312 research outputs found
Investigation on intestinal bacterial flora and Salmonella spp. presence in organic and conventional chickens
The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible differences in the intestinal microflora composition among the different rearing systems (conventional vs organic) and the Salmonella diffusion using bacteriological techniques. The results showed that the differences between the two groups at the same age, expressed by the bacterial count, are not conclusive in showing an influence of the rearing systems. Salmonella Hadar was isolated once in caeca of conventional and once in caeca of organic ones. Though the results are preliminary and referred to a well defined geographic area in Central Italy, Salmonella detection does not seem to be common in conventional and organic chicken farms
Lithium abundances in globular clusters
Lithium is created during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis and it is destroyed in stellar interiors at relatively low temperatures. However, it should be preserved in the stellar envelopes of unevolved stars and progressively diluted during mixing processes. In particular, after the first dredge-up along the RGB, lithium should be completely destroyed, but this is not what we observe today in globular clusters. This element allows to test stellar evolutionary models, as well as different types of polluters for second population stars in the multiple population scenarios. Due to the difficulty in the measurement of the small available lithium line, few GCs have been studied in details so far. Literature results are not homogeneous for what concerns type of stars, sample sizes, and chemical analysis methods. The Gaia-ESO survey allows us to study the largest sample of GCs stars (about 2000, both dwarfs and giants) for which the lithium has been analysed homogeneously
The Gaia-ESO Survey: membership and Initial Mass Function of the Gamma Velorum cluster
Understanding the properties of young open clusters, such as the Initial Mass
Function (IMF), star formation history and dynamic evolution, is crucial to
obtain reliable theoretical predictions of the mechanisms involved in the star
formation process. We want to obtain a list, as complete as possible, of
confirmed members of the young open cluster Gamma Velorum, with the aim of
deriving general cluster properties such as the IMF. We used all available
spectroscopic membership indicators within the Gaia-ESO public archive together
with literature photometry and X-ray data and, for each method, we derived the
most complete list of candidate cluster members. Then, we considered
photometry, gravity and radial velocities as necessary conditions to select a
subsample of candidates whose membership was confirmed by using the lithium and
H lines and X-rays as youth indicators. We found 242 confirmed and 4
possible cluster members for which we derived masses using very recent stellar
evolutionary models. The cluster IMF in the mass range investigated in this
study shows a slope of for and
for and is consistent with a standard
IMF. The similarity of the IMF of the young population around Vel to
that in other star forming regions and the field suggests it may have formed
through very similar processes.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A; 18 pages, 11 figures, 5 table
The Gaia-ESO Survey: the selection function of the Milky Way field stars
The Gaia-ESO Survey was designed to target all major Galactic components
(i.e., bulge, thin and thick discs, halo and clusters), with the goal of
constraining the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way. This paper
presents the methodology and considerations that drive the selection of the
targeted, allocated and successfully observed Milky Way field stars. The
detailed understanding of the survey construction, specifically the influence
of target selection criteria on observed Milky Way field stars is required in
order to analyse and interpret the survey data correctly. We present the target
selection process for the Milky Way field stars observed with VLT/FLAMES and
provide the weights that characterise the survey target selection. The weights
can be used to account for the selection effects in the Gaia-ESO Survey data
for scientific studies. We provide a couple of simple examples to highlight the
necessity of including such information in studies of the stellar populations
in the Milky Way.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS (April 25,
2016
X-Ray flares in Orion Young Stars. II. Flares, Magnetospheres, and Protoplanetary Disks
We study the properties of powerful X-ray flares from 161 pre-main sequence
(PMS) stars observed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in the Orion Nebula
region. Relationships between flare properties, protoplanetary disks and
accretion are examined in detail to test models of star-disk interactions at
the inner edge of the accretion disks. Previous studies had found no
differences in flaring between diskfree and accreting systems other than a
small overall diminution of X-ray luminosity in accreting systems. The most
important finding is that X-ray coronal extents in fast-rotating diskfree stars
can significantly exceed the Keplerian corotation radius, whereas X-ray loop
sizes in disky and accreting systems do not exceed the corotation radius. This
is consistent with models of star-disk magnetic interaction where the inner
disk truncates and confines the PMS stellar magnetosphere. We also find two
differences between flares in accreting and diskfree PMS stars. First, a
subclass of super-hot flares with peak plasma temperatures exceeding 100 MK are
preferentially present in accreting systems. Second, we tentatively find that
accreting stars produce flares with shorter durations. Both results may be
consequences of the distortion and destabilization of the stellar magnetosphere
by the interacting disk. Finally, we find no evidence that any flare types,
even slow-rise flat-top flares are produced in star-disk magnetic loops. All
are consistent with enhanced solar long-duration events with both footprints
anchored in the stellar surface.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (07/17/08); 46 pages, 14 figures, 2
table
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Separating disk chemical substructures with cluster models
(Abridged) Recent spectroscopic surveys have begun to explore the Galactic
disk system outside the solar neighborhood on the basis of large data samples.
In this way, they provide valuable information for testing spatial and temporal
variations of disk structure kinematics and chemical evolution. We used a
Gaussian mixture model algorithm, as a rigurous mathematical approach, to
separate in the [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] plane a clean disk star subsample from the
Gaia-ESO survey internal data release 2. We find that the sample is separated
into five groups associated with major Galactic components; the metal-rich end
of the halo, the thick disk, and three subgroups for the thin disk sequence.
