18,620 research outputs found
The instability of stellar structures intermediate between white dwarfs and neutron stars
Instability of stellar structures intermediate between dwarfs and neutron star
The Role of Subsurface Flows in Solar Surface Convection: Modeling the Spectrum of Supergranular and Larger Scale Flows
We model the solar horizontal velocity power spectrum at scales larger than
granulation using a two-component approximation to the mass continuity
equation. The model takes four times the density scale height as the integral
(driving) scale of the vertical motions at each depth. Scales larger than this
decay with height from the deeper layers. Those smaller are assumed to follow a
Kolomogorov turbulent cascade, with the total power in the vertical convective
motions matching that required to transport the solar luminosity in a mixing
length formulation. These model components are validated using large scale
radiative hydrodynamic simulations. We reach two primary conclusions: 1. The
model predicts significantly more power at low wavenumbers than is observed in
the solar photospheric horizontal velocity spectrum. 2. Ionization plays a
minor role in shaping the observed solar velocity spectrum by reducing
convective amplitudes in the regions of partial helium ionization. The excess
low wavenumber power is also seen in the fully nonlinear three-dimensional
radiative hydrodynamic simulations employing a realistic equation of state.
This adds to other recent evidence suggesting that the amplitudes of large
scale convective motions in the Sun are significantly lower than expected.
Employing the same feature tracking algorithm used with observational data on
the simulation output, we show that the observed low wavenumber power can be
reproduced in hydrodynamic models if the amplitudes of large scale modes in the
deep layers are artificially reduced. Since the large scale modes have reduced
amplitudes, modes on the scale of supergranulation and smaller remain important
to convective heat flux even in the deep layers, suggesting that small scale
convective correlations are maintained through the bulk of the solar convection
zone.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figure
An investigation of pulsar searching techniques with the Fast Folding Algorithm
Here we present an in-depth study of the behaviour of the Fast Folding
Algorithm, an alternative pulsar searching technique to the Fast Fourier
Transform. Weaknesses in the Fast Fourier Transform, including a susceptibility
to red noise, leave it insensitive to pulsars with long rotational periods (P >
1 s). This sensitivity gap has the potential to bias our understanding of the
period distribution of the pulsar population. The Fast Folding Algorithm, a
time-domain based pulsar searching technique, has the potential to overcome
some of these biases. Modern distributed-computing frameworks now allow for the
application of this algorithm to all-sky blind pulsar surveys for the first
time. However, many aspects of the behaviour of this search technique remain
poorly understood, including its responsiveness to variations in pulse shape
and the presence of red noise. Using a custom CPU-based implementation of the
Fast Folding Algorithm, ffancy, we have conducted an in-depth study into the
behaviour of the Fast Folding Algorithm in both an ideal, white noise regime as
well as a trial on observational data from the HTRU-S Low Latitude pulsar
survey, including a comparison to the behaviour of the Fast Fourier Transform.
We are able to both confirm and expand upon earlier studies that demonstrate
the ability of the Fast Folding Algorithm to outperform the Fast Fourier
Transform under ideal white noise conditions, and demonstrate a significant
improvement in sensitivity to long-period pulsars in real observational data
through the use of the Fast Folding Algorithm.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 3 table
A Census Of Highly Symmetric Combinatorial Designs
As a consequence of the classification of the finite simple groups, it has
been possible in recent years to characterize Steiner t-designs, that is
t-(v,k,1) designs, mainly for t = 2, admitting groups of automorphisms with
sufficiently strong symmetry properties. However, despite the finite simple
group classification, for Steiner t-designs with t > 2 most of these
characterizations have remained longstanding challenging problems. Especially,
the determination of all flag-transitive Steiner t-designs with 2 < t < 7 is of
particular interest and has been open for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and
[12, p. 273], but presumably dating back to 1965). The present paper continues
the author's work [20, 21, 22] of classifying all flag-transitive Steiner
3-designs and 4-designs. We give a complete classification of all
flag-transitive Steiner 5-designs and prove furthermore that there are no
non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-designs. Both results rely on the
classification of the finite 3-homogeneous permutation groups. Moreover, we
survey some of the most general results on highly symmetric Steiner t-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
Search for a state in 3He via the p+Dâp+d* reaction
Excitation functions for the 2H(p,pp)n reaction have been measured at pairs of proton angles chosen so that the p-n system with zero relative energy was at 30 and 90° in the c.m. system. The differential cross sections dÏ/dΩ1dΩ2 corresponding to the production of a p-n system with relative p-n energy below 100 keV are presented. The excitation functions cover the incident proton energy range of 7 to 14.5 MeV in 0.5-MeV steps. The energy dependence of the primary interaction has been extracted by using final-stage modifications of the Watson type. No evidence was found for structure in either the excitation function for the differential cross section or in the excitation function for the primary interaction factor
