192 research outputs found
A balloon-borne 1 meter telescope for far-infrared astronomy
The flight of a balloon-borne one-meter telescope for infrared astronomy in the wavelength interval of 40 to 240 microns is discussed. The gyro-stabilized telescope mapped the intensity of the far infrared radiation from NGC 7538, Mars, the Orion Nebula, and W3 with a resolution of one minute and from selected regions of these sources with a resolution of 30 seconds. The infrared detection is described and its capabilities are analyzed. The instrumentation, orientation system, and modes of observation of the telescope are defined
Typical local measurements in generalised probabilistic theories: emergence of quantum bipartite correlations
What singles out quantum mechanics as the fundamental theory of Nature? Here
we study local measurements in generalised probabilistic theories (GPTs) and
investigate how observational limitations affect the production of
correlations. We find that if only a subset of typical local measurements can
be made then all the bipartite correlations produced in a GPT can be simulated
to a high degree of accuracy by quantum mechanics. Our result makes use of a
generalisation of Dvoretzky's theorem for GPTs. The tripartite correlations can
go beyond those exhibited by quantum mechanics, however.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure v2: more details in the proof of the main resul
Separable Dual Space Gaussian Pseudo-potentials
We present pseudo-potential coefficients for the first two rows of the
periodic table. The pseudo potential is of a novel analytic form, that gives
optimal efficiency in numerical calculations using plane waves as basis set. At
most 7 coefficients are necessary to specify its analytic form. It is separable
and has optimal decay properties in both real and Fourier space. Because of
this property, the application of the nonlocal part of the pseudo-potential to
a wave-function can be done in an efficient way on a grid in real space. Real
space integration is much faster for large systems than ordinary multiplication
in Fourier space since it shows only quadratic scaling with respect to the size
of the system. We systematically verify the high accuracy of these
pseudo-potentials by extensive atomic and molecular test calculations.Comment: 16 pages, 4 postscript figure
Ten Million Degree Gas in M 17 and the Rosette Nebula: X-ray Flows in Galactic H II Regions
We present the first high-spatial-resolution X-ray images of two high-mass
star forming regions, the Omega Nebula (M 17) and the Rosette Nebula (NGC
2237--2246), obtained with the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced CCD Imaging
Spectrometer (ACIS) instrument. The massive clusters powering these H II
regions are resolved at the arcsecond level into >900 (M 17) and >300 (Rosette)
stellar sources similar to those seen in closer young stellar clusters.
However, we also detect soft diffuse X-ray emission on parsec scales that is
spatially and spectrally distinct from the point source population. The diffuse
emission has luminosity L_x ~ 3.4e33 ergs/s in M~17 with plasma energy
components at kT ~0.13 and ~0.6 keV (1.5 and 7 MK), while in Rosette it has L_x
\~6e32 ergs/s with plasma energy components at kT ~0.06 and ~0.8 keV (0.7 and 9
MK). This extended emission most likely arises from the fast O-star winds
thermalized either by wind-wind collisions or by a termination shock against
the surrounding media. We establish that only a small portion of the wind
energy and mass appears in the observed diffuse X-ray plasma; in these blister
H II regions, we suspect that most of it flows without cooling into the
low-density interstellar medium. These data provide compelling observational
evidence that strong wind shocks are present in H II regions.Comment: 35 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in ApJ, August 20, 2003. A
version with high-resolution figures is available at
ftp://ftp.astro.psu.edu/pub/townsley/diffuse.ps.g
Relativistic separable dual-space Gaussian Pseudopotentials from H to Rn
We generalize the concept of separable dual-space Gaussian pseudopotentials
to the relativistic case. This allows us to construct this type of
pseudopotential for the whole periodic table and we present a complete table of
pseudopotential parameters for all the elements from H to Rn. The relativistic
version of this pseudopotential retains all the advantages of its
nonrelativistic version. It is separable by construction, it is optimal for
integration on a real space grid, it is highly accurate and due to its analytic
form it can be specified by a very small number of parameters. The accuracy of
the pseudopotential is illustrated by an extensive series of molecular
calculations
Searching for transits in the Wide Field Camera Transit Survey with difference-imaging light curves
The Wide Field Camera Transit Survey is a pioneer program aiming at for searching extra-solar planets in the near-infrared. The images from the survey are processed by a data reduction pipeline, which uses aperture photometry to construct the light curves. We produce an alternative set of light curves using the difference-imaging method for the most complete field in the survey and carry out a quantitative comparison between the photometric precision achieved with both methods. The results show that differencephotometry light curves present an important improvement for stars with J > 16. We report an implementation on the box-fitting transit detection algorithm, which performs a trapezoid-fit to the folded light curve, providing more accurate results than the boxfitting model. We describe and optimize a set of selection criteria to search for transit candidates, including the V-shape parameter calculated by our detection algorithm. The optimized selection criteria are applied to the aperture photometry and difference-imaging light curves, resulting in the automatic detection of the best 200 transit candidates from a sample of ~475 000 sources. We carry out a detailed analysis in the 18 best detections and classify them as transiting planet and eclipsing binary candidates. We present one planet candidate orbiting a late G-type star. No planet candidate around M-stars has been found, confirming the null detection hypothesis and upper limits on the occurrence rate of short-period giant planets around M-dwarfs presented in a prior study. We extend the search for transiting planets to stars with J †18, which enables us to set a stricter upper limit of 1.1%. Furthermore, we present the detection of five faint extremely-short period eclipsing binaries and three M-dwarf/M-dwarf binary candidates. The detections demonstrate the benefits of using the difference-imaging light curves, especially when going to fainter magnitudes.Peer reviewe
Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources: The Terahertz spectrum of Orion KL seen at high spectral resolution
We present the first high spectral resolution observations of Orion KL in the
frequency ranges 1573.4 - 1702.8 GHz (band 6b) and 1788.4 - 1906.8 GHz (band
7b) obtained using the HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory.
