2,313 research outputs found
Early production of the passive in two Eastern Bantu languages
The passive construction is acquired relatively late by children learning to speak many languages, with verbal passives not fully acquired till age 6 in English. In other languages it appears earlier, around age 3 or before. Use of passive construction in young children was examined in two Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Kenya (Kiswahili and Kigiriama), both with frequent use of passive. The passive was used productively very early (2;1) in these languages, regardless of the method used to measure productivity. In addition non-actional passives, particularly rare in English and some other European languages, were seen at these early ages. The proportion of verbs that were passive varied between individuals, both in children's speech and in the input to children. Pragmatic and grammatical features of the passive in some languages have previously been suggested to drive early passive acquisition, but these features are not found consistently in the two languages studied here. Findings suggest that the relatively high frequency of input found in these languages is the most plausible reason for early productive use of the passive
High-energy Astrophysics and the Virtual Observatory
The Virtual Observatory (VO) will revolutionise the way we do Astronomy by
allowing easy access to all astronomical data and by making the handling and
analysis of datasets at various locations across the globe much simpler and
faster. I report here on the need for the VO and its status in Europe,
concentrating on the recently started EURO-VO project, and then give two
specific applications of VO tools to high-energy astrophysics.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at the Workshop ``Multifrequency
Behaviour of High Energy Cosmic Sources'', Vulcano, Italy, May 2005, F.
Giovannelli et al., in pres
Comments on the paper ``Bare Quark Surfacees of Strange Stars and Electron-Positron Pair Emission''
In a recent paper (Ushov, PRL, 80, 230, 1998), it has been claimed that the
bare surface of a strange star can emit electron-positron pairs of luminosity
\~10^{51} ergs/s for about 10s. If true, obviously, this mechanism may explain
the origin of cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts. However, we point out that such a
mechanism is does not work because (i) if pair production really occurs the
supposed pre-existing supercritical electric field will be quenched and this
discharge process may at best release ~10^{24} ergs of electromagnetic energy,
and (ii) there is no way by which the trapped core thermal energy of few
10^{52} ergs can be transmitted electromagnetically on a time scale of ~10s or
even on a much larger time scale. The only way the hot core can cool on a time
scale of ~10 s or much shorter is by the well known process of emission of
nu-antinu pairs.Comment: Final version accepted in Phy. Rev. Lett. Main conclusion that the
mechanism by Usov does not work remains unchanged,
[email protected]
Einstein Radii from Binary Lensing Events
We show that the Einstein ring radius and transverse speed of a lens
projected on the source plane, and , can be
determined from the light curve of a binary-source event, followed by the
spectroscopic determination of the orbital elements of the source stars. The
determination makes use of the same principle that allows one to measure the
Einstein ring radii from finite-source effects. For the case when the orbital
period of the source stars is much longer than the Einstein time scale, , there exists a single two-fold degeneracy in determining
. However, when the degeneracy can
often be broken by making use of the binary-source system's orbital motion.
%Once , and thus are determined, one can
%distinguish self-lensing events in the Large Magellanic Cloud %from Galactic
halo events. For an identifiable 8\% of all lensing events seen toward the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one can unambiguously determine whether the
lenses are Galactic, or whether they lie in the LMC itself. The required
observations can be made after the event is over and could be carried out for
the events seen by Alcock et al.\ and Aubourg et al.. In addition, we
propose to include eclipsing binaries as sources for gravitational lensing
experiments.Comment: 18 pages, revised version, submitted to Ap
Finite-source and finite-lens effects in astrometric microlensing
The aim of this paper is to study the astrometric trajectory of microlensing
events with an extended lens and/or source. We consider not only a dark lens
but also a luminous lens as well. We find that the discontinuous finite-lens
trajectories given by Takahashi (2003) will become continuous in the
finite-source regime. The point lens (source) approximation alone gives an
under (over)estimation of the astrometric signal when the size of the lens and
source are not negligible. While the finiteness of the source is revealed when
the lens transits the surface of the source, the finite-lens signal is most
prominent when the lens is very close to the source. Astrometric microlensing
towards the Galactic bulge, Small Magellanic Cloud and M31 are discussed, which
indicate that the finite-lens effect is beyond the detection limit of current
instruments. Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish between self-lensing
and halo lensing through a (non-)detection of the astrometric ellipse. We also
consider the case where the lens is luminous itself, as has been observed where
a lensing event was followed up with the Hubble Space Telescope. We show that
the astrometric signal will be reduced in a luminous-lens scenario. The
physical properties of the event, such as the lens-source flux ratio, the size
of the lens and source nevertheless can be derived by fitting the astrometric
trajectory.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, published in MNRA
Large-Scale Bulk Motions Complicate the Hubble Diagram
We investigate the extent to which correlated distortions of the luminosity
distance-redshift relation due to large-scale bulk flows limit the precision
with which cosmological parameters can be measured. In particular, peculiar
velocities of type 1a supernovae at low redshifts may prevent a sufficient
calibration of the Hubble diagram necessary to measure the dark energy equation
of state to better than 10%, and diminish the resolution of the equation of
state time-derivative projected for planned surveys. We consider similar
distortions of the angular-diameter distance, as well as the Hubble constant.
