699 research outputs found
Test anxiety, working memory, and cognitive performance: Supportive effects of sequential demands
Substantial evidence suggests that test anxiety is associated with poor performance in complex tasks. Based on the differentiation of coordinative and sequential demands on working memory (Mayr & Kliegl, 1993), two studies examined the effects of sequential demands on the relationship between test anxiety and cognitive performance. Both studies found that high sequential demands had beneficial effects on the speed and accuracy of the performance of test-anxious participants. It is suggested that the more frequent memory updates associated with high sequential demands may represent external processing aids that compensate for the restricted memory capacity of individuals with high test anxiet
Circumstellar Disks revealed by / Flux Variation Gradients
The variability of young stellar objects (YSO) changes their brightness and
color preventing a proper classification in traditional color-color and color
magnitude diagrams. We have explored the feasibility of the flux variation
gradient (FVG) method for YSOs, using and band monitoring data of the
star forming region RCW\,38 obtained at the University Observatory Bochum in
Chile. Simultaneous multi-epoch flux measurements follow a linear relation
for almost all YSOs with large variability
amplitude. The slope gives the mean color temperature of
the varying component. Because is hotter than the dust sublimation
temperature, we have tentatively assigned it to stellar variations. If the
gradient does not meet the origin of the flux-flux diagram, an additional non-
or less-varying component may be required. If the variability amplitude is
larger at the shorter wavelength, e.g. , this component is cooler
than the star (e.g. a circumstellar disk); vice versa, if , the
component is hotter like a scattering halo or even a companion star. We here
present examples of two YSOs, where the FVG implies the presence of a
circumstellar disk; this finding is consistent with additional data at and
. One YSO shows a clear -band excess in the color-color diagram,
while the significance of a -excess in the other YSO depends on the
measurement epoch. Disentangling the contributions of star and disk it turns
out that the two YSOs have huge variability amplitudes (\,mag). The
FVG analysis is a powerful complementary tool to analyze the varying
components of YSOs and worth further exploration of monitoring data at other
wavelengths.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Variability of the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A Outflow: Molecular Hydrogen and Silicon Monoxide Images
The NGC 1333 region was observed in the H2 1-0 S(1) line. The H2 images cover
a 5' x 7' region around IRAS 4. Numerous H2 emission features were detected.
The northeast-southwest bipolar outflow driven by IRAS 4A was studied by
combining the H2 images with SiO maps published previously. The SiO-H2 outflows
are continuous on the southwestern side but show a gap on the northeastern
side. The southwestern outflow lobe curves smoothly, and the position angle
increases with the distance from the driving source. The base and the outer tip
of the northeastern outflow lobe are located at positions opposite to the
corresponding parts of the southwestern lobe. This point-symmetry suggests that
the outflow axis may be drifting or precessing clockwise in the plane of the
sky and that the cause of the axis drift may be intrinsic to the outflow
engine. The axis drift model is supported by the asymmetric lateral intensity
profile of the SiO outflow. The axis drift rate is about 0.011 deg yr-1. The
middle part of the northeastern outflow does not exactly follow the point
symmetry because of the superposition of two different kinds of directional
variability: the axis drift of the driving source and the deflection by a dense
core. The axis drift model provides a good explanation for the large deflection
angle of the northeastern outflow. Other H2 emission features around the IRAS 4
region are discussed briefly. Some of them are newly found outflows, and some
are associated with outflows already known before
Anomalous diffusion and Tsallis statistics in an optical lattice
We point out a connection between anomalous quantum transport in an optical
lattice and Tsallis' generalized thermostatistics. Specifically, we show that
the momentum equation for the semiclassical Wigner function that describes
atomic motion in the optical potential, belongs to a class of transport
equations recently studied by Borland [PLA 245, 67 (1998)]. The important
property of these ordinary linear Fokker--Planck equations is that their
stationary solutions are exactly given by Tsallis distributions. Dissipative
optical lattices are therefore new systems in which Tsallis statistics can be
experimentally studied.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
A Disk Shadow Around the Young Star ASR 41 in NGC 1333
We present images of the young stellar object ASR 41 in the NGC 1333 star
forming region at the wavelengths of H_alpha and [SII] and in the I, J, H, and
K-bands.
