7,627 research outputs found
Searching for chemical inhomogeneities in Open Clusters: Analysis of the CN and CH Molecular Band Strengths in NGC 2158, NGC 2420, NGC 2682, NGC 7789 and Berkeley 29
Context: The total mass of a cluster, being the main parameter determining
its ability to host more than one stellar generation, may constitute a
threshold below which the cluster is able to form only a single stellar
population. AIms: Our goal is to investigate the existence of star-to-star
variations of CN and CH band strengths, related to the N and C abundances,
respectively, among the stars in five open cluster (NGC 2158, NGC 2420, NGC
2682, NGC 7789 and Berkeley 29) similar to those observed in globular clusters
and linked with the existence of multiple populations therein. Since these
systems are less massive than globulars, our results may allow us to constrain
the lower mass necessary to form more than one stellar population. Methods: We
measured the strength of the CN and CH bands, which correlate with the C and N
abundances, using four molecular indices in low-resolution SDSS/SEGUE spectra.
Results: We found that for four of the open clusters (NGC 2158, NGC 2420, NGC
2682 and Berkeley 29) all the stars studied in each of them have similar CN and
CH band strengths within the uncertainties since neither anomalous spreads nor
bimodalities have been detected in their CN and CH distributions. In contrast,
for NGC 7789 we found an anomalous spread in the strength of the CN molecular
band at 3839 \AA which is larger than the uncertainties. However, the small
number of stars studied in this cluster implies that further analysis is needed
to confirm the existence of chemical inhomogeneities in this cluster.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A, Tables 7, 8 and
9 will be publish onlin
Soft X-ray background fluctuations and large-scale structure in the Universe
We have studied the fluctuations of the soft (0.9-2 keV) X-ray background
intensity for ~10 arcmin and ~2 arcmin beam sizes, using 80 high galactic
latitude medium-deep images from the ROSAT position sensitive proportional
counter (PSPC). These fluctuations are dominated (and well reproduced) by
confusion noise produced by sources unresolved with the beam sizes we used. We
find no evidence for any excess fluctuations which could be attributed to
source clustering. The 95 per cent confidence upper limits on excess
fluctuations dIclus are: dIclus/Ixrb_10 arcmin<~ 0.12, dIclus/Ixrb_2 arcmin
<~0.07. We have checked the possibility that low surface brightness extended
objects (like groups or clusters of galaxies) may have a significant
contribution to excess fluctuations, finding that they are not necessary to fit
the distribution of fluctuations, and obtaining an upper limit on the surface
density for this type of source. Standard Cold Dark Matter models would produce
dIclus/Ixrb larger than the above limits for any value of the density of the
Universe Omega=0.1-1, unless the bias parameter of the X-ray emitting matter is
smaller than unity, or an important fraction of the sources of the soft X-ray
background (~30 per cent) is at redshifts z>1. Limits on the 2-10 keV excess
fluctuations are also considered, showing that X-ray sources in that band have
to be at redshifts z>1 unless Omega>0.4. Finally, if the spatial correlation
function of the sources that produce these excess fluctuations is instead a
power law, the density contrast drho/rho implied by the excess fluctuations
reveals that the Universe is smooth and linear on scales of tens of Mpc, while
it can be highly non-linear on scales ~1 Mpc.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX file, epsf.sty and 7 postscript figures. To appear in
MNRAS. Fig. 7 replaced, some references improved, a few corrections to the
tex
Refined shell elements for the analysis of functionally graded structures
The present paper considers the static analysis of plates and shells made of Functionally Graded Material (FGM), subjected to mechanical loads. Refined models based on the Carrera's Unified Formulation (CUF) are employed to account for grading material variation in the thickness direction. The governing equations are derived from the Principle of Virtual Displacement (PVD) in order to apply the Finite Element Method (FEM). A nine-nodes shell element with exact cylindrical geometry is considered. The shell can degenerate in the plate element by imposing an infinite radius of curvature. The Mixed Interpolation of Tensorial Components (MITC) technique is extended to the CUF in order to contrast the membrane and shear locking phenomenon. Different thickness ratios and orders of expansion for the displacement field are analyzed. The FEM results are compared with both benchmark solutions from literature and the results obtained using the Navier method that provides the analytical solution for simply-supported structures subjected to sinusoidal pressure loads. The shell element based on refined theories of the CUF turns out to be very efficient and its use is mandatory with respect to the classical models in the study of FGM structures
On the arcmin structure of the X-ray Universe