We characterize the main emission lines found in the spectrum, which primarily
arise from a range of components associated with Orion KL including the hot
core, but also see widespread emission from components associated with
molecular outflows traced by H2O, SO2, and OH. We find that the density of
observed emission lines is significantly diminished in these bands compared to
lower frequency Herschel/HIFI bands.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Herschel HIFI special issue of
Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, 5 pages, 3 figure
Obscured Activity: AGN, Quasars, Starbursts and ULIGs observed by the Infrared Space Observatory
Some of the most active galaxies in the Universe are obscured by large
quantities of dust and emit a substantial fraction of their bolometric
luminosity in the infrared. Observations of these infrared luminous galaxies
with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) have provided a relatively unabsorbed
view to the sources fuelling this active emission. The improved sensitivity,
spatial resolution and spectroscopic capability of ISO over its predecessor
Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), has enabled significant advances in the
understanding of the infrared properties of active galaxies. ISO surveyed a
wide range of active galaxies which, in the context of this review, includes
those powered by intense bursts of star-formation as well as those containing a
dominant active galactic nucleus (AGN). Mid infrared imaging resolved for the
first time the dust enshrouded nuclei in many nearby galaxies, while a new era
in infrared spectroscopy was opened by probing a wealth of atomic, ionic and
molecular lines as well as broad band features in the mid and far infrared.
This was particularly useful since it resulted in the understanding of the
power production, excitation and fuelling mechanisms in the nuclei of active
galaxies including the intriguing but so far elusive ultraluminous infrared
galaxies. Detailed studies of various classes of AGN and quasars greatly
improved our understanding of the unification scenario. Far-infrared imaging
and photometry also revealed the presence of a new very cold dust component in
galaxies and furthered our knowledge of the far-infrared properties of faint
starbursts, ULIGs and quasars. We summarise almost nine years of key results
based upon ISO data spanning the full range of luminosity and type of active
galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in 'ISO science legacy - a compact review of
ISO major achievements', Space Science Reviews - dedicated ISO issue. To be
published by Springer in 2005. 62 pages (low resolution figures version).
Higher resolution PDFs available from
http://users.physics.uoc.gr/~vassilis/papers/VermaA.pdf or
http://www.iso.vilspa.esa.es/science/SSR/Verma.pd
Rank-based model selection for multiple ions quantum tomography
The statistical analysis of measurement data has become a key component of
many quantum engineering experiments. As standard full state tomography becomes
unfeasible for large dimensional quantum systems, one needs to exploit prior
information and the "sparsity" properties of the experimental state in order to
reduce the dimensionality of the estimation problem. In this paper we propose
model selection as a general principle for finding the simplest, or most
parsimonious explanation of the data, by fitting different models and choosing
the estimator with the best trade-off between likelihood fit and model
complexity. We apply two well established model selection methods -- the Akaike
information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) -- to
models consising of states of fixed rank and datasets such as are currently
produced in multiple ions experiments. We test the performance of AIC and BIC
on randomly chosen low rank states of 4 ions, and study the dependence of the
selected rank with the number of measurement repetitions for one ion states. We
then apply the methods to real data from a 4 ions experiment aimed at creating
a Smolin state of rank 4. The two methods indicate that the optimal model for
describing the data lies between ranks 6 and 9, and the Pearson test
is applied to validate this conclusion. Additionally we find that the mean
square error of the maximum likelihood estimator for pure states is close to
that of the optimal over all possible measurements.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 3 table
Gemini Imaging of Mid-IR Emission from the Nuclear Region of Centaurus A
We present high spatial resolution mid-IR images of the nuclear region of NGC
5128 (Centaurus A). Images were obtained at 8.8 micron, N-band (10.4 micron),
and 18.3 micron using the mid-IR imager/spectrometer T-ReCS on Gemini South.
These images show a bright unresolved core surrounded by low-level extended
emission. We place an upper limit to the size of the unresolved nucleus of 3.2
pc (0.19") at 8.8 micron and 3.5 pc (0.21") at 18.3 micron at the level of the
FWHM. The most likely source of nuclear mid-IR emission is from a dusty torus
and possibly dusty narrow line region with some contribution from synchrotron
emission associated with the jet as well as relatively minor starburst
activity. Clumpy tori models are presented which predict the mid-IR size of
this torus to be no larger than 0.05" (0.85pc). Surrounding the nucleus is
extensive low-level mid-IR emission. Previously observed by ISO and Spitzer,
this paper presents to date the highest spatial resolution mid-IR images of
this extended near nuclear structure. Much of the emission is coincident with
Pa-alpha sources seen by HST implying emission from star forming areas, however
evidence for jet induced star formation, synchrotron emission from the jet, a
nuclear bar/ring, and an extended dusty narrow emission line region is also
discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Ap
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