1,980 research outputs found
XB-70 flight test data comparisons with simulation predictions of inlet unstart and buzz
XB-70 flight test data comparison with simulated predictions of inlet unstart and buz
Re-examination of the possible tidal stream in front of the LMC
It has recently been suggested that the stars in a vertical extension of the
red clump feature seen in LMC color-magnitude diagrams could belong to a tidal
stream of material located in front of that galaxy. If this claim is correct,
this foreground concentration of stars could contribute significantly to the
rate of gravitational microlensing events observed in the LMC microlensing
experiments. Here we present radial velocity measurements of stars in this
so-called ``vertical red clump'' (VRC) population. The observed stellar sample,
it transpires, has typical LMC kinematics. It is shown that it is improbable
that an intervening tidal stream should have the same distribution of radial
velocities as the LMC, which is consistent with an earlier study that showed
that the VRC feature is more likely a young stellar population in the main body
of that galaxy. However, the kinematic data do not discriminate against the
possibility that the VRC is an LMC halo population.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Query-Based Document Skimming: A User-Centred Evaluation of Relevance Profiling
We present a user-centred, task-oriented, comparative evaluation of two query-based document skimming tools. ProfileSkim bases within-document retrieval on computing a relevance profile for a document and query; FindSkim provides similar functionality to the web browser Find-command. A novel simulated work task was devised, where experiment participants are asked to identify (index) relevant pages of an electronic book, given subjects from the existing book index. This subject index provides the ground truth, against which the indexing results can be compared. Our major hypothesis was confirmed, namely ProfileSkim proved significantly more efficient than Find-Skim, as measured by time for task. Moreover, indexing task effectiveness, measured by typical IR measures, demonstrated that ProfileSkim was better than FindSkim in identifying relevant pages, although not significantly so. The experiments confirm the potential of relevance profiling to improve query-based document skimming, which should prove highly beneficial for users trying to identify relevant information within long documents
Thermally-induced expansion in the 8 GeV/c + Au reaction
Fragment kinetic energy spectra for reactions induced by 8.0 GeV/c
beams incident on a Au target have been analyzed in
order to deduce the possible existence and influence of thermal expansion. The
average fragment kinetic energies are observed to increase systematically with
fragment charge but are nearly independent of excitation energy. Comparison of
the data with statistical multifragmentation models indicates the onset of
extra collective thermal expansion near an excitation energy of E*/A
5 MeV. However, this effect is weak relative to the radial
expansion observed in heavy-ion-induced reactions, consistent with the
interpretation that the latter expansion may be driven primarily by dynamical
effects such as compression/decompression.Comment: 12 pages including 4 postscript figure
Confirmation of the Planetary Microlensing Signal and Star and Planet Mass Determinations for Event OGLE-2005-BLG-169
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
observations of the source and lens stars for planetary microlensing event
OGLE-2005-BLG-169, which confirm the relative proper motion prediction due to
the planetary light curve signal observed for this event. This (and the
companion Keck result) provide the first confirmation of a planetary
microlensing signal, for which the deviation was only 2%. The follow-up
observations determine the flux of the planetary host star in multiple
passbands and remove light curve model ambiguity caused by sparse sampling of
part of the light curve. This leads to a precise determination of the
properties of the OGLE-2005-BLG-169Lb planetary system. Combining the
constraints from the microlensing light curve with the photometry and
astrometry of the HST/WFC3 data, we find star and planet masses of M_* = 0.69+-
0.02 M_solar and m_p = 14.1 +- 0.9 M_earth. The planetary microlens system is
located toward the Galactic bulge at a distance of D_L = 4.1 +- 0.4 kpc, and
the projected star-planet separation is a_perp = 3.5 +- 0.3 AU, corresponding
to a semi-major axis of a = 4.0 (+2.2 -0.6) AU.Comment: 21 pages, including 5 figures, published in Ap
The Solar Neighborhood XVII: Parallax Results from the CTIOPI 0.9m Program -- Twenty New Members of the RECONS 10 Parsec Sample
Astrometric measurements for 25 red dwarf systems are presented, including
the first definitive trigonometric parallaxes for 20 systems within 10 pc of
the Sun, the horizon of the RECONS sample. The three nearest systems that had
no previous trigonometric parallaxes (other than perhaps rough preliminary
efforts) are SO 0253+1652 (3.84 +/- 0.04 pc, the 23rd nearest system), SCR
1845-6357 AB (3.85 +/- 0.02 pc, 24th), and LHS 1723 (5.32 +/- 0.04 pc, 56th).
In total, seven of the systems reported here rank among the nearest 100 stellar
systems. Supporting photometric and spectroscopic observations have been made
to provide full characterization of the systems, including complete VRIJHK
photometry and spectral types. A study of the variability of 27 targets reveals
six obvious variable stars, including GJ 1207, for which we observed a flare
event in the V band that caused it to brighten by 1.7 mag.
Improved parallaxes for GJ 54 AB and GJ 1061, both important members of the
10 pc sample, are also reported. Definitive parallaxes for GJ 1001 A, GJ 633,
and GJ 2130 ABC, all of which have been reported to be within 10 pc, indicate
that they are beyond 10 pc. From the analysis of systems with (previously) high
trigonometric parallax errors, we conclude that parallaxes with errors in
excess of 10 mas are insufficiently reliable for inclusion in the RECONS
sample. The cumulative total of new additions to the 10 pc sample since 2000 is
now 34 systems -- 28 by the RECONS team and six by other groups. This total
represents a net increase of 16% in the number of stellar systems reliably
known to be nearer than 10 pc.Comment: 33 pages, including 3 figures and 3 table
Signals for a Transition from Surface to Bulk Emission in Thermal Multifragmentation
Excitation-energy-gated two-fragment correlation functions have been studied
between 2 to 9A MeV of excitation energy for equilibrium-like sources formed in
and p + Au reactions at beam momenta of 8,9.2 and 10.2 GeV/c.
Comparison of the data to an N-body Coulomb-trajectory code shows a decrease of
one order of magnitude in the fragment emission time in the excitation energy
interval 2-5A MeV, followed by a nearly constant breakup time at higher
excitation energy. The observed decrease in emission time is shown to be
strongly correlated with the increase of the fragment emission probability, and
the onset of thermally-induced radial expansion. This result is interpreted as
evidence consistent with a transition from surface-dominated to bulk emission
expected for spinodal decomposition.Comment: 11 pages including 3 postscript figures (1 color
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