2,511 research outputs found
The mass of the very massive binary WR21a
We present multi-epoch spectroscopic observations of the massive binary
system WR21a, which include the January 2011 periastron passage. Our spectra
reveal multiple SB2 lines and facilitate an accurate determination of the orbit
and the spectral types of the components. We obtain minimum masses of
and for the two components of
WR21a. Using disentangled spectra of the individual components, we derive
spectral types of O3/WN5ha and O3Vz~((f*)) for the primary and secondary,
respectively. Using the spectral type of the secondary as an indication for its
mass, we estimate an orbital inclination of and
absolute masses of and , in
agreement with the luminosity of the system. The spectral types of the WR21a
components indicate that the stars are very young (12 Myr), similar to the
age of the nearby Westerlund 2 cluster. We use evolutionary tracks to determine
the mass-luminosity relation for the total system mass. We find that for a
distance of 8 kpc and an age of 1.5 Myr, the derived absolute masses are in
good agreement with those from evolutionary predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA
Nonexistence theorems for traversable wormholes
Gauss-Bonnet formula is used to derive a new and simple theorem of
nonexistence of vacuum static nonsingular lorentzian wormholes. We also derive
simple proofs for the nonexistence of lorentzian wormhole solutions for some
classes of static matter such as, for instance, real scalar fields with a
generic potential obeying and massless fermions fields
Geodesic and Path Motion in the Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory
We study the problem of test-particle motion in the Nonsymmetric
Gravitational Theory (NGT) assuming the four-velocity of the particle is
parallel-transported along the trajectory. The predicted motion is studied on a
static, spherically symmetric background field, with particular attention paid
to radial and circular motions. Interestingly, it is found that the proper time
taken to travel between any two non-zero radial positions is finite. It is also
found that circular orbits can be supported at lower radii than in General
Relativity for certain forms of motion.
We present three interactions which could be used as alternate methods for
coupling a test-particle to the antisymmetric components of the NGT field. One
of these takes the form of a Yukawa force in the weak-field limit of a static,
spherically symmetric field, which could lead to interesting phenomenology.Comment: 17 pages, REVTeX 3.0 with amssymb.st
Qualitative Analysis of Universes with Varying Alpha
Assuming a Friedmann universe which evolves with a power-law scale factor,
, we analyse the phase space of the system of equations that describes
a time-varying fine structure 'constant', , in the
Bekenstein-Sandvik-Barrow-Magueijo generalisation of general relativity. We
have classified all the possible behaviours of in ever-expanding
universes with different and find new exact solutions for . We
find the attractors points in the phase space for all . In general, will be a non-decreasing function of time that increases logarithmically in
time during a period when the expansion is dust dominated (), but
becomes constant when . This includes the case of negative-curvature
domination (). also tends rapidly to a constant when the
expansion scale factor increases exponentially. A general set of conditions is
established for to become asymptotically constant at late times in an
expanding universe.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure
Fast dictionary-based compression for inverted indexes
Dictionary-based compression schemes provide fast decoding operation, typically at the expense of reduced compression effectiveness compared to statistical or probability-based approaches. In this work, we apply dictionary-based techniques to the compression of inverted lists, showing that the high degree of regularity that these integer sequences exhibit is a good match for certain types of dictionary methods, and that an important new trade-off balance between compression effectiveness and compression efficiency can be achieved. Our observations are supported by experiments using the document-level inverted index data for two large text collections, and a wide range of other index compression implementations as reference points. Those experiments demonstrate that the gap between efficiency and effectiveness can be substantially narrowed
Properties of WNh stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: evidence for homogeneous evolution
We derive the physical properties of three WNh stars in the SMC to constrain
stellar evolution beyond the main sequence at low metallicity and to
investigate the metallicity dependence of the clumping properties of massive
stars. We compute atmosphere models to derive the stellar and wind properties
of the three WNh targets. A FUV/UV/optical/near-infrared analysis gives access
to temperatures, luminosities, mass loss rates, terminal velocities and stellar
abundances. All stars still have a large hydrogen mass fraction in their
atmosphere, and show clear signs of CNO processing in their surface abundances.
