The Stellar Content Near the Galactic Center

High angular resolution J, H, K, and L' images are used to investigate the stellar content within 6 arcsec of SgrA*. The data, which are complete to K ~ 16, are the deepest multicolor observations of the region published to date.Comment: 34 pages, including 12 figure

A Near-Infrared Survey of the Inner Galactic Plane for Wolf-Rayet Stars I. Methods and First Results: 41 New WR Stars

The discovery of new Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in our Galaxy via large-scale narrowband optical surveys has been severely limited by dust extinction. Recent improvements in infrared technology have made narrowband-broadband imaging surveys viable again. We report a new J, K and narrow-band imaging survey of 300 square degrees of the plane of the Galaxy, spanning 150 degrees in Galactic longitude and reaching 1 degree above and below the Galactic plane. The survey has a useful limiting magnitude of K = 15 over most of the observed Galactic plane, and K = 14 within a few degrees of the Galactic center. Thousands of emission line candidates have been detected. In spectrographic follow-ups of 173 WR star candidates we have discovered 41 new WR stars, 15 of type WN and 26 of type WC. Star subtype assignments have been confirmed with K band spectra, and distances approximated using the method of spectroscopic parallax. A few of the new WR stars are amongst the most distant known in our Galaxy. The distribution of these new WR stars is seen to follow that of previously known WR stars along the spiral arms of the Galaxy. Tentative radial velocities were also measured for most of the new WR stars.Comment: 55 pages, 23 figures, 7 tables, accepted to Astronomical Journa

Finite Temperature Dynamical Correlations in Massive Integrable Quantum Field Theories

We consider the finite-temperature frequency and momentum dependent two-point functions of local operators in integrable quantum field theories. We focus on the case where the zero temperature correlation function is dominated by a delta-function line arising from the coherent propagation of single particle modes. Our specific examples are the two-point function of spin fields in the disordered phase of the quantum Ising and the O(3) nonlinear sigma models. We employ a Lehmann representation in terms of the known exact zero-temperature form factors to carry out a low-temperature expansion of two-point functions. We present two different but equivalent methods of regularizing the divergences present in the Lehmann expansion: one directly regulates the integral expressions of the squares of matrix elements in the infinite volume whereas the other operates through subtracting divergences in a large, finite volume. Our central results are that the temperature broadening of the line shape exhibits a pronounced asymmetry and a shift of the maximum upwards in energy ("temperature dependent gap"). The field theory results presented here describe the scaling limits of the dynamical structure factor in the quantum Ising and integer spin Heisenberg chains. We discuss the relevance of our results for the analysis of inelastic neutron scattering experiments on gapped spin chain systems such as CsNiCl3 and YBaNiO5.Comment: 54 pages, 10 figure

Calogero-Sutherland eigenfunctions with mixed boundary conditions and conformal field theory correlators

We construct certain eigenfunctions of the Calogero-Sutherland hamiltonian for particles on a circle, with mixed boundary conditions. That is, the behavior of the eigenfunction, as neighbouring particles collide, depend on the pair of colliding particles. This behavior is generically a linear combination of two types of power laws, depending on the statistics of the particles involved. For fixed ratio of each type at each pair of neighboring particles, there is an eigenfunction, the ground state, with lowest energy, and there is a discrete set of eigenstates and eigenvalues, the excited states and the energies above this ground state. We find the ground state and special excited states along with their energies in a certain class of mixed boundary conditions, interpreted as having pairs of neighboring bosons and other particles being fermions. These particular eigenfunctions are characterised by the fact that they are in direct correspondence with correlation functions in boundary conformal field theory. We expect that they have applications to measures on certain configurations of curves in the statistical O(n) loop model. The derivation, although completely independent from results of conformal field theory, uses ideas from the "Coulomb gas" formulation.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figure