ASR 41 has the near-infrared morphology of an edge-on disk object, but
appears an order of magnitude larger than typical systems of this kind.
We also present detailed models of the scattering and radiative transfer in
systems consisting of a young star surrounded by a proto-planetary disk, and
the whole system being embedded in either an infalling envelope or a uniform
molecular cloud. The best fit to the observed morphology can be achieved with a
disk of approx. 200 AU diameter, immersed in a low density cloud. The low cloud
density is necessary to stay below the sub-mm flux upper limits and to preserve
the shadow cast by the disk via single scattering.
The results demonstrate that ASR 41 is probably not inherently different from
typical edge-on disk objects, and that its large apparent size is due to the
shadow of a much smaller disk being projected into the surrounding dusty
molecular material
The broad-line region and dust torus size of the Seyfert 1 galaxy PGC50427
We present the results of a three years monitoring campaigns of the type-1 active galactic nucleus (AGN) PGC50427. Through the use of
Photometric Reverberation Mapping with broad and narrow band filters, we
determine the size of the broad-line emitting region by measuring the time
delay between the variability of the continuum and the H emission line.
The H emission line responds to blue continuum variations with an
average rest frame lag of days. Using single epoch spectroscopy
we determined a broad-line H velocity width of 1020 km s and in
combination with the rest frame lag and adoption a geometric scaling factor , we calculate a black hole mass of . Using the flux variation gradient method, we separate the host
galaxy contribution from that of the AGN to calculate the rest frame 5100\AA~
luminosity at the time of our monitoring campaign. The rest frame lag and the
host-subtracted luminosity permit us to derive the position of PGC50427 in the
BLR size -- AGN luminosity diagram, which is remarkably close to the
theoretically expected relation of . The simultaneous
optical and NIR ( and ) observations allow us to determine the size
of the dust torus through the use of dust reverberation mapping method. We find
that the hot dust emission () lags the optical variations with an
average rest frame lag of days. The dust reverberation radius
and the nuclear NIR luminosity permit us to derive the position of PGC50427 on
the known diagram. The simultaneus observations for the
broad-line region and dust thermal emission demonstrate that the innermost dust
torus is located outside the BLR in PGC50427, supporting the unified scheme for
AGNs. (Abstract shortened, see the manuscript.)Comment: 11 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Brown Dwarfs in Young Moving Groups from Pan-STARRS1. I. AB Doradus
Substellar members of young (150 Myr) moving groups are valuable
benchmarks to empirically define brown dwarf evolution with age and to study
the low-mass end of the initial mass function. We have combined Pan-STARRS1
(PS1) proper motions with opticalIR photometry from PS1, 2MASS and
to search for substellar members of the AB Dor Moving Group
within 50 pc and with spectral types of late-M to early-L,
corresponding to masses down to 30 M at the age of the group
(125 Myr). Including both photometry and proper motions allows us to
better select candidates by excluding field dwarfs whose colors are similar to
young AB~Dor Moving Group members. Our near-IR spectroscopy has identified six
ultracool dwarfs (M6L4; 30100 M) with intermediate
surface gravities (INT-G) as candidate members of the AB Dor Moving Group. We
find another two candidate members with spectra showing hints of youth but
consistent with field gravities. We also find four field brown dwarfs
unassociated with the AB Dor Moving Group, three of which have INT-G gravity
classification. While signatures of youth are present in the spectra of our
125 Myr objects, neither their nor colors are
significantly redder than field dwarfs with the same spectral types, unlike
younger ultracool dwarfs. We also determined PS1 parallaxes for eight of our
candidates and one previously identified AB Dor Moving Group candidate.
Although radial velocities (and parallaxes, for some) are still needed to fully
assess membership, these new objects provide valuable insight into the spectral
characteristics and evolution of young brown dwarfs.Comment: ApJ, accepte
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