29,628 research outputs found
The Geometry of Niggli Reduction I: The Boundary Polytopes of the Niggli Cone
Correct identification of the Bravais lattice of a crystal is an important
step in structure solution. Niggli reduction is a commonly used technique. We
investigate the boundary polytopes of the Niggli-reduced cone in the
six-dimensional space G6 by algebraic analysis and organized random probing of
regions near 1- through 8-fold boundary polytope intersections. We limit
consideration of boundary polytopes to those avoiding the mathematically
interesting but crystallographically impossible cases of 0 length cell edges.
Combinations of boundary polytopes without a valid intersection in the closure
of the Niggli cone or with an intersection that would force a cell edge to 0 or
without neighboring probe points are eliminated. 216 boundary polytopes are
found: 15 5-D boundary polytopes of the full G6 Niggli cone, 53 4-D boundary
polytopes resulting from intersections of pairs of the 15 5-D boundary
polytopes, 79 3-D boundary polytopes resulting from 2-fold, 3-fold and 4-fold
intersections of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes, 55 2-D boundary polytopes
resulting from 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold and higher intersections of the 15 5-D
boundary polytopes, 14 1-D boundary polytopes resulting from 3-fold and higher
intersections of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes. All primitive lattice types can
be represented as combinations of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes. All
non-primitive lattice types can be represented as combinations of the 15 5-D
boundary polytopes and of the 7 special-position subspaces of the 5-D boundary
polytopes. This study provides a new, simpler and arguably more intuitive basis
set for the classification of lattice characters and helps to illuminate some
of the complexities in Bravais lattice identification. The classification is
intended to help in organizing database searches and in understanding which
lattice symmetries are "close" to a given experimentally determined cell
The Geometry of Niggli Reduction II: BGAOL -- Embedding Niggli Reduction
Niggli reduction can be viewed as a series of operations in a six-dimensional
space derived from the metric tensor. An implicit embedding of the space of
Niggli-reduced cells in a higher dimensional space to facilitate calculation of
distances between cells is described. This distance metric is used to create a
program, BGAOL, for Bravais lattice determination. Results from BGAOL are
compared to the results from other metric-based Bravais lattice determination
algorithms
Models for the Magnitude-Distribution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
The brightest, or first-ranked, galaxies (BCGs) in rich clusters show a very
small dispersion in luminosity, making them excellent standard candles. This
small dispersion has raised questions about the nature of BCGs. Are they simply
the extremes of normal galaxies formed via a stochastic process, or do they
belong to a special class of atypical objects? Arguments have been proposed on
both sides of the debate. Bhavsar (1989) suggested that the distribution in
magnitudes can only be explained by a two-population model. Thus, a new
controversy has arisen. Do first-ranked galaxies consist of one or two
populations of objects? We examine an older and newer data set and present our
results. Two-population models do better than do one-population models. A
simple model where a random boost in the magnitude of a fraction of bright
normal galaxies forms a class of atypical galaxies best describes the observed
distribution of BCG magnitudes. Moreover, the parameters that describe the
model and the parameters of the boost have a strong physical basis.Comment: Abstract submitted to AAS. Paper (6 pages, 4 figs.) to be published
in the MNRAS; uses mn.st
The Detailed Chemical Abundance Patterns of M31 Globular Clusters
We present detailed chemical abundances for 20 elements in 30
globular clusters in M31. These results have been obtained using high
resolution (24,000) spectra of their integrated
light and analyzed using our original method. The globular clusters have
galactocentric radii between 2.5 kpc and 117 kpc, and therefore provide
abundance patterns for different phases of galaxy formation recorded in the
inner and outer halo of M31. We find that the clusters in our survey have a
range in metallicity of [Fe/H]. The inner halo clusters cover
this full range, while the outer halo globular clusters at R20 kpc have a
small range in abundance of [Fe/H]. We also measure abundances
of alpha, r- and s-process elements. These results constitute the first
abundance pattern constraints for old populations in M31 that are comparable to
those known for the Milky Way halo.Comment: XII International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos August 5-12, 2012
Cairns, Australia. To appear in Proceedings of Scienc
Multi-variable Polynomial Solutions to Pell's Equation and Fundamental Units in Real Quadratic Fields
For each positive integer it is shown how to construct a finite
collection of multivariable polynomials such that each positive integer whose squareroot has
a continued fraction expansion with period lies in the range of exactly
one of these polynomials. Moreover, each of these polynomials satisfy a
polynomial Pell's equation (where
and are polynomials in the variables ) and the fundamental solution can be written down.
Likewise, if all the 's and are non-negative then the continued
fraction expansion of can be written down. Furthermore, the
congruence class modulo 4 of depends in a simple way on the variables
so that the fundamental unit
can be written down for a large class of real quadratic fields. Along the way a
complete solution is given to the problem of determining for which symmetric
strings of positive integers do there exist positive
integers and such that .Comment: 13 page
- …