898 research outputs found
MERLIN observations of GRS 1915+105 : a progress report
We present a progress report on MERLIN radio imaging of a radio outburst from
GRS 1915+105. The major ejection occurred at the end of an approximately 20-day
`plateau' state, characterised by low/hard X-ray fluxes and a relatively strong
flat-spectrum radio component. Apparent superluminal motions have been mapped
with unprecedented resolution, and imply higher velocities in the jet than
previously derived.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To be published in New Astronomy Reviews, as part
of proceedings of 2nd workshop on Galactic sources with relativistic jet
Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomized controlled trial
Lameness is one of the most significant endemic disease problems facing the dairy industry. Claw horn lesions (principally sole hemorrhage, sole ulcer, and white line disease) are some of the most prevalent conditions. Despite the fact that thousands of animals are treated for these conditions every year, experimental evidence is limited on the most effective treatment protocols. A randomized, positively controlled clinical trial was conducted to test the recovery of newly lame cows with claw horn lesions. Animals on 5 farms were locomotion scored every 2 wk. Cows were eligible for recruitment if they had 2 nonlame scores followed by a lame score and had a claw horn lesion on a single claw of a single foot. Following a therapeutic trim, enrolled cows were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 treatments: treatment 1—no further treatment (positive control; TRM), treatment 2—trim plus a block on the sound claw (TB), treatment 3—trim plus a 3-d course of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ketoprofen (TN), treatment 4—trim plus a block plus ketoprofen (TBN). The primary outcome measure was locomotion score 35 d after treatment, by an observer blind to treatment group. Descriptive statistics suggested that treatment groups were balanced at the time of enrollment, that is, randomization was successful. Based on a sound locomotion score (score 0) 35 d after treatment, the number of cures was 11 of 45 (24.4%) for TRM, 14 of 39 (35.9%) for TB, 12 of 42 (28.6%) for TN, and 23 of 41 (56.1%) for TBN. The difference between TBN and TRM was significant. To test for confounding imbalances between treatment groups, logistic regression models were built with 2 outcomes, either sound (score 0) or nonlame (score 0 or 1) 35 d after treatment. Compared with TRM, animals that received TBN were significantly more likely to cure to a sound outcome. Farm, treatment season, lesion diagnosis, limb affected, treatment operator, and stage of lactation were included in the final models. Our work suggests that lameness cure is maximized with NSAID treatment in addition to the common practices of therapeutic trimming and elevation of the diseased claw using a block when cows are newly and predominantly mildly lame
Exact General Relativistic Perfect Fluid Disks with Halos
Using the well-known ``displace, cut and reflect'' method used to generate
disks from given solutions of Einstein field equations, we construct static
disks made of perfect fluid based on vacuum Schwarzschild's solution in
isotropic coordinates. The same method is applied to different exactsolutions
to the Einstein'sequations that represent static spheres of perfect fluids. We
construct several models of disks with axially symmetric perfect fluid halos.
All disks have some common features: surface energy density and pressures
decrease monotonically and rapidly with radius. As the ``cut'' parameter
decreases, the disks become more relativistic, with surface energy density and
pressure more concentrated near the center. Also regions of unstable circular
orbits are more likely to appear for high relativistic disks. Parameters can be
chosen so that the sound velocity in the fluid and the tangential velocity of
test particles in circular motion are less then the velocity of light. This
tangential velocity first increases with radius and reaches a maximum.Comment: 22 pages, 25 eps.figs, RevTex. Phys. Rev. D to appea
Anisotropic distribution functions for spherical galaxies
A method is presented for finding anisotropic distribution functions for
stellar systems with known, spherically symmetric, densities, which depends
only on the two classical integrals of the energy and the magnitude of the
angular momentum. It requires the density to be expressed as a sum of products
of functions of the potential and of the radial coordinate. The solution
corresponding to this type of density is in turn a sum of products of functions
of the energy and of the magnitude of the angular momentum. The products of the
density and its radial and transverse velocity dispersions can be also
expressed as a sum of products of functions of the potential and of the radial
coordinate. Several examples are given, including some of new anisotropic
distribution functions. This device can be extended further to the related
problem of finding two-integral distribution functions for axisymmetric
galaxies.Comment: 5 figure
Doppler-free frequency modulation spectroscopy of atomic erbium in a hollow cathode discharge cell
The erbium atomic system is a promising candidate for an atomic Bose-Einstein
condensate of atoms with a non-vanishing orbital angular momentum ()
of the electronic ground state. In this paper we report on the frequency
stabilization of a blue external cavity diode laser system on the 400.91
laser cooling transition of atomic erbium. Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy
is applied within a hollow cathode discharge tube to the corresponding
electronic transition of several of the erbium isotopes. Using the technique of
frequency modulation spectroscopy, a zero-crossing error signal is produced to
lock the diode laser frequency on the atomic erbium resonance. The latter is
taken as a reference laser to which a second main laser system, used for laser
cooling of atomic erbium, is frequency stabilized
Large-scale periodicity in the distribution of QSO absorption-line systems
The spatial-temporal distribution of absorption-line systems (ALSs) observed
in QSO spectra within the cosmological redshift interval z = 0.0--4.3 is
investigated on the base of our updated catalog of absorption systems. We
consider so called metallic systems including basically lines of heavy
