2,658 research outputs found
An evaluation of the historical issues associated with achieving non-helicopter V/STOL capability and the search for the flying car
Copyright @ 2010 The Royal Aeronautical Society. This article is the final author version of the published paper.Combined Vertical and short take-off and landing, or âV/STOLâ capability has been of great demand and interest in the field of aeronautics since the creation of the aircraft. V/STOL capability is a targeted capability for many projected or prototype future aircraft. Past V/STOL aircraft are reviewed and analysed with regard to their performance parameters. This research has found two embedded categories in this class of aircraft based on their propulsion systems, i.e. jet and non-jet propulsion, and highlights the significant performance differences between them. In light of historical experience the performance of a relatively new class of aircraft, the flying cars, has been evaluated
An Abundance Analysis for Five Red Horizontal Branch Stars in the Extremely Metal Rich Globular Cluster NGC 6553
We provide a high dispersion line-by-line abundance analysis of five red HB
stars in the extremely metal rich galactic globular cluster NGC 6553. These red
HB stars are significantly hotter than the very cool stars near the tip of the
giant branch in such a metal rich globular cluster and hence their spectra are
much more amenable to an abundance analysis than would be the case for red
giants.
We find that the mean [Fe/H] for NGC 6553 is -0.16 dex, comparable to the
mean abundance in the galactic bulge found by McWilliam & Rich (1994) and
considerably higher than that obtained from an analysis of two red giants in
this cluster by Barbuy etal (1999). The relative abundance for the best
determined alpha process element (Ca) indicates an excess of alpha process
elements of about a factor of two. The metallicity of NGC 6553 reaches the
average of the Galactic bulge and of the solar neighborhood.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Ap
The Chemical Compositions of the SRd Variable Stars-- II. WY Andromedae, VW Eridani, and UW Librae
Chemical compositions are derived from high-resolution spectra for three
stars classed as SRd variables in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars.
These stars are shown to be metal-poor supergiants: WY And with [Fe/H] = -1.0,
VW Eri with [Fe/H] = -1.8, and UW Lib with [Fe/H] = -1.2. Their compositions
are identical to within the measurement errors with the compositions of
subdwarfs, subgiants, and less evolved giants of the same FeH. The stars are at
the tip of the first giant branch or in the early stages of evolution along the
asymptotic giant branch (AGB). There is no convincing evidence that these SRd
variables are experiencing thermal pulsing and the third dredge-up on the AGB.
The SRds appear to be the cool limit of the sequence of RV Tauri variables.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 4 table
Evolution of O Abundance Relative to Fe
We present a three-component mixing model for the evolution of O abundance
relative to Fe, taking into account the contributions of the first very massive
(> 100 solar masses) stars formed from Big Bang debris. We show that the
observations of O and Fe abundances in metal-poor stars in the Galaxy by
Israelian et al. and Boesgaard et al. can be well represented both
qualitatively and quantitatively by this model. Under the assumption of an
initial Fe ([Fe/H] = -3) and O inventory due to the prompt production by the
first very massive stars, the data at -3 < [Fe/H] < -1 are interpreted to
result from the addition of O and Fe only from type II supernovae (SNII) to the
prompt inventory. At [Fe/H] = -1, SNII still contribute O while both SNII and
type Ia supernovae contribute Fe. During this later stage, (O/Fe) sharply drops
off to an asymptotic value of 0.8(O/Fe)_sun. The value of (O/Fe) for the prompt
inventory at [Fe/H] = -3 is found to be (O/Fe) = 20(O/Fe)_sun. This result
suggests that protogalaxies with low ``metallicities'' should exhibit high
values of (O/Fe). The C/O ratio produced by the first very massive stars is
expected to be much less than 1 so that all the C should be tied up as CO and
that C dust and hydrocarbon compounds should be quite rare at epochs
corresponding to [Fe/H] < -3.Comment: 25 pages, 8 postscript figures, to appear in Ap
Observational evidence for a different IMF in the early Galaxy
The unexpected high incidence of carbon-enhanced, s-process enriched
unevolved stars amongst extremely metal-poor stars in the halo provides a
significant constraint on the Initial Mass Function (IMF) in the early Galaxy.
