3,727 research outputs found
The mass and radius of the M-dwarf in the short period eclipsing binary RR Caeli
We present new photometry and spectroscopy of the eclipsing white dwarf -
M-dwarf binary star RR Cae. We use timings of the primary eclipse from
white-light photo-electric photometry to derive a new ephemeris for the
eclipses. We find no evidence for any period change greater than Pdot/P ~ 5E-12
over a timescale of 10 years. We have measured the effective temperature of the
white dwarf, T_WD, from an analysis of two high resolution spectra of RR Cae
and find T_WD = (7540 +- 175)K. We estimate a spectral type of M4 for the
companion from the same spectra. We have combined new spectroscopic orbits for
the white dwarf and M-dwarf with an analysis of the primary eclipse and cooling
models for helium white dwarfs to measure the mass and radius of the M-dwarf.
The mass of the M-dwarf is (0.182 - 0.183) +- 0.013 Msun and the radius is
(0.203 - 0.215) +- 0.013 Rsun, where the ranges quoted for these values reflect
the range of white dwarf models used. In contrast to previous studies, which
lacked a spectroscopic orbit for the white dwarf, we find that the mass and
radius of the M-dwarf are normal for an M4 dwarf. The mass of the white dwarf
is (0.440 +-0.022) Msun. With these revised masses and radii we find that RR
Cae will become a cataclysmic variable star when the orbital period is reduced
from its current value of 7.3 hours to 121 minutes by magnetic braking in 9-20
Gyr. We note that there is night-to-night variability of a few seconds in the
timing of primary eclipse caused by changes to the shape of the primary
eclipse. We speculate as to the possible causes of this phenomenon. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The paper contains 10 figures and
3 table
Tracing the spiral arms in IP Pegasi
We report the analysis of time-resolved spectroscopy of IP Pegasi in outburst with eclipse mapping techniques to investigate the location and geometry of the observed spiral structures. We were able to obtain an improved view of the spiral structures with the aid of light curves extracted in velocity bins matching the observed range of velocities of the spiral arms combined with a double default map tailored for reconstruction of asymmetric structures. Two-armed spiral structures are clearly seen in all eclipse maps. The arms are located at different distances from the disc centre. The “blue” arm is farther out in the disc (R = 0.55 ± 0.05 R L1 ) than the “red” arm (R = 0.30 ± 0.05 R L1 ). There is evidence that
the velocity of the emitting gas along the spiral pattern is lower than the Keplerian velocity for the same disc radius. The discrepancy is smaller in the outer arm (measured velocities 10–15 per cent lower than Keplerian) and is more significant in the inner arm (observed velocities up to 40 per cent lower than Keplerian). We measured the opening angle of the spirals from the azimuthal intensity distribution of the eclipse maps to
be φ = 25◦ ± 3◦ . A comparison with similar measurements on data at different outburst stages reveals that the opening angle of the spiral arms in IP Peg decreases while the outbursting accretion disc cools and shrinks, in agreement with the expected evolution of a tidally driven spiral
wave. The sub-Keplerian velocities along the spiral pattern and the clear correlation between the opening angle of the spirals and the outburst stage favors the interpretation of these asymmetric structures as tidally-induced spiral shocks
On the nature of some SGRs and AXPs as rotation-powered neutron stars
We investigate the possibility that some SGRs/AXPs could be canonical
rotation-powered pulsars using realistic NS structure parameters instead of
fiducial values. We show that realistic NS parameters lowers the estimated
value of the magnetic field and radiation efficiency, ,
with respect to estimates based on fiducial NS parameters. We show that nine
SGRs/AXPs can be described as canonical pulsars driven by the NS rotational
energy, for computed in the soft (2--10~keV) X-ray band. We compute the
range of NS masses for which . We discuss the observed
hard X-ray emission in three sources of the group of nine potentially
rotation-powered NSs. This additional hard X-ray component dominates over the
soft one leading to in two of them. We show that 9
SGRs/AXPs can be rotation-powered NSs if we analyze their X-ray luminosity in
the soft 2--10~keV band. Interestingly, four of them show radio emission and
six have been associated with supernova remnants (including Swift J1834.9-0846
the first SGR observed with a surrounding wind nebula). These observations give
additional support to our results of a natural explanation of these sources in
terms of ordinary pulsars. Including the hard X-ray emission observed in three
sources of the group of potential rotation-powered NSs, this number of sources
with becomes seven. It remains open to verification
1) the accuracy of the estimated distances and 2) the possible contribution of
the associated supernova remnants to the hard X-ray emission.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, to appear in A&
Revealing the Archetype: The Journey of a Trecento Madonna and Child at the National Museum of Scotland
The National Museums Scotland Madonna and
Child project sought to uncover and document
the history of a fine polychrome wood carving
attributed to The Master of the Gualino St
Catherine and to prepare it for display. A new
body of knowledge has been assembled by
the interdisciplinary team. The conservation
treatment was informed by this work and led
to further discoveries: the removal of overpaint
exposing a previously hidden underdrawing.
