298 research outputs found
Magnetic activity and differential rotation in the young Sun-like stars KIC 7985370 and KIC 7765135
Aims. We present a detailed study of the two Sun-like stars KIC 7985370 and KIC 7765135, to determine their activity level, spot distribution, and differential rotation. Both stars were previously discovered by us to be young stars and were observed by the NASA Kepler mission.
Methods. The fundamental stellar parameters (vsini, spectral type, T_eff, log g, and [Fe/H]) were derived from optical spectroscopy by comparison with both standard-star and synthetic spectra. The spectra of the targets allowed us to study the chromospheric activity based on the emission in the core of hydrogen Hα and Ca ii infrared triplet (IRT) lines, which was revealed by the subtraction of inactive templates. The high-precision Kepler photometric data spanning over 229 days were then fitted with a robust spot model. Model selection and parameter estimation were performed in a Bayesian manner, using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method.
Results. We find that both stars are Sun-like (of G1.5 V spectral type) and have an age of about 100–200 Myr, based on their lithium content and kinematics. Their youth is confirmed by their high level of chromospheric activity, which is comparable to that displayed by the early G-type stars in the Pleiades cluster. The Balmer decrement and flux ratio of their Ca ii-IRT lines suggest that the formation of the core of these lines occurs mainly in optically thick regions that are analogous to solar plages. The spot model applied to the Kepler photometry requires at least seven persistent spots in the case of KIC 7985370 and nine spots in the case of KIC 7765135 to provide a satisfactory fit to the data. The assumption of the longevity of the star spots, whose area is allowed to evolve with time, is at the heart of our spot-modelling approach. On both stars, the surface differential rotation is Sun-like, with the high-latitude spots rotating slower than the low-latitude ones. We found, for both stars, a rather high value of the equator-to-pole differential rotation (dΩ ≈ 0.18 rad d^-1), which disagrees with the predictions of some mean-field models of differential rotation for rapidly rotating stars. Our results agree instead with previous works on solar-type stars and other models that predict a higher latitudinal shear, increasing with equatorial angular velocity, that can vary during the magnetic cycle
Kepler Input Catalog: Photometric Calibration and Stellar Classification
We describe the photometric calibration and stellar classification methods
used to produce the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). The KIC is a catalog containing
photometric and physical data for sources in the Kepler Mission field of view;
it is used by the mission to select optimal targets. We derived atmospheric
extinction corrections from hourly observations of secondary standard fields
within the Kepler field of view. Repeatability of absolute photometry for stars
brighter than magnitude 15 is typically 2%. We estimated stellar parameters
Teff, log(g), log (Z), E_{B-V} using Bayesian posterior probability
maximization to match observed colors to Castelli stellar atmosphere models. We
applied Bayesian priors describing the distribution of solar-neighborhood stars
in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), in log (Z)$, and in height above the
galactic plane. Comparisons with samples of stars classified by other means
indicate that in most regions of the CMD, our classifications are reliable
within about +/- 200 K and +/- 0.4 dex in log (g). It is difficult to assess
the reliability of our log(Z) estimates, but there is reason to suspect that it
is poor, particularly at extreme Teff. Of great importance for the Kepler
Mission, for Teff <= 5400 K, the distinction between main-sequence stars and
giants has proved to be reliable with better than 98% confidence. The KIC is
available through the MAST data archive.Comment: 77 pages, 12 figures, 1 Table. Accepted by Astronomical Journal 24
July 201
Experimental and numerical determination of representative elementary volume for granular plant materials
Novel method for hit-position reconstruction using voltage signals in plastic scintillators and its application to Positron Emission Tomography
Currently inorganic scintillator detectors are used in all commercial Time of
Flight Positron Emission Tomograph (TOF-PET) devices. The J-PET collaboration
investigates a possibility of construction of a PET scanner from plastic
scintillators which would allow for single bed imaging of the whole human body.
This paper describes a novel method of hit-position reconstruction based on
sampled signals and an example of an application of the method for a single
module with a 30 cm long plastic strip, read out on both ends by Hamamatsu
R4998 photomultipliers. The sampling scheme to generate a vector with samples
of a PET event waveform with respect to four user-defined amplitudes is
introduced. The experimental setup provides irradiation of a chosen position in
the plastic scintillator strip with an annihilation gamma quanta of energy
511~keV. The statistical test for a multivariate normal (MVN) distribution of
measured vectors at a given position is developed, and it is shown that signals
sampled at four thresholds in a voltage domain are approximately normally
distributed variables. With the presented method of a vector analysis made out
of waveform samples acquired with four thresholds, we obtain a spatial
resolution of about 1 cm and a timing resolution of about 80 p
System Response Kernel Calculation for List-mode Reconstruction in Strip PET Detector
Reconstruction of the image in Positron Emission Tomographs (PET) requires
the knowledge of the system response kernel which describes the contribution of
each pixel (voxel) to each tube of response (TOR). This is especially important
in list-mode reconstruction systems, where an efficient analytical
approximation of such function is required. In this contribution, we present a
derivation of the system response kernel for a novel 2D strip PET.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; Presented at Symposium on applied nuclear
physics and innovative technologies, Cracow, 03-06 June 201
Test of a single module of the J-PET scanner based on plastic scintillators
Time of Flight Positron Emission Tomography scanner based on plastic
scintillators is being developed at the Jagiellonian University by the J-PET
collaboration. The main challenge of the conducted research lies in the
elaboration of a method allowing application of plastic scintillators for the
detection of low energy gamma quanta. In this article we report on tests of a
single detection module built out from BC-420 plastic scintillator strip (with
dimensions of 5x19x300mm^3) read out at two ends by Hamamatsu R5320
photomultipliers. The measurements were performed using collimated beam of
annihilation quanta from the 68Ge isotope and applying the Serial Data Analyzer
(Lecroy SDA6000A) which enabled sampling of signals with 50ps intervals. The
time resolution of the prototype module was established to be better than 80ps
(sigma) for a single level discrimination. The spatial resolution of the
determination of the hit position along the strip was determined to be about
0.93cm (sigma) for the annihilation quanta. The fractional energy resolution
for the energy E deposited by the annihilation quanta via the Compton
scattering amounts to sigma(E)/E = 0.044/sqrt(E[MeV]) and corresponds to the
sigma(E)/E of 7.5% at the Compton edge.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; Updated with editorial corrections related to
publication in NIM
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