Detection Rates for Close Binaries Via Microlensing

Microlensing is one of the most promising methods of reconstructing the stellar mass function down to masses even below the hydrogen-burning limit. The fundamental limit to this technique is the presence of unresolved binaries, which can in principle significantly alter the inferred mass function. Here we quantify the fraction of binaries that can be detected using microlensing, considering specifically the mass ratio and separation of the binary. We find that almost all binary systems with separations greater than $b \sim 0.4$ of their combined Einstein ring radius are detectable assuming a detection threshold of $3\%$. For two M dwarfs, this corresponds to a limiting separation of \gsim 1 \au. Since very few observed M dwarfs have companions at separations \lsim 1 \au, we conclude that close binaries will probably not corrupt the measurements of the mass function. We find that the detectability depends only weakly on the mass ratio. For those events for which individual masses can be determined, we find that binaries can be detected down to $b \sim 0.2$.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figures. Uses phyyzx format. Send requests for higher quality figures to [email protected]

Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing Optical Depth with Imperfect Event Selection

I present a new analysis of the MACHO Project 5.7 year Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) microlensing data set that incorporates the effects of contamination of the microlensing event sample by variable stars. Photometric monitoring of MACHO LMC microlensing event candidates by the EROS and OGLE groups has revealed that one of these events is likely to be a variable star, while additional data has confirmed that many of the other events are very likely to be microlensing. This additional data on the nature of the MACHO microlensing candidates is incorporated into a simple likelihood analysis to derive a probability distribution for the number of MACHO microlens candidates that are true microlensing events. This analysis shows that 10-12 of the 13 events that passed the MACHO selection criteria are likely to be microlensing events, with the other 1-3 being variable stars. This likelihood analysis is also used to show that the main conclusions of the MACHO LMC analysis are unchanged by the variable star contamination. The microlensing optical depth toward the LMC is = 1.0 +/- 0.3 * 10^{-7}. If this is due to microlensing by known stellar populations, plus an additional population of lens objects in the Galactic halo, then the new halo population would account for 16% of the mass of a standard Galactic halo. The MACHO detection exceeds the expected background of 2 events expected from ordinary stars in standard models of the Milky Way and LMC at the 99.98% confidence level. The background prediction is increased to 3 events if maximal disk models are assumed for both the MilkyWay and LMC, but this model fails to account for the full signal seen by MACHO at the 99.8% confidence level.Comment: 20 pages, 2 postscript figues, accepted by Ap

Effect of a polyphenol–vacuum packaging on lipid deterioration during an 18-month frozen storage of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

10 páginas, 3 tablas, 2 figuras.-- The final publication is available at www.springerlink.comA packaging system combining a polyphenolrich film and vacuum (PPRF–VP) was applied to farmed coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) muscle for an 18- month storage (−18 °C). For it, two different concentrations of polyphenol compounds (namely, p-coumaric and ferulic acids) obtained from a barley husk extract were applied (PPRF–VP conditions) and compared to vacuum packaging without polyphenol presence (vacuum control; VP condition) and to packaging in the absence of vacuum and polyphenols (control; CP condition). The study was addressed to lipid hydrolysis and oxidation development and to lipid changes related to nutritional value. Both PPRF–VP conditions provided an inhibitory effect (p< 0.05) on conjugated diene and fluorescent compound formation in frozen salmon. Compared to CP condition, vacuum packaging (PPRF–VP and VP conditions) led to lower (p<0.05) peroxide and anisidine values and to an inhibitory effect (p<0.05) on α- and γ-tocopherol losses. No effect (p>0.05) of polyphenol presence and vacuum packaging could be inferred on free fatty acid formation (hydrolysis development) and on polyunsaturated fatty acid retention (polyene index assessment). A low rancid odour development was observed in all kinds of fish samples, this being lower (p<0.05) in fish kept under vacuum (PPRF–VP and VP) conditions.Peer reviewe

Quality assessment of sardines during storage by measurement of fluorescent compounds

5 páginas, 2 figuras, 5 tablasSardine alterations during chilled storage (0°C) were investigated by measuring the fluorescence ratio between two excitation/emission maxima (393/463 nm, 327/415 nm) and compared with common quality indices. Sardines were also maintained at 15°C to accelerate all reactions occurring at 0°C. Other quality indices (total volatile base-nitrogen, free fatty acids, formation of conjugated dienes, and thiobarbituric acid values) were determined and the use of the fluorescence ratio (fluorescence shift, δF) was analyzed. A high correlation was found between the δF and the total volatile base-nitrogen (r = 0.93, at 0°C; r = 0.92, at 15°C).Xunta de Galicia (Project XUGA 402 01B93).Peer reviewe

Differential lipid damage in various muscle zones of frozen hake (Merluccius merluccius)

5 páginas, 5 tablas, 1 figura.-- The final publication is available at www.springerlink.comA comparison of the lipid damage produced in different hake zones was carried out during frozen storage at –11 and –18 7C. Three light muscle zones and the dark muscle were considered. Lipid oxidation [conjugated dienes; thiobarbituric acid index (TBA-i); fluorescence formation] and hydrolysis (free fatty acids, FFA) were determined. The most predominant lipid damage in all zones was hydrolysis, at the end of storage reaching values of about 40% (for the light muscle zones) and 12% (for the dark muscle) of the total lipids at –11 7C. Significant (P~0.05) correlation value (rp0.67–0.85) relationships between the frozen storage time and the FFA content were obtained for the four muscle zones at both temperatures. A comparison of the regression lines slopes in the different zones showed that a lower (P~0.05) lipolitic activity was produced in the dark muscle compared to the three light zones at both temperatures. A low lipid oxidation development was produced in the three light muscle parts, so that no significant differences between them could be assessed. However, the dark muscle showed a higher oxidation development (TBA-i and fluorescence formation) as a result of a higher lipid content and the presence of prooxidant constituents.European Community, Research Projects FAIR-CT95–1111 and AIR 3-CT94–1921.Peer reviewe

Is the Large Magellanic Cloud a Large Microlensing Cloud?