Conformal loop ensembles and the stress-energy tensor

We give a construction of the stress-energy tensor of conformal field theory (CFT) as a local "object" in conformal loop ensembles CLE_\kappa, for all values of \kappa in the dilute regime 8/3 < \kappa <= 4 (corresponding to the central charges 0 < c <= 1, and including all CFT minimal models). We provide a quick introduction to CLE, a mathematical theory for random loops in simply connected domains with properties of conformal invariance, developed by Sheffield and Werner (2006). We consider its extension to more general regions of definition, and make various hypotheses that are needed for our construction and expected to hold for CLE in the dilute regime. Using this, we identify the stress-energy tensor in the context of CLE. This is done by deriving its associated conformal Ward identities for single insertions in CLE probability functions, along with the appropriate boundary conditions on simply connected domains; its properties under conformal maps, involving the Schwarzian derivative; and its one-point average in terms of the "relative partition function." Part of the construction is in the same spirit as, but widely generalizes, that found in the context of SLE_{8/3} by the author, Riva and Cardy (2006), which only dealt with the case of zero central charge in simply connected hyperbolic regions. We do not use the explicit construction of the CLE probability measure, but only its defining and expected general properties.Comment: 49 pages, 3 figures. This is a concatenated, reduced and simplified version of arXiv:0903.0372 and (especially) arXiv:0908.151

Characterization of the K2-18 multi-planetary system with HARPS: A habitable zone super-Earth and discovery of a second, warm super-Earth on a non-coplanar orbit

The bright M dwarf K2-18 at 34 pc is known to host a transiting super-Earth-sized planet orbiting within the star's habitable zone; K2-18b. Given the superlative nature of this system for studying an exoplanetary atmosphere receiving similar levels of insolation as the Earth, we aim to characterize the planet's mass which is required to interpret atmospheric properties and infer the planet's bulk composition. We obtain precision radial velocity measurements with the HARPS spectrograph and couple those measurements with the K2 photometry to jointly model the observed radial velocity variation with planetary signals and a radial velocity jitter model based on Gaussian process regression. We measure the mass of K2-18b to be $8.0 \pm 1.9$ M$_{\oplus}$ with a bulk density of $3.7 \pm 0.9$ g/cm$^3$ which may correspond to a predominantly rocky planet with a significant gaseous envelope or an ocean planet with a water mass fraction $\gtrsim 50$%. We also find strong evidence for a second, warm super-Earth K2-18c at $\sim 9$ days with a semi-major axis 2.4 times smaller than the transiting K2-18b. After re-analyzing the available light curves of K2-18 we conclude that K2-18c is not detected in transit and therefore likely has an orbit that is non-coplanar with K2-18b. A suite of dynamical integrations with varying simulated orbital eccentricities of the two planets are used to further constrain each planet's eccentricity posterior from which we measure $e_b < 0.43$ and $e_c < 0.47$ at 99% confidence. The discovery of the inner planet K2-18c further emphasizes the prevalence of multi-planet systems around M dwarfs. The characterization of the density of K2-18b reveals that the planet likely has a thick gaseous envelope which along with its proximity to the Solar system makes the K2-18 planetary system an interesting target for the atmospheric study of an exoplanet receiving Earth-like insolation.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures including 4 interactive figures best viewed in Adobe Acrobat. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics. Comments welcom

Finite Temperature Dynamical Structure Factor of Alternating Heisenberg Chains

We develop a low-temperature expansion for the finite temperature dynamical structure factor of the spin half Heisenberg chain with alternating nearest neighbour exchange in the limit of strong alternation of the exchange constants. We determine both the broadening of the low lying triplet lines and the contribution of the thermally activated intraband scattering.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps-figure

Bi-partite entanglement entropy in integrable models with backscattering

In this paper we generalise the main result of a recent work by J. L. Cardy and the present authors concerning the bi-partite entanglement entropy between a connected region and its complement. There the expression of the leading order correction to saturation in the large distance regime was obtained for integrable quantum field theories possessing diagonal scattering matrices. It was observed to depend only on the mass spectrum of the model and not on the specific structure of the diagonal scattering matrix. Here we extend that result to integrable models with backscattering (i.e. with non-diagonal scattering matrices). We use again the replica method, which connects the entanglement entropy to partition functions on Riemann surfaces with two branch points. Our main conclusion is that the mentioned infrared correction takes exactly the same form for theories with and without backscattering. In order to give further support to this result, we provide a detailed analysis in the sine-Gordon model in the coupling regime in which no bound states (breathers) occur. As a consequence, we obtain the leading correction to the sine-Gordon partition function on a Riemann surface in the large distance regime. Observations are made concerning the limit of large number of sheets.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure