5,158 research outputs found
Micro-Arcsecond Radio Astrometry
Astrometry provides the foundation for astrophysics. Accurate positions are
required for the association of sources detected at different times or
wavelengths, and distances are essential to estimate the size, luminosity,
mass, and ages of most objects. Very Long Baseline Interferometry at radio
wavelengths, with diffraction-limited imaging at sub-milliarcsec resolution,
has long held the promise of micro-arcsecond astrometry. However, only in the
past decade has this been routinely achieved. Currently, parallaxes for sources
across the Milky Way are being measured with ~10 uas accuracy and proper
motions of galaxies are being determined with accuracies of ~1 uas/y. The
astrophysical applications of these measurements cover many fields, including
star formation, evolved stars, stellar and super-massive black holes, Galactic
structure, the history and fate of the Local Group, the Hubble constant, and
tests of general relativity. This review summarizes the methods used and the
astrophysical applications of micro-arcsecond radio astrometry.Comment: To appear in Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2014
Surface deformation and elasticity studies in the Virgin Islands
The report consists of four sections. The first section describes tilt and leveling measurements on Anegada, the most northerly of the British Virgin Islands; the second section contains a discussion of sea-level measurements that were initiated in the region and which played a significant role in the development of a network of sea-level monitors now telemetered via satellite from the Alaskan Shumagin Islands. The third part of the report is a brief description of surface deformation measurements in Iceland using equipment and techniques developed by the subject grant. The final part of the report describes the predicted effects of block surface fragmentation in tectonic areas on the measurement of tilt and strain
Leaps: an approach to the block structure of a graph
To study the block structure of a connected graph G=(V,E), we introduce two algebraic approaches that reflect this structure: a binary operation + called a leap operation and a ternary relation L called a leap system, both on a finite, nonempty set V. These algebraic structures are easily studied by considering their underlying graphs, which turn out to be block graphs. Conversely, we define the operation +G as well as the set of leaps LG of the connected graph G. The underlying graph of +G , as well as that of LG , turns out to be just the block closure of G (i.e. the graph obtained by making each block of G into a complete subgraph).
The system of tracking the position of the bucket excavator's wheel for prevention of risk situations
For companies doing business in mining mineral deposits, ensuring safe work is one of the key tasks (Safety First!). One of the important trends in this area is prevention and endeavour to forestall risk situations. Risks need to be searched, technically described, spatially defined, evaluated and categorized by degree of risk. Complex geological and stability conditions can be one of the sources of persistent and significant risks, which are mainly landslides and rockslides threatening both mining equipment and employees. The problem described in this article and its solution concerns the Most Basin (formerly the North Bohemian Lignite Basin). This is a tertiary basin that was founded in the Oligocene. The main mineral is lignite and mining takes place on the surface. The main excavating machinery in the surface lignite quarries in Europe (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland) is the bucket wheel excavator.Web of Science15328727
The Megamaser Cosmology Project. X. High Resolution Maps and Mass Constraint for SMBHs
We present high resolution (sub-mas) VLBI maps of nuclear H2O megamasers for
seven galaxies. In UGC6093, the well-aligned systemic masers and high-velocity
masers originate in an edge-on, flat disk and we determine the mass of the
central SMBH to be M_SMBH = 2.58*10^7Msun(+-7%). For J1346+5228, the
distribution of masers is consistent with a disk, but the faint high-velocity
masers are only marginally detected, and we constrain the mass of the SMBH to
be in the range 1.5-2.0*10^7Msun. The origin of the masers in Mrk1210 is less
clear, as the systemic and high-velocity masers are misaligned and show a
disorganized velocity structure. We present one possible model in which the
masers originate in a tilted, warped disk, but we do not rule out the
possibility of other explanations including outflow masers. In NGC6926, we
detect a set of redshifted masers, clustered within a pc of each other, and a
single blueshifted maser about 4.4pc away, an offset that would be unusually
large for a maser disk system. Nevertheless, if it is a disk system, we
estimate the enclosed mass to be M_SMBH<4.8*10^7 Msun . For NGC5793, we detect
redshifted masers spaced about 1.4pc from a clustered set of blueshifted
features. The orientation of the structure supports a disk scenario as
suggested by Hagiwara et al.(2001). We estimate the enclosed mass to be M
SMBH<1.3*10^7 Msun. For NGC2824 and J0350-0127, the masers may be associated
with pc or sub-pc scale jets or outflows.Comment: Accepted by Ap
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Buried shallow fault slip from the South Napa earthquake revealed by near-field geodesy.
Earthquake-related fault slip in the upper hundreds of meters of Earths surface has remained largely unstudied because of challenges measuring deformation in the near field of a fault rupture. We analyze centimeter-scale accuracy mobile laser scanning (MLS) data of deformed vine rows within ±300 m of the principal surface expression of the M (magnitude) 6.0 2014 South Napa earthquake. Rather than assuming surface displacement equivalence to fault slip, we invert the near-field data with a model that allows for, but does not require, the fault to be buried below the surface. The inversion maps the position on a preexisting fault plane of a slip front that terminates ~3 to 25 m below the surface coseismically and within a few hours postseismically. The lack of surface-breaching fault slip is verified by two trenches. We estimate near-surface slip ranging from ~0.5 to 1.25 m. Surface displacement can underestimate fault slip by as much as 30%. This implies that similar biases could be present in short-term geologic slip rates used in seismic hazard analyses. Along strike and downdip, we find deficits in slip: The along-strike deficit is erased after ~1 month by afterslip. We find no evidence of off-fault deformation and conclude that the downdip shallow slip deficit for this event is likely an artifact. As near-field geodetic data rapidly proliferate and will become commonplace, we suggest that analyses of near-surface fault rupture should also use more sophisticated mechanical models and subsurface geomechanical tests
A characterization of bipartite graphs associated with BIB-designs with λ = 1
AbstractA graph is said to be F-geodetic (for some function F) if the number of shortest paths between two vertices at distance i is F(i). It is shown that a bipartite F-geodetic graph with diameter ⩽4 is either (i)a tree, or(ii)a distance-regular graph, or(iii)the graph associated with a BIB-design with λ = 1
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