3,101 research outputs found
Detection of a Third Planet in the HD 74156 System Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
We report the discovery of a third planetary mass companion to the G0 star HD
74156. High precision radial velocity measurements made with the Hobby-Eberly
Telescope aided the detection of this object. The best fit triple Keplerian
model to all the available velocity data yields an orbital period of 347 days
and minimum mass of 0.4 M_Jup for the new planet. We determine revised orbital
periods of 51.7 and 2477 days, and minimum masses of 1.9 and 8.0 M_Jup
respectively for the previously known planets. Preliminary calculations
indicate that the derived orbits are stable, although all three planets have
significant orbital eccentricities (e = 0.64, 0.43, and 0.25). With our
detection, HD 74156 becomes the eighth normal star known to host three or more
planets. Further study of this system's dynamical characteristics will likely
give important insight to planet formation and evolutionary processes.Comment: 24 pages, 4 tables, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. V2
fixed table 4 page overrun. V3 added reference
Magnetoroton scattering by phonons in the fractional quantum Hall regime
Motivated by recent phonon spectroscopy experiments in the fractional quantum
Hall regime we consider processes in which thermally excited magnetoroton
excitations are scattered by low energy phonons. We show that such scattering
processes can never give rise to dissociation of magnetorotons into unbound
charged quasiparticles as had been proposed previously. In addition we show
that scattering of magnetorotons to longer wavelengths by phonon absorption is
possible because of the shape of the magnetoroton dispersion curve and it is
shown that there is a characteristic cross-over temperature above which the
rate of energy transfer to the electron gas changes from an exponential
(activated) to a power law dependence on the effective phonon temperature.Comment: LaTex document, 3 eps figures. submitted to Phys Rev
T cell receptor alpha-chain gene rearrangements in B-precursor leukemia are in contrast to the findings in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Comparative study of T cell receptor gene rearrangement in childhood leukemia.
We have analyzed T cell receptor alpha-chain gene configuration using three genomic joining (J) region probes in 64 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). 11 out of 18 T-ALLs were T3 positive; alpha-chain gene rearrangements were demonstrated in only two of 18, indicating that the majority of T-ALLs would have rearrangements involving J alpha segments located upstream of these probes. In contrast, 15 out of 46 B-precursor ALLs showed rearrangements of the alpha-chain gene and J alpha segments located approximately 20-30 kb upstream of the constant region were involved in 13 of these patients. Nine of 15 B-precursor ALLs with rearranged alpha-chain genes had rearrangements of both gamma- and beta-chain genes, whereas the remaining six had no rearrangements of gamma- and beta-chain genes. These findings indicated that alpha-chain gene rearrangement is not specific for T lineage cells and gamma- and/or beta-chain gene rearrangement does not appear essential for alpha-chain gene rearrangement, at least in B-precursor leukemic cells
Comments on "The long-period Galactic Cepheid RS Puppis. I. A geometric distance from its light echoes"
The luminous Galactic Cepheid RS Puppis is unique in being surrounded by a
dust nebula illuminated by the variable light of the Cepheid. In a recent paper
in this journal, Kervella et al. (2008) report a very precise geometric
distance to RS Pup, based on measured phase lags of the light variations of
individual knots in the reflection nebula. In this commentary, we examine the
validity of the distance measurement, as well as the reality of the spatial
structure of the nebula determined by Feast (2008) based upon the phase lags of
the knots. {Kervella et al. assumed that the illuminated dust knots lie, on
average, in the plane of the sky (otherwise it is not possible to derive a
geometric distance from direct imaging of light echoes). We consider the
biasing introduced by the high efficiency of forward scattering. We conclude
that most of the knots are in fact likely to lie in front of the plane of the
sky, thus invalidating the Kervella et al. result. We also show that the flat
equatorial disk structure determined by Feast is unlikely; instead, the
morphology of the nebula is more probably bipolar, with a significant tilt of
its axis with respect to the plane of the sky. Although the Kervella et al.
distance result is invalidated, we show that high-resolution polarimetric
imaging has the potential to yield a valid geometric distance to this important
Cepheid.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
Disentangling the exchange coupling of entangled donors in the Si quantum computer architecture
We develop a theory for micro-Raman scattering by single and coupled
two-donor states in silicon. We find the Raman spectra to have significant
dependence on the donor exchange splitting and the relative spatial positions
of the two donor sites. In particular, we establish a strong correlation
between the temperature dependence of the Raman peak intensity and the
interdonor exchange coupling. Micro-Raman scattering can therefore potentially
become a powerful tool to measure interqubit coupling in the development of a
Si quantum computer architecture.Comment: Title changed. Other minor change
Interferometric Astrometry of Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star Using Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor 3: Detection Limits for sub-Stellar Companions
We report on a sub-stellar companion search utilizing interferometric
fringe-tracking astrometry acquired with Fine Guidance Sensor 3 (FGS 3) on the
Hubble Space Telescope. Our targets were Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star.
