4,628 research outputs found
Planetary nebulae in the elliptical galaxy NGC 821: kinematics and distance determination
Using a slitless spectroscopy method with the 8.2 m Subaru telescope and its
FOCAS Cassegrain spectrograph, we have increased the number of planetary nebula
(PN) detections and PN velocity measurements in the flattened elliptical galaxy
NGC 821. A comparison with the detections reported previously by the Planetary
Nebula Spectrograph (PN.S) group indicates that we have confirmed most of their
detections. The velocities measured by the two groups, using different
telescopes, spectrographs and slitless techniques, are in good agreement. We
have built a combined sample of 167 PNs and have confirmed the keplerian
decline of the line-of-sight velocity dispersion reported previously. We also
confirm misaligned rotation from the combined sample. A dark matter halo may
exist around this galaxy, but it is not needed to keep the PN velocities below
the local escape velocity as calculated from the visible mass. We have measured
the m(5007) magnitudes of 145 PNs and produced a statistically complete sample
of 40 PNs in NGC 821. The resulting PN luminosity function (PNLF) was used to
estimate a distance modulus of 31.4 mag, equivalent to 19 Mpc. We also
estimated the PN formation rate. NGC 821 becomes the most distant galaxy with a
PNLF distance determination. The PNLF distance modulus is smaller than the
surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distance modulus by 0.4 mag. Our kinematic
information permits to rule out the idea that a shorter PNLF distance could be
produced by the contamination of the PNLF by background galaxies with emission
lines redshifted into the on-band filter transmission curve.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 16 figure
A Case Study on Artefact-based RE Improvement in Practice
Most requirements engineering (RE) process improvement approaches are
solution-driven and activity-based. They focus on the assessment of the RE of a
company against an external norm of best practices. A consequence is that
practitioners often have to rely on an improvement approach that skips a
profound problem analysis and that results in an RE approach that might be
alien to the organisational needs. In recent years, we have developed an RE
improvement approach (called \emph{ArtREPI}) that guides a holistic RE
improvement against individual goals of a company putting primary attention to
the quality of the artefacts. In this paper, we aim at exploring ArtREPI's
benefits and limitations. We contribute an industrial evaluation of ArtREPI by
relying on a case study research. Our results suggest that ArtREPI is
well-suited for the establishment of an RE that reflects a specific
organisational culture but to some extent at the cost of efficiency resulting
from intensive discussions on a terminology that suits all involved
stakeholders. Our results reveal first benefits and limitations, but we can
also conclude the need of longitudinal and independent investigations for which
we herewith lay the foundation
Time delay of light signals in an energy-dependent spacetime metric
In this note we review the problem of time delay of photons propagating in a
spacetime with a metric that explicitly depends on the energy of the particles
(Gravity-Rainbow approach). We show that corrections due to this approach --
which is closely related to DSR proposal -- produce for small redshifts
() smaller time delays than in the generic Lorentz Invariance Violating
case.Comment: 5 pages. This version contains two new references with respect to the
published versio
On the algebraic structure of rotationally invariant two-dimensional Hamiltonians on the noncommutative phase space
We study two-dimensional Hamiltonians in phase space with noncommutativity
both in coordinates and momenta. We consider the generator of rotations on the
noncommutative plane and the Lie algebra generated by Hermitian rotationally
invariant quadratic forms of noncommutative dynamical variables. We show that
two quantum phases are possible, characterized by the Lie algebras
or according to the relation between the
noncommutativity parameters, with the rotation generator related with the
Casimir operator. From this algebraic perspective, we analyze the spectrum of
some simple models with nonrelativistic rotationally invariant Hamiltonians in
this noncommutative phase space, as the isotropic harmonic oscillator, the
Landau problem and the cylindrical well potential.
PACS: 03.65.-w; 03.65.Fd
MSC: 81R05; 20C35; 22E70Comment: 49 pages. No figures. Version to appear in JP
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