13,573 research outputs found
Anomalous globular clusters: insights from neutron capture elements abundances
Thanks to the large amount of spectroscopic and photometric data assembled in
the last couple of decades, the assumption that all globular clusters (GCs)
contain a simple mono-metallic stellar population has been modified. Besides
the common variations in the elements created/destroyed in the H-burning
processes, spreads and/or multi-modalities in heavier elements have been
detected in a few objects. Among the most remarkable chemical inhomogeneity in
these anomalous objects is the internal variation in the neutron-capture
(n-capture) elements, that can provide some information about the material from
which stars were born. I report a summary of the chemical pattern observed in
GCs where variations in n-capture have been detected, and the connection
between these chemical features and the distribution of stars along the
color-magnitude diagrams in the context of the lively debate on multiple
stellar populations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 fugures, proceedings of the meeting "Reading the book of
globular clusters with the lens of stellar evolution", Rome, Nov. 26-28,
2012, to be published in Memorie della Societa' Astronomica Italian
Horizontal-branch morphology and multiple stellar populations in the anomalous globular cluster M22
M22 is an anomalous globular cluster that hosts two groups of stars with
different metallicity and s-element abundance. The star-to-star light-element
variations in both groups, with the presence of individual Na-O and C-N
anticorrelations, demonstrates that this Milky-Way satellite has experienced a
complex star-formation history. We have analysed FLAMES/UVES spectra for seven
stars covering a small color interval, on the reddest horizontal-branch (HB)
portion of this cluster and investigated possible relations between the
chemical composition of a star and its location along the HB. Our chemical
abundance analysis takes into account effects introduced by deviations from the
local-thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE effects), that are significant for the
measured spectral lines in the atmospheric parameters range spanned by our
stars. We find that all the analysed stars are barium-poor and sodium-poor,
thus supporting the idea that the position of a star along the HB is strictly
related to the chemical composition, and that the HB-morphology is influenced
by the presence of different stellar populations.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Chemical composition of stellar populations in Omega Centauri
We derive abundances of Fe, Na, O, and s-elements from GIRAFFE@VLT spectra
for more than 200 red giant stars in the Milky Way satellite Omega Centauri.
Our preliminary results are that: (i) we confirm that Omega Centauri exibiths
large star-to-star metallicity variations ( 1.4 dex); (ii) the
metallicity distribution reveals the presence of at least five stellar
populations with different [Fe/H]; (iii) a clear Na-O anticorrelation is
clearly observed for the metal-poor and metal-intermediate populations while
apparently the anticorrelation disappears for the most metal-rich populations.
Interestingly the Na level grows with iron.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symp. 268
"Light elements in the Universe" (C. Charbonnel, M. Tosi, F. Primas, C.
Chiappini, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press
Constraints on the slope of the dark halo mass function by microlensing observables
We investigate the dark halo lens mass function (MF) for a wide class of
spheroidal non singular isothermal models comparing observed and observable
microlensing quantities for MACHO observations towards LMC and taking into
account the detection efficiency. We evaluate the microlensing observable
quantities, i.e. observable optical depth, number of events and mean duration,
for models with homogenous power - law MF changing the upper and lower mass
limits and the flattening of the dark halo. By applying the simple technique of
the inverse problem method we are then able to get some interesting constraints
on the slope of the MF and on the dark halo mass fraction f made out
by MACHOs consistently with previous results.Comment: 10 LaTex pages, 2 postscript figures, accepted on 21/5/2001 for
pubblication on A&A; title changed, completely revised version : a new
definition of observable optical depth is used and all the MACHO results from
5.7 years of observations are used to constrain the slope of the dark halo
mass functio
The oxygen vs. sodium (anti)correlation(s) in omega Cen
Recent exam of large samples of omega Cen giants shows that it shares with
mono-metallic globular clusters the presence of the sodium versus oxygen
anticorrelation, within each subset of stars with iron content in the range
-1.9<~[Fe/H]<~-1.3. These findings suggest that, while the second generation
formation history in omega Cen is more complex than that of mono-metallic
clusters, it shares some key steps with those simpler cluster. In addition, the
giants in the range -1.3<[Fe/H]<~-0.7 show a direct O--Na correlation, at
moderately low O, but Na up to 20 times solar. These peculiar Na abundances are
not shared by stars in other environments often assumed to undergo a similar
chemical evolution, such as in the field of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. These
O and Na abundances match well the yields of the massive asymptotic giant
branch stars (AGB) in the same range of metallicity, suggesting that the stars
at [Fe/H]>-1.3 in omega Cen are likely to have formed directly from the pure
ejecta of massive AGBs of the same metallicities. This is possible if the
massive AGBs of [Fe/H]>-1.3 in the progenitor system evolve when all the
pristine gas surrounding the cluster has been exhausted by the previous star
formation events, or the proto--cluster interaction with the Galaxy caused the
loss of a significant fraction of its mass, or of its dark matter halo, and the
supernova ejecta have been able to clear the gas out of the system. The absence
of dilution in the metal richer populations lends further support to a scenario
of the formation of second generation stars in cooling flows from massive AGB
progenitors. We suggest that the entire formation of omega Cen took place in a
few 10^8yr, and discuss the problem of a prompt formation of s--process
elements.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in pres
Charge and Magnetic Flux Correlations in Chern-Simons Theory with Fermions
Charge and magnetic flux bearing operators are introduced in Chern-Simons
theory both in its pure form and when it is coupled to fermions. The magnetic
flux creation operator turns out to be the Wilson line. The euclidean
correlation functions of these operators are shown to be local and are
evaluated exactly in the pure case and through an expansion in the inverse
fermion mass whenever these are present. Physical states only occur in the
presence of fermions and consist of composite charge-magnetic flux carrying
states which are in general anyonic. The large distance behavior of the
correlation functions indicates the condensation of charge and magnetic flux.Comment: Latex, 17 page
Inhomogeneous mechanical losses in micro-oscillators with high reflectivity coating
We characterize the mechanical quality factor of micro-oscillators covered by
a highly reflective coating. We test an approach to the reduction of mechanical
losses, that consists in limiting the size of the coated area to reduce the
strain and the consequent energy loss in this highly dissipative component.
