Primary transit of the planet HD189733b at 3.6 and 5.8 microns

The hot Jupiter HD 189733b was observed during its primary transit using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The transit depths were measured simultaneously at 3.6 and 5.8 microns. Our analysis yields values of 2.356 +- 0.019 % and 2.436 +- 0.020$ % at 3.6 and 5.8 microns respectively, for a uniform source. We estimated the contribution of the limb-darkening and star-spot effects on the final results. We concluded that although the limb darkening increases by ~0.02-0.03 % the transit depths, and the differential effects between the two IRAC bands is even smaller, 0.01 %. Furthermore, the host star is known to be an active spotted K star with observed photometric modulation. If we adopt an extreme model of 20 % coverage with spots 1000K cooler of the star surface, it will make the observed transits shallower by 0.19 and 0.18 %. The difference between the two bands will be only of 0.01 %, in the opposite direction to the limb darkening correction. If the transit depth is affected by limb darkening and spots, the differential effects between the 3.6 and 5.8 microns bands are very small. The differential transit depths at 3.6 and 5.8 microns and the recent one published by Knutson et al.(2007) at 8 microns are in agreement with the presence of water vapour in the upper atmosphere of the planet. This is the companion paper to Tinetti et al. (2007b), where the detailed atmosphere models are presented.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Astrophysical Journal 675. Accepted Nov 21, 20007, to appear on March 10, 200

Binaries with total eclipses in the LMC: potential targets for spectroscopy

35 Eclipsing binaries presenting unambiguous total eclipses were selected from a subsample of the list of Wyrzykowski et al. (2003). The photometric elements are given for the I curve in DiA photometry, as well as approximate Teff and masses of the components. The interest of these systems is stressed in view of future spectroscopic observations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; poster presented at the conference "Close binaries in the 21st Century: new opportunities and challenges", Syros, 27-30 June 200

Cosmological model with non-minimally coupled fermionic field

A model for the Universe is proposed whose constituents are: (a) a dark energy field modeled by a fermionic field non-minimally coupled with the gravitational field, (b) a matter field which consists of pressureless baryonic and dark matter fields and (c) a field which represents the radiation and the neutrinos. The coupled system of Dirac's equations and Einstein field equations is solved numerically by considering a spatially flat homogeneous and isotropic Universe. It is shown that the proposed model can reproduce the expected red-shift behaviors of the deceleration parameter, of the density parameters of each constituent and of the luminosity distance. Furthermore, for small values of the red-shift the constant which couples the fermionic and gravitational fields has a remarkable influence on the density and deceleration parameters.Comment: Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

Consequências genéticas da regeneração natural de espécies arbóreas em área antrópica, AC, Brasil.

O cedro (Cedrela odorata L.) e o ipê-amarelo (Tabebuia serratifolia Nichols.) são espécies arbóreas tropicais economicamente valiosas e que têm sido ameaçadas pela exploração madeireira predatória e pela fragmentação florestal. Ambas apresentam dispersão anemocórica e regeneram naturalmente em áreas de pastagem. Esse estudo comparou, para as duas espécies, a diversidade genética de indivíduos estabelecidos em pastagem e em floresta. Trinta indivíduos de ipê-amarelo foram genotipados com cinco locos isoenzimáticos e 54 de cedro, com quatro locos microssatélites. A diversidade genética foi elevada nas duas subpopulações. Para ipê-amarelo, a diversidade genética foi maior na pastagem. Para cedro, observou-se perda de alelos na pastagem (Â = 11,75 alelos/loco) em comparação à floresta (Â = 14,50). Além disso, 31% dos alelos de cedro foram exclusivos da floresta. Não houve divergência genética entre as subpopulações de ipê-amarelo, porém, para cedro, houve divergência significativa, embora baixa (2,2%). Os resultados mostraram que, para as duas espécies, a subpopulação da pastagem não passou por um gargalo genético severo. A colonização de áreas antrópicas mostrou-se eficiente, mas há necessidade de fluxo gênico contínuo, por sucessivas gerações, entre as áreas para restabelecer (cedro) e manter (ipê) os níveis de diversidade genética observados na área de vegetação primária

The Mean Metal-line Absorption Spectrum of DLAs in BOSS

We study the mean absorption spectrum of the Damped Lyman alpha population at $z\sim 2.6$ by stacking normalized, rest-frame shifted spectra of $\sim 27\,000$ DLAs from the DR12 of BOSS/SDSS-III. We measure the equivalent widths of 50 individual metal absorption lines in 5 intervals of DLA hydrogen column density, 5 intervals of DLA redshift, and overall mean equivalent widths for an additional 13 absorption features from groups of strongly blended lines. The mean equivalent width of low-ionization lines increases with $N_{\rm HI}$, whereas for high-ionization lines the increase is much weaker. The mean metal line equivalent widths decrease by a factor $\sim 1.1-1.5$ from $z\sim2.1$ to $z \sim 3.5$, with small or no differences between low- and high-ionization species. We develop a theoretical model, inspired by the presence of multiple absorption components observed in high-resolution spectra, to infer mean metal column densities from the equivalent widths of partially saturated metal lines. We apply this model to 14 low-ionization species and to AlIII, SIII, SiIII, CIV, SiIV, NV and OVI. We use an approximate derivation for separating the equivalent width contributions of several lines to blended absorption features, and infer mean equivalent widths and column densities from lines of the additional species NI, ZnII, CII${}^{*}$, FeIII, and SIV. Several of these mean column densities of metal lines in DLAs are obtained for the first time; their values generally agree with measurements of individual DLAs from high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra when they are available.Comment: Resubmitted after referee revision. Added evolution of metal-line equivalent widths with redshift (Section 5). Added assessment of result dependencies on sample and methodology. Comparison of relative abundances of DLAs vs Milky Way ISM and halo (Figure 16). Publicly available videos of composite quasar and DLA spectra realizations here: https://github.com/lluism