3,710 research outputs found
A multimessenger study of the Milky Way’s stellar disc and bulge with LISA, Gaia, and LSST
The upcoming LISA mission offers the unique opportunity to study the Milky Way through gravitational wave radiation from Galactic binaries. Among the variety of Galactic gravitational wave sources, LISA is expected to individually resolve signals from ∼105 ultra-compact double white dwarf (DWD) binaries. DWDs detected by LISA will be distributed across the Galaxy, including regions that are hardly accessible to electromagnetic observations such as the inner part of the Galactic disc, the bulge and beyond. We quantitatively show that the large number of DWD detections will allow us to use these systems as tracers of the Milky Way potential. We demonstrate that density profiles of DWDs detected by LISA may provide constraints on the scale length parameters of the baryonic components that are both accurate and precise, with statistical errors of a few percent to 10 percent level. Furthermore, the LISA sample is found to be sufficient to disentangle between different (commonly used) disc profiles, by well covering the disc out to sufficiently large radii. Finally, up to ∼80 DWDs can be detected through both electromagnetic and gravitational wave radiation. This enables multi-messenger astronomy with DWD binaries and allows one to extract their physical properties using both probes. We show that fitting the Galactic rotation curve constructed using distances inferred from gravitational waves {\it and} proper motions from optical observations yield a unique and competitive estimate of the bulge mass. Instead robust results for the stellar disc mass are contingent upon knowledge of the Dark Matter content
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Constraining the Milky Way potential with Double White Dwarfs
The 21st European Workshop on White Dwarfs was held in Austin, TX from July 23rd to 27th of 2018The upcoming LISA mission is the only experiment
that will allow us to study the Milky Way’s structure
using gravitational wave signals from Galactic double
white dwarfs (DWDs). The total number of expected
detections exceeds 105. Furthermore, up to
a hundred DWDs can be simultaneously detected in
both gravitational and optical radiation (e.g. with
Gaia and LSST as eclipsing), making DWDs ideal
sources for performing a multi-messenger tomography
of the Galaxy. We show that LISA will detect
DWDs everywhere, mapping also the opposite side
of the Galaxy. This complete coverage will : (1)
provide precise and unbiased constraints on the
scale radii of the Milky Way’s bulge and disc, and
(2) allow us to compute the rotation curve and derive
competitive estimates for the bulge and disc
masses, when combining gravitational wave and
optical observations.Astronom
Total spectrum of photon emission by an ultra-relativistic positron channeling in a periodically bent crystal
We present the results of numerical calculations of the channelling and
undulator radiation generated by an ultra-relativistic positron channelling
along a crystal plane, which is periodically bent. The bending might be due
either to the propagation of a transverse acoustic wave through the crystal, or
due to the static strain as it occurs in superlattices. The periodically bent
crystal serves as an undulator. We investigate the dependence of the
intensities of both the ordinary channelling and the undulator radiations on
the parameters of the periodically bent channel with simultaneous account for
the dechannelling effect of the positrons. We demonstrate that there is a range
of parameters in which the undulator radiation dominates over the channelling
one and the characteristic frequencies of both types of radiation are well
separated. This result is important, because the undulator radiation can be
used to create a tunable source of X-ray and gamma-radiation.Comment: published in J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 26 (2000) L87-L95,
http://www.iop.org ; 12 pages, 4 figures, LaTe
The physical properties of AM CVn stars: new insights from Gaia DR2
AM CVn binaries are hydrogen deficient compact binaries with an orbital
period in the 5-65 min range and are predicted to be strong sources of
persistent gravitational wave radiation. Using Gaia Data Release 2, we present
the parallaxes and proper motions of 41 out of the 56 known systems. Compared
to the parallax determined using the HST Fine Guidance Sensor we find that the
archetype star, AM CVn, is significantly closer than previously thought. This
resolves the high luminosity and mass accretion rate which models had
difficulty in explaining. Using Pan-STARRS1 data we determine the absolute
magnitude of the AM CVn stars. There is some evidence that donor stars have a
higher mass and radius than expected for white dwarfs or that the donors are
not white dwarfs. Using the distances to the known AM CVn stars we find strong
evidence that a large population of AM CVn stars have still to be discovered.
As this value sets the background to the gravitational wave signal of LISA,
this is of wide interest. We determine the mass transfer rate for 15 AM CVn
stars and find that the majority have a rate significantly greater than
expected from standard models. This is further evidence that the donor star has
a greater size than expected.Comment: Accepted by A&A in main journa
Stable propagation of a modulated positron beam in a bent crystal channel
The propagation of a modulated positron beam in a planar crystal channel is
investigated. It is demonstrated that the beam preserves its modulation at
sufficiently large penetration depths which opens the prospect of using a
crystalline undulator as a coherent source of hard x-rays. This finding is a
crucial milestone in developing a new type of lasers radiating in the hard
x-ray and gamma-ray range.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, iopar
Support for graphicacy: a review of textbooks available to accounting students
This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool
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