elements. The sample of the data displays regular variations (with amplitudes ~
15 -- 20%) in the z-distribution of ALSs as well as in the eta-distribution,
where eta is a dimensionless line-of-sight comoving distance, relatively to
smoother dependences. The eta-distribution reveals the periodicity with period
Delta eta = 0.036 +/- 0.002, which corresponds to a spatial characteristic
scale (108 +/- 6) h(-1) Mpc or (alternatively) a temporal interval (350 +/- 20)
h(-1) Myr for the LambdaCDM cosmological model. We discuss a possibility of a
spatial interpretation of the results treating the pattern obtained as a trace
of an order imprinted on the galaxy clustering in the early Universe.Comment: AASTeX, 13 pages, with 9 figures, Accepted for publication in
Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Exact General Relativistic Thick Disks
A method to construct exact general relativistic thick disks that is a simple
generalization of the ``displace, cut and reflect'' method commonly used in
Newtonian, as well as, in Einstein theory of gravitation is presented. This
generalization consists in the addition of a new step in the above mentioned
method. The new method can be pictured as a ``displace, cut, {\it fill} and
reflect'' method. In the Newtonian case, the method is illustrated in some
detail with the Kuzmin-Toomre disk. We obtain a thick disk with acceptable
physical properties. In the relativistic case two solutions of the Weyl
equations, the Weyl gamma metric (also known as Zipoy-Voorhees metric) and the
Chazy-Curzon metric are used to construct thick disks. Also the Schwarzschild
metric in isotropic coordinates is employed to construct another family of
thick disks. In all the considered cases we have non trivial ranges of the
involved parameter that yield thick disks in which all the energy conditions
are satisfied.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, 9 eps figs. Accepted for publication in PR
The Strong CP Problem and Axions
I describe how the QCD vacuum structure, necessary to resolve the
problem, predicts the presence of a P, T and CP violating term proportional to
the vacuum angle . To agree with experimental bounds, however,
this parameter must be very small ). After briefly
discussing some possible other solutions to this, so-called, strong CP problem,
I concentrate on the chiral solution proposed by Peccei and Quinn which has
associated with it a light pseudoscalar particle, the axion. I discuss in
detail the properties and dynamics of axions, focusing particularly on
invisible axion models where axions are very light, very weakly coupled and
very long-lived. Astrophysical and cosmological bounds on invisible axions are
also briefly touched upon.Comment: 14 pages, to appear in the Lecture Notes in Physics volume on Axions,
(Springer Verlag
Magnetic fields in cosmic particle acceleration sources
We review here some magnetic phenomena in astrophysical particle accelerators
associated with collisionless shocks in supernova remnants, radio galaxies and
clusters of galaxies. A specific feature is that the accelerated particles can
play an important role in magnetic field evolution in the objects. We discuss a
number of CR-driven, magnetic field amplification processes that are likely to
operate when diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) becomes efficient and
nonlinear. The turbulent magnetic fields produced by these processes determine
the maximum energies of accelerated particles and result in specific features
in the observed photon radiation of the sources. Equally important, magnetic
field amplification by the CR currents and pressure anisotropies may affect the
shocked gas temperatures and compression, both in the shock precursor and in
the downstream flow, if the shock is an efficient CR accelerator. Strong
fluctuations of the magnetic field on scales above the radiation formation
length in the shock vicinity result in intermittent structures observable in
synchrotron emission images. Resonant and non-resonant CR streaming
instabilities in the shock precursor can generate mesoscale magnetic fields
with scale-sizes comparable to supernova remnants and even superbubbles. This
opens the possibility that magnetic fields in the earliest galaxies were
produced by the first generation Population III supernova remnants and by
clustered supernovae in star forming regions.Comment: 30 pages, Space Science Review
Magnetic fields in supernova remnants and pulsar-wind nebulae
We review the observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar-wind
nebulae (PWNe) that give information on the strength and orientation of
magnetic fields. Radio polarimetry gives the degree of order of magnetic
fields, and the orientation of the ordered component. Many young shell
supernova remnants show evidence for synchrotron X-ray emission. The spatial
analysis of this emission suggests that magnetic fields are amplified by one to
two orders of magnitude in strong shocks. Detection of several remnants in TeV
gamma rays implies a lower limit on the magnetic-field strength (or a
measurement, if the emission process is inverse-Compton upscattering of cosmic
microwave background photons). Upper limits to GeV emission similarly provide
lower limits on magnetic-field strengths. In the historical shell remnants,
lower limits on B range from 25 to 1000 microGauss. Two remnants show
variability of synchrotron X-ray emission with a timescale of years. If this
timescale is the electron-acceleration or radiative loss timescale, magnetic
fields of order 1 mG are also implied. In pulsar-wind nebulae, equipartition
arguments and dynamical modeling can be used to infer magnetic-field strengths
anywhere from about 5 microGauss to 1 mG. Polarized fractions are considerably
higher than in SNRs, ranging to 50 or 60% in some cases; magnetic-field
geometries often suggest a toroidal structure around the pulsar, but this is
not universal. Viewing-angle effects undoubtedly play a role. MHD models of
radio emission in shell SNRs show that different orientations of upstream
magnetic field, and different assumptions about electron acceleration, predict
different radio morphology. In the remnant of SN 1006, such comparisons imply a
magnetic-field orientation connecting the bright limbs, with a non-negligible
gradient of its strength across the remnant.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures; to be published in SpSciRev. Minor wording
change in Abstrac
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