One of the targets can be accounted for by normal stellar evolution. It is a
star with initial mass around 40-50 Msun in, or close to, the core He burning
phase. The other two objects must follow a peculiar evolution, governed by fast
rotation. In particular, one object is likely evolving homogeneously due to its
position blue-ward of the main sequence and its high H mass fraction. The
clumping factor of one star is found to be 0.15+/-0.05. This is comparable to
values found for Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars, indicating that within the
uncertainties, the clumping factor does not seem to depend on metallicity.Comment: 16 pages. A&A accepte
Collinear factorization in wide-angle hadron pair production in e+e-annihilation
We compute the inclusive unpolarized dihadron production cross section in the far from back-to-back region of e+e-annihilation in leading order pQCD using existing fragmentation function fits and standard collinear factorization, focusing on the large transverse momentum region where transverse momentum is comparable to the hard scale (the center-of-mass energy). We compare with standard transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation function-based predictions intended for the small transverse momentum region with the aim of testing the expectation that the two types of calculation roughly coincide at intermediate transverse momentum. We find significant tension, within the intermediate transverse momentum region, between calculations done with existing nonperturbative TMD fragmentation functions and collinear factorization calculations if the center-of-mass energy is not extremely large. We argue that e+e-measurements are ideal for resolving this tension and exploring the large-to-small transverse momentum transition, given the typically larger hard scales (~10 GeV) of the process as compared with similar scenarios that arise in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and fixed-target Drell-Yan measurements
Lorentz Violation of Quantum Gravity
A quantum gravity theory which becomes renormalizable at short distances due
to a spontaneous symmetry breaking of Lorentz invariance and diffeomorphism
invariance is studied. A breaking of Lorentz invariance with the breaking
patterns and , describing 3+1 and 2+1
quantum gravity, respectively, is proposed. A complex time dependent
Schr\"odinger equation (generalized Wheeler-DeWitt equation) for the wave
function of the universe exists in the spontaneously broken symmetry phase at
Planck energy and in the early universe, uniting quantum mechanics and general
relativity. An explanation of the second law of thermodynamics and the
spontaneous creation of matter in the early universe can be obtained in the
symmetry broken phase of gravity.Comment: 10 pages, minor change and reference added. Typos corrected. To be
published in Class. Quant. Grav
Cosmological extrapolation of MOND
Regime of MOND, which is used in astronomy to describe the gravitating
systems of island type without the need to postulate the existence of a
hypothetical dark matter, is generalized to the case of homogeneous
distribution of usual matter by introducing a linear dependence of the critical
acceleration on the size of region under consideration. We show that such the
extrapolation of MOND in cosmology is consistent with both the observed
dependence of brightness on the redshift for type Ia supernovae and the
parameters of large-scale structure of Universe in the evolution, that is
determined by the presence of a cosmological constant, the ordinary matter of
baryons and electrons as well as the photon and neutrino radiation without any
dark matter.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, comments adde
The effect of lutein intake on macular pigment density
Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is a sight-threatening retinal disease found predominately in men and women over 65 years of age. AMD is thought to result from oxidative damage to the retina triggered by UV and blue light. Recent studies have suggested the onset and progression of AMD may be delayed by diet supplementation with antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin which are found in the macular area as the macular pigments. The density of the macular pigments can be quantified using heterochromic flicker photometry. In this study, 29 optometry students, between the ages of 22 and 30, were divided into groups. Group one, the control group, experienced no intervention, group two took 4 mg of lutein daily for 30 days and group three ingested 0.75 ounces of spinach daily for 30 days. The macular pigment density was assessed at baseline before any intervention, after 30 days of supplementation and again 30 days after discontinuing supplementation. Neither lutein nor spinach increased the macular pigment density in this study
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