2,142 research outputs found
Science capabilities of the VERITAS array of 10m imaging atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray detectors
Journal ArticleThe Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is an array of seven 10m aperture telescopes used for gamma-ray astronomy in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV (1 TeV= 101 2 electron Volt) energy range. The gamma rays are detected by measuring the optical Cherenkov light emitted by the cascade of electromagnetic particles that is generated by interactions of the high energy gamma-ray with the Earth's Atmosphere. This paper describes the science goals of the VERITAS array, a description of the array, and expected performance of the instrument
Selbstbestimmung und Selbstverständnis: Themenschwerpunkte im Umgang mit der Patientenverfügung
Observers and Measurements in Noncommutative Spacetimes
We propose a "Copenhagen interpretation" for spacetime noncommutativity. The
goal is to be able to predict results of simple experiments involving signal
propagation directly from commutation relations. A model predicting an energy
dependence of the speed of photons of the order E/E_Planck is discussed in
detail. Such effects can be detectable by the GLAST telescope, to be launched
in 2006.Comment: 10 pp; v2: equivalence of observers explicitely stated; v3: minor
changes, references and remarks added, burst spreading with energy emphasized
as a signature rather than nois
The Impact of Massive Stars on the Formation of Young Stellar Clusters
Massive OB stars play an important role in the evolution of molecular clouds
and star forming regions. The OB stars both photo--ionize molecular gas as well
as sweep up and compress interstellar gas through winds, ionization fronts, and
supernovae. In this contribution, we examine the effect massive stars have on
the formation of young stellar clusters. We first discuss the processes by
which OB stars destroy cluster--forming molecular cores, and hence terminate
star formation. We overview observational evidence that OB stars forming in
young stellar clusters destroy their parental cores on a timescale of 0.1 Myr,
and we discuss some of the implications of this result. We then summarize
extensive observations of the NGC 281 molecular cloud complex, and present
evidence that two types of triggered star formation are occurring in this
complex. Our goal is to underscore the impact massive stars have on cluster
formation over distances ranging from 0.1 pc to 300 pc.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, to appear in "Hot Star Workshop III: The Earliest
Phases of Massive Star Birth" (ed. P.A. Crowther
Effects of force load, muscle fatigue and extremely low frequency magnetic stimulation on EEG signals during side arm lateral raise task
Objective: This study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of force load, muscle fatigue and extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic stimulation on electroencephalography (EEG) signal features during side arm lateral raise task.
Approach: EEG signals were recorded by a BIOSEMI Active Two system with Pin-Type active-electrodes from 18 healthy subjects when they performed the right arm side lateral raise task (90° away from the body) with three different loads (0 kg, 1 kg and 3 kg; their order was randomized among the subjects) on the forearm. The arm maintained the loads until the subject felt exhausted. The first 10 s recording for each load was regarded as non-fatigue status and the last 10 s before the subject was exhausted as fatigue status. The subject was then given a 5 min resting between different loads. Two days later, the same experiment was performed on each subject except that ELF magnetic stimulation was applied to the subject's deltoid muscle during the 5 min resting period. EEG features from C3 and C4 electrodes including the power of alpha, beta and gamma and sample entropy were analyzed and compared between different loads, non-fatigue/fatigue status, and with/without ELF magnetic stimulation.
Main results: The key results were associated with the change of the power of alpha band. From both C3-EEG and C4-EEG, with 1 kg and 3 kg force loads, the power of alpha band was significantly smaller than that from 0 kg for both non-fatigue and fatigue periods (all p 0.05 for all the force loads except C4-EEG with ELF simulation). The power of alpha band at fatigue status was significantly increased for both C3-EEG and C4-EEG when compared with the non-fatigue status (p 0.05, except between non-fatigue and fatigue with magnetic stimulation in gamma band of C3-EEG at 1 kg, and in the SampEn at 1 kg and 3 kg force loads from C4-EEG).