Oscillating red giants in the CoRoT exo-field: Asteroseismic mass and radius determination
Context. Observations and analysis of solar-type oscillations in red-giant
stars is an emerging aspect of asteroseismic analysis with a number of open
questions yet to be explored. Although stochastic oscillations have previously
been detected in red giants from both radial velocity and photometric
measurements, those data were either too short or had sampling that was not
complete enough to perform a detailed data analysis of the variability. The
quality and quantity of photometric data as provided by the CoRoT satellite is
necessary to provide a breakthrough in observing p-mode oscillations in red
giants. We have analyzed continuous photometric time-series of about 11 400
relatively faint stars obtained in the exofield of CoRoT during the first 150
days long-run campaign from May to October 2007. We find several hundred stars
showing a clear power excess in a frequency and amplitude range expected for
red-giant pulsators. In this paper we present first results on a sub-sample of
these stars. Aims. Knowing reliable fundamental parameters like mass and radius
is essential for detailed asteroseismic studies of red-giant stars. As the
CoRoT exofield targets are relatively faint (11-16 mag) there are no (or only
weak) constraints on the star's location in the H-R diagram. We therefore aim
to extract information about such fundamental parameters solely from the
available time series. Methods. We model the convective background noise and
the power excess hump due to pulsation with a global model fit and deduce
reliable estimates for the stellar mass and radius from scaling relations for
the frequency of maximum oscillation power and the characteristic frequency
separation.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Modification of surface energy in nuclear multifragmentation
Within the statistical multifragmentation model we study modifications of the
surface and symmetry energy of primary fragments in the freeze-out volume. The
ALADIN experimental data on multifragmentation obtained in reactions induced by
high-energy projectiles with different neutron richness are analyzed. We have
extracted the isospin dependence of the surface energy coefficient at different
degrees of fragmentation. We conclude that the surface energy of hot fragments
produced in multifragmentation reactions differs from the values extracted for
isolated nuclei at low excitation. At high fragment multiplicity, it becomes
nearly independent of the neutron content of the fragments.Comment: 11 pages with 13 figure
A combined spectroscopic and photometric stellar activity study of Epsilon Eridani
We present simultaneous ground-based radial velocity (RV) measurements and
space-based photometric measurements of the young and active K dwarf Epsilon
Eridani. These measurements provide a data set for exploring methods of
identifying and ultimately distinguishing stellar photospheric velocities from
Keplerian motion. We compare three methods we have used in exploring this data
set: Dalmatian, an MCMC spot modeling code that fits photometric and RV
measurements simultaneously; the FF method, which uses photometric
measurements to predict the stellar activity signal in simultaneous RV
measurements; and H analysis. We show that our H measurements
are strongly correlated with photometry from the Microvariability and
Oscillations of STars (MOST) instrument, which led to a promising new method
based solely on the spectroscopic observations. This new method, which we refer
to as the HH method, uses H measurements as input into the FF
model. While the Dalmatian spot modeling analysis and the FF method with
MOST space-based photometry are currently more robust, the HH method only
makes use of one of the thousands of stellar lines in the visible spectrum. By
leveraging additional spectral activity indicators, we believe the HH method
may prove quite useful in disentangling stellar signals
The first magnetic maps of a pre-main sequence binary star system - HD 155555
We present the first maps of the surface magnetic fields of a pre-main
sequence binary system. Spectropolarimetric observations of the young, 18 Myr,
HD 155555 (V824 Ara, G5IV + K0IV) system were obtained at the Anglo-Australian
Telescope in 2004 and 2007. Both datasets are analysed using a new binary
Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) code. This allows us to simultaneously model the
contribution of each component to the observed circularly polarised spectra.
Stellar brightness maps are also produced for HD 155555 and compared to
previous Doppler images. Our radial magnetic maps reveal a complex surface
magnetic topology with mixed polarities at all latitudes. We find rings of
azimuthal field on both stars, most of which are found to be non-axisymmetric
with the stellar rotational axis. We also examine the field strength and the
relative fraction of magnetic energy stored in the radial and azimuthal field
components at both epochs. A marked weakening of the field strength of the
secondary star is observed between the 2004 and 2007 epochs. This is
accompanied by an apparent shift in the location of magnetic energy from the
azimuthal to radial field. We suggest that this could be indicative of a
magnetic activity cycle. We use the radial magnetic maps to extrapolate the
coronal field (by assuming a potential field) for each star individually - at
present ignoring any possible interaction. The secondary star is found to
exhibit an extreme tilt (~75 deg) of its large scale magnetic field to that of
its rotation axis for both epochs. The field complexity that is apparent in the
surface maps persists out to a significant fraction of the binary separation.
Any interaction between the fields of the two stars is therefore likely to be
complex also. Modelling this would require a full binary field extrapolation.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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