9,777 research outputs found
The white dwarf population within 40 pc of the Sun
The white dwarf luminosity function is an important tool to understand the
properties of the Solar neighborhood, like its star formation history, and its
age. Here we present a population synthesis study of the white dwarf population
within 40~pc from the Sun, and compare the results of this study with the
properties of the observed sample. We use a state-of-the-art population
synthesis code based on Monte Carlo techniques, that incorporates the most
recent and reliable white dwarf cooling sequences, an accurate description of
the Galactic neighborhood, and a realistic treatment of all the known
observational biases and selection procedures. We find a good agreement between
our theoretical models and the observed data. In particular, our simulations
reproduce a previously unexplained feature of the bright branch of the white
dwarf luminosity function, which we argue is due to a recent episode of star
formation. We also derive the age of the Solar neighborhood employing the
position of the observed cut-off of the white dwarf luminosity function,
obtaining ~8.9+-0.2 Gyr. We conclude that a detailed description of the
ensemble properties of the population of white dwarfs within 40pc of the Sun
allows us to obtain interesting constraints on the history of the Solar
neighborhood.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A population synthesis study of the luminosity function of hot white dwarfs
We present a coherent and detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the population
of hot white dwarfs. We assess the statistical significance of the hot end of
the white dwarf luminosity function and the role played by the bolometric
corrections of hydrogen-rich white dwarfs at high effective temperatures. We
use the most up-to-date stellar evolutionary models and implement a full
description of the observational selection biases to obtain realistic
simulations of the observed white dwarf population. Our theoretical results are
compared with the luminosity function of hot white dwarfs obtained from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), for both DA and non-DA white dwarfs. We find
that the theoretical results are in excellent agreement with the observational
data for the population of white dwarfs with hydrogen deficient atmospheres
(non-DA white dwarfs). For the population of white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich
atmospheres (white dwarfs of the DA class), our simulations show some
discrepancies with the observations for the brightest luminosity bins. These
discrepancies can be attributed to the way in which the masses of the white
dwarfs contributing to this luminosity bin have been computed, as most of them
have masses smaller than the theoretical lower limit for carbon-oxygen white
dwarfs. We conclude that the way in which the observational luminosity function
of hot white dwarfs is obtained is very sensitive to the particular
implementation of the method used to derive the masses of the sample. We also
provide a revised luminosity function for hot white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich
atmospheres.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Revisiting the luminosity function of single halo white dwarfs
White dwarfs are the fossils left by the evolution of low-and
intermediate-mass stars, and have very long evolutionary timescales. This
allows us to use them to explore the properties of old populations, like the
Galactic halo. We present a population synthesis study of the luminosity
function of halo white dwarfs, aimed at investigating which information can be
derived from the currently available observed data. We employ an up-to-date
population synthesis code based on Monte Carlo techniques, that incorporates
the most recent and reliable cooling sequences for metal poor progenitors as
well as an accurate modeling of the observational biases. We find that because
the observed sample of halo white dwarfs is restricted to the brightest stars
only the hot branch of the white dwarf luminosity function can be used for such
purposes, and that its shape function is almost insensitive to the most
relevant inputs, like the adopted cooling sequences, the initial mass function,
the density profile of the stellar spheroid, or the adopted fraction of
unresolved binaries. Moreover, since the cut-off of the observed luminosity has
not been yet determined only lower limits to the age of the halo population can
be placed. We conclude that the current observed sample of the halo white dwarf
population is still too small to obtain definite conclusions about the
properties of the stellar halo, and the recently computed white dwarf cooling
sequences which incorporate residual hydrogen burning should be assessed using
metal-poor globular clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Los suelos en la enseñanza de la teoría ácido-base de Lewis : una estrategia didáctica de aprendizaje por investigación
This article describes and analyses the results obtained in a didactical experimental strategy, structured in the Teaching and Learning model which is based on research. The students are involved in situations, where problems related with the soil are used in order to help the significative construction of the acid and base's concepts related to the Lewis' Theory in order to increase the students mental ability for analysing and synthesizing and also to develop their attitudes towards science
A search for new hot subdwarf stars by means of Virtual Observatory tools
Hot subdwarf stars are faint, blue objects, and are the main contributors to
the far-UV excess observed in elliptical galaxies. They offer an excellent
laboratory to study close and wide binary systems, and to scrutinize their
interiors through asteroseismology, as some of them undergo stellar
oscillations. However, their origins are still uncertain, and increasing the
