10,160 research outputs found
Integral field observations of the blue compact galaxy Haro14. Star formation and feedback in dwarf galaxies
(Abridged) Low-luminosity, gas-rich blue compact galaxies (BCG) are ideal
laboratories to investigate many aspects of the star formation in galaxies. We
study the morphology, stellar content, kinematics, and the nebular excitation
and ionization mechanism in the BCG Haro 14 by means of integral field
observations with VIMOS in the VLT. From these data we build maps in continuum
and in the brighter emission lines, produce line-ratio maps, and obtain the
velocity and velocity dispersion fields. We also generate the integrated
spectrum of the major HII regions and young stellar clusters identified in the
maps to determine reliable physical parameters and oxygen abundances. We find
as follows: i) the current star formation in Haro 14 is spatially extended with
the major HII regions placed along a linear structure, elongated in the
north-south direction, and in a horseshoe-like curvilinear feature that extends
about 760 pc eastward; the continuum emission is more concentrated and peaks
close to the galaxy center; ii) two different episodes of star formation are
present: the recent starburst, with ages 6 Myrs and the intermediate-age
clusters, with ages between 10 and 30 Myrs; these stellar components rest on a
several Gyr old underlying host galaxy; iii) the H/H pattern is
inhomogeneous, with excess color values varying from E(B-V)=0.04 up to
E(B-V)=1.09; iv) shocks play a significant role in the galaxy; and v) the
velocity field displays a complicated pattern with regions of material moving
toward us in the east and north galaxy areas. The morphology of Haro 14, its
irregular velocity field, and the presence of shocks speak in favor of a
scenario of triggered star formation. Ages of the knots are consistent with the
ongoing burst being triggered by the collective action of stellar winds and
supernovae originated in the central clusters.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Probing star formation and feedback in dwarf galaxies. Integral field view of the blue compact galaxy Tololo 1937-423
(Abridged) Blue compact galaxies (BCG) are gas-rich, low-mass, small systems
that form stars at unusually high rates. This makes them excellent laboratories
for investigating the process of star-formation (SF) at galactic scales and the
effects of massive stellar feedback on the interstellar (and intergalactic)
medium.
We analyzed the BCG Tololo 1937-423 using optical integral field spectroscopy
with VIMOS at the Very Large Telescope to probe its morphology, stellar
content, nebular excitation and ionization properties, and the kinematics of
its warm ionized gas.
We found that Tololo 1937-423 is currently undergoing an extended starburst,
with nine major clumps. The galaxy presents a single continuum peak
that is not cospatial with any knot in emission lines, indicating at least two
relatively recent episodes of SF. The inhomogeneous dust distribution reaches
its maximum roughly at the position of the continuum peak. We found shocked
regions in the galaxy outer regions and at the edges of the SF knots. The
oxygen abundance is similar in all the SF regions, suggesting a chemically
homogeneous ionized interstellar medium over spatial scales of several kpc. The
ionized gas kinematics displays an overall regular rotation around a
northwest-southeast axis.
The morphology of the galaxy and the two different episodes of SF suggest a
scenario of triggered (induced by supernova shock waves) SF acting in Tololo
1937-423. The inferred ages for the different SF episodes (~13-80 Myr for the
central post-starburst and 5-7 Myr for the ongoing SF) are consistent with
triggered SF, with the most recent SF episode caused by the collective effect
of stellar winds and supernova explosions from the central post-starburst. The
velocity dispersion pattern, with higher velocity dispersions found at the
edges of the SF regions, and shocked regions in the galaxy, also favor this
scenario.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Present and future of the OTELO project
OTELO is an emission-line object survey carried out with the red tunable
filter of the instrument OSIRIS at the GTC, whose aim is to become the deepest
emission-line object survey to date. With 100% of the data of the first
pointing finally obtained in June 2014, we present here some aspects of the
processing of the data and the very first results of the OTELO survey. We also
explain the next steps to be followed in the near future.Comment: Oral contribution presented in the XI Scientific Meeting of the
Spanish Astronomical Society held on September 8-12, in Teruel, Spain (7
pages, 2 figures, 1 table). To appear in Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics
VIII, Proceedings of the XI Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical
Society. Eds. A. J. Cenarro, F. Figueras, C. Hern\'andez-Monteagudo, J.
Trujillo, L. Valdiviels
Vector magnetic hysteresis of hard superconductors
Critical state problems which incorporate more than one component for the
magnetization vector of hard superconductors are investigated. The theory is
based on the minimization of a cost functional
which weighs the changes of the magnetic field vector within the sample. We
show that Bean's simplest prescription of choosing the correct sign for the
critical current density in one dimensional problems is just a particular
case of finding the components of the vector . is
determined by minimizing under the constraint , with a bounded set. Upon the selection of
different sets we discuss existing crossed field measurements and
predict new observable features. It is shown that a complex behavior in the
magnetization curves may be controlled by a single external parameter, i.e.:
the maximum value of the applied magnetic field .Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
The Ca II infrared triplet's performance as an activity indicator compared to Ca II H and K
Aims. A large number of Calcium Infrared Triplet (IRT) spectra are expected
from the GAIA- and CARMENES missions. Conversion of these spectra into known
activity indicators will allow analysis of their temporal evolution to a better
degree. We set out to find such a conversion formula and to determine its
robustness.
Methods. We have compared 2274 Ca II IRT spectra of active main-sequence F to
K stars taken by the TIGRE telescope with those of inactive stars of the same
spectral type. After normalizing and applying rotational broadening, we
subtracted the comparison spectra to find the chromospheric excess flux caused
by activity. We obtained the total excess flux, and compared it to established
activity indices derived from the Ca II H & K lines, the spectra of which were
obtained simultaneously to the infrared spectra.
