861,469 research outputs found
New Completeness Methods for Estimating Exoplanet Discoveries by Direct Detection
We report new methods for evaluating realistic observing programs that search
stars for planets by direct imaging, where observations are selected from an
optimized star list, and where stars can be observed multiple times. We show
how these methods bring critical insight into the design of the mission & its
instruments. These methods provide an estimate of the outcome of the observing
program: the probability distribution of discoveries (detection and/or
characterization), & an estimate of the occurrence rate of planets (eta). We
show that these parameters can be accurately estimated from a single mission
simulation, without the need for a complete Monte Carlo mission simulation, &
we prove the accuracy of this new approach. Our methods provide the tools to
define a mission for a particular science goal, for example defined by the
expected number of discoveries and its confidence level. We detail how an
optimized star list can be built & how successive observations can be selected.
Our approach also provides other critical mission attributes, such as the
number of stars expected to be searched, & the probability of zero discoveries.
Because these attributes depend strongly on the mission scale, our methods are
directly applicable to the design of such future missions & provide guidance to
the mission & instrument design based on scientific performance. We illustrate
our new methods with practical calculations & exploratory design reference
missions for JWST operating with a distant starshade to reduce scattered and
diffracted starlight on the focal plane. We estimate that 5 habitable
Earth-mass planets would be discovered & characterized with spectroscopy, with
a probability of 0 discoveries of 0.004, assuming a small fraction of JWST
observing time (7%), eta=0.3, and 70 observing visits, limited by starshade
fuel.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication by Ap
Multiple categories: the equivalence of a globular and a cubical approach
We show the equivalence of two kinds of strict multiple category, namely the
well known globular omega-categories, and the cubical omega-categories with
connections.Comment: Latex2E, xy, 38 pages. New version 17 Dec 2001, as accepted by
Advances in Mathematics: minor but useful corrections. Some pictures adde
The Problem of Mass: Mesonic Bound States Above T_c
We discuss the problem of mass, noting that meson masses decrease with
increasing scale as the dynamically generated condensate of "soft glue" is
melted (Brown/Rho scaling). We then extend the Bielefeld LGS color singlet
interaction computed for heavy quarks in a model-dependent way by including the
Ampere law velocity-velocity interaction. Parameterizing the resulting
interaction in terms of effective strength of the potential and including
screening, we find that the masses of pi, sigma, rho and A1 excitations, 32
degrees of freedom in all, go to zero (in the chiral limit) as T goes to Tc
essentially independently of the input quark (thermal) masses in the range of
1-2 GeV, calculated also in Bielefeld. We discuss other LGS which show q-bar q
bound states, which we interpret as our chirally restored mesons, for T > Tc.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures (Table 2 is added
A comparison of coaxial and conventional rotor performance
The performance of a coaxial rotor in hover, in steady forward flight, and in level, coordinated turns is contrasted with that of an equivalent, conventional rotor with the same overall solidity, number of blades, and blade aerodynamic properties. Brown's vorticity transport model is used to calculate the profile, induced, and parasite contributions to the overall power consumed by the two systems, and the highly resolved representation of the rotor wake that is produced by the model is used to relate the observed differences in the performance of the two systems to the structures of their respective wakes. In all flight conditions, all else being equal, the coaxial system requires less induced power than the conventional system. In hover, the conventional rotor consumes increasingly more induced power than the coaxial rotor as thrust is increased. In forward flight, the relative advantage of the coaxial configuration is particularly evident at pretransitional advance ratios. In turning flight, the benefits of the coaxial rotor are seen at all load factors. The beneficial properties of the coaxial rotor in forward flight and maneuver, as far as induced power is concerned, are a subtle effect of rotor-wake interaction and result principally from differences between the two types of rotor in the character and strength of the localized interaction between the developing supervortices and the highly loaded blade-tips at the lateral extremities of the rotor. In hover, the increased axial convection rate of the tip vortices appears to result in a favorable redistribution of the loading slightly inboard of the tip of the upper rotor of the coaxial system