Moreover, a mechanical isolation stage is incorporated in the device. The
results are discussed on the basis of an analysis of homogeneous and
non-homogeneous losses in the device and validated by a set of Finite-Element
models. The contributions of thermoelastic dissipation and coating losses are
separated and the measured quality factors are found in agreement with the
calculated values, while the absence of unmodeled losses confirms that the
isolation element integrated in the device efficiently uncouples the dynamics
of the mirror from the support system. Also the resonant frequencies evaluated
by Finite-Element models are in good agreement with the experimental data, and
allow the estimation of the Young modulus of the coating. The models that we
have developed and validated are important for the design of oscillating
micro-mirrors with high quality factor and, consequently, low thermal noise.
Such devices are useful in general for high sensitivity sensors, and in
particular for experiments of quantum opto-mechanics
Detection of weak stochastic force in a parametrically stabilized micro opto-mechanical system
Measuring a weak force is an important task for micro-mechanical systems,
both when using devices as sensitive detectors and, particularly, in
experiments of quantum mechanics. The optimal strategy for resolving a weak
stochastic signal force on a huge background (typically given by thermal noise)
is a crucial and debated topic, and the stability of the mechanical resonance
is a further, related critical issue. We introduce and analyze the parametric
control of the optical spring, that allows to stabilize the resonance and
provides a phase reference for the oscillator motion, yet conserving a free
evolution in one quadrature of the phase space. We also study quantitatively
the characteristics of our micro opto-mechanical system as detector of
stochastic force for short measurement times (for quick, high resolution
monitoring) as well as for the longer term observations that optimize the
sensitivity. We compare a simple, naive strategy based on the evaluation of the
variance of the displacement (that is a widely used technique) with an optimal
Wiener-Kolmogorov data analysis. We show that, thanks to the parametric
stabilization of the effective susceptibility, we can more efficiently
implement Wiener filtering, and we investigate how this strategy improves the
performance of our system. We finally demonstrate the possibility to resolve
stochastic force variations well below 1% of the thermal noise
Different stellar rotation in the two main sequences of the young globular cluster NGC1818: first direct spectroscopic evidence
We present a spectroscopic analysis of main sequence (MS) stars in the young
globular cluster NGC1818 (age~40 Myrs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Our
photometric survey on Magellanic Clouds clusters has revealed that NGC1818,
similarly to the other young objects with age 600 Myrs, displays not only an
extended MS Turn-Off (eMSTO), as observed in intermediate-age clusters (age~1-2
Gyrs), but also a split MS. The most straightforward interpretation of the
double MS is the presence of two stellar populations: a sequence of
slowly-rotating stars lying on the blue-MS and a sequence of fast rotators,
with rotation close to the breaking speed, defining a red-MS. We report the
first direct spectroscopic measurements of projected rotational velocities
vsini for the double MS, eMSTO and Be stars of a young cluster. The analysis of
line profiles includes non-LTE effects, required for correctly deriving v sini
values. Our results suggest that: (i) the mean rotation for blue- and red-MS
stars is vsini=71\pm10 km/s (sigma=37 km/s) and vsini=202\pm23 km/s (sigma=91
km/s), respectively; (ii) eMSTO stars have different vsini, which are generally
lower than those inferred for red-MS stars, and (iii) as expected, Be stars
display the highest vsini values. This analyis supports the idea that distinct
rotational velocities play an important role in the appearence of multiple
stellar populations in the color-magnitude diagrams of young clusters, and
poses new constraints to the current scenarios.Comment: 16 pages, 1 table, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ
(11/07/2018
An ultra-low dissipation micro-oscillator for quantum opto-mechanics
Generating non-classical states of light by opto-mechanical coupling depends
critically on the mechanical and optical properties of micro-oscillators and on
the minimization of thermal noise. We present an oscillating micro-mirror with
a mechanical quality factor Q = 2.6x10^6 at cryogenic temperature and a Finesse
of 65000, obtained thanks to an innovative approach to the design and the
control of mechanical dissipation. Already at 4 K with an input laser power of
2 mW, the radiation-pressure quantum fluctuations become the main noise source,
overcoming thermal noise. This feature makes our devices particularly suitable
for the production of pondero-motive squeezing.Comment: 21 pages including Supplementary Informatio
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