Results. The excess flux in the Ca II IRT is found to correlate well with
and , as well as , if the
-dependency is taken into account. We find an empirical conversion formula
to calculate the corresponding value of one activity indicator from the
measurement of another, by comparing groups of datapoints of stars with similar
B-V.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
OTELO survey: optimal emission-line flux determination with OSIRIS/GTC
Emission-line galaxies are important targets for understanding the chemical
evolution of galaxies in the universe. Deep, narrow-band imaging surveys allow
to detect and study the flux and the equivalent widths (EW) of the emission
line studied. The present work has been developed within the context of the
OTELO project, an emission line survey using the Tunable Filters (TF) of
OSIRIS, the first generation instrument on the GTC 10.4m telescope located in
La Palma, Spain, that will observe through selected atmospheric windows
relatively free of sky emission lines. With a total survey area of 0.1 square
degrees distributed in different fields, reaching a 5 \sigma depth of 10^-18
erg/cm^2/s and detecting objects of EW < 0.3 A, OTELO will be the deepest
emission line survey to date. As part of the OTELO preparatory activities, the
objective of this study is to determine the best combination of sampling and
full width at half maximum (FWHM) for the OSIRIS tunable filters for deblending
H\alpha from [NII] lines by analyzing the flux errors obtained. We simulated
the OTELO data by convolving a complete set of synthetic HII galaxies in EW
with different widths of the OSIRIS TFs. We estimated relative flux errors of
the recovered H\alpha and [NII]6583 lines. We found that, for the red TF, a
FWHM of 12 A and a sampling of 5 A is an optimal combination that allow
deblending H\alpha from the [NII]6583 line with a flux error lower than 20%.
This combination will allow estimating SFRs and metallicities using the H\alpha
flux and the N2 method, respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Some authors added. Accepted for publication in
PAS
Frustration free gapless Hamiltonians for Matrix Product States
For every Matrix Product State (MPS) one can always construct a so-called
parent Hamiltonian. This is a local, frustration free, Hamiltonian which has
the MPS as ground state and is gapped. Whenever that parent Hamiltonian has a
degenerate ground state (the so-called non-injective case), we construct
another 'uncle' Hamiltonian which is local and frustration free but gapless,
and its spectrum is . The construction is obtained by linearly perturbing
the matrices building up the state in a random direction, and then taking the
limit where the perturbation goes to zero. For MPS where the parent Hamiltonian
has a unique ground state (the so-called injective case) we also build such
uncle Hamiltonian with the same properties in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 36 pages, new version with some contents rearranged, and a correction
in the injective cas
Understanding star formation and feedback in small galaxies. The case of the blue compact dwarf Mrk 900
(Abridged) Low-luminosity, active star-forming blue compact galaxies (BCGs)
are excellent laboratories for investigating the process of star formation on
galactic scales and probing the interplay between massive stars and the
surrounding interstellar (or intergalactic) medium. We investigated the
morphology, structure, and stellar content of the Blue Compact Galaxy Mrk 900,
combining optical integral field observations obtained with VIMOS at the VLT
and deep broad-band photometry taken at the 2.5 m NOT telescope. From the
integral field data, we built continuum, emission, and diagnostic line ratio
maps and produced velocity and velocity dispersion maps. We also generated the
integrated spectrum of the major HII regions and the nuclear area to determine
reliable physical parameters and oxygen abundances. The broad-band data,
tracing the galaxy up to radius 4 kpc, allowed us to investigate the properties
of the low surface brightness underlying stellar host. We disentangle two
different stellar components in Mrk 900: a young population, which resolves
into individual stellar clusters with ages ~5.5-6.6 Myr and extends about 1 kpc
along the galaxy minor axis, is placed on top of a rather red and regular
shaped underlying stellar host, several Gyr old. We find evidence of a
substantial amount of dust and an inhomogeneous extinction pattern, with a dust
lane crossing the central starburst. Mrk 900 displays overall rotation,
although distorted in the central, starburst regions; the dispersion velocity
map is highly inhomogeneous, with values increasing up to 60 kms at the
periphery of the SF regions, where we also find hints of the presence of
shocks. Our observational results point to an interaction or merger with a
low-mass object or infalling gas as plausible trigger mechanisms for the
present starburst event.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Combined therapies of antithrombotics and antioxidants delay in silico brain tumor progression
Glioblastoma multiforme, the most frequent type of primary brain tumor, is a
rapidly evolving and spatially heterogeneous high-grade astrocytoma that
presents areas of necrosis, hypercellularity and microvascular hyperplasia. The
aberrant vasculature leads to hypoxic areas and results in an increase of the
oxidative stress selecting for more invasive tumor cell phenotypes. In our
study we assay in silico different therapeutic approaches which combine
antithrombotics, antioxidants and standard radiotherapy. To do so, we have
developed a biocomputational model of glioblastoma multiforme that incorporates
the spatio-temporal interplay among two glioma cell phenotypes corresponding to
oxygenated and hypoxic cells, a necrotic core and the local vasculature whose
response evolves with tumor progression. Our numerical simulations predict that
suitable combinations of antithrombotics and antioxidants may diminish, in a
synergetic way, oxidative stress and the subsequent hypoxic response. This
novel therapeutical strategy, with potentially low or no toxicity, might reduce
tumor invasion and further sensitize glioblastoma multiforme to conventional
radiotherapy or other cytotoxic agents, hopefully increasing median patient
overall survival time.Comment: 8 figure
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