Low-mass eclipsing binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey : The persistence of the M-dwarf radius inflation problem

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We present the characterization of five new short-period low-mass eclipsing binaries (LMEBs) from the WFCAM Transit Survey. The analysis was performed by using the photometric WFCAM J-mag data and additional low- and intermediate-resolution spectroscopic data to obtain both orbital and physical properties of the studied sample. The light curves and the measured radial velocity curves were modelled simultaneously with the JKTEBOP code, with Markov chain MonteCarlo simulations for the error estimates. The best-model fit have revealed that the investigated detached binaries are in very close orbits, with orbital separations of 2.9 ≤ a ≤ 6.7R⊙ and short periods of 0.59 ≤ Porb ≤ 1.72 d, approximately. We have derived stellar masses between 0.24 and 0.72M⊙ and radii ranging from 0.42 to 0.67 R⊙. The great majority of the LMEBs in our sample has an estimated radius far from the predicted values according to evolutionary models. The components with derived masses of M < 0.6M⊙ present a radius inflation of ~9 per cent or more. This general behaviour follows the trend of inflation for partially radiative stars proposed previously. These systems add to the increasing sample of low-mass stellar radii that are not well-reproduced by stellarmodels. They further highlight the need to understand the magnetic activity and physical state of small stars. Missions like TESS will provide many such systems to perform high-precision radius measurements to tightly constrain low-mass stellar evolution models.Peer reviewe

Detection of the secondary eclipse of Qatar-1b in the Ks band

Qatar-1b is a close-orbiting hot Jupiter ($R_p\simeq 1.18$ $R_J$, $M_p\simeq 1.33$ $M_J$) around a metal-rich K-dwarf, with orbital separation and period of 0.023 AU and 1.42 days. We have observed the secondary eclipse of this exoplanet in the Ks band with the objective of deriving a brightness temperature for the planet and providing further constraints to the orbital configuration of the system. We obtained near-infrared photometric data from the ground by using the OMEGA2000 instrument at the 3.5 m telescope at Calar Alto (Spain) in staring mode, with the telescope defocused. We have used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify correlated systematic trends in the data. A Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis was performed to model the correlated systematics and fit for the secondary eclipse of Qatar-1b using a previously developed occultation model. We adopted the prayer bead method to assess the effect of red noise on the derived parameters. We measured a secondary eclipse depth of $0.196\%^{+0.071\%}_{-0.051\%}$, which indicates a brightness temperature in the Ks band for the planet of $1885^{+212}_{-168}$ K. We also measured a small deviation in the central phase of the secondary eclipse of $-0.0079^{+0.0162}_{-0.0043}$, which leads to a value for $e\cos{\omega}$ of $-0.0123^{+0.0252}_{-0.0067}$. However, this last result needs to be confirmed with more data.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Detection of the secondary eclipse of WASP-10b in the Ks-band

WASP-10b, a non-inflated hot Jupiter, was discovered around a K-dwarf in a near circular orbit ($\sim$$0.06$). Since its discovery in 2009, different published parameters for this system have led to a discussion about the size, density, and eccentricity of this exoplanet. In order to test the hypothesis of a circular orbit for WASP-10b, we have observed its secondary eclipse in the Ks-band, where the contribution of planetary light is high enough to be detected from the ground. Observations were performed with the OMEGA2000 instrument at the 3.5-meter telescope at Calar Alto (Almer\'ia, Spain), in staring mode during 5.4 continuous hours, with the telescope defocused, monitoring the target during the expected secondary eclipse. A relative light curve was generated and corrected from systematic effects, using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. The final light curve was fitted using a transit model to find the eclipse depth and a possible phase shift. The best model obtained from the Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis resulted in an eclipse depth of $\Delta F$ of $0.137\%^{+0.013\%}_{-0.019\%}$ and a phase offset of $\Delta \phi$ of $-0.0028^{+0.0005}_{-0.0004}$. The eclipse phase offset derived from our modeling has systematic errors that were not taken into account and should not be considered as evidence of an eccentric orbit. The offset in phase obtained leads to a value for $|e\cos{\omega}|$ of $0.0044$. The derived eccentricity is too small to be of any significance.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure

Lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays from massive seesaw neutrinos

Lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays are studied within the context of seesaw models with Majorana massive neutrinos. Two models are considered: The SM-seesaw, with the Standard Model Particle content plus three right handed neutrinos, and the MSSM-seesaw, with the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model particle content plus three right handed neutrinos and their supersymmetric partners. The widths for these decays are derived from a full one-loop diagrammatic computation in both models, and they are analyzed numerically in terms of the seesaw parameters, namely, the Dirac and Majorana mass matrices. Several possible scenarios for these mass matrices that are compatible with neutrino data are considered. In the SM-seesaw case, very small branching ratios are found for all studied scenarios. These ratios are explained as a consequence of the decoupling behaviour of the heavy right handed neutrinos. In contrast, in the MSSM-seesaw case, sizeable branching ratios are found for some of the leptonic flavor violating decays of the MSSM neutral Higgs bosons and for some choices of the seesaw matrices and MSSM parameters. The relevance of the two competing sources of lepton flavor changing interactions in the MSSM-seesaw case is also discussed. The non-decoupling behaviour of the supersymmetric particles contributing in the loop-diagrams is finally shown.Comment: 44pgs. Version to appear in Phys.Rev.

FCNC-induced heavy-quark events at the LHC from Supersymmetry

We analyze the production and subsequent decay of the neutral Higgs bosons of the MSSM into electrically neutral quark pairs qq'=bs,tc of different flavors at the LHC and compare with the direct FCNC production mechanisms. The cross-sections are computed in the unconstrained MSSM with minimal flavor-mixing sources and taking into account the stringent bounds from radiative B-meson decays. We extend the results previously found for these FCNC processes, which are singularly uncommon in the SM. Specifically, we report here on the SUSY-EW contribution of the Higgs-mediated FCNC cross-section into bs and tc final states and the SUSY-QCD and SUSY-EW contributions to bs-production. In this way, the complete map of MSSM predictions for the qq'-pairs produced at the LHC becomes available. The upshot is that the most favorable channels are: 1) the Higgs boson FCNC decays into bs, and 2) the direct production of tc pairs, both of them at the 1 pb level and mediated by SUSY-QCD effects. If, however, the latter are suppressed, we find a small SUSY-EW yield for the tc-production through Higgs decays but, at the same time, a cross-section of 0.1-1 pb for bs-production, which implies a significant number (10^4-10^5) of bs-pairs per 100 inverse femtobarn of integrated luminosity.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. Extended discussion. Accepted in Phys. Lett.

Propuesta de Implementación de Técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial en el Proceso Enseñanza-Aprendizaje para Fortalecer las Competencias Profesionales en los Estudiantes de la Carrera de Ingeniería en Sistemas Computacionales del TecNM Campus Minatitlán

Para fortalecer las competencias profesionales de los estudiantes en el TecNM campus Minatitlán, el presente artículo propone implementar técnicas de inteligencia artificial, que ayuden durante el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje para adquirir habilidades que podrán desempeñar en su ámbito laboral, correspondiendo a su perfil de egreso como Ingenieros en Sistemas Computacionales, ante las exigencias de nuevas herramientas tecnológicas con tendencia al futuro

Carbapenemase-Producing Bacteria Isolated from ICU Patients of a Peruvian Government Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Analysis