Entheogens in Christian Art: Wasson, Allegro and the Psychedelic Gospels
In light of new historical evidence regarding ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wassonâs correspondence with art historian Erwin Panofsky, this article provides an in-depth analysis of the presence of entheogenic mushroom images in Christian art within the context of the controversy between Wasson and philologist John Marco Allegro over the identification of a Garden of Eden fresco in the 12th century Chapel of Plaincourault in France. It reveals a compelling financial motive for Wassonâs refusal to acknowledge that this fresco represents Amanita muscaria, as well as for Wassonâs reluctance to pursue his hypothesis regarding the entheogenic origins of religion into Christian art and artifacts. While Wassonâs view â that the presence of psychoactive mushrooms in the Near and Middle East ended around 1000 BCE â prevailed and stymied research on entheogens in Christianity for decades, a new generation of 21st century researchers has documented growing evidence of A. muscaria and psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Christian art, consistent with ethnobotanist Giorgio Samoriniâs typology of mushroom trees. This article presents original photographs, taken during fieldwork at churches and cathedrals throughout Europe and the Middle East, that confirm the presence of entheogenic mushrooms in Christian art: in frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, sculptures, and stained glass windows. Based on this iconic evidence, the article proposes a psychedelic gospels theory and addresses critiques of this theory by art historians, ardent advocates, medieval historians, and conservative Catholics. It calls for the establishment of an Interdisciplinary Committee on the Psychedelic Gospels to independently evaluate the growing body of evidence of entheogenic mushrooms in Christian art in order to resolve a controversial question regarding the possible role of entheogens in the history and origins of Christianity
An Alternative Origin for Hypervelocity Stars
Halo stars with unusually high radial velocity ("hypervelocity" stars, or
HVS) are thought to be stars unbound to the Milky Way that originate from the
gravitational interaction of stellar systems with the supermassive black hole
at the Galactic center. We examine the latest HVS compilation and find
peculiarities that are unexpected in this black hole-ejection scenario. For
example, a large fraction of HVS cluster around the constellation of Leo and
share a common travel time of -200 Myr. Furthermore, their velocities
are not really extreme if, as suggested by recent galaxy formation models, the
Milky Way is embedded within a dark halo
with virial velocity of km/s. In this case, the escape velocity at
kpc would be km/s and very few HVS would be truly unbound.
We use numerical simulations to show that disrupting dwarf galaxies may
contribute halo stars with velocities up to and sometimes exceeding the nominal
escape speed of the system. These stars are arranged in a thinly-collimated
outgoing ``tidal tail'' stripped from the dwarf during its latest pericentric
passage. We speculate that some HVS may therefore be tidal debris from a dwarf
recently disrupted near the center of the Galaxy. In this interpretation, the
angular clustering of HVS results because from our perspective the tail is seen
nearly ``end on'', whereas the common travel time simply reflects the fact that
these stars were stripped simultaneously from the dwarf during a single
pericentric passage. This proposal is eminently falsifiable, since it makes a
number of predictions that are distinct from the black-hole ejection mechanism
and that should be testable with improved HVS datasets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Replacement to match version accepted to ApJ
The ELM Survey. I. A Complete Sample of Extremely Low Mass White Dwarfs
We analyze radial velocity observations of the 12 extremely low-mass <0.25
Msol white dwarfs (WDs) in the MMT Hypervelocity Star Survey. Eleven of the 12
WDs are binaries with orbital periods shorter than 14 hours; the one
non-variable WD is possibly a pole-on system among our non-kinematically
selected targets. Our sample is unique: it is complete in a well-defined range
of apparent magnitude and color. The orbital mass functions imply that the
unseen companions are most likely other WDs, although neutron star companions
cannot be excluded. Six of the 11 systems with orbital solutions will merge
within a Hubble time due to the loss of angular momentum through gravitational
wave radiation. The quickest merger is J0923+3028, a g=15.7 ELM WD binary with
a 1.08 hr orbital period and a <130 Myr merger time. The chance of a supernova
Ia event among our ELM WDs is only 1%-7%, however. Three binary systems
(J0755+4906, J1233+1602, and J2119-0018) have extreme mass ratios and will most
