 from an HST parallax measurement
We use the parallax measurements of RE J 0317-853 to determine its mass,
radius, and cooling age and thereby constrain its evolutionary origins. We
observed RE J 0317-853 with the the Hubble Space Telescope's Fine Guidance
System to measure the parallax of RE J 0317-853 and its binary companion, the
non-magnetic white dwarf LB 9802. In addition, we acquired spectra of
comparison stars with the Boller & Chivens spectrograph of the SMARTS telescope
to correct the parallax zero point. For the corrected parallax, we determine
the radius, mass, and the cooling age with the help of evolutionary models from
the literature. The properties of RE J 0317-853 are constrained using the
parallax information. We discuss the different cases of the core composition
and the uncertain effective temperature. We confirm that RE J 0317-853 is close
to the Chandrasekhar's mass limit in all cases and almost as old as its
companion LB 9802. The precise evolutionary history of RE J 0317-853 depends on
our knowledge of its effective temperature. It is possible that it had a single
star progenitor possible if we assume that the effective temperature is at the
cooler end of the possible range from 30000 to 50000; if T_eff is instead at
the hotter end, a binary-merger scenario for RE J 0317-853 becomes more
plausible.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; language revised edition with added references.
Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Made-to-Measure models of the Galactic Box/Peanut bulge: stellar and total mass in the bulge region
We construct dynamical models of the Milky Way's Box/Peanut (B/P) bulge,
using the recently measured 3D density of Red Clump Giants (RCGs) as well as
kinematic data from the BRAVA survey. We match these data using the NMAGIC
Made-to-Measure method, starting with N-body models for barred discs in
different dark matter haloes. We determine the total mass in the bulge volume
of the RCGs measurement (+-2.2 x +- 1.4 x +- 1.2 kpc) with unprecedented
accuracy and robustness to be 1.84 +- 0.07 x10^10 Msun. The stellar mass in
this volume varies between 1.25-1.6 x10^10 Msun, depending on the amount of
dark matter in the bulge. We evaluate the mass-to-light and mass-to-clump
ratios in the bulge and compare them to theoretical predictions from population
synthesis models. We find a mass-to-light ratio in the K-band in the range
0.8-1.1. The models are consistent with a Kroupa or Chabrier IMF, but a
Salpeter IMF is ruled out for stellar ages of 10 Gyr. To match predictions from
the Zoccali IMF derived from the bulge stellar luminosity function requires
about 40% or 0.7 x10^10 Msun dark matter in the bulge region. The BRAVA data
together with the RCGs 3D density imply a low pattern speed for the Galactic
B/P bulge of 25-30 km.s-1.kpc-1. This would place the Galaxy among the slow
rotators (R >= 1.5). Finally, we show that the Milky Way's B/P bulge has an
off-centred X structure, and that the stellar mass involved in the peanut shape
accounts for at least 20% of the stellar mass of the bulge, significantly
larger than previously thought.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
The Skyrme Interaction in finite nuclei and nuclear matter
Self-consistent mean-field models are a powerful tool in the investigation of
nuclear structure and low-energy dynamics. They are based on effective
energy-density functionals, often formulated in terms of effective
density-dependent nucleon-nucleon interactions. The free parameters of the
functional are adjusted to empirical data. A proper choice of these parameters
requires a comprehensive set of constraints covering experimental data on
finite nuclei, concerning static as well as dynamical properties, empirical
characteristics of nuclear matter, and observational information on
nucleosynthesis, neutron stars and supernovae. This work aims at a
comprehensive survey of the performance of one of the most successful
non-relativistic self-consistent method, the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model (SHF),
with respect to these constraints. A full description of the Skyrme functional
is given and its relation to other effective interactions is discussed. The
validity of the application of SHF far from stability and in dense environments
beyond the nuclear saturation density is critically assessed. The use of SHF in
models extended beyond the mean field approximation by including some
correlations is discussed. Finally, future prospects for further development of
SHF towards a more consistent application of the existing and promisingly newly
developing constraints are outlined.Comment: 71 pages, 22 figures. Accepted for publication in Prog.Part.Nucl.Phy
Determination of the pion-nucleon coupling constant and scattering lengths
We critically evaluate the isovector GMO sum rule for forward pion-nucleon
scattering using the recent precision measurements of negatively charged
pion-proton and pion-deuteron scattering lengths from pionic atoms. We deduce
the charged-pion-nucleon coupling constant, with careful attention to
systematic and statistical uncertainties. This determination gives, directly
from data a pseudoscalar coupling constant of
14.11+-0.05(statistical)+-0.19(systematic) or a pseudovector one of 0.0783(11).