Background and Objectives: In Peru, the presence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is a constant concern in hospitals and has likely increased in frequency during the pandemic. The objective of the study was to analyze the frequency of carbapenemase-producing bacteria resistant to two carbapenems (Imipenem and Meropenem), which were isolated from Peruvian patients in the intensive care unit of the Victor Lazarte Echegaray Hospital in Trujillo (Peru) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: The biological samples of the patients hospitalized in the ICU were processed in the Microbiology Diagnostic Laboratory of the Víctor Lazarte Echegaray Hospital between May 2021 and March 2022. Antimicrobial sensitivity was determined with the automated system AutoScan-4, and for the identification of the type of carbapenemase, the RESISIT-3 O.K.N K-SET cassettes were used. Results: The results show that 76 cultures (76/129) had resistance to the two carbapenems (imipenem or meropenem), where the most frequent were Klebsiella pneuomoniae (31.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (26.3%), and Acinetobacter baumannii (14.5%). Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultures showed at least three carbapenemase types (KPC, NDM, and OXA-48), while A. baumannii, Escherichia coli, and Burkholderia cepacia complex presented at least two carbapenemases (NDM and OXA-48). The carbapenemase NDM was detected in Enterobacter cloacae, Morganella morganii, and Proteus mirabilis, while KPC was present in all Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca cultures. Conclusions: The samples from patients hospitalized in the Victor Lazarte Echegaray Hospital ICU showed a high prevalence of imipenem- and meropenem-resistant bacteria. These findings are relevant and concerning from the perspective of antibiotic-resistant bacteria monitoring, control, and disinfection. Thus, an appropriate antibiotic policy must be implemented

Three heavy jet events at hadron colliders as a sensitive probe of the Higgs sector

Assuming that a non-standard neutral Higgs with an enhanced Yukawa coupling to a bottom quark is observed at future hadron experiments, we propose a method for a better understanding of the Higgs sector. Our procedure is based on "counting" the number of events with heavy jets (where "heavy" stands for a c or b jet) versus b jets, in the final state of processes in which the Higgs is produced in association with a single high p_T c or b jet. We show that an observed signal of the type proposed, at either the Tevatron or the LHC, will rule out the popular two Higgs doublet model of type II as well as its supersymmetric version - the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), and may provide new evidence in favor of some more exotic multi Higgs scenarios. As an example, we show that in a version of a two Higgs doublet model which naturally accounts for the large mass of the top quark, our signal can be easily detected at the LHC within that framework. We also find that such a signal may be observable at the upgraded Tevatron RunIII, if the neutral Higgs in this model has a mass around 100 GeV and \tan\beta > 50 and if the efficiency for distinguishing a c jet from a light jet will reach the level of 50%.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages, 4 figures embedded in the text. Main changes with respect to Version 1: Numerical results re-calculated using the CTEQ5L pdf, improved discussion on the experimental consequences, new references added. Conclusions remain unchanged. As will appear in Phys. Rev.

Epidemiological implications of the genetic diversification of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes and genotypes in Mexico

Variation and clade shifts in dengue virus (DENV) genotypes are responsible for numerous dengue fever outbreaks throughout Latin America in the past decade. Molecular analyses of dengue serotypes have revealed extensive genetic diversification and the emergence of new genotypes in Brazil (DENV-4 genotype I) and elsewhere in tropical and subtropical America. The goal of the present study is to assess the extent to which the adventitious introduction of DENV genotypes and their increasing genetic diversity affects dengue epidemiology in Mexico. A nuanced sequence inspection and phylogenetic analysis of the C-prM nucleotide region of DENV was performed for specimens collecting in 2009 from the Veracruz State, Mexico. Findings were contrasted with specimens collected in adjacent years and analysed based on the epidemiological patterns reported between 1990 and 2019. Additionally, the identification process of various DENV genotypes was assessed, including: (1) DENV-1, genotype V, (2) the DENV-2 Asian/American and Asian II genotypes (3) DENV-3, genotype III, and (4) DENV-4, genotype I. This resulted in the discovery of a distinct genetic cladistic pattern for serotype DENV-2. Lastly, study findings suggest that a correlation exists between the emergence of novel genotypes and genetic diversification, with the increasing incidence of DENV infections in Mexico in 2009

Prospects of Searches for Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry with h^0 -> {\chi}_1^0 {\chi}_1^0 production in the Time-Delayed Photon + MET Final State at the Tevatron

We propose a search for direct production and decay of the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson to two neutralinos in gauge mediated models at the Fermilab Tevatron. We focus on the final state where each neutralino decays to photon and light gravitino with a lifetime of order O(ns). In the detector this will show up as a photon with a time-delayed signature and missing E_T. We estimate that using the photon timing system at CDF, and the full 10/fb data sample, that the sensitivity can be within a factor of three in some regions of parameter space for direct production of the Higgs.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl