830 research outputs found
Young Globular Clusters and Dwarf Spheroidals
Most of the globular clusters in the main body of the Galactic halo were
formed almost simultaneously. However, globular cluster formation in dwarf
spheroidal galaxies appears to have extended over a significant fraction of a
Hubble time. This suggests that the factors which suppressed late-time
formation of globulars in the main body of the Galactic halo were not operative
in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Possibly the presence of significant numbers of
``young'' globulars at R_{GC} > 15 kpc can be accounted for by the assumption
that many of these objects were formed in Sagittarius-like (but not
Fornax-like) dwarf spheroidal galaxies, that were subsequently destroyed by
Galactic tidal forces. It would be of interest to search for low-luminosity
remnants of parental dwarf spheroidals around the ``young'' globulars Eridanus,
Palomar 1, 3, 14, and Terzan 7. Furthermore multi-color photometry could be
used to search for the remnants of the super-associations, within which outer
halo globular clusters originally formed. Such envelopes are expected to have
been tidally stripped from globulars in the inner halo.Comment: 18 pages, with 2 figures, in LaTeX format; to appear in the
Astrophysical Journal in February 200
Investigation of the New Local Group Galaxy VV 124
We present the results of our stellar photometry and spectroscopy for the new
Local Group galaxy VV 124 (UGC 4879) obtained with the 6-m BTA telescope. The
presence of a few bright supergiants in the galaxy indicates that the current
star formation process is weak. The apparent distribution of stars with
different ages in VV 124 does not differ from the analogous distributions of
stars in irregular galaxies, but the ratio of the numbers of young and old
stars indicates that VV 124 belongs to the rare Irr/Sph type of galaxies. The
old stars (red giants) form the most extended structure, a thick disk with an
exponential decrease in the star number density to the edge. Definitely, the
young population unresolvable in images makes a great contribution to the
background emission from the central galactic regions. The presence of young
stars is also confirmed by the [O III] emission line visible in the spectra
that belongs to extensive diffuse galactic regions. The mean radial velocity of
several components (two bright supergiants, the unresolvable stellar
population, and the diffuse gas) is v_h = -70+/-15 km/s and the velocity with
which VV 124 falls into the Local Group is v_LG = -12+/-15 km/s. We confirm the
distance to the galaxy D = 1.1+/-0.1 Mpc and the metallicity of red giants
([Fe/H] = -1.37) found by Kopylov et al. (2008).VV 124 is located on the
periphery of the Local Group approximately at the same distance from M 31 and
our Galaxy and is isolated from other galaxies. The galaxy LeoA nearest to it
is 0.5 Mpc away.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters
(2010, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 309-318
Shape Isomerism at N = 40: Discovery of a Proton Intruder in 67Co
The nuclear structure of 67Co has been investigated through 67Fe beta-decay.
The 67Fe isotopes were produced at the LISOL facility in proton-induced fission
of 238U and selected using resonant laser ionization combined with mass
separation. The application of a new correlation technique unambiguously
revealed a 496(33) ms isomeric state in 67Co at an unexpected low energy of 492
keV. A 67Co level scheme has been deduced. Proposed spin and parities suggest a
spherical (7/2-) 67Co ground state and a deformed first excited (1/2-) state at
492 keV, interpreted as a proton 1p-2h prolate intruder state.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, preprint submitted to Physical Review Letter
HV 11423: The Coolest Supergiant in the SMC
We call attention to the fact that one of the brightest red supergiants in
the SMC has recently changed its spectral type from K0-1 I (December 2004) to
M4 I (December 2005) and back to K0-1 I (September 2006). An archival spectrum
from the Very Large Telescope reveals that the star was even cooler (M4.5-M5 I)
in December 2001. By contrast, the star was observed to be an M0 I in both
October 1978 and October 1979. The M4-5 I spectral types is by far the latest
type seen for an SMC supergiant, and its temperature in that state places it
well beyond the Hayashi limit into a region of the H-R diagram where the star
should not be in hydrostatic equilibrium. The star is variable by nearly 2 mag
in V, but essentially constant in K. Our modeling of its spectral energy
distribution shows that the visual extinction has varied during this time, but
that the star has remained essentially constant in bolometric luminosity. We
suggest that the star is currently undergoing a period of intense instability,
with its effective temperature changing from 4300 K to 3300 K on the time-scale
of months. It has one of the highest 12-micron fluxes of any RSG in the SMC,
and we suggest that the variability at V is due primarily to changes in
effective temperature, and secondly, due to changes in the local extinction due
to creation and dissipation of circumstellar dust. We speculate that the star
may be nearing the end of its life.Comment: Accepted by the Astrophysical Journa
The Anisotropic Distribution of M 31 Satellite Galaxies: A Polar Great Plane of Early-Type Companions
The highly anisotropic distribution and apparent alignment of the Galactic
satellites in polar great planes begs the question how common such
distributions are. The satellite system of M31 is the only nearby system for
which we currently have sufficiently accurate distances to study the
three-dimensional satellite distribution. We present the spatial distribution
of the 15 presently known M31 companions in a coordinate system centered on M31
and aligned with its disk. Through a detailed statistical analysis we show that
the full satellite sample describes a plane that is inclined by -56 deg with
respect to the poles of M31 and that has an r.m.s. height of 100 kpc. With 88%
the statistical significance of this plane is low and it is unlikely to have a
physical meaning. The great stellar stream found near Andromeda is inclined to
this plane by 7 deg. There is little evidence for a Holmberg effect. If we
confine our analysis to early-type dwarfs, we find a best-fit polar plane
within 5 deg to 7 deg from the pole of M31. This polar great plane has a
statistical significance of 99.3% and includes all dSphs (except for And II),
M32, NGC 147, and PegDIG. The r.m.s. distance of these galaxies from the polar
plane is 16 kpc. The nearby spiral M33 has a distance of only about 3 kpc from
this plane, which points toward the M81 group. We discuss the anisotropic
