3,190 research outputs found
Neutron star glitches have a substantial minimum size
Glitches are sudden spin-up events that punctuate the steady spin down of
pulsars and are thought to be due to the presence of a superfluid component
within neutron stars. The precise glitch mechanism and its trigger, however,
remain unknown. The size of glitches is a key diagnostic for models of the
underlying physics. While the largest glitches have long been taken into
account by theoretical models, it has always been assumed that the minimum size
lay below the detectability limit of the measurements. In this paper we define
general glitch detectability limits and use them on 29 years of daily
observations of the Crab pulsar, carried out at Jodrell Bank Observatory. We
find that all glitches lie well above the detectability limits and by using an
automated method to search for small events we are able to uncover the full
glitch size distribution, with no biases. Contrary to the prediction of most
models, the distribution presents a rapid decrease of the number of glitches
below ~0.05 Hz. This substantial minimum size indicates that a glitch must
involve the motion of at least several billion superfluid vortices and provides
an extra observable which can greatly help the identification of the trigger
mechanism. Our study also shows that glitches are clearly separated from all
the other rotation irregularities. This supports the idea that the origin of
glitches is different to that of timing noise, which comprises the unmodelled
random fluctuations in the rotation rates of pulsars.Comment: 8 pages; 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
An amplitude-phase (Ermakov-Lewis) approach for the Jackiw-Pi model of bilayer graphene
In the context of bilayer graphene we use the simple gauge model of Jackiw
and Pi to construct its numerical solutions in powers of the bias potential V
according to a general scheme due to Kravchenko. Next, using this numerical
solutions, we develop the Ermakov-Lewis approach for the same model. This leads
us to numerical calculations of the Lewis-Riesenfeld phases that could be of
forthcoming experimental interest for bilayer graphene. We also present a
generalization of the Ioffe-Korsch nonlinear Darboux transformationComment: FTC, 11 pp, 5 figure
A new small glitch in Vela discovered with a hidden Markov model
A striking feature of the Vela pulsar (PSR J08354510) is that it undergoes
sudden increases in its spin frequency, known as glitches, with a fractional
amplitude on the order of approximately every 900 days. Glitches of
smaller magnitudes are also known to occur in Vela. Their distribution in both
time and amplitude is less well constrained but equally important for
understanding the physical process underpinning these events. In order to
better understand these small glitches in Vela, an analysis of high-cadence
observations from the Mount Pleasant Observatory is presented. A hidden Markov
model (HMM) is used to search for small, previously undetected glitches across
24 years of observations covering MJD 44929 to MJD 53647. One previously
unknown glitch is detected around MJD 48636 (Jan 15 1992), with fractional
frequency jump and frequency
derivative jump . Two
previously reported small glitches are also confidently re-detected, and
independent estimates of their parameters are reported. Excluding these events,
90% confidence frequentist upper limits on the sizes of missed glitches are
also set, with a median upper limit of . Upper limits of this kind are enabled by the semi-automated and
computationally efficient nature of the HMM, and are crucial to informing
studies which are sensitive to the lower end of the glitch size distribution.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
Measuring Dislocation Density in Aluminum with Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy
Dislocations in a material will, when present in enough numbers, change the
speed of propagation of elastic waves. Consequently, two material samples,
differing only in dislocation density, will have different elastic constants, a
quantity that can be measured using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy.
Measurements of this effect on aluminum samples are reported. They compare well
with the predictions of the theory.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Caracterización química y cuantificación del rendimiento de extracción de pigmento en siete accesiones mexicanas de Bixa orellana
Achiote (Bixa orellana) is a plant used for obtaining a natural dye rich on carotenoids (mainly bixin and norbixin); it is also the plant species with the highest content of tocotrienols in nature. In the present work, the pigment extraction yield of seven Mexican accessions of Bixa orellana was quantified. Also color parameters and content of tocotrienols, tocopherols, norbixin, bixin, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity were evaluated in the corresponding annatto extracts. The highest percentage of pigment extraction yield was obtained with KOH (4.84%). Accessions 43 (L*= 4.01 ± 0.79, C*= 7.33 ± 1.07, h= 25.76 ± 6.35) and 50 (L*= 3.17 ± 0.64, C*= 6.81 ± 0.53, h= 26.41 ± 4.41) had the lowest color values, meaning these accessions had a darker and redder color. Four accessions showed the highest content of bixin: accession 48 (3.1%), 45 (2.6%) 43 (2.4%) and 47 (2.2%). Accession 50 had showed the highest content of total phenolic compounds and of tocotrienols (T3), mainly the isoform δ-T3 (5.03 ± 