We argue that these objects are evidence for the past existence of a large
population of intermediate-mass stars, and conclude that the IMF in the early
Galaxy was different from the present, and shifted toward higher masses.Comment: 14 pages, 1 color figure, accepted for publication on Ap
Nucleosynthesis in Type II supernovae and the abundances in metal-poor stars
We explore the effects on nucleosynthesis in Type II supernovae of various
parameters (mass cut, neutron excess, explosion energy, progenitor mass) in
order to explain the observed trends of the iron-peak element abundance ratios
([Cr/Fe], [Mn/Fe], [Co/Fe] and [Ni/Fe]) in halo stars as a function of
metallicity for the range [Fe/H] . [Cr/Fe] and [Mn/Fe]
decrease with decreasing [Fe/H], while [Co/Fe] behaves the opposite way and
increases. We show that such a behavior can be explained by a variation of mass
cuts in Type II supernovae as a function of progenitor mass, which provides a
changing mix of nucleosynthesis from an alpha-rich freeze-out of Si-burning and
incomplete Si-burning. This explanation is consistent with the amount of
ejected Ni determined from modeling the early light curves of individual
supernovae. We also suggest that the ratio [H/Fe] of halo stars is mainly
determined by the mass of interstellar hydrogen mixed with the ejecta of a
single supernova which is larger for larger explosion energy and the larger
Str\"omgren radius of the progenitor.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal, more discussion on the Galactic chemical evolutio
Mixing along the Red Giant Branch in Metal-poor Field Stars
We have determined Li, C, N, O, Na, and Fe abundances, and 12C/13C isotopic
ratios for a sample of 62 field metal-poor stars (plus 43 taken from the
literature). This large sample was used to show that small mass lower-RGB stars
(i.e., fainter than the RGB bump) have abundances of light elements in
agreement with theoretical predictions from classical evolutionary models. A
second, distinct mixing episode occurs just after the RGB bump, reaching
regions of incomplete CNO burning. No O-Na anticorrelation, as observed in
globular cluster stars, is found in field stars. This means that the mixing
episode is not deep enough to reach regions where ON-burning occurs.Comment: 6 pages, 3 encapsulated figures, LateX, uses crckapb.sty; invited
talk, in "The Chemical Evolution of the Milky Way: Stars vs Clusters, Vulcano
(Italy), 20-24 September 1999, F. Matteucci and F. Giovannelli eds, Kluwer,
in pres
An abundance analysis for four Red Horizontal Branch Stars in the extremely metal rich globular cluster NGC 6528
We present the results of the first analysis of high dispersion spectra of
four red HB stars in the metal rich globular cluster NGC 6528, located in
Baade's Window. We find that the mean [Fe/H] for NGC 6528 is +0.07+-0.01 dex
(error of the mean), with a star-to-star scatter of sigma = 0.02 dex (4 stars),
although the total error is likely to be larger (~0.1 dex) due to systematic
errors related to the effective temperature scale and to model atmospheres.
This metallicity is somewhat larger than both the mean abundance in the
galactic bulge found by McWilliam & Rich (1994) and that found in our previous
paper for NGC 6553. However, we find that the spectra of clump stars in NGC
6528 and NGC 6553 are very similar each other, the slightly different metal
abundances found being possibly due to the different atmospheric parameters
adopted in the two analyses. For NGC 6528 we find excesses for the
alpha-process elements Si and Ca ([Si/Fe]=+0.4 and [Ca/Fe]=+0.2), whereas Mn is
found to be underabundant ([Mn/Fe]=-0.4). We find a solar abundance of O;
however this is somewhat uncertain due to the dependence of the O abundance on
the adopted atmospheric parameters and to coupling between C and O abundances
in these cool, metal-rich stars. Finally, we find large Na excesses ([Na/Fe]~
+0.4) in all stars examined. Since the present analysis is based on higher
quality material, we propose to revise our previous published metal abundance
for NGC 6553 to [Fe/H]=$0.06+-0.15.Comment: accepted for publication in the September 2001 issue of The
Astronomical Journal; 3 new figures and updated results and calibration
Abundances in Stars from the Red Giant Branch Tip to Near the Main Sequence Turn Off in M71: III. Abundance Ratios
We present abundance ratios for 23 elements with respect to Fe in a sample of
stars with a wide range in luminosity, from luminous giants to stars near the
turnoff, in the globular cluster M71. The analyzed spectra, obtained with HIRES
at the Keck Observatory, are of high dispersion (R=35,000). We find that the
neutron capture, the iron peak and the alpha-element abundance ratios show no
trend with Teff, and low scatter around the mean between the top of the RGB and
near the main sequence turnoff. The alpha-elements Mg, Ca, Si and Ti are
overabundant relative to Fe. The anti-correlation between O and Na abundances,
observed in other metal poor globular clusters, is detected in our sample and
extends to the main sequence. A statistically significant correlation between
Al and Na abundances is observed among the M71 stars in our sample, extending
to Mv = +1.8, fainter than the luminosity of the RGB bump in M5. Lithium is
varying, as expected, and Zr may be varying from star to star as well. M71
appears to have abundance ratios very similar to M5 whose bright giants were
studied by Ivans et al. (2001), but seems to have a smaller amplitude of
star-to-star variations at a given luminosity, as might be expected from its
higher metallicity. The results of our abundance analysis of 25 stars in M71
provide sufficient evidence of abundance variations at unexpectedly low
luminosities to rule out the mixing scenario. Either alone or, even more
powerfully, combined with other recent studies of C and N abundances in M71
stars, the existence of such abundance variations cannot be reproduced within
the context of our current understanding of stellar evolution.Comment: AJ, in press (June 2002), 18 figure
Keck-Nirspec Infrared OH Lines: Oxygen Abundances in Metal-Poor Stars Down to [Fe/H] = -2.9
Infrared OH lines at 1.5 - 1.7 um in the H band were obtained with the
NIRSPEC high-resolution spectrograph at the 10m Keck Telescope for a sample of
seven metal-poor stars. Detailed analyses have been carried out, based on
optical high-resolution data obtained with the FEROS spectrograph at ESO.
Stellar parameters were derived by adopting infrared flux method effective
temperatures, trigonometric and/or evolutionary gravities and metallicities
from FeII lines. We obtain that the sample stars with metallicities [Fe/H] <
-2.2 show a mean oxygen abundance [O/Fe] ~ 0.54, for a solar oxygen abundance
of epsilon(O) = 8.87, or [O/Fe] ~ 0.64 if epsilon(O) = 8.77 is assumed.Comment: To be published in ApJ 575 (August 10
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