An expression is provided for the self-lensing optical depth of the thin LMC disk surrounded by a shroud of stars at larger scale heights. The formula is written in terms of the vertical velocity dispersion of the thin disk population. If tidal forcing causes 1-5 % of the disk mass to have a height larger than 6 kpc and 10-15 % to have a height above 3 kpc, then the self-lensing optical depth of the LMC is $0.7 - 1.9 \times 10^{-7}$, which is within the observational uncertainties. The shroud may be composed of bright stars provided they are not in stellar hydrodynamical equilibrium. Alternatively, the shroud may be built from low mass stars or compact objects, though then the self-lensing optical depths are overestimates of the true optical depth by a factor of roughly 3. The distributions of timescales of the events and their spatial variation across the face of the LMC disk offer possibilities of identifying the dominant lens population. In propitious circumstances, an experiment lifetime of less than 5 years is sufficient to decide between the competing claims of Milky Way halos and LMC lenses. However, LMC disks can sometimes mimic the microlensing properties of Galactic halos for many years and then decades of survey work are needed. In this case observations of parallax or binary caustic events offer the best hope for current experiments to deduce the lens population. The difficult models to distinguish are Milky Way halos in which the lens fraction is low (< 10 %) and fattened LMC disks composed of lenses with a typical mass of low luminosity stars or greater. A next-generation wide-area microlensing survey, such as the proposed ``SuperMACHO'' experiment, will be able to distinguish even these difficult models with just a year or two of data.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, The Astrophysical Journal (in press

The Origin of Primordial Dwarf Stars and Baryonic Dark Matter

I present a scenario for the production of low mass, degenerate dwarfs of mass $>0.1 M_{\odot}$ via the mechanism of Lenzuni, Chernoff & Salpeter (1992). Such objects meet the mass limit requirements for halo dark matter from microlensing surveys while circumventing the chemical evolution constraints on normal white dwarf stars. I describe methods to observationally constrain this scenario and suggest that such objects may originate in small clusters formed from the thermal instability of shocked, heated gas in dark matter haloes, such as suggested by Fall & Rees (1985) for globular clusters.Comment: TeX, 4 pages plus 2 postscript figures. To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Eclipsing binaries in the MACHO database: New periods and classifications for 3031 systems in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Eclipsing binaries offer a unique opportunity to determine fundamental physical parameters of stars using the constraints on the geometry of the systems. Here we present a reanalysis of publicly available two-color observations of about 6800 stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, obtained by the MACHO project between 1992 and 2000 and classified as eclipsing variable stars. Of these, less than half are genuine eclipsing binaries. We determined new periods and classified the stars, 3031 in total, using the Fourier parameters of the phased light curves. The period distribution is clearly bimodal, reflecting refer to the separate groups of more massive blue main sequence objects and low mass red giants. The latter resemble contact binaries and obey a period-luminosity relation. Using evolutionary models, we identified foreground stars. The presented database has been cleaned of artifacts and misclassified variables, thus allowing searches for apsidal motion, tertiary components, pulsating stars in binary systems and secular variations with time-scales of several years.Comment: 11 figures, 9 pages, accepted for publication in Ap

Quality enhancement of chilled fish by including alga Bifurcaria bifurcata extract in the icing medium

9 páginas, 4 tablasBifurcaria bifurcata is a widely extended brown macroalga, whose antimicrobial and antioxidant properties have previously been described. In this study, ethanolic extracts of B. bifurcata were included in the icing medium employed for the chilled storage of megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis). For it, two different concentrations of this brown macroalga extract (0.67 and 2.50 g lyophilized alga L−1 aqueous solution; B-1 and B-2 batches, respectively) were tested for a 14-day storage. The effect of the alga extract was compared with a counterpart batch stored in traditional ice prepared only from water (B-0 batch). Significant (p < 0.05) inhibitions of microbial activity (aerobes, psychrotrophs, lipolytic bacteria, proteolytic bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae) as well as of pH and trimethylamine formation were observed as a result of the incorporation of the alga extract in the icing medium, being this effect especially relevant in the B-2 batch. Concerning lipid damage development, a significantly (p < 0.05) lower formation of free fatty acids (lipid hydrolysis development) and of fluorescent compounds (tertiary lipid oxidation development) in samples corresponding to both alga-including batches could also be observed; this inhibitory effect was more intense in fish belonging to the B-2 batch. The icing medium proposed in this work constitutes a promising strategy in order to apply algae extracts to enhance fish quality retention during the different steps of storage and commercialization of marine speciesThis work was supported by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC; Spain) through the project PIE 201370E001Peer reviewe