Mira's wind explored in scattering infrared CO lines

We have observed the intermediate regions of the circumstellar envelope of Mira (o Ceti) in photospheric light scattered by three vibration-rotation transitions of the fundamental band of CO, from low-excited rotational levels of the ground vibrational state, at an angular distance of beta = 2"-7" away from the star. The data were obtained with the Phoenix spectrometer mounted on the 4 m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak. The spatial resolution is approximately 0.5" and seeing limited. Our observations provide absolute fluxes, leading to an independent new estimate of the mass-loss rate of approximately 3e-7 Msun/yr, as derived from a simple analytic wind model. We find that the scattered intensity from the wind of Mira for 2" < beta < 7" decreases as beta^-3, which suggests a time constant mass-loss rate, when averaged over 100 years, over the past 1200 years.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

High accuracy binary black hole simulations with an extended wave zone

We present results from a new code for binary black hole evolutions using the moving-puncture approach, implementing finite differences in generalised coordinates, and allowing the spacetime to be covered with multiple communicating non-singular coordinate patches. Here we consider a regular Cartesian near zone, with adapted spherical grids covering the wave zone. The efficiencies resulting from the use of adapted coordinates allow us to maintain sufficient grid resolution to an artificial outer boundary location which is causally disconnected from the measurement. For the well-studied test-case of the inspiral of an equal-mass non-spinning binary (evolved for more than 8 orbits before merger), we determine the phase and amplitude to numerical accuracies better than 0.010% and 0.090% during inspiral, respectively, and 0.003% and 0.153% during merger. The waveforms, including the resolved higher harmonics, are convergent and can be consistently extrapolated to $r\to\infty$ throughout the simulation, including the merger and ringdown. Ringdown frequencies for these modes (to $(\ell,m)=(6,6)$) match perturbative calculations to within 0.01%, providing a strong confirmation that the remnant settles to a Kerr black hole with irreducible mass $M_{\rm irr} = 0.884355\pm20\times10^{-6}$ and spin $S_f/M_f^2 = 0.686923 \pm 10\times10^{-6}

Scaling Limits for Internal Aggregation Models with Multiple Sources

We study the scaling limits of three different aggregation models on Z^d: internal DLA, in which particles perform random walks until reaching an unoccupied site; the rotor-router model, in which particles perform deterministic analogues of random walks; and the divisible sandpile, in which each site distributes its excess mass equally among its neighbors. As the lattice spacing tends to zero, all three models are found to have the same scaling limit, which we describe as the solution to a certain PDE free boundary problem in R^d. In particular, internal DLA has a deterministic scaling limit. We find that the scaling limits are quadrature domains, which have arisen independently in many fields such as potential theory and fluid dynamics. Our results apply both to the case of multiple point sources and to the Diaconis-Fulton smash sum of domains.Comment: 74 pages, 4 figures, to appear in J. d'Analyse Math. Main changes in v2: added "least action principle" (Lemma 3.2); small corrections in section 4, and corrected the proof of Lemma 5.3 (Lemma 5.4 in the new version); expanded section 6.

Improving adaptive bagging methods for evolving data streams

We propose two new improvements for bagging methods on evolving data streams. Recently, two new variants of Bagging were proposed: ADWIN Bagging and Adaptive-Size Hoeffding Tree (ASHT) Bagging. ASHT Bagging uses trees of different sizes, and ADWIN Bagging uses ADWIN as a change detector to decide when to discard underperforming ensemble members. We improve ADWIN Bagging using Hoeffding Adaptive Trees, trees that can adaptively learn from data streams that change over time. To speed up the time for adapting to change of Adaptive-Size Hoeffding Tree (ASHT) Bagging, we add an error change detector for each classifier. We test our improvements by performing an evaluation study on synthetic and real-world datasets comprising up to ten million examples

Reply to comment by H. Hasegawa on "Evolution of Kelvin-Helmholtz activity on the dusk flank magnetopause"

We demonstrate, on experimental grounds, that the justifications for the comment by Hasegawa [2009], hereinafter H09, on work done by Foullon et al. [2008], hereinafter F08, are not well founded

