8,291 research outputs found
Instantaneous Pair Theory for High-Frequency Vibrational Energy Relaxation in Fluids
Notwithstanding the long and distinguished history of studies of vibrational
energy relaxation, exactly how it is that high frequency vibrations manage to
relax in a liquid remains somewhat of a mystery. Both experimental and
theoretical approaches seem to say that there is a natural frequency range
associated with intermolecular motions in liquids, typically spanning no more
than a few hundred cm^{-1}. Landau-Teller-like theories explain how a solvent
can absorb any vibrational energy within this "band", but how is it that
molecules can rid themselves of superfluous vibrational energies significantly
in excess of these values? We develop a theory for such processes based on the
idea that the crucial liquid motions are those that most rapidly modulate the
force on the vibrating coordinate -- and that by far the most important of
these motions are those involving what we have called the mutual nearest
neighbors of the vibrating solute. Specifically, we suggest that whenever there
is a single solvent molecule sufficiently close to the solute that the solvent
and solute are each other's nearest neighbors, then the instantaneous
scattering dynamics of the solute-solvent pair alone suffices to explain the
high frequency relaxation. The many-body features of the liquid only appear in
the guise of a purely equilibrium problem, that of finding the likelihood of
particularly effective solvent arrangements around the solute. These results
are tested numerically on model diatomic solutes dissolved in atomic fluids
(including the experimentally and theoretically interesting case of I_2 in Xe).
The instantaneous pair theory leads to results in quantitative agreement with
those obtained from far more laborious exact molecular dynamics simulations.Comment: 55 pages, 6 figures Scheduled to appear in J. Chem. Phys., Jan, 199
Xenon in Mercury-Manganese Stars
Previous studies of elemental abundances in Mercury-Manganese (HgMn) stars
have occasionally reported the presence of lines of the ionized rare noble gas
Xe II, especially in a few of the hottest stars with Teff ~ 13000--15000 K. A
new study of this element has been undertaken using observations from Lick
Observatory's Hamilton Echelle Spectrograph. In this work, the spectrum
synthesis program UCLSYN has been used to undertake abundance analysis assuming
LTE. We find that in the Smith & Dworetsky sample of HgMn stars, Xe is vastly
over-abundant in 21 of 22 HgMn stars studied, by factors of 3.1--4.8 dex. There
does not appear to be a significant correlation of Xe abundance with Teff. A
comparison sample of normal late B stars shows no sign of Xe II lines that
could be detected, consistent with the expected weakness of lines at normal
abundance. The main reason for the previous lack of widespread detection in
HgMn stars is probably due to the strongest lines being at longer wavelengths
than the photographic blue. The lines used in this work were 4603.03A, 4844.33A
and 5292.22A.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, 8 January 200
LOTIS, Super-LOTIS, SDSS and Tautenburg Observations of GRB 010921
We present multi-instrument optical observations of the High Energy Transient
Explorer (HETE-2)/Interplanetary Network (IPN) error box of GRB 010921. This
event was the first gamma ray burst (GRB) localized by HETE-2 which has
resulted in the detection of an optical afterglow. In this paper we report the
earliest known observations of the GRB010921 field, taken with the 0.11-m
Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (LOTIS) telescope, and the earliest
known detection of the GRB010921 optical afterglow, using the 0.5-m Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Photometric Telescope (SDSS PT). Observations with the LOTIS
telescope began during a routine sky patrol 52 minutes after the burst.
