1,454 research outputs found
Science capabilities of the VERITAS array of 10m imaging atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray detectors
Journal ArticleThe Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is an array of seven 10m aperture telescopes used for gamma-ray astronomy in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV (1 TeV= 101 2 electron Volt) energy range. The gamma rays are detected by measuring the optical Cherenkov light emitted by the cascade of electromagnetic particles that is generated by interactions of the high energy gamma-ray with the Earth's Atmosphere. This paper describes the science goals of the VERITAS array, a description of the array, and expected performance of the instrument
Observers and Measurements in Noncommutative Spacetimes
We propose a "Copenhagen interpretation" for spacetime noncommutativity. The
goal is to be able to predict results of simple experiments involving signal
propagation directly from commutation relations. A model predicting an energy
dependence of the speed of photons of the order E/E_Planck is discussed in
detail. Such effects can be detectable by the GLAST telescope, to be launched
in 2006.Comment: 10 pp; v2: equivalence of observers explicitely stated; v3: minor
changes, references and remarks added, burst spreading with energy emphasized
as a signature rather than nois
Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Blazar Markarian 421
Very high energy gamma-ray emission from the BL Lac object Markarian 421 has
been detected over three observing seasons on 59 nights between April 1992 and
June 1994 with the Whipple 10-meter imaging Cherenkov telescope. During its
initial detection in 1992, its flux above 500 GeV was
1.610photons cm s. Observations in 1993 confirmed
this level of emission. For observations made between December 1993 and April
1994, its intensity was a factor of 2.20.5 lower. Observations on 14 and
15 May, 1994 showed an increase over this quiescent level by a factor of
10 (Kerrick et al. 1995). This strong outburst suggests that 4 episodes
of increased flux measurements on similar time scales in 1992 and 1994 may be
attributed to somewhat weaker outbursts. The variability of the TeV gamma-ray
emission from Markarian 421 stands in contrast to EGRET observations (Lin et
al. 1994) which show no evidence for variability.Comment: gzip compressed tar file including LaTeX text and 4 postscript
figures (14 pages total incl. 4 tables), accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal. Contact address is [email protected]
Effects of force load, muscle fatigue and extremely low frequency magnetic stimulation on EEG signals during side arm lateral raise task
Objective: This study was to quantitatively investigate the effects of force load, muscle fatigue and extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic stimulation on electroencephalography (EEG) signal features during side arm lateral raise task.
Approach: EEG signals were recorded by a BIOSEMI Active Two system with Pin-Type active-electrodes from 18 healthy subjects when they performed the right arm side lateral raise task (90° away from the body) with three different loads (0 kg, 1 kg and 3 kg; their order was randomized among the subjects) on the forearm. The arm maintained the loads until the subject felt exhausted. The first 10 s recording for each load was regarded as non-fatigue status and the last 10 s before the subject was exhausted as fatigue status. The subject was then given a 5 min resting between different loads. Two days later, the same experiment was performed on each subject except that ELF magnetic stimulation was applied to the subject's deltoid muscle during the 5 min resting period. EEG features from C3 and C4 electrodes including the power of alpha, beta and gamma and sample entropy were analyzed and compared between different loads, non-fatigue/fatigue status, and with/without ELF magnetic stimulation.
Main results: The key results were associated with the change of the power of alpha band. From both C3-EEG and C4-EEG, with 1 kg and 3 kg force loads, the power of alpha band was significantly smaller than that from 0 kg for both non-fatigue and fatigue periods (all p 0.05 for all the force loads except C4-EEG with ELF simulation). The power of alpha band at fatigue status was significantly increased for both C3-EEG and C4-EEG when compared with the non-fatigue status (p 0.05, except between non-fatigue and fatigue with magnetic stimulation in gamma band of C3-EEG at 1 kg, and in the SampEn at 1 kg and 3 kg force loads from C4-EEG).