likely form stable mass-transfer AM CVn systems. Two of these objects, SDSS
J1233+1602 and J2119-0018, are the lowest surface gravity WDs ever found; both
show Ca II absorption likely from accretion of circumbinary material. We
predict that at least one of our WDs is an eclipsing detached double WD system,
important for constraining helium core WD models.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Photon Bunching at TeV Energies
Harwit, Protheroe, and Biermann (1999) recently proposed that Bose-Einstein
photon bunching might significantly affect the interpretation of Cerenkov
counts of TeV gamma photons. Here, we show that a combination of two recent
results of Aharonian et al. (2000) and Aharonian et al. (2001) permits us to
set new, more stringent upper limits of on the fractional amount
of photon bunching in the 7-10 TeV radiation from Markarian 501. Potential
bunching at even higher energies should nevertheless continue to be
investigated for this and other TeV sources, since a clear understanding of TeV
energy spectra is required to unambiguously determine the spectral energy
density of the mid-infrared extragalactic background
The properties of dynamically ejected runaway and hyper-runaway stars
Runaway stars are stars observed to have large peculiar velocities. Two
mechanisms are thought to contribute to the ejection of runaway stars, both
involve binarity (or higher multiplicity). In the binary supernova scenario a
runaway star receives its velocity when its binary massive companion explodes
as a supernova (SN). In the alternative dynamical ejection scenario, runaway
stars are formed through gravitational interactions between stars and binaries
in dense, compact clusters or cluster cores. Here we study the ejection
scenario. We make use of extensive N-body simulations of massive clusters, as
well as analytic arguments, in order to to characterize the expected ejection
velocity distribution of runaways stars. We find the ejection velocity
distribution of the fastest runaways (>~80 km s^-1) depends on the binary
distribution in the cluster, consistent with our analytic toy model, whereas
the distribution of lower velocity runaways appears independent of the binaries
properties. For a realistic log constant distribution of binary separations, we
find the velocity distribution to follow a simple power law; Gamma(v) goes like
v^(-8/3) for the high velocity runaways and v^(-3/2) for the low velocity ones.
We calculate the total expected ejection rates of runaway stars from our
simulated massive clusters and explore their mass function and their binarity.
The mass function of runaway stars is biased towards high masses, and depends
strongly on their velocity. The binarity of runaways is a decreasing function
of their ejection velocity, with no binaries expected to be ejected with v>150
km s^-1. We also find that hyper-runaways with velocities of hundreds of km
s^-1 can be dynamically ejected from stellar clusters, but only at very low
rates, which cannot account for a significant fraction of the observed
population of hyper-velocity stars in the Galactic halo.Comment: Now matching published ApJ versio
Chemical Equilibration in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
In the hadronic sector of relativistic heavy ion physics, the
reaction is the strongest one, strong enough to equilibrate the with the
pions throughout the region from chemical freezeout to thermal freezeout when
free-particle interactions (with no medium-dependent effects) are employed.
Above the chiral restoration temperature, only 's and 's are
present, in that the chirally restored is equivalent to the and
the mesons have an SU(4) symmetry, with no dependence on isospin and negligible
dependence on spin. In the same sense the and are "equivalent"
scalars. Thus the chirally restored exhaust the
interspecies transitions. We evaluate this reaction at and find it to be
much larger than below , certainly strong enough to equilibrate the
chirally restored mesons just above . When emitted just below the
mesons remain in equilibrium, at least in the chiral limit because of the
Harada-Yamawaki "vector manifestation" that requires that mesonic coupling
constants go to zero (in the chiral limit) as goes to from below. Our
estimates in the chiral limit give deviations in some particle ratios from the
standard scenario (of equilibrium in the hadronic sector just below ) of
about double those indicated experimentally. This may be due to the neglect of
explicit chiral symmetry breaking in our estimates. We also show that the
instanton molecules present above are the giant multipole vibrations
found by Asakawa, Hatsuda and Nakahara and of Wetzorke et al. in lattice gauge
calculations. Thus, the matter formed by RHIC can equivalently be called:
chirally restored mesons, instanton molecules, or giant collective vibrations.
It is a strongly interacting liquid.Comment: 41 pages, 15 figures, v2) Appendix C adde
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