29,621 research outputs found
Short-duration lensing events: I. wide-orbit planets? free-floating low-mass objects? or high-velocity stars?
Short duration lensing events tend to be generated by low-mass lenses or by
lenses with high transverse velocities. Furthermore, for any given lens mass
and speed, events of short duration are preferentially caused by nearby lenses
(mesolenses) that can be studied in detail, or else by lenses so close to the
source star that finite-source-size effects may be detected, yielding
information about both the Einstein ring radius and the surface of the lensed
star. Planets causing short-duration events may be in orbits with any
orientation, and may have semimajor axes smaller than an AU, or they may reach
the outer limits of their planetary systems, in the region corresponding to the
Solar System's Oort Cloud. They can have masses larger than Jupiter's or
smaller than Pluto's. Lensing therefore has a unique potential to expand our
understanding of planetary systems. A particular advantage of lensing is that
it can provide precision measurements of system parameters, including the
masses of and projected separation between star and planet. We demonstrate how
the parameters can be extracted and show that a great deal can be learned. For
example, it is remarkable that the gravitational mass of nearby free-floating
planet-mass lenses can be measured by complementing observations of a
photometric event with deep images that detect the planet itself. A fraction of
short events may be caused by high-velocity stars located within a kpc. Many
high-velocity lenses are likely to be neutron stars that received large natal
kicks. Other high-speed stars may be members of the halo population. Still
others may be hypervelocity stars that have been ejected from the Galactic
Center, or runaway stars escaped from close binaries, possibly including the
progenitor binaries of Type Ia supernovae.Comment: 17 pages; 2 figures; submitted to ApJ 3 July 200
Neural mechanisms of top-down control during visual search: effects of template complexity
Neural mechanisms of top-down control during visual search:
effects of template complexit
The Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae: II. Are they Double-Degenerate Binaries? The Symbiotic Channel
In order for a white dwarf (WD) to achieve the Chandrasekhar mass, M_C, and
explode as a Type Ia supernova (SNIa), it must interact with another star,
either accreting matter from or merging with it. The failure to identify the
types of binaries which produce SNeIa is the "progenitor problem". Its solution
is required if we are to utilize the full potential of SNeIa to elucidate basic
cosmological and physical principles. In single-degenerate models, a WD
accretes and burns matter at high rates. Nuclear-burning WDs (NBWDs) with mass
close to M_C are hot and luminous, potentially detectable as supersoft x-ray
sources (SSSs). In previous work we showed that > 90-99% of the required number
of progenitors do not appear as SSSs during most of the crucial phase of mass
increase. The obvious implication is that double-degenerate (DD) binaries form
the main class of progenitors. We show in this paper, however, that many
binaries that later become DDs must pass through a long-lived NBWD phase during
which they are potentially detectable as SSSs. The paucity of SSSs is therefore
not a strong argument in favor of DD models. Those NBWDs that are the
progenitors of DD binaries are likely to appear as symbiotic binaries for
intervals > 10^6 years. In fact, symbiotic pre-DDs should be common, whether or
not the WDs eventually produce SNeIa. The key to solving the progenitor problem
lies in understanding the appearance of NBWDs. Most do not appear as SSSs most
of the time. We therefore consider the evolution of NBWDs to address the
question of what their appearance may be and how we can hope to detect them.Comment: 24 pages; 5 figures; submitted to Ap
Introducing Parallelism to the Ranges TS
The current interface provided by the C++17 parallel algorithms poses some limitations with respect to parallel data access and heterogeneous systems, such as personal computers and server nodes with GPUs, smartphones, and embedded System on a Chip chipsets. In this paper, we present a summary of why we believe the Ranges TS solves these problems, and also improves both programmability and performance on heterogeneous platforms.