This is confirmed with a sample of red clump stars from the Apache Point
Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey. The two
metal-intermediate and metal-rich groups of the thin disk decomposition
([Fe/H]>-0.25 dex) highlight a change in the slope at solar metallicity. This
holds true at different radial regions. The distribution of Galactocentric
radial distances of the metal-poor part of the thin disk ([Fe/H]<-0.25 dex) is
shifted to larger distances than those of the more metal-rich parts. Moreover,
the metal-poor part of the thin disk presents indications of a scale height
intermediate between those of the thick and the rest of the thin disk, and it
displays higher azimuthal velocities than the latter. These stars might have
formed and evolved in parallel and/or dissociated from the inside-out formation
taking place in the internal thin disk. Their enhancement levels might be due
to their origin from gas pre-enriched by outflows from the thick disk or the
inner halo. The smooth trends of their properties (their spatial distribution
with respect to the plane, in particular) with [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe] suggested by
the data indicates a quiet dynamical evolution, with no relevant merger events
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Chromospheric Emission, Accretion Properties, and Rotation in Velorum and Chamaeleon I
We use the fundamental parameters delivered by the GES consortium in the
first internal data release to select the members of Vel and Cha I
among the UVES and GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations. A total of 140
Vel members and 74 Cha I members were studied. We calculated stellar
luminosities through spectral energy distributions, while stellar masses were
derived by comparison with evolutionary tracks. The spectral subtraction of
low-activity and slowly rotating templates, which are rotationally broadened to
match the of the targets, enabled us to measure the equivalent widths
(EWs) and the fluxes in the H and H lines. The H line
was also used for identifying accreting objects and for evaluating the mass
accretion rate (). The distribution of for the
members of Vel displays a peak at about 10 km s with a tail
toward faster rotators. There is also some indication of a different
distribution for the members of its two kinematical populations. Only a handful
of stars in Vel display signatures of accretion, while many more
accretors were detected in the younger Cha~I. Accreting and active stars occupy
two different regions in a -flux diagram and we propose a
criterion for distinguishing them. We derive in the ranges
-yr and -yr
for Vel and Cha I accretors, respectively. We find less scatter in the
relation derived through the H EWs, when
compared to the H diagnostics, in agreement with other authors
The Gaia-ESO Survey: metallicity of the Chamaeleon I star forming region
Context. Recent metallicity determinations in young open clusters and
star-forming regions suggest that the latter may be characterized by a slightly
lower metallicity than the Sun and older clusters in the solar vicinity.
However, these results are based on small statistics and inhomogeneous
analyses. The Gaia-ESO Survey is observing and homogeneously analyzing large
samples of stars in several young clusters and star-forming regions, hence
allowing us to further investigate this issue.
Aims. We present a new metallicity determination of the Chamaeleon I
star-forming region, based on the products distributed in the first internal
release of the Gaia-ESO Survey.
Methods. 48 candidate members of Chamaeleon I have been observed with the
high-resolution spectrograph UVES. We use the surface gravity, lithium line
equivalent width and position in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to confirm the
cluster members and we use the iron abundance to derive the mean metallicity of
the region.
Results. Out of the 48 targets, we confirm 15 high probability members.
Considering the metallicity measurements for 9 of them, we find that the iron
abundance of Chamaeleon I is slightly subsolar with a mean value
[Fe/H]=-0.08+/-0.04 dex. This result is in agreement with the metallicity
determination of other nearby star-forming regions and suggests that the
chemical pattern of the youngest stars in the solar neighborhood is indeed more
metal-poor than the Sun. We argue that this evidence may be related to the
chemical distribution of the Gould Belt that contains most of the nearby
star-forming regions and young clusters.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
The Gaia-ESO Survey: radial metallicity gradients and age-metallicity relation of stars in the Milky Way disk
We study the relationship between age, metallicity, and alpha-enhancement of
FGK stars in the Galactic disk. The results are based upon the analysis of
high-resolution UVES spectra from the Gaia-ESO large stellar survey. We explore
the limitations of the observed dataset, i.e. the accuracy of stellar
parameters and the selection effects that are caused by the photometric target
preselection. We find that the colour and magnitude cuts in the survey suppress
old metal-rich stars and young metal-poor stars. This suppression may be as
high as 97% in some regions of the age-metallicity relationship. The dataset
consists of 144 stars with a wide range of ages from 0.5 Gyr to 13.5 Gyr,
Galactocentric distances from 6 kpc to 9.5 kpc, and vertical distances from the
plane 0 < |Z| < 1.5 kpc. On this basis, we find that i) the observed
age-metallicity relation is nearly flat in the range of ages between 0 Gyr and
8 Gyr; ii) at ages older than 9 Gyr, we see a decrease in [Fe/H] and a clear
absence of metal-rich stars; this cannot be explained by the survey selection
functions; iii) there is a significant scatter of [Fe/H] at any age; and iv)
[Mg/Fe] increases with age, but the dispersion of [Mg/Fe] at ages > 9 Gyr is
not as small as advocated by some other studies. In agreement with earlier
work, we find that radial abundance gradients change as a function of vertical
distance from the plane. The [Mg/Fe] gradient steepens and becomes negative. In
addition, we show that the inner disk is not only more alpha-rich compared to
the outer disk, but also older, as traced independently by the ages and Mg
abundances of stars.Comment: accepted for publication in A&
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