9,652 research outputs found
A new model for gravitational potential perturbations in disks of spiral galaxies. An application to our Galaxy
We propose a new, more realistic, description of the perturbed gravitational
potential of spiral galaxies, with spiral arms having Gaussian-shaped groove
profiles. We investigate the stable stellar orbits in galactic disks, using the
new perturbed potential. The influence of the bulge mass on the stellar orbits
in the inner regions of a disk is also investigated. The new description offers
the advantage of easy control of the parameters of the Gaussian profile of its
potential. We find a range of values for the perturbation amplitude from 400 to
800 km^2 s^{-2} kpc^{-1} which implies a maximum ratio of the tangential force
to the axisymmetric force between 3% and 6%, approximately. Good
self-consistency of arm shapes is obtained between the Inner Lindblad resonance
(ILR) and the 4:1 resonance. Near the 4:1 resonance the response density starts
to deviate from the imposed logarithmic spiral form. This creates bifurcations
that appear as short arms. Therefore the deviation from a perfect logarithmic
spiral in galaxies can be understood as a natural effect of the 4:1 resonance.
Beyond the 4:1 resonance we find closed orbits which have similarities with the
arms observed in our Galaxy. In regions near the center, in the presence of a
massive bulge, elongated stellar orbits appear naturally, without imposing any
bar-shaped potential, but only extending the spiral perturbation a little
inward of the ILR. This suggests that a bar is formed with a half-size around 3
kpc by a mechanism similar to that of the spiral arms. The potential energy
perturbation that we adopted represents an important step in the direction of
self-consistency, compared to previous sine function descriptions of the
potential. Our model produces a realistic description of the spiral structure,
able to explain several details that were not yet understood.Comment: 12 pag., 11 fig. Accepted for publication in A&A, 2012 December 1
Light clusters and the pasta phase
The effects of including light clusters in nuclear matter at low densities
are investigated within four different parametrizations of relativistic models
at finite temperature. Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous matter (pasta phase)
are described for neutral nuclear matter with fixed proton fractions. We
discuss the effect of the density dependence of the symmetry energy, the
temperature and the proton fraction on the non-homogeneous matter forming the
inner crust of proto-neutron stars. It is shown that the number of nucleons in
the clusters, the cluster proton fraction and the sizes of the Wigner Seitz
cell and of the cluster are very sensitive to the density dependence of the
symmetry energy.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Novel magnetic orderings in the kagome Kondo-lattice model
We consider the Kondo-lattice model on the kagome lattice and study its
weak-coupling instabilities at band filling fractions for which the Fermi
surface has singularities. These singularites include Dirac points, quadratic
Fermi points in contact with a flat band, and Van Hove saddle points. By
combining a controlled analytical approach with large-scale numerical
simulations, we demonstrate that the weak-coupling instabilities of the
Kondo-lattice model lead to exotic magnetic orderings. In particular, some of
these magnetic orderings produce a spontaneous quantum anomalous Hall state.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure
Bimodal chemical evolution of the Galactic disk and the Barium abundance of Cepheids
In order to understand the Barium abundance distribution in the Galactic disk
based on Cepheids, one must first be aware of important effects of the
corotation resonance, situated a little beyond the solar orbit. The thin disk
of the Galaxy is divided in two regions that are separated by a barrier
situated at that radius. Since the gas cannot get across that barrier, the
chemical evolution is independent on the two sides of it. The barrier is caused
by the opposite directions of flows of gas, on the two sides, in addition to a
Cassini-like ring void of HI (caused itself by the flows). A step in the
metallicity gradient developed at corotation, due to the difference in the
average star formation rate on the two sides, and to this lack of communication
between them. In connection with this, a proof that the spiral arms of our
Galaxy are long-lived (a few billion years) is the existence of this step. When
one studies the abundance gradients by means of stars which span a range of
ages, like the Cepheids, one has to take into account that stars, contrary to
the gas, have the possibility of crossing the corotation barrier. A few stars
born on the high metallicity side are seen on the low metallicity one, and
vice-versa. In the present work we re-discuss the data on Barium abundance in
Cepheids as a function of Galactic radius, taking into account the scenario
described above. The [Ba/H] ratio, plotted as a function of Galactic radius,
apparently presents a distribution with two branches in the external region
(beyond corotation). One can re-interpret the data and attribute the upper
branch to the stars that were born on the high metallicity side. The lower
branch, analyzed separately, indicates that the stars born beyond corotation
have a rising Barium metallicity as a function of Galactic radius.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of IAU Symposium 29
Planets and Stellar Activity: Hide and Seek in the CoRoT-7 system
Since the discovery of the transiting super-Earth CoRoT-7b, several
investigations have yielded different results for the number and masses of
planets present in the system, mainly owing to the star's high level of
activity. We re-observed CoRoT-7 in January 2012 with both HARPS and CoRoT, so
that we now have the benefit of simultaneous radial-velocity and photometric
data. This allows us to use the off-transit variations in the star's light
curve to estimate the radial-velocity variations induced by the suppression of
convective blueshift and the flux blocked by starspots. To account for
activity-related effects in the radial-velocities which do not have a
photometric signature, we also include an additional activity term in the
radial-velocity model, which we treat as a Gaussian process with the same
covariance properties (and hence the same frequency structure) as the light
curve. Our model was incorporated into a Monte Carlo Markov Chain in order to
make a precise determination of the orbits of CoRoT-7b and CoRoT-7c. We measure
the masses of planets b and c to be 4.73 +/- 0.95 Mearth and 13.56 +/- 1.08
Mearth, respectively. The density of CoRoT-7b is (6.61 +/- 1.72)(Rp/1.58
Rearth)^(-3) g.cm^(-3), which is compatible with a rocky composition. We search
for evidence of an additional planet d, identified by previous authors with a
period close to 9 days. We are not able to confirm the existence of a planet
with this orbital period, which is close to the second harmonic of the stellar
rotation at around 7.9 days. Using Bayesian model selection we find that a
model with two planets plus activity-induced variations is most favoured.Comment: Accepted 2014 July 2. Received 2014 June 30; in original form 2013
May 30 (17 pages, 9 figures
Global aspects of gravitomagnetism
We consider global properties of gravitomagnetism by investigating the
gravitomagnetic field of a rotating cosmic string. We show that although the
gravitomagnetic field produced by such a configuration of matter vanishes
locally, it can be detected globally. In this context we discuss the
gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect.Comment: 10 pages - Typeset using REVTE
Water-like hierarchy of anomalies in a continuous spherical shouldered potential
We investigate by molecular dynamics simulations a continuous isotropic
core-softened potential with attractive well in three dimensions, introduced by
Franzese [cond-mat/0703681, to appear on Journal of Molecular Liquids], that
displays liquid-liquid coexistence with a critical point and water-like density
anomaly. Here we find diffusion and structural anomalies. These anomalies occur
with the same hierarchy that characterizes water. Yet our analysis shows
differences with respect to the water case. Therefore, many of the anomalous
features of water could be present in isotropic systems with soft-core
attractive potentials, such as colloids or liquid metals, consistent with
recent experiments showing polyamorphism in metallic glasses.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. to appear in J. Chem. Phy
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