The complete paper has been submitted to WG21 for consideration, and here we present a summary of the changes proposed alongside new performance results.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper presented to WG21 that unifies the Ranges TS with the parallel algorithms introduced in C++17. Although there are various points of intersection, we will focus on the composability of functions, and the benefit that this brings to accelerator devices via kernel fusion
Topological properties of full QCD at the phase transition
We investigate the topological properties of the QCD vacuum with 4 flavours
of dynamical staggered fermions at finite temperature. To calculate the
topological susceptibility we use the field-theoretical method. As in the
quenched case, a sharp drop is observed for the topological susceptibility
across the phase transition.Comment: LATTICE98(confine
Deconfining transition in two-flavor QCD
The order and the nature of the finite-temperature phase transition of QCD
with two flavors of dynamical quarks is investigated. An analysis of the
critical exponent of the specific heat is performed through finite-size and
finite-mass scaling of various susceptibilities. Dual superconductivity of QCD
vacuum is investigated using a disorder parameter, namely the v.e.v. of a
monopole creation operator. Hybrid R simulations were run at lattice spatial
sizes of , , and and temporal size , with
quark masses in the range .Comment: Lattice2003(topology), 3 page
Phase Dependency of the Human Primary Motor Cortex and Cholinergic Inhibition Cancelation during Beta tACS
The human motor cortex has a tendency to resonant activity at about 20 Hz so stimulation should more readily entrain neuronal populations at this frequency. We investigated whether and how different interneuronal circuits contribute to such resonance by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at motor (20 Hz) and a nonmotor resonance frequency (7 Hz). We tested different TMS interneuronal protocols and triggered TMS pulses at different tACS phases. The effect of cholinergic short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) was abolished by 20 Hz tACS, linking cortical beta activity to sensorimotor integration. However, this effect occurred regardless of the tACS phase. In contrast, 20 Hz tACS selectively modulated MEP size according to the phase of tACS during single pulse, GABAAergic short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and glutamatergic intracortical facilitation (ICF). For SICI this phase effect was more marked during 20 Hz stimulation. Phase modulation of SICI also depended on whether or not spontaneous beta activity occurred at ~20 Hz, supporting an interaction effect between tACS and underlying circuit resonances. The present study provides in vivo evidence linking cortical beta activity to sensorimotor integration, and for beta oscillations in motor cortex being promoted by resonance in GABAAergic interneuronal circuits
Hide and seek between Andromeda's halo, disk, and giant stream
Photometry in B, V (down to V ~ 26 mag) is presented for two 23' x 23' fields
of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) that were observed with the blue channel camera
of the Large Binocular Telescope during the Science Demonstration Time. Each
field covers an area of about 5.1kpc x 5.1kpc at the distance of M31 ((m-M)o ~
24.4 mag), sampling, respectively, a northeast region close to the M31 giant
stream (field S2), and an eastern portion of the halo in the direction of the
galaxy minor axis (field H1). The stream field spans a region that includes
Andromeda's disk and the giant stream, and this is reflected in the complexity
of the color magnitude diagram of the field. One corner of the halo field also
includes a portion of the giant stream. Even though these demonstration time
data were obtained under non-optimal observing conditions the B photometry,
acquired in time-series mode, allowed us to identify 274 variable stars (among
which 96 are bona fide and 31 are candidate RR Lyrae stars, 71 are Cepheids,
and 16 are binary systems) by applying the image subtraction technique to
selected portions of the observed fields. Differential flux light curves were
obtained for the vast majority of these variables. Our sample includes mainly
pulsating stars which populate the instability strip from the Classical
Cepheids down to the RR Lyrae stars, thus tracing the different stellar
generations in these regions of M31 down to the horizontal branch of the oldest
(t ~ 10 Gyr) component.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 12 tables, ApJ in pres
Black Hole entropy for two higher derivative theories of gravity
The dark energy issue is focusing the attention of an incresing number of
physicists all over the world. Among the possible alternatives in order to
explain what as been named the "Mystery of the Millennium" are the so-called
Modified Theories of Gravity. A crucial test for such models is represented by
the existence and (if this is the case) the properties of their black hole
solutions. Nowadays, to our knowledge, only two non-trivial, spherically
symmetric, solutions with vanishing cosmological constant are known by Barrow &
Clifton (2005) and Deser, Sarioglu & Tekin (2008). Aim of the paper is to
discuss some features of such solutions, with emphasis on their thermodynamic
properties such as entropy and temperature, little progress being possible
along the way which leads to a consistent definition of mass.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
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