This value is intermediate between that of indirect methods and the direct
determination from backward neutron-proton differential scattering cross
sections. We also use the pionic atom data to deduce the coherent symmetric and
antisymmetric sums of the negatively charged pion-proton and pion-neutron
scattering lengths with high precision. The symmetric sum gives
0.0012+-0.0002(statistical)+-0.0008 (systematic) and the antisymmetric one
0.0895+-0.0003(statistical)+-0.0013(systematic), both in units of inverse
charged pion-mass. For the need of the present analysis, we improve the
theoretical description of the pion-deuteron scattering length.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C, few modifications and
clarifications, no change in substance of the pape
New parton distributions from large-x and low-Q^2 data
We report results of a new global next-to-leading order fit of parton
distribution functions in which cuts on W and Q are relaxed, thereby including
more data at high values of x. Effects of target mass corrections (TMCs),
higher twist contributions, and nuclear corrections for deuterium data are
significant in the large-x region. The leading twist parton distributions are
found to be stable to TMC model variations as long as higher twist
contributions are also included. The behavior of the d quark as x-->1 is
particularly sensitive to the deuterium corrections, and using realistic
nuclear smearing models the d-quark distribution at large x is found to be
softer than in previous fits performed with more restrictive cuts.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures. Minor corrections. References added. To appear
in Phys.Rev.
Looking for ultralight dark matter near supermassive black holes
Measurements of the dynamical environment of supermassive black holes (SMBHs)
are becoming abundant and precise. We use such measurements to look for
ultralight dark matter (ULDM), which is predicted to form dense cores
("solitons") in the centre of galactic halos. We search for the gravitational
imprint of an ULDM soliton on stellar orbits near Sgr A* and by combining
stellar velocity measurements with Event Horizon Telescope imaging of M87*.
Finding no positive evidence, we set limits on the soliton mass for different
values of the ULDM particle mass . The constraints we derive exclude the
solitons predicted by a naive extrapolation of the soliton-halo relation, found
in DM-only numerical simulations, for (from Sgr A*) and
(from M87*). However, we present
theoretical arguments suggesting that an extrapolation of the soliton-halo
relation may not be adequate: in some regions of the parameter space, the
dynamical effect of the SMBH could cause this extrapolation to over-predict the
soliton mass by orders of magnitude.Comment: 9 pages + appendices, 5 + 2 figures. v2: some clarifications and
references added; conclusions unchanged; version published in JCAP. v3: few
typos correcte
Occlusion-Robust MVO: Multimotion Estimation Through Occlusion Via Motion Closure
Visual motion estimation is an integral and well-studied challenge in
autonomous navigation. Recent work has focused on addressing multimotion
estimation, which is especially challenging in highly dynamic environments.
Such environments not only comprise multiple, complex motions but also tend to
exhibit significant occlusion.
Previous work in object tracking focuses on maintaining the integrity of
object tracks but usually relies on specific appearance-based descriptors or
constrained motion models. These approaches are very effective in specific
applications but do not generalize to the full multimotion estimation problem.
This paper presents a pipeline for estimating multiple motions, including the
camera egomotion, in the presence of occlusions. This approach uses an
expressive motion prior to estimate the SE (3) trajectory of every motion in
the scene, even during temporary occlusions, and identify the reappearance of
motions through motion closure. The performance of this occlusion-robust
multimotion visual odometry (MVO) pipeline is evaluated on real-world data and
the Oxford Multimotion Dataset.Comment: To appear at the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). An earlier version of this work first
appeared at the Long-term Human Motion Planning Workshop (ICRA 2019). 8
pages, 5 figures. Video available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_N71AA6FR
- …