distribution of M31's early-type companions in the framework of three
scenarios, namely as remnants of the break-up of a larger progenitor, as tracer
of a prolate dark matter halo, and as tracer of collapse along large-scale
filaments. (Abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical
Journa
The distances of short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection
We present a search for nearby (D<100 Mpc) galaxies in the error boxes of six
well-localized short-hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). None of the six error boxes
reveals the presence of a plausible nearby host galaxy. This allows us to set
lower limits on the distances and, hence, the isotropic-equivalent energy of
these GRBs. Our lower limits are around erg (at
confidence level); as a consequence, some of the short-hard GRBs we examine
would have been detected by BATSE out to distances greater than 1 Gpc and
therefore constitute a bona fide cosmological population. Our search is
partially motivated by the December 27, 2004 hypergiant flare from SGR 1806-20,
and the intriguing possibility that short-hard GRBs are extragalactic events of
a similar nature. Such events would be detectable with BATSE to a distance of
\~50 Mpc, and their detection rate should be comparable to the actual BATSE
detection rate of short-hard GRBs. The failure of our search, by contrast,
suggests that such flares constitute less than 15% of the short-hard GRBs (<40%
at 95% confidence). We discuss possible resolutions of this discrepancy.Comment: Enlarged sample of bursts; ApJ in pres
Explicit Kundt type II and N solutions as gravitational waves in various type D and O universes
A particular yet large class of non-diverging solutions which admits a
cosmological constant, electromagnetic field, pure radiation and/or general
non-null matter component is explicitly presented. These spacetimes represent
exact gravitational waves of arbitrary profiles which propagate in background
universes such as Minkowski, conformally flat (anti-)de Sitter, Edgar-Ludwig,
Bertotti-Robinson, and type D (anti-)Nariai or Plebanski-Hacyan spaces, and
their generalizations. All possibilities are discussed and are interpreted
using a unifying simple metric form. Sandwich and impulsive waves propagating
in the above background spaces with different geometries and matter content can
easily be constructed. New solutions are identified, e.g. type D pure radiation
or explicit type II electrovacuum waves in (anti-)Nariai universe. It is also
shown that, in general, there are no conformally flat Einstein-Maxwell fields
with a non-vanishing cosmological constant.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX 2e. v2: added two references concerning generalized
Kerr-Schild transformations, minor changes in the tex
Invariant construction of solutions to Einstein's field equations - LRS perfect fluids II
The properties of LRS class II perfect fluid space-times are analyzed using
the description of geometries in terms of the Riemann tensor and a finite
number of its covariant derivatives. In this manner it is straightforward to
obtain the plane and hyperbolic analogues to the spherical symmetric case. For
spherically symmetric static models the set of equations is reduced to the
Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation only. Some new non-stationary and
inhomogeneous solutions with shear, expansion, and acceleration of the fluid
are presented. Among these are a class of temporally self-similar solutions
with equation of state given by , and a class of
solutions characterized by . We give an example of geometry
where the Riemann tensor and the Ricci rotation coefficients are not sufficient
to give a complete description of the geometry. Using an extension of the
method, we find the full metric in terms of curvature quantities.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur
Homothetic perfect fluid space-times
A brief summary of results on homotheties in General Relativity is given,
including general information about space-times admitting an r-parameter group
of homothetic transformations for r>2, as well as some specific results on
perfect fluids. Attention is then focussed on inhomogeneous models, in
particular on those with a homothetic group (acting multiply
transitively) and . A classification of all possible Lie algebra
structures along with (local) coordinate expressions for the metric and
homothetic vectors is then provided (irrespectively of the matter content), and
some new perfect fluid solutions are given and briefly discussed.Comment: 27 pages, Latex file, Submitted to Class. Quantum Gra
International Guillain-Barré Syndrome Outcome Study (IGOS): protocol of a prospective observational cohort study on clinical and biological predictors of disease course and outcome in Guillain-Barré syndrome
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute polyradiculoneuropathy with a highly variable clinical presentation, course, and outcome. The factors that determine the clinical variation of GBS are poorly understood which complicates the care and treatment of individual patients. The protocol of the ongoing International GBS Outcome Study (IGOS), a prospective, observational, multi-centre cohort study that aims to identify the clinical and biological determinants and predictors of disease onset, subtype, course and outcome of GBS is presented here. Patients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for GBS, regardless of age, disease severity, variant forms, or treatment, can participate if included within two weeks after onset of weakness. Information about demography, preceding infections, clinical features, diagnostic findings, treatment, course and outcome is collected. In addition, cerebrospinal fluid and serial blood samples for serum and DNA is collected at standard time points. The original aim was to include at least 1000 patients with a follow-up of 1-3 years. Data are collected via a web-based data entry system and stored anonymously. IGOS started in May 2012 and by January 2017 included more than 1400 participants from 143 active centres in 19 countries across 5 continents. The IGOS data/biobank is available for research projects conducted by expertise groups focusing on specific topics including epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, clinimetrics, electrophysiology, antecedent events, antibodies, genetics, prognostic modelling, treatment effects and long-term outcome of GBS. The IGOS will help to standardize the international collection of data and biosamples for future research of GBS. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01582763
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