12,060 research outputs found
Climbing the cosmic ladder with stellar twins
Distances to stars are key to revealing a three-dimensional view of the Milky
Way, yet their determination is a major challenge in astronomy. Whilst the
brightest nearby stars benefit from direct parallax measurements, fainter stars
are subject of indirect determinations with uncertainties exceeding 30%. We
present an alternative approach to measuring distances using
spectroscopically-identified twin stars. Given a star with known parallax, the
distance to its twin is assumed to be directly related to the difference in
their apparent magnitudes. We found 175 twin pairs from the ESO public HARPS
archives and report excellent agreement with Hipparcos parallaxes within 7.5%.
Most importantly, the accuracy of our results does not degrade with increasing
stellar distance. With the ongoing collection of high-resolution stellar
spectra, our method is well-suited to complement Gaia.Comment: published online on MNRA
Astrometric Effects of Gravitational Wave Backgrounds with non-Luminal Propagation Speeds
A passing gravitational wave causes a deflection in the apparent astrometric positions of distant stars. The effect of the speed of the gravitational wave on this astrometric shift is discussed. A stochastic background of gravitational waves would result in a pattern of astrometric deflections which are correlated on large angular scales. These correlations are quantified and investigated for backgrounds of gravitational waves with sub- and super-luminal group velocities. The statistical properties of the correlations are depicted in two equivalent and related ways: as correlation curves and as angular power spectra. Sub-(super-)luminal gravitational wave backgrounds have the effect of enhancing (suppressing) the power in low-order angular modes. Analytical representations of the redshift-redshift and redshift-astrometry correlations are also derived. The potential for using this effect for constraining the speed of gravity is discussed
Catching GRBs with atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes
Fermi has shown GRBs to be a source of >10 GeV photons. We present an
estimate of the detection rate of GRBs with a next generation Cherenkov
telescope. Our predictions are based on the observed properties of GRBs
detected by Fermi, combined with the spectral properties and redshift
determinations for the bursts population by instruments operating at lower
energies. While detection of VHE emission from GRBs has eluded ground-based
instruments thus far, our results suggest that ground-based detection may be
within reach of the proposed Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), albeit with a low
rate, 0.25 - 0.5/yr. Such a detection would help constrain the emission
mechanism of gamma-ray emission from GRBs. Photons at these energies from
distant GRBs are affected by the UV-optical background light, and a
ground-based detection could also provide a valuable probe of the Extragalactic
Background Light (EBL) in place at high redshift.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of "Gamma Ray Bursts
2010", held Nov. 1-4, 2010 in Annapolis, M
Paramagnon dispersion in -FeSe observed by Fe -edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering
We report an Fe -edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) study of
the unusual superconductor -FeSe. The high energy resolution of this
RIXS experiment (55meV FWHM) made it possible to resolve
low-energy excitations of the Fe manifold. These include a broad peak
which shows dispersive trends between 100-200meV along the and
directions of the one-Fe square reciprocal lattice, and which can
be attributed to paramagnon excitations. The multi-band valence state of FeSe
is among the most metallic in which such excitations have been discerned by
soft x-ray RIXS
Constraining the Distribution of L- & T-Dwarfs in the Galaxy
We estimate the thin disk scale height of the Galactic population of L- &
T-dwarfs based on star counts from 15 deep parallel fields from the Hubble
Space Telescope. From these observations, we have identified 28 candidate L- &
T- dwarfs based on their (i'-z') color and morphology. By comparing these star
counts to a simple Galactic model, we estimate the scale height to be 350+-50
pc that is consistent with the increase in vertical scale with decreasing
stellar mass and is independent of reddening, color-magnitude limits, and other
Galactic parameters. With this refined measure, we predict that less than 10^9
M_{sol} of the Milky Way can be in the form L- & T- dwarfs, and confirm that
high-latitude, z~6 galaxy surveys which use the i'-band dropout technique are
97-100% free of L- & T- dwarf interlopers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ
Generalized coherent states are unique Bell states of quantum systems with Lie group symmetries
We consider quantum systems, whose dynamical symmetry groups are semisimple
Lie groups, which can be split or decay into two subsystems of the same
symmetry. We prove that the only states of such a system that factorize upon
splitting are the generalized coherent states. Since Bell's inequality is never
violated by the direct product state, when the system prepared in the
generalized coherent state is split, no quantum correlations are created.
Therefore, the generalized coherent states are the unique Bell states, i.e.,
the pure quantum states preserving the fundamental classical property of
satisfying Bell's inequality upon splitting.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, amssymb style. More information on
http://www.technion.ac.il/~brif/science.htm
Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer with a long coherence length laser
This paper describes a 561 nm laser heterodyne interferometer that provides
time-resolved measurements of line-integrated plasma electron density within
the range of 10^15-10^18 cm^(-2). Such plasmas are produced by railguns on the
Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX), which aims to produce \mu s-, cm-, and
Mbar-scale plasmas through the merging of thirty plasma jets in a spherically
convergent geometry. A long coherence length, 320 mW laser allows for a strong,
sub-fringe phase-shift signal without the need for closely-matched probe and
reference path lengths. Thus only one reference path is required for all eight
probe paths, and an individual probe chord can be altered without altering the
reference or other probe path lengths. Fiber-optic decoupling of the probe
chord optics on the vacuum chamber from the rest of the system allows the probe
paths to be easily altered to focus on different spatial regions of the plasma.
We demonstrate that sub-fringe resolution capability allows the interferometer
to operate down to line-integrated densities of order 10^15 cm^(-2).Comment: submitted to Rev. Sci. Instrum. (2011
Diffuse Extragalactic Background Radiation
Attenuation of high--energy gamma rays by pair--production with UV, optical
and IR background photons provides a link between the history of galaxy
formation and high--energy astrophysics. We present results from our latest
semi-analytic models (SAMs), based upon a CDM hierarchical structural
formation scenario and employing all ingredients thought to be important to
galaxy formation and evolution, as well as reprocessing of starlight by dust to
mid- and far-IR wavelengths. Our models also use results from recent
hydrodynamic galaxy merger simulations. These latest SAMs are successful in
reproducing a large variety of observational constraints such as number counts,
luminosity and mass functions, and color bimodality. We have created 2 models
that bracket the likely ranges of galaxy emissivities, and for each of these we
show how the optical depth from pair--production is affected by redshift and
gamma-ray energy. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our
work, and how the burgeoning science of gamma-ray astronomy will continue to
help constrain cosmology.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 4th
Heidelberg International Symposium on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy, held
July 2008 in Heidelberg, German
Self-similarities in the frequency-amplitude space of a loss-modulated CO laser
We show the standard two-level continuous-time model of loss-modulated CO
lasers to display the same regular network of self-similar stability islands
known so far to be typically present only in discrete-time models based on
mappings. For class B laser models our results suggest that, more than just
convenient surrogates, discrete mappings in fact could be isomorphic to
continuous flows.Comment: (5 low-res color figs; for ALL figures high-res PDF:
http://www.if.ufrgs.br/~jgallas/jg_papers.html
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