3,707 research outputs found
National Scientific Facilities and Their Science Impact on Non-Biomedical Research
H-index, proposed by Hirsch is a good indicator of the impact of a
scientist's research. When evaluating departments, institutions or labs, the
importance of h-index can be further enhanced when properly calibrated for
size. Particularly acute is the issue of federally funded facilities whose
number of actively publishing scientists frequently dwarfs that of academic
departments. Recently Molinari and Molinari developed a methodology that shows
the h-index has a universal growth rate for large numbers of papers, allowing
for meaningful comparisons between institutions.
An additional challenge when comparing large institutions is that fields have
distinct internal cultures, with different typical rates of publication and
citation; biology is more highly cited than physics, which is more highly cited
than engineering. For this reason, this study has focused on the physical
sciences, engineering, and technology, and has excluded bio-medical research.
Comparisons between individual disciplines are reported here to provide
contextual framework. Generally, it was found that the universal growth rate of
Molinari and Molinari holds well across all the categories considered,
testifying to the robustness of both their growth law and our results.
The overall goal here is to set the highest standard of comparison for
federal investment in science; comparisons are made with the nations preeminent
private and public institutions. We find that many among the national
facilities compare favorably in research impact with the nations leading
universities.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Low redshift star-forming galaxies: What can they teach us about primeval galaxies?
The analysis of the UV plus optical spectra of three star-forming galaxies, Mrk 496, Mrk 357, TOL1924-416, obtained by matching the size of the optical aperture with that of IUE, has given unexpected results. These can be summarized as follows: (1) the dereddened Ly(alpha)/H(beta) ratios are consistent with the prediction of case B recombination for nebular emission, within the uncertainties; (2) the decrease of the Ly(alpha)/H(beta) ratio with increasing metallicities is not confirmed in our three objects, although the sample is too small to consider this result definitive. The first result is surprising, mainly because at least the two Markarian galaxies have a large enough H1 content to markedly increase the optical depth for the Ly(alpha) photons and to trigger their absorption by dust. This finding can probably be explained as an effect of the inhomogeneous distribution of gas and dust within the galaxies. On the basis of these results, we conclude that the detection of the Ly(alpha) emission line in searching for primeval galaxies (PG's) can be still considered a valid technique
Hubble Space Telescope faint object spectrograph instrument handbook, version 5.0
This version of the FOS Instrument Handbook is for the refurbished telescope, which is affected by an increase in throughput, especially for the smaller apertures, a decrease in efficiency due to the extra reflections of the COSTAR optics, and a change in focal length. The improved PSF affects all exposure time calculations due to better aperture throughputs and increases the spectral resolution. The extra reflections of COSTAR decrease the efficiency by 10-20 percent. The change in focal length affects the aperture sizes as projected on the sky. The aperture designations that are already in use both in the exposure logsheets and in the project data base (PDB) have not been changed. Apertures are referred to here by their size, followed by the designation used on the exposure logsheet
The Spectral Energy Distribution of Normal, Starburst and Active Galaxies
We present the results of an extensive literature search of multiwavelength
data for a sample of 59 galaxies, consisting of 26 Starbursts, 15 Seyfert 2's,
5 LINER's, 6 normal spirals and 7 normal elliptical galaxies. The data include
soft X-ray fluxes, ultraviolet and optical spectra, near, mid/far infrared
photometry and radio measurements, selected to match as closely as possible the
IUE aperture (10" X 20"). The galaxies are separated into 6 groups with similar
characteristics, namely, Ellipticals, Spirals, LINER's, Seyfert 2's, Starbursts
of Low and High reddening, for which we create average spectral energy
distributions (SED). The individual groups SED's are normalized to the
7000\AA flux and compared, looking for similarities and differences
among them.The bolometric fluxes of different types of galaxies were calculated
integrating their SED's. These values are compared with individual waveband
flux densities, in order to determine the wavebands which contribute most to
the bolometric flux. Linear regressions were performed between the bolometric
and individual band fluxes for each kind of galaxy. These fits can be used in
the calculation of the bolometric flux for other objects of similar activity
type, but with reduced waveband information. We have also collected
multiwavelength data for 4 HII regions, a thermal supernova remnant, and a
non-thermal supernova remnant (SNR), which are compared with the Starburst
SED's.Comment: 29 pages, 13 postscript figures and 10 tables. To appear in The
Astronomical Journa
Spectral Energy Distribution of Star-Forming Galaxies
Our analysis allowed us to address the following points: 1) the nature of the featureless ultraviolet continuum in Seyfert 2's, in particular the amount of stellar population that contributes to this waveband; 2) the difference between Seyfert l's and Seyfert 2's in the ratio of ultraviolet (lambda)1400A to soft X-rays continuum, which is larger in Seyfert 2's and apparently contradicts the Unified Model, but may be resolved if we consider the stellar population; 3) search for anisotropic radiation escaping from the nucleus of Seyfert 2's, by comparing the number of ionizing photons, estimated from the ultraviolet continuum photons, to the number of recombination photons, calculated using the H(beta) line flux. In addition, the research from this grant produced template spectra that have been used in a wide variety of applications, including the identification of high redshift galaxies in the Slone survey
Slow roll in simple non-canonical inflation
We consider inflation using a class of non-canonical Lagrangians for which
the modification to the kinetic term depends on the field, but not its
derivatives. We generalize the standard Hubble slow roll expansion to the
non-canonical case and derive expressions for observables in terms of the
generalized slow roll parameters. We apply the general results to the
illustrative case of ``Slinky'' inflation, which has a simple, exactly
solvable, non-canonical representation. However, when transformed into a
canonical basis, Slinky inflation consists of a field oscillating on a
multi-valued potential. We calculate the power spectrum of curvature
perturbations for Slinky inflation directly in the non-canonical basis, and
show that the spectrum is approximately a power law on large scales, with a
``blue'' power spectrum. On small scales, the power spectrum exhibits strong
oscillatory behavior. This is an example of a model in which the widely used
solution of Garriga and Mukhanov gives the wrong answer for the power spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, four figures. (V2: minor changes to text. Version
submitted to JCAP.
New Solutions of the Inflationary Flow Equations
The inflationary flow equations are a frequently used method of surveying the
space of inflationary models. In these applications the infinite hierarchy of
differential equations is truncated in a way which has been shown to be
equivalent to restricting the set of models considered to those characterized
by polynomial inflaton potentials. This paper explores a different method of
solving the flow equations, which does not truncate the hierarchy and in
consequence covers a much wider class of models while retaining the practical
usability of the standard approach.Comment: References added, and a couple of comment
Jet directions in Seyfert galaxies: B and I imaging data
We present the results of broad-band B and I imaging observations for a
sample of 88 Seyfert galaxies (29 Seyfert 1's and 59 Seyfert 2's), selected
from a mostly isotropic property, the flux at 60m. We also present the B
and I imaging results for an additional sample of 20 Seyfert galaxies (7
Seyfert 1's and 13 Seyfert 2's), selected from the literature and known to have
extended radio emission. The I band images are fitted with ellipses to
determine the position angle and ellipticity of the host galaxy major axis.
This information will be used in a future paper, combined with information from
radio observations, to study the orientation of radio jets relative to the
plane of their host galaxies (Kinney et al. 2000). Here we present surface
brightness profiles and magnitudes in the B and I bands, as well as mean
ellipticities and major axis position angles.Comment: To appear in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, June 2000.
48 pages, 7 tables, 19 gif and 11 postscript figures. Better quality figures
can be obtained with the autho
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