We present the angular correlation function of the X-ray population of 1063
XMM-Newton observations at high Galactic latitudes, comprising up to ~30000
sources over a sky area of ~125 sq. degrees in the energy bands: soft (0.5-2
keV) and hard (2-10 keV). This is the largest sample of serendipitous X-ray
sources ever used for clustering analysis purposes to date and the results have
been determined with unprecedented accuracy. We detect significant clustering
signals in the soft and hard bands (~10 sigma and ~5 sigma, respectively). We
deproject the angular correlation function via Limber's equation and calculate
the typical spatial lengths. We infer that AGN at redshifts ~1 are embedded in
dark matter halos with typical masses of log M ~ 12.6/h Msol and lifetimes in
the range ~3-5 x 10^8 years, which indicates that AGN activity is a transient
phase in the life of galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Proc. of the conference "X-ray Astronomy 2009:
Present status, multiwavelength approach and future perspectives", September
2009, Bologna. To appear in AIP Conf. Proc. (editors: A. Comastri, M. Cappi,
L. Angelini)
On Doppler tracking in cosmological spacetimes
We give a rigorous derivation of the general-relativistic formula for the
two-way Doppler tracking of a spacecraft in Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker
and in McVittie spacetimes. The leading order corrections of the so-determined
acceleration to the Newtonian acceleration are due to special-relativistic
effects and cosmological expansion. The latter, although linear in the Hubble
constant, is negligible in typical applications within the Solar System.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Journal versio
Radial velocities and metallicities from infrared Ca II triplet spectroscopy of open clusters II. Berkeley 23, King 1, NGC 559, NGC 6603 and NGC 7245
Context: Open clusters are key to studying the formation and evolution of the
Galactic disc. However, there is a deficiency of radial velocity and chemical
abundance determinations for open clusters in the literature. Aims: We intend
to increase the number of determinations of radial velocities and metallicities
from spectroscopy for open clusters. Methods: We acquired medium-resolution
spectra (R~8000) in the infrared region Ca II triplet lines (~8500 AA) for
several stars in five open clusters with the long-slit IDS spectrograph on the
2.5~m Isaac Newton Telescope (Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, Spain).
Radial velocities were obtained by cross-correlation fitting techniques. The
relationships available in the literature between the strength of infrared Ca
II lines and metallicity were also used to derive the metallicity for each
cluster. Results: We obtain = 48.6+/-3.4, -58.4+/-6.8, 26.0+/-4.3 and
-65.3+/-3.2 km s-1 for Berkeley 23, NGC 559, NGC 6603 and NGC 7245,
respectively. We found [Fe/H] =-0.25+/-0.14 and -0.15+/-0.18 for NGC 559 and
NGC 7245, respectively. Berkeley 23 has a low metallicity, [Fe/H]
=-0.42+/-0.13, similar to other open clusters in the outskirts of the Galactic
disc. In contrast, we derived a high metallicity ([Fe/H] =+0.43+/-0.15) for NGC
6603, which places this system among the most metal rich known open clusters.
To our knowledge, this is the first determination of radial velocities and
metallicities from spectroscopy for these clusters, except NGC 6603, for which
radial velocities had been previously determined. We have also analysed ten
stars in the line of sight to King 1. Because of the large dispersion obtained
in both radial velocity and metallicity, we cannot be sure that we have sampled
true cluster members.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (minor
modifications
Spatially resolved LMC star formation history: I. Outside in evolution of the outer LMC disk
We study the evolution of three fields in the outer LMC disk Rgc=3.5-6.2 Kpc.
Their star formation history indicates a stellar populations gradient such that
younger stellar populations are more centrally concentrated. We identify two
main star forming epochs, separated by a period of lower activity between ~7
and ~4 Gyr ago. Their relative importance varies from a similar amount of stars
formed in the two epochs in the innermost field, to only 40% of the stars
formed in the more recent epoch in the outermost field. The young star forming
epoch continues to the present time in the innermost field, but lasted only
till ~0.8 and 1.3 Gyr ago at Rgc=5.5 degrees and 7.1 degrees, respectively.
This gradient is correlated with the measured HI column density and implies an
outside-in quenching of the star formation, possibly related to a variation of
the size of the HI disk. This could either result from gas depletion due to
star formation or ram-pressure stripping, or from to the compression of the gas
disk as ram-pressure from the Milky Way halo acted on the LMC interstellar
medium. The latter two situations may have occurred when the LMC first
approached the Milky Way.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. MNRAS, in pres
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