0.64 mg g−1 Seed Dry Weight), as well as the highest antioxidant capacity.El achiote (Bixa orellana) es una planta utilizada para obtener un colorante natural rico en carotenoides (principalmente bixina y norbixina); además, es la especie vegetal con el mayor contenido de tocotrienoles. En este trabajo, se determinó el rendimiento de extracción de pigmento de siete accesiones mexicanas de Bixa orellana. También se evaluaron los parámetros de color y el contenido de tocotrienoles, tocoferoles, norbixina, bixina, compuestos fenólicos totales y la capacidad antioxidante en extractos de annato. El mayor porcentaje de rendimiento de extracción de pigmento fue obtenido con KOH (4.847905%). Las accesiones 43 (L*= 4.01 ± 0.79, C*= 7.33 ± 1.07, h= 25.76 ± 6.35) y 50 (L*= 3.17 ± 0.64, C*= 6.81 ± 0.53, h= 26.41 ± 4.41) presentaron los valores más bajos de los párametros de color, lo que significa que estas accesiones tuvieron un color más oscuro y más rojo. Cuatro accesiones mostraron el mayor contenido de bixina: accesión 48 (3.1%), 45 (2.6%) 43 (2.4%) and 47 (2.2%). La accession 50 mostró el mayor contenido de compuestos fenólicos totales y de tocotrienoles (T3), principalmente la isoforma δ-T3 (5.03 ± 0.64 mg g-1 Peso Seco), así como también la mayor capacidad antioxidante.Fil: Raddatz Mota, D.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Pérez Flores, L. J.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Carrari, Fernando Oscar. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Insani, Ester Marina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Asis, Ramón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Bioquímica Clínica e Inmunología; ArgentinaFil: Mendoza Espinoza, J. A.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Díaz de León Sánchez, F.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Rivera Cabrera, F.. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; Méxic
Early optical spectra of nova V1369 Cen show presence of Lithium
We present early high resolution spectroscopic observations of the nova V1369
Cen. We have detected an absorption feature at 6695.6 \AA\, that we have
identified as blue--shifted Li I 6708 \AA. The absorption line,
moving at -550 km/s, was observed in five high-resolution spectra of the nova
obtained at different epochs. On the basis of the intensity of this absorption
line we infer that a single nova outburst can inject in the Galaxy
0.3 - 4.8 M. Given the current estimates of
Galactic nova rate, this amount is sufficient to explain the puzzling origin of
the overabundance of Lithium observed in young star populations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJLetter
Elongation and fluctuations of semi-flexible polymers in a nematic solvent
We directly visualize single polymers with persistence lengths ranging from
to 16 m, dissolved in the nematic phase of rod-like {\it fd}
virus. Polymers with sufficiently large persistence length undergo a coil-rod
transition at the isotropic-nematic transition of the background solvent. We
quantitatively analyze the transverse fluctuations of semi-flexible polymers
and show that at long wavelengths they are driven by the fluctuating nematic
background. We extract both the Odijk deflection length and the elastic
constant of the background nematic phase from the data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
The Mass-Radius Relationship for Very Low Mass Stars: Four New Discoveries from the HATSouth Survey
We report the discovery of four transiting F-M binary systems with companions
between 0.1-0.2 Msun in mass by the HATSouth survey. These systems have been
characterised via a global analysis of the HATSouth discovery data, combined
with high-resolution radial velocities and accurate transit photometry
observations. We determined the masses and radii of the component stars using a
combination of two methods: isochrone fitting of spectroscopic primary star
parameters, and equating spectroscopic primary star rotation velocity with
spin-orbit synchronisation. These new very low mass companions are HATS550-016B
(0.110 -0.006/+0.005 Msun, 0.147 -0.004/+0.003 Rsun), HATS551-019B (0.17
-0.01/+0.01 Msun, 0.18 -0.01/+0.01 Rsun), HATS551-021B (0.132 -0.005/+0.014
Msun, 0.154 -0.008/+0.006 Rsun), HATS553-001B (0.20 -0.02/+0.01 Msun, 0.22
-0.01/+0.01 Rsun). We examine our sample in the context of the radius anomaly
for fully-convective low mass stars. Combining our sample with the 13 other
well-studied very low mass stars, we find a tentative 5% systematic deviation
between the measured radii and theoretical isochrone models.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Helmholtz theorem and the v-gauge in the problem of superluminal and instantaneous signals in classical electrodynamics
In this work we substantiate the applying of the Helmholtz vector
decomposition theorem (H-theorem) to vector fields in classical
electrodynamics. Using the H-theorem, within the framework of the two-parameter
Lorentz-like gauge (so called v-gauge), we show that two kinds of magnetic
vector potentials exist: one of them (solenoidal) can act exclusively with the
velocity of light c and the other one (irrotational) with an arbitrary finite
velocity (including a velocity more than c . We show also that the
irrotational component of the electric field has a physical meaning and can
propagate exclusively instantaneously.Comment: This variant has been accepted for publication in Found. Phys.
Letter
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