Significance: Our study comprehensively quantified the effects of force, fatigue and the ELF magnetic stimulation on EEG features with difference forces, fatigue status and ELF magnetic stimulation
Probing the Planck Scale with Neutrino Oscillations
Quantum gravity "foam", among its various generic Lorentz non-invariant
effects, would cause neutrino mixing. It is shown here that, if the foam is
manifested as a nonrenormalizable effect at scale M, the oscillation length
generically decreases with energy as (E/M)^(-2). Neutrino observatories and
long-baseline experiments should have therefore already observed foam-induced
oscillations, even if M is as high as the Planck energy scale. The null
results, which can be further strengthened by better analysis of current data
and future experiments, can be taken as experimental evidence that Lorentz
invariance is fully preserved at the Planck scale, as is the case in critical
string theory.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Final version published in PRD. 1 figure,
references, clarifications and explanations added. Results unchange
A Survey for Massive Giant Planets in Debris Disks with Evacuated Inner Cavities
The commonality of collisionally replenished debris around main sequence
stars suggests that minor bodies are frequent around Sun-like stars. Whether or
not debris disks in general are accompanied by planets is yet unknown, but
debris disks with large inner cavities - perhaps dynamically cleared - are
considered to be prime candidates for hosting large-separation massive giant
planets. We present here a high-contrast VLT/NACO angular differential imaging
survey for eight such cold debris disks. We investigated the presence of
massive giant planets in the range of orbital radii where the inner edge of the
dust debris is expected. Our observations are sensitive to planets and brown
dwarfs with masses >3 to 7 Jupiter mass, depending on the age and distance of
the target star. Our observations did not identify any planet candidates. We
compare the derived planet mass upper limits to the minimum planet mass
required to dynamically clear the inner disks. While we cannot exclude that
single giant planets are responsible for clearing out the inner debris disks,
our observations constrain the parameter space available for such planets. The
non-detection of massive planets in these evacuated debris disks further
reinforces the notion that the giant planet population is confined to the inner
disk (<15 AU).Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
The SISO CSPI PDG standard for commercial off-the-shelf simulation package interoperability reference models
For many years discrete-event simulation has been used to analyze production and logistics problems in manufactur-ing and defense. Commercial-off-the-shelf Simulation Packages (CSPs), visual interactive modelling environ-ments such as Arena, Anylogic, Flexsim, Simul8, Witness, etc., support the development, experimentation and visua-lization of simulation models. There have been various attempts to create distributed simulations with these CSPs and their tools, some with the High Level Architecture (HLA). These are complex and it is quite difficult to assess how a set of models/CSP are actually interoperating. As the first in a series of standards aimed at standardizing how the HLA is used to support CSP distributed simula-tions, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organiza-tion’s (SISO) CSP Interoperability Product Development Group (CSPI PDG) has developed and standardized a set of Interoperability Reference Models (IRM) that are in-tended to clearly identify the interoperability capabilities of CSP distributed simulations
Characterization of the Benchmark Binary NLTT 33370
We report the confirmation of the binary nature of the nearby, very low-mass
system NLTT 33370 with adaptive optics imaging and present resolved
near-infrared photometry and integrated light optical and near-infrared
spectroscopy to characterize the system. VLT-NaCo and LBTI-LMIRCam images show
significant orbital motion between 2013 February and 2013 April. Optical
spectra reveal weak, gravity sensitive alkali lines and strong lithium 6708
Angstrom absorption that indicate the system is younger than field age.
VLT-SINFONI near-IR spectra also show weak, gravity sensitive features and
spectral morphology that is consistent with other young, very low-mass dwarfs.
We combine the constraints from all age diagnostics to estimate a system age of
~30-200 Myr. The 1.2-4.7 micron spectral energy distribution of the components
point toward T_eff=3200 +/- 500 K and T_eff=3100 +/- 500 K for NLTT 33370 A and
B, respectively. The observed spectra, derived temperatures, and estimated age
combine to constrain the component spectral types to the range M6-M8.
Evolutionary models predict masses of 113 +/- 8 M_Jup and 106 +/- 7 M_Jup from
the estimated luminosities of the components. KPNO-Phoenix spectra allow us to
estimate the systemic radial velocity of the binary. The Galactic kinematics of
NLTT 33370AB are broadly consistent with other young stars in the Solar
neighborhood. However, definitive membership in a young, kinematic group cannot
be assigned at this time and further follow-up observations are necessary to
fully constrain the system's kinematics. The proximity, age, and late-spectral
type of this binary make it very novel and an ideal target for rapid, complete
orbit determination. The system is one of only a few model calibration
benchmarks at young ages and very low-masses.Comment: 25 pages, 3 tables, 13 figures, accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
Properties of the T8.5 Dwarf Wolf 940 B
We present 7.5-14.2um low-resolution spectroscopy, obtained with the Spitzer
Infrared Spectrograph, of the T8.5 dwarf Wolf 940 B, which is a companion to an
M4 dwarf with a projected separation of 400 AU. We combine these data with
previously published near-infrared spectroscopy and mid-infrared photometry, to
produce the spectral energy distribution for the very low-temperature T dwarf.
We use atmospheric models to derive the bolometric correction and obtain a
luminosity of log L/Lsun = -6.01 +/- 0.05. Evolutionary models are used with
the luminosity to constrain the values of effective temperature (T_eff) and
surface gravity, and hence mass and age for the T dwarf. We further restrict
the allowed range of T_eff and gravity using age constraints implied by the M
dwarf primary, and refine the physical properties of the T dwarf by comparison
of the observed and modelled spectroscopy and photometry. This comparison
indicates that Wolf 940 B has a metallicity within 0.2 dex of solar, as more
extreme values give poor fits to the data - lower metallicity produces a poor
fit at lambda > 2um while higher metallicity produces a poor fit at lambda <
2um. This is consistent with the independently derived value of [m/H] = +0.24
+/- 0.09 for the primary star, using the Johnson & Apps (2008) M_K:V-K
relationship. We find that the T dwarf atmosphere is undergoing vigorous
mixing, with an eddy diffusion coefficient K_zz of 10^4 to 10^6 cm^2 s^-1. We
derive an effective temperature of 585 K to 625 K, and surface gravity log g =
4.83 to 5.22 (cm s^-2), for an age range of 3 Gyr to 10 Gyr, as implied by the
kinematic and H alpha properties of the M dwarf primary. The lower gravity
corresponds to the lower temperature and younger age for the system, and the
higher value to the higher temperature and older age. The mass of the T dwarf
is 24 M_Jupiter to 45 M_Jupiter for the younger to older age limit.Comment: 24 pages which include 5 Figures and 3 Tables. Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journal July 2 201
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