Observations were made with the SDSS PT, the 0.6-m Super-LOTIS telescope, and
the 1.34-m Tautenburg Schmidt telescope at 21.3, 21.8, and 37.5 hours after the
GRB, respectively. In addition, the host galaxy was observed with the USNOFS
1.0-m telescope 56 days after the burst. We find that at later times (t > 1 day
after the burst), the optical afterglow exhibited a power-law decline with a
slope of . However, our earliest observations show that
this power-law decline can not have extended to early times (t < 0.035 day).Comment: AASTeX v5.x LaTeX 2e, 6 pages with 2 postscript figures, will be
submitted to ApJ Letter
The HgMn Binary Star Phi Herculis: Detection and Properties of the Secondary and Revision of the Elemental Abundances of the Primary
Observations of the Mercury-Manganese star Phi Herculis with the Navy
Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI) conclusively reveal the previously
unseen companion in this single-lined binary system. The NPOI data were used to
predict a spectral type of A8V for the secondary star Phi Her B. This
prediction was subsequently confirmed by spectroscopic observations obtained at
the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. Phi Her B is rotating at 50 +/-3
km/sec, in contrast to the 8 km/sec lines of Phi Her A. Recognizing the lines
from the secondary permits one to separate them from those of the primary. The
abundance analysis of Phi Her A shows an abundance pattern similar to those of
other HgMn stars with Al being very underabundant and Sc, Cr, Mn, Zn, Ga, Sr,
Y, Zr, Ba, Ce, and Hg being very overabundant.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 45 pages, 11 figure
Uses of zeta regularization in QFT with boundary conditions: a cosmo-topological Casimir effect
Zeta regularization has proven to be a powerful and reliable tool for the
regularization of the vacuum energy density in ideal situations. With the
Hadamard complement, it has been shown to provide finite (and meaningful)
answers too in more involved cases, as when imposing physical boundary
conditions (BCs) in two-- and higher--dimensional surfaces (being able to
mimic, in a very convenient way, other {\it ad hoc} cut-offs, as non-zero
depths). What we have considered is the {\it additional} contribution to the cc
coming from the non-trivial topology of space or from specific boundary
conditions imposed on braneworld models (kind of cosmological Casimir effects).
Assuming someone will be able to prove (some day) that the ground value of the
cc is zero, as many had suspected until very recently, we will then be left
with this incremental value coming from the topology or BCs. We show that this
value can have the correct order of magnitude in a number of quite reasonable
models involving small and large compactified scales and/or brane BCs, and
supergravitons.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, Talk given at the Seventh International Workshop
Quantum Field Theory under the Influence of External Conditions, QFEXT'05,
Barcelona, September 5-9, 200
Probing the last scattering surface through the recent and future CMB observations
We have constrained the extended (delayed and accelerated) models of hydrogen
recombination, by investigating associated changes of the position and the
width of the last scattering surface. Using the recent CMB and SDSS data, we
find that the recent data constraints favor the accelerated recombination
model, though the other models (standard, delayed recombination) are not ruled
out at 1- confidence level. If the accelerated recombination had
actually occurred in our early Universe, baryonic clustering on small-scales is
likely to be the cause of it. By comparing the ionization history of baryonic
cloud models with that of the best-fit accelerated recombination model, we find
that some portion of our early Universe has baryonic underdensity. We have made
the forecast on the PLANCK data constraint, which shows that we will be able to
rule out the standard or delayed recombination models, if the recombination in
our early Universe had proceeded with or lower, and
residual foregrounds and systematic effects are negligible.Comment: v2: matched with the accepted version (conclusions unchanged
The ASTRA Spectrophotometer: A July 2004 Progress Report
A cross-dispersed spectrophotometer with CCD detector and its automated 0.5-m
telescope at the Fairborn Observatory, now under construction, should begin
observations in 6 to 9 months. The Citadel ASTRA Telescope will be able to
observe Vega the primary standard, make rapid measurements of the naked-eye
stars, use 10 minutes per hour to obtain photometric measurements of the
nightly extinction, and obtain high quality observations of V=10.5 mag. stars
in an hour. The approximate wavelength range is 3300-9000A with a resolution of
14A in first and 7A in second order. Filter photometric magnitudes and indices
will be calibrated in part for use as quality checks.
