Sprawozdanie z 28 Międzynarodowego Kongresu Psychologicznego w Beijing (Chiny)

28 Międzynarodowy Kongres Psychologii odbył się w Pekinie, w Chinach w dniach 8–13 sierpnia 2004 r. Kongres ten odbywał się pod auspicjami Międzynarodowej Unii Nauk Psychologicznych. Siedzibą było nowoczesne Centrum Kongresowe mieszczące się w azjatyckiej wiosce olimpijskiej, niedaleko Starego Miasta. Kongres zgromadził blisko 5000 reprezentantów. Odbyło się 227 zaproszonych sympozjów, ponad 300 sesji tematycznych i blisko 2600 aktywnych sesji posterowych. Polskę reprezentowało ponad 30 uczestników, w tym dwoje z Instytutu Psychologii Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Distribution of binary mergers around galaxies

We use a stellar binary population synthesis code to find the lifetimes and velocities of several types of possible GRB progenitors: double neutron stars, black hole neutron stars, black hole white dwarfs, helium star mergers. Assuming that they are born in different types of galaxies we compute their spatial distribution and compare it with the observed locations of GRB afterglows within their hosts. We discuss constraints on the compact object merger model of GRBs imposed by this comparison and find that the observations of afterglows and their host galaxies appear inconsistent with the GRB compact object merger model.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Latex with aipproc.sty, Proc. of the 5th Huntsville Gamma Ray Burst Symposium, Oct. 1999, ed. R.M. Kippen, AI

Constraining Binary Evolution with Gravitational Wave Measurements of Chirp Masses

Using the StarTrack binary population synthesis code we investigate the properties of population of compact object binaries. Taking into account the selection effects we calculate the expected properties of the observed binaries.We analyze possible constraints on the stellar evolution models and find that an observed sample of about one hundred mergers will yield strong constraints on the binary evolution scenarios.Comment: Invited talk at "The Astrophysics of Gravitational Wave Sources" Workshop; April 24-26, 2003, U. Maryland; 10 page

Spectral Effects of the Vacuum Resonance in Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

The association of all three soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) with supernova remnants has established that SGRs are young neutron stars, and has given us a starting point for detailed modeling. One of the most popular classes of models involves strongly magnetised neutron stars, with surface dipole fields B~ 10^{14}-10^{15} Gauss. In such strong magnetic fields, many otherwise negligible processes can play an important role. Here we consider the effects of vacuum polarisation on Compton scattering. Vacuum polarisation introduces a characteristic density-dependent photon frequency at which the normal modes of polarisation become nonorthogonal and the mean free path of photons decreases sharply. Our analytic results and Monte Carlo simulations of photon propagation through a magnetised plasma show that this effect leads, under a wide range of physical conditions, to a broad absorption-like feature in the energy range ~5 keV---40 keV. We discuss this effect in light of the spectra from SGR 1806-20.Comment: 13 pages Latex , uses mn.sty. Submitted to MNRA