44,249 research outputs found
Stellar Equilibrium vs. Gravitational Collapse
The idea of gravitational collapse can be traced back to the first solution of Einstein’s equations, but in these early stages, compelling evidence to support this idea was lacking. Furthermore, there were many theoretical gaps underlying the conviction that a star could not contract beyond its critical radius. The philosophical views of the early 20th century, especially those of Sir Arthur S. Eddington, imposed equilibrium as an almost unquestionable condition on theoretical models describing stars. This paper is a historical and epistemological account of the theoretical defiance of this equilibrium hypothesis, with a novel reassessment of J.R. Oppenheimer’s work on astrophysics
WAVELET BASED NONLINEAR SEPARATION OF IMAGES
This work addresses a real-life problem corresponding
to the separation of the nonlinear mixture of images which
arises when we scan a paper document and the image from
the back page shows through.
The proposed solution consists of a non-iterative procedure
that is based on two simple observations: (1) the high
frequency content of images is sparse, and (2) the image
printed on each side of the paper appears more strongly in
the mixture acquired from that side than in the mixture acquired from the opposite side.
These ideas had already been used in the context of nonlinear denoising source separation (DSS). However, in that method the degree of separation achieved by applying these ideas was relatively weak, and the separation had to be improved by iterating within the DSS scheme. In this paper the application of these ideas is improved by changing the competition function and the wavelet transform that is used. These improvements allow us to achieve a good separation in one shot, without the need to integrate the process into an iterative DSS scheme. The resulting separation process is both nonlinear and non-local.
We present experimental results that show that the method
achieves a good separation quality
The dust masses of powerful radio galaxies: clues to the triggering of their activity
We use deep Herschel Space Observatory observations of a 90% complete sample
of 32 intermediate-redshift 2Jy radio galaxies (0.05 < z < 0.7) to estimate the
dust masses of their host galaxies and thereby investigate the triggering
mechanisms for their quasar-like AGN. The dust masses derived for the radio
galaxies (7.2x10^5 < M_d < 2.6x10^8 M_sun) are intermediate between those of
quiescent elliptical galaxies on the one hand, and ultra luminous infrared
galaxies (ULIRGs) on the other. Consistent with simple models for the
co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, these results
suggest that most of the radio galaxies represent the late time re-triggering
of AGN activity via mergers between the host giant elliptical galaxies and
companion galaxies with relatively low gas masses. However, a minority of the
radio galaxies in our sample (~20%) have high, ULIRG-like dust masses, along
with evidence for prodigious star formation activity. The latter objects are
more likely to have been triggered in major, gas-rich mergers that represent a
rapid growth phase for both their host galaxies and their supermassive black
holes.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
How good are MatLab, Octave and Scilab for Computational Modelling?
In this article we test the accuracy of three platforms used in computational
modelling: MatLab, Octave and Scilab, running on i386 architecture and three
operating systems (Windows, Ubuntu and Mac OS). We submitted them to numerical
tests using standard data sets and using the functions provided by each
platform. A Monte Carlo study was conducted in some of the datasets in order to
verify the stability of the results with respect to small departures from the
original input. We propose a set of operations which include the computation of
matrix determinants and eigenvalues, whose results are known. We also used data
provided by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), a protocol
which includes the computation of basic univariate statistics (mean, standard
deviation and first-lag correlation), linear regression and extremes of
probability distributions. The assessment was made comparing the results
computed by the platforms with certified values, that is, known results,
computing the number of correct significant digits.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Computational and Applied Mathematics
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On Gravity localization under Lorentz Violation in warped scenario
Recently Rizzo studied the Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in a brane
scenario with one extra dimension where he found a non-zero mass for the
four-dimensional graviton. This leads to the conclusion that five-dimensional
models with LIV are not phenomenologically viable. In this work we re-examine
the issue of Lorentz Invariance Violation in the context of higher dimensional
theories. We show that a six-dimensional geometry describing a string-like
defect with a bulk-dependent cosmological constant can yield a massless 4D
graviton, if we allow the cosmological constant variation along the bulk, and
thus can provides a phenomenologically viable solution for the gauge hierarchy
problem.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Physics Letters
Topological gravity localization on a delta-function like Brane
Besides the String Theory context, the quantum General Relativity can be
studied by the use of constrained topological field theories. In the celebrated
Plebanski formalism, the constraints connecting topological field theories and
gravity are imposed in space-times with trivial topology. In the braneworld
context there are two distinct regions of the space-time, namely, the bulk and
the braneworld volume. In this work we show how to construct topological
gravity in a scenario containing one extra dimension and a delta-function like
3-brane which naturally emerges from a spontaneously broken discrete symmetry.
Starting from a D=5 theory we obtain the action for General Relativity in the
Palatini form in the bulk as well as in the braneworld volume. This result is
important for future insights about quantum gravity in brane scenarios.Comment: 4 page
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