Science observations for major projects such as comparisons with model
atmospheres codes and for exploratory investigations should also begin in the
first year. The ASTRA team realizes to deal with this potential data flood that
they will need help to make the best scientific uses of the data. Thus they are
interested in discussing possible collaborations. In less than a year of normal
observing, all isolated stars in the Bright Star Catalog that can be observed
can have their fluxes well measured. Some A Star related applications are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Poster presented at IAU Symposium 224 "The A
Star Puzzle", 7-13 July 2004, Poprad, Slovaki
Dynamic masses for the close PG1159 binary SDSSJ212531.92-010745.9
SDSSJ212531.92-010745.9 is the first known PG1159 star in a close binary with
a late main sequence companion allowing a dynamical mass determination. The
system shows flux variations with a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 0.7 mag and
a period of about 6.96h. In August 2007, 13 spectra of SDSSJ212531.92-010745.9
covering the full orbital phase range were taken at the TWIN 3.5m telescope at
the Calar Alto Observatory (Alm\'{e}ria, Spain). These confirm the typical
PG1159 features seen in the SDSS discovery spectrum, together with the Balmer
series of hydrogen in emission (plus other emission lines), interpreted as
signature of the companion's irradiated side. A radial velocity curve was
obtained for both components. Using co-added radial-velocity-corrected spectra,
the spectral analysis of the PG1159 star is being refined.
The system's lightcurve, obtained during three seasons of photometry with the
G\"ottingen 50cm and T\"ubingen 80cm telescopes, was fitted with both the
NIGHTFALL and PHOEBE binary simulation programs. An accurate mass determination
of the PG1159 component from the radial velocity measurements requires to first
derive the inclination, which requires light curve modelling and yields further
constraints on radii, effective temperature and separation of the system's
components. From the analysis of all data available so far, we present the
possible mass range for the PG1159 component of SDSSJ212531.92-010745.9.Comment: 8 pages, in "White dwarfs", proceedings of the 16th European White
Dwarf Workshop, eds. E. Garcia-Berro, M. Hernanz, J. Isern, S. Torres, to be
published in J. Phys.: Conf. Se
Halo mass - concentration relation from weak lensing
We perform a statistical weak lensing analysis of dark matter profiles around
tracers of halo mass from galactic- to cluster-size halos. In this analysis we
use 170,640 isolated ~L* galaxies split into ellipticals and spirals, 38,236
groups traced by isolated spectroscopic Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and 13,823
MaxBCG clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) covering a wide range
of richness. Together these three samples allow a determination of the density
profiles of dark matter halos over three orders of magnitude in mass, from
10^{12} M_{sun} to 10^{15} M_{sun}. The resulting lensing signal is consistent
with an NFW or Einasto profile on scales outside the central region. We find
that the NFW concentration parameter c_{200b} decreases with halo mass, from
around 10 for galactic halos to 4 for cluster halos. Assuming its dependence on
halo mass in the form of c_{200b} = c_0 [M/(10^{14}M_{sun}/h)]^{\beta}, we find
c_0=4.6 +/- 0.7 (at z=0.22) and \beta=0.13 +/- 0.07, with very similar results
for the Einasto profile. The slope (\beta) is in agreement with theoretical
predictions, while the amplitude is about two standard deviations below the
predictions for this mass and redshift, but we note that the published values
in the literature differ at a level of 10-20% and that for a proper comparison
our analysis should be repeated in simulations. We discuss the implications of
our results for the baryonic effects on the shear power spectrum: since these
are expected to increase the halo concentration, the fact that we see no
evidence of high concentrations on scales above 20% of the virial radius
suggests that baryonic effects are limited to small scales, and are not a
significant source of uncertainty for the current weak lensing measurements of
the dark matter power spectrum. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, accepted to JCAP pending minor revisions that
are included in v2 here on arXi
Three gonadotropin-releasing hormone genes in one organism suggest novel roles for an ancient peptide.
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