We show that the measurement of correlations in the large-scale bulk flow at
low redshifts using these distance indicators may be possible with a cumulative
signal-to-noise ratio of order 7 in a survey of 300 type 1a supernovae spread
over 20,000 square degrees.Comment: 6 pages; 4 figure
Evidence for mass ejection associated with long secondary periods in red giants
Approximately 30% of luminous red giants exhibit a Long Secondary Period
(LSP) of variation in their light curves, in addition to a shorter primary
period of oscillation. The cause of the LSP has so far defied explanation:
leading possibilities are binarity and a nonradial mode of oscillation. Here,
large samples of red giants in the Large Magellanic Cloud both with and without
LSPs are examined for evidence of an 8 or 24 m mid-IR excess caused by
circumstellar dust. It is found that stars with LSPs show a significant mid-IR
excess compared to stars without LSPs. Furthermore, the near-IR - color
seems unaffected by the presence of the 24 m excess. These findings
indicate that LSPs cause mass ejection from red giants and that the lost mass
and circumstellar dust is most likely in either a clumpy or a disk-like
configuration. The underlying cause of the LSP and the mass ejection remains
unknown.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Robust, data-driven inference in non-linear cosmostatistics
We discuss two projects in non-linear cosmostatistics applicable to very
large surveys of galaxies. The first is a Bayesian reconstruction of galaxy
redshifts and their number density distribution from approximate, photometric
redshift data. The second focuses on cosmic voids and uses them to construct
cosmic spheres that allow reconstructing the expansion history of the Universe
using the Alcock-Paczynski test. In both cases we find that non-linearities
enable the methods or enhance the results: non-linear gravitational evolution
creates voids and our photo-z reconstruction works best in the highest density
(and hence most non-linear) portions of our simulations.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Talk given at "Statistical Challenges in Modern
Astronomy V," held at Penn Stat
Microlensing as a probe of the Galactic structure; 20 years of microlensing optical depth studies
Microlensing is now a very popular observational astronomical technique. The
investigations accessible through this effect range from the dark matter
problem to the search for extra-solar planets. In this review, the techniques
to search for microlensing effects and to determine optical depths through the
monitoring of large samples of stars will be described. The consequences of the
published results on the knowledge of the Milky-Way structure and its dark
matter component will be discussed. The difficulties and limitations of the
ongoing programs and the perspectives of the microlensing optical depth
technique as a probe of the Galaxy structure will also be detailed.Comment: Accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitation.
General Relativity and Gravitation in press (2010) 0
A Proper Motion Survey for White Dwarfs with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
We have performed a search for halo white dwarfs as high proper motion
objects in a second epoch WFPC2 image of the Groth-Westphal strip. We identify
24 high proper motion objects with mu > 0.014 ''/yr. Five of these high proper
motion objects are identified as strong white dwarf candidates on the basis of
their position in a reduced proper motion diagram. We create a model of the
Milky Way thin disk, thick disk and stellar halo and find that this sample of
white dwarfs is clearly an excess above the < 2 detections expected from these
known stellar populations. The origin of the excess signal is less clear.
Possibly, the excess cannot be explained without invoking a fourth galactic
component: a white dwarf dark halo. We present a statistical separation of our
sample into the four components and estimate the corresponding local white
dwarf densities using only the directly observable variables, V, V-I, and mu.
For all Galactic models explored, our sample separates into about 3 disk white
dwarfs and 2 halo white dwarfs. However, the further subdivision into the thin
and thick disk and the stellar and dark halo, and the subsequent calculation of
the local densities are sensitive to the input parameters of our model for each
Galactic component. Using the lowest mean mass model for the dark halo we find
a 7% white dwarf halo and six times the canonical value for the thin disk white
dwarf density (at marginal statistical significance), but possible systematic
errors due to uncertainty in the model parameters likely dominate these
statistical error bars. The white dwarf halo can be reduced to around 1.5% of
the halo dark matter by changing the initial mass function slightly. The local
thin disk white dwarf density in our solution can be made consistent with the
canonical value by assuming a larger thin disk scaleheight of 500 pc.Comment: revised version, accepted by ApJ, results unchanged, discussion
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