Significance: Our study comprehensively quantified the effects of force, fatigue and the ELF magnetic stimulation on EEG features with difference forces, fatigue status and ELF magnetic stimulation
Discovery of a Very Nearby Brown Dwarf to the Sun: A Methane Rich Brown Dwarf Companion to the Low Mass Star SCR 1845-6357
We present VLT/NACO SDI images of the very nearby star SCR 1845-6357
(hereafter SCR 1845). SCR 1845 is a recently discovered (Hambly et al. 2004)
M8.5 star just 3.85 pc from the sun (Henry et al. 2006). Using the capabilities
of the unique SDI device, we discovered a substellar companion to SCR 1845 at a
separation of 4.5 AU (1.170''+-0.003'' on the sky) and fainter by 3.57+-0.057
mag in the 1.575 um SDI filter. This substellar companion has an H magnitude of
13.16+0.31-0.26 (absolute H magnitude of 15.30+0.31-0.26), making it likely the
brightest mid-T dwarf known. The unique Simultaneous Differential Imager (SDI)
consists of 3 narrowband filters placed around the 1.6 um methane absorption
feature characteristic of T-dwarfs (Teff < 1200 K). The flux of the substellar
companion drops by a factor of 2.7+-0.1 between the SDI F1(1.575 um) filter and
the SDI F3(1.625 um) filter, consistent with strong methane absorption in a
substellar companion. We estimate a spectral type of T5.5+-1 for the companion
based on the strength of this methane break. The chances that this object is a
background T dwarf are vanishing small -- and there is no isolated background
T-dwarf in this part of the sky according to 2MASS. Thus, it is a bound
companion, hereafter SCR 1845-6357B. For an age range of 100 Myr - 10 Gyr and
spectral type range of T4.5-T6.5, we find a mass range of 9 - 65 MJup for SCR
1845B from the Baraffe et al. 2003 COND models. SCR 1845AB is the 24th closest
stellar system to the Sun (at 3.85 pc); the only brown dwarf system closer to
the Sun is Eps Indi Ba-Bb (at 3.626 pc). In addition, this is the first T-dwarf
companion discovered around a low mass star.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Letter
Near optimality guarantees for data-driven newsvendor with temporally dependent demand: A Monte Carlo approach
We consider a newsvendor problem with stationary and temporally dependent demand in the absence of complete information about the demand process. The objective is to compute a probabilistic guarantee such that the expected cost of an inventory-target estimate is arbitrarily close to the expected cost of the optimal critical-fractile solution. We do this by sampling dependent uniform random variates matching the underlying dependence structure of the demand process - rather than sampling the actual demand which requires the specification of a marginal distribution function - and by approximating a lower bound on the probability of the so-called near optimality. Our analysis sheds light on the role of temporal dependence in the resulting probabilistic guarantee, which has been only investigated for independent and identically distributed demand in the inventory management literature. © 2013 IEEE
A Survey for Massive Giant Planets in Debris Disks with Evacuated Inner Cavities
The commonality of collisionally replenished debris around main sequence
stars suggests that minor bodies are frequent around Sun-like stars. Whether or
not debris disks in general are accompanied by planets is yet unknown, but
debris disks with large inner cavities - perhaps dynamically cleared - are
considered to be prime candidates for hosting large-separation massive giant
planets. We present here a high-contrast VLT/NACO angular differential imaging
survey for eight such cold debris disks. We investigated the presence of
massive giant planets in the range of orbital radii where the inner edge of the
dust debris is expected. Our observations are sensitive to planets and brown
dwarfs with masses >3 to 7 Jupiter mass, depending on the age and distance of
the target star. Our observations did not identify any planet candidates. We
compare the derived planet mass upper limits to the minimum planet mass
required to dynamically clear the inner disks. While we cannot exclude that
single giant planets are responsible for clearing out the inner debris disks,
our observations constrain the parameter space available for such planets. The
non-detection of massive planets in these evacuated debris disks further
reinforces the notion that the giant planet population is confined to the inner
disk (<15 AU).Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
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