The ethics of the treatment decisions, including
the removal of the Christ Child’s 1960s’ fingers required team dialogue and was opened up for
the public to respond to in a series of blogs.
The discovery of a rich polychromy including
gold and glazed tin has led to further plans to
produce a 3-D colour reconstruction. The collaborations
developed during this project will
facilitate future joint ventures for polychrome
sculpture in Scottish collections
GRB 170817A-GW170817-AT 2017gfo and the observations of NS-NS, NS-WD and WD-WD mergers
The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration has announced the detection of GW170817 and has
associated it with GRB 170817A. These signals have been followed after 11 hours
by the optical and infrared emission of AT 2017gfo. The origin of this complex
phenomenon has been attributed to a neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) merger.
In order to probe this association we confront our current understanding of the
gravitational waves and associated electromagnetic radiation with four observed
GRBs originating in binaries composed of different combinations NSs and white
dwarfs (WDs). We consider 1) GRB 090510 the prototype of NS-NS merger leading
to a black hole (BH); 2) GRB 130603B the prototype of a NS-NS merger leading to
massive NS (MNS) with an associated kilonova; 3) GRB 060614 the prototype of a
NS-WD merger leading to a MNS with an associated kilonova candidate; 4) GRB
170817A the prototype of a WD-WD merger leading to massive WD with an
associated AT 2017gfo-like emission. None of these systems support the above
mentioned association. The clear association between GRB 170817A and AT 2017gfo
has led to introduce a new model based on on a new subfamily of GRBs
originating from WD-WD mergers. We show how this novel model is in agreement
with the exceptional observations in the optical, infrared, X- and gamma-rays
of GRB 170817A-AT 2017gfo.Comment: version accepted for publication in JCAP. Missing references adde
Lipschitz operator ideals and the approximation property
[EN] We establish the basics of the theory of Lipschitz operator ideals with the aim of recovering several classes of Lipschitz maps related to absolute summability that have been introduced in the literature in the last years. As an application we extend the notion and main results on the approximation property for Banach spaces to the case of metric spaces. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.P. Rueda acknowledges with thanks the support of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) MTM2011-22417. E.A. Sanchez Perez acknowledges with thanks the support of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) MTM2012-36740-C02-02.Achour, D.; Rueda, P.; Sánchez Pérez, EA.; Yahi, R. (2016). Lipschitz operator ideals and the approximation property. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications. 436(1):217-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmaa.2015.11.050S217236436
GRB 081024B and GRB 140402A: two additional short GRBs from binary neutron star mergers
Theoretical and observational evidences have been recently gained for a
two-fold classification of short bursts: 1) short gamma-ray flashes (S-GRFs),
with isotropic energy ~erg and no BH formation, and 2) the
authentic short gamma-ray bursts (S-GRBs), with isotropic energy
~erg evidencing a BH formation in the binary neutron star
merging process. The signature for the BH formation consists in the on-set of
the high energy (--~GeV) emission, coeval to the prompt emission, in
all S-GRBs. No GeV emission is expected nor observed in the S-GRFs. In this
paper we present two additional S-GRBs, GRB 081024B and GRB 140402A, following
the already identified S-GRBs, i.e., GRB 090227B, GRB 090510 and GRB 140619B.
We also return on the absence of the GeV emission of the S-GRB 090227B, at an
angle of from the \textit{Fermi}-LAT boresight. All the correctly
identified S-GRBs correlate to the high energy emission, implying no
significant presence of beaming in the GeV emission. The existence of a common
power-law behavior in the GeV luminosities, following the BH formation, when
measured in the source rest-frame, points to a commonality in the mass and spin
of the newly-formed BH in all S-GRBs.Comment: 16 pages, submitted to ApJ, second version addressing the comments by
the refere
Negative Komar Mass of Single Objects in Regular, Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes
We study two types of axially symmetric, stationary and asymptotically flat
spacetimes using highly accurate numerical methods. The one type contains a
black hole surrounded by a perfect fluid ring and the other a rigidly rotating
disc of dust surrounded by such a ring. Both types of spacetime are regular
everywhere (outside of the horizon in the case of the black hole) and fulfil
the requirements of the positive energy theorem. However, it is shown that both
the black hole and the disc can have negative Komar mass. Furthermore, there
exists a continuous transition from discs to black holes even when their Komar
masses are negative.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, document class iopart. v2: changes made
(including title) to coincide with published versio
- …