number of detections is crucial to undertake statistical studies. In this work,
we aim at defining a strategy to find new, uncatalogued hot subdwarfs. Making
use of Virtual Observatory tools we thoroughly search stellar catalogues to
retrieve multi-colour photometry and astrometric information of a known sample
of blue objects, including hot subdwarfs, white dwarfs, cataclysmic variables
and main sequence OB stars. We define a procedure to discriminate among these
spectral classes, particularly designed to obtain a hot subdwarf sample with a
low contamination factor. In order to check the validity of the method, this
procedure is then applied to two test sky regions: the Kepler FoV and to a test
region of around (RA:225, DEC:5) deg. As a result, we obtained 38 hot subdwarf
candidates, 23 of which had already a spectral classification. We have acquired
spectroscopy for three other targets, and four additional ones have an
available SDSS spectrum, which we used to determine their spectral type. A
temperature estimate is provided for the candidates based on their spectral
energy distribution, considering two-atmospheres fit for objects with clear
infrared excess. Eventually, out of 30 candidates with spectral classification,
26 objects were confirmed to be hot subdwarfs, yielding a contamination factor
of only 13%. The high rate of success demonstrates the validity of the proposed
strategy to find new uncatalogued hot subdwarfs. An application of this method
to the entire sky will be presented in a forthcoming work.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Numerical precision radiative corrections to the Dalitz plot of baryon semileptonic decays including the spin-momentum correlation of the decaying and emitted baryons
We calculate the radiative corrections to the angular correlation between the
polarization of the decaying and the direction of the emitted spin one-half
baryons in the semileptonic decay mode. The final results are presented, first,
with the triple integration of the bremsstrahlung photon ready to be performed
numerically and, second, in an analytical form. A third presentation of our
results in the form of numerical arrays of coefficients to be multiplied by the
quadratic products of form factors is discussed. This latter may be the most
practical one to use in Monte Carlo simulations. A series of crosschecks is
performed. Previous results to order (alpha/pi)(q/M_1) for the decays of
unpolarized baryons are reviewed, too, where q is the momentum transfer and M_1
is the mass of the decaying baryon. This paper is self-contained and organized
to make it accessible and reliable in the analysis of the Dalitz plot of
precision experiments involving heavy quarks and is not compromised to fixing
the form factors at predetermined values. It is assumed that the real photons
are kinematically discriminated. Otherwise, our results have a general
model-independent applicability.Comment: 34 pages, 4 tables, no figures. Some sections have been shortened.
Conclusions remain unchange
Cattle marks similarity measure by shape distributions
This paper reports the investigation results addressed to design of a digital image processing method for automate the registration and control process of livestock marks according to Colombian regulations livestock sector. It allows automate the process of search and comparison required for livestock mark uniqueness assurance on a computer assisted system. First, a histogram is generated based on statistical distribution of geometrical information, which permit to detect similarities between registered marks by means Minkowski-based metric. The results show that the method allows discriminating between images using a digital signature from a Shape Distribution the geometric structure reducing ambiguity and ensuring the uniqueness of registered marks. We show the results and make an analysis of system application.Este documento reporta los resultados de una investigación orientada hacia el diseño de un método de tratamiento de imágenes digitales para la automatización de los procesos de registro y control de marcas de ganado requeridas por las regulaciones del sector ganadero en Colombia. El método permite automatizar los procesos de búsqueda y de comparación necesarios para garantizar la unicidad de las marcas dentro de un sistema asistido por computadora. Se inicia con la generación de un histograma estimado de la geometría de la marca, lo que permite comparar y detectar similitudes entre las figuras previamente almacenadas, mediante una métrica de similitud basada en la distancia de Minkowski. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el método es adecuado para realizar un proceso de discriminación de dichas imágenes, reducir las ambigüedades y garantizar la unicidad de los registros. Los resultados obtenidos y un análisis de su aplicación son reportados
A white dwarf cooling age of 8 Gyr for NGC 6791 from physical separation processes
NGC 6791 is a well studied open cluster1 that it is so close to us that can
be imaged down to very faint luminosities. The main sequence turn-off age (~8
Gyr) and the age derived from the termination of the white dwarf cooling
sequence (~6 Gyr) are significantly different. One possible explanation is that
as white dwarfs cool, one of the ashes of helium burning, 22Ne, sinks in the
deep interior of these stars. At lower temperatures, white dwarfs are expected
to crystallise and phase separation of the main constituents of the core of a
typical white dwarf, 12C and 16O, is expected to occur. This sequence of events
is expected to introduce significant delays in the cooling times, but has not
hitherto been proven. Here we report that, as theoretically anticipated,
physical separation processes occur in the cores of white dwarfs, solving the
age discrepancy for NGC 6791.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, published in Natur
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