We obtain absolute parallax values for Proxima Cen pi_{abs} = 0.7687 arcsecond
and for Barnard's Star pi_{abs} = 0.5454 arcsecond.
Once low-amplitude instrumental systematic errors are identified and removed,
our companion detection sensitivity is less than or equal to one Jupiter mass
for periods longer than 60 days for Proxima Cen. Between the astrometry and the
radial velocity results we exclude all companions with M > 0.8M_{Jup} for the
range of periods 1 < P < 1000 days. For Barnard's Star our companion detection
sensitivity is less than or equal to one Jupiter mass for periods long er than
150 days. Our null results for Barnard's Star are consistent with those of
Gatewood (1995).Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, to appear in August 1999 A
Photometry of Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star Using HST Fine Guidance Sensor 3: A Search for Periodic Variations
We have observed Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star with Hubble Space
Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor 3. Proxima Centauri exhibits small-amplitude,
periodic photometric variations. Once several sources of systematic photometric
error are corrected, we obtain 2 milli-magnitude internal photometric
precision. We identify two distinct behavior modes over the past four years:
higher amplitude, longer period; smaller amplitude, shorter period. Within the
errors one period (P ~ 83d) is twice the other. Barnard's Star shows very weak
evidence for periodicity on a timescale of approximately 130 days. If we
interpret these periodic phenomena as rotational modulation of star spots, we
identify three discrete spots on Proxima Cen and possibly one spot on Barnard's
Star. We find that the disturbances change significantly on time scales as
short as one rotation period.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figure
Rearrangement of Variable Region T Cell Receptor y Genes in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Vy Gene Usage Differs in Mature and Immature T Cells
Using probes recognizing variable regions (V gamma) and joining regions (J gamma) of the T cell receptor (TCR) gamma gene, we have analyzed the usage of V gamma genes in 24 patients with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 36 patients with B-precursor ALL. In CD3- T-ALL derived from immature T cells, V gamma genes more proximal to J gamma were frequently rearranged; V gamma 8, V gamma 9, V gamma 10, and V gamma 11 were used in 19 of 24 rearrangements. In contrast, CD3+ T-ALL derived from a more mature stage of T cell ontogeny, showed a high frequency of rearrangements involving V gamma genes distal to J gamma; V gamma 2, V gamma 3, V gamma 4, and V gamma 5 were used in 17 of 25 rearrangements. In B-precursor ALL, no notable bias of V gamma gene usage was observed. This probably reflects the possibility that TCR genes may not rearrange according to a T cell hierarchy when under control of a B cell gene program. Furthermore, deletions of those V gamma genes located 3' to rearranged V gamma genes were observed in all patients analyzed. This supports the theory that loop deletion is a major mechanism for TCR-gamma gene rearrangement
Ab-initio prediction of the electronic and optical excitations in polythiophene: isolated chains versus bulk polymer
We calculate the electronic and optical excitations of polythiophene using
the GW approximation for the electronic self-energy, and include excitonic
effects by solving the electron-hole Bethe-Salpeter equation. Two different
situations are studied: excitations on isolated chains and excitations on
chains in crystalline polythiophene. The dielectric tensor for the crystalline
situation is obtained by modeling the polymer chains as polarizable line
objects, with a long-wavelength polarizability tensor obtained from the
ab-initio polarizability function of the isolated chain. With this model
dielectric tensor we construct a screened interaction for the crystalline case,
including both intra- and interchain screening. In the crystalline situation
both the quasi-particle band gap and the exciton binding energies are
drastically reduced in comparison with the isolated chain. However, the optical
gap is hardly affected. We expect this result to be relevant for conjugated
polymers in general.Comment: 15 pages including 4 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. B, 6/15/200
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