9,407 research outputs found
Galactic Archaeology and Minimum Spanning Trees
Chemical tagging of stellar debris from disrupted open clusters and
associations underpins the science cases for next-generation multi-object
spectroscopic surveys. As part of the Galactic Archaeology project TraCD
(Tracking Cluster Debris), a preliminary attempt at reconstructing the birth
clouds of now phase-mixed thin disk debris is undertaken using a parametric
minimum spanning tree (MST) approach. Empirically-motivated chemical abundance
pattern uncertainties (for a 10-dimensional chemistry-space) are applied to
NBODY6-realised stellar associations dissolved into a background sea of field
stars, all evolving in a Milky Way potential. We demonstrate that significant
population reconstruction degeneracies appear when the abundance uncertainties
approach 0.1 dex and the parameterised MST approach is employed; more
sophisticated methodologies will be required to ameliorate these degeneracies.Comment: To appear in "Multi-Object Spectroscopy in the Next Decade: Big
Questions, Large Surveys and Wide Fields"; Held: Santa Cruz de La Palma,
Canary Islands, Spain, 2-6 Mar 2015; ed. I Skillen & S. Trager; ASP
Conference Series (Figures now optimised for B&W printing
Towards a lattice determination of the coupling
The coupling is related to the form factor at zero
momentum of the axial current between - and -states. This form
factor is evaluated on the lattice using static heavy quarks and light quark
propagators determined by a stochastic inversion of the fermionic bilinear. The
\gBBP coupling is related to the coupling between heavy mesons and
low-momentum pions in the effective heavy meson chiral lagrangian. The coupling
of the effective theory can therefore be computed by numerical simulations. We
find the value . Besides its theoretical interest, the
phenomenological implications of such a determination are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
A New Method for Obtaining Binary Pulsar Distances and its Implications for Tests of General Relativity
We demonstrate how measuring orbital period derivatives can lead to more
accurate distance estimates and transverse velocities for some nearby binary
pulsars. In many cases this method will estimate distances more accurately than
is possible by annual parallax, as the relative error decreases as t^-5/2.
Unfortunately, distance uncertainties limit the degree to which nearby
relativistic binary pulsars can be used for testing the general relativistic
prediction of orbital period decay to a few percent. Nevertheless, the measured
orbital period derivative of PSR B1534+12 agrees within the observational
uncertainties with that predicted by general relativity if the proper-motion
contribution is accounted for.Comment: 4 pages, latex, uuencoded compressed postscript + source, no figures,
uses aaspptwo.sty and dec.sty, accepted for publication in ApJL, omitted
reference now include
Water Quality, nutrients and the European Union’s Water Framework Directive in a lowland agricultural region: Suffolk, south-east England.
The water quality of 13 rivers in the lowland, agricultural county of Suffolk is investigated using routine monitoring data for the period 1981 to 2006 collected by the Environment Agency of England and Wales (EA), and its predecessors, with particular emphasis on phosphorus (as total reactive phosphorus, TRP) and total (dissolved and particulate) oxidised nitrogen (TOxN – predominantly nitrate NO3). Major ion and flow data are used to outline fundamental hydrochemical characteristics related to the groundwater provenance of base-flow waters. Relative load contributions from point and diffuse sources are approximated using Load Apportionment Modelling for both TRP and TOxN where concurrent flow and concentration data are available. Analyses indicate a mixture of point and diffuse sources of TRP, with the former being dominant during low flow periods, while for TOxN diffuse sources dominate.
Out of 59 sites considered, 53 (90%) were found to have annual average TRP concentrations greater than 0.05 mg P l-1, and 36 (61%) had average concentrations over 0.120 mg P l-1, the upper thresholds for ‘High’ and ‘Good’ ecological status, respectively. Correspondingly, for TOxN, most of the rivers are already within 70% of the 11.3 mg N l-1 threshold, with two rivers (Wang and Ore) being consistently greater than this.
It is suggested that the major challenge is to characterise and control point-source TRP inputs which, being predominant during the late spring and summer low-flow period, coincide with the peak of primary biological production, thus presenting the major challenge to achieving ‘good’ ecological status under the Water Framework Directive. Results show that considerable effort is still required to ensure appropriate management and develop tools for decision-support
Empirical evidence for the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjectures for modular jacobians of genus 2 curves
This paper provides empirical evidence for the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjectures for modular Jacobians of genus 2 curves. The second of these conjectures relates six quantities associated to a Jacobian over the rational numbers. One of these six quantities is the size of the Shafarevich-Tate group. Unable to compute that, we computed the five other quantities and solved for the last one. In all 32 cases, the result is very close to an integer that is a power of 2. In addition, this power of 2 agrees with the size of the 2-torsion of the Shafarevich-Tate group, which we could compute
Vibrational relaxation measurements in CO2 USING an induced fluorescence technique
Vibrational relaxation measurements in carbon dioxide using induced infrared fluorescence techniqu
Characterization of in band stray light in SBUV/2 instruments
Significant in-band stray light (IBSL) error at solar zenith angle (SZA)
values larger than 77° near sunset in 4 SBUV/2 (Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet) instruments, on board the
NOAA-14, 17, 18 and 19 satellites, has been characterized. The IBSL error is
caused by large surface reflection and scattering of the air-gapped
depolarizer in front of the instrument's monochromator aperture. The source
of the IBSL error is direct solar illumination of instrument components near
the aperture rather than from earth shine. The IBSL contamination at 273 nm
can reach 40% of earth radiance near sunset, which results in as much as
a 50% error in the retrieved ozone from the upper stratosphere. We have analyzed
SBUV/2 albedo measurements on both the dayside and nightside to develop an
empirical model for the IBSL error. This error has been corrected in the
V8.6 SBUV/2 ozone retrieval
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