HE0107-5240, A Chemically Ancient Star.I. A Detailed Abundance Analysis

We report a detailed abundance analysis for HE0107-5240, a halo giant with [Fe/H]_NLTE=-5.3. This star was discovered in the course of follow-up medium-resolution spectroscopy of extremely metal-poor candidates selected from the digitized Hamburg/ESO objective-prism survey. On the basis of high-resolution VLT/UVES spectra, we derive abundances for 8 elements (C, N, Na, Mg, Ca, Ti, Fe, and Ni), and upper limits for another 12 elements. A plane-parallel LTE model atmosphere has been specifically tailored for the chemical composition of {\he}. Scenarios for the origin of the abundance pattern observed in the star are discussed. We argue that HE0107-5240 is most likely not a post-AGB star, and that the extremely low abundances of the iron-peak, and other elements, are not due to selective dust depletion. The abundance pattern of HE0107-5240 can be explained by pre-enrichment from a zero-metallicity type-II supernova of 20-25M_Sun, plus either self-enrichment with C and N, or production of these elements in the AGB phase of a formerly more massive companion, which is now a white dwarf. However, significant radial velocity variations have not been detected within the 52 days covered by our moderate-and high-resolution spectra. Alternatively, the abundance pattern can be explained by enrichment of the gas cloud from which HE0107-5240 formed by a 25M_Sun first-generation star exploding as a subluminous SNII, as proposed by Umeda & Nomoto (2003). We discuss consequences of the existence of HE0107-5240 for low-mass star formation in extremely metal-poor environments, and for currently ongoing and future searches for the most metal-poor stars in the Galaxy.Comment: 60 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

On the Formation Height of the SDO/HMI Fe 6173 Doppler Signal

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is designed to study oscillations and the mag- netic field in the solar photosphere. It observes the full solar disk in the Fe I absorption line at 6173\AA . We use the output of a high-resolution 3D, time- dependent, radiation-hydrodynamic simulation based on the CO5BOLD code to calculate profiles F({\lambda},x,y,t) for the Fe I 6173{\AA} line. The emerging profiles F({\lambda},x,y,t) are multiplied by a representative set of HMI filter transmission profiles R_i({\lambda},1 \leq i \leq 6) and filtergrams I_i(x,y,t;1 \leq i \leq 6) are constructed for six wavelengths. Doppler velocities V_HMI(x,y,t) are determined from these filtergrams using a simplified version of the HMI pipeline. The Doppler velocities are correlated with the original velocities in the simulated atmosphere. The cross- correlation peaks near 100 km, suggesting that the HMI Doppler velocity signal is formed rather low in the solar atmosphere. The same analysis is performed for the SOHO/MDI Ni I line at 6768\AA . The MDI Doppler signal is formed slightly higher at around 125 km. Taking into account the limited spatial resolution of the instruments, the apparent formation height of both the HMI and MDI Doppler signal increases by 40 to 50 km. We also study how uncertainties in the HMI filter-transmission profiles affect the calculated velocities.Comment: 15 pages, 11 Figure

Doppler images of II Pegasi for 2004-2010

Aims. We study the spot activity of II Peg during the years 2004-2010 to determine long- and short-term changes in the magnetic activity. In a previous study, we detected a persistent active longitude, as well as major changes in the spot configuration occurring on a timescale of shorter than a year. The main objective of this study is to determine whether the same phenomena persist in the star during these six years of spectroscopic monitoring. Methods. The observations were collected with the high-resolution SOFIN spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope. The temperature maps were calculated using a Doppler imaging code based on Tikhonov regularization. Results. We present 12 new temperature maps that show spots distributed mainly over high and intermediate latitudes. In each image, 1-3 main active regions can be identified. The activity level of the star is clearly lower than during our previous study for the years 1994-2002. In contrast to the previous observations, we detect no clear drift of the active regions with respect to the rotation of the star. Conclusions. Having shown a systematic longitudinal drift of the spot-generating mechanism during 1994-2002, the star has clearly switched to a low-activity state for 2004-2010, during which the spot locations appear more random over phase space. It could be that the star is near to a minimum of its activity cycle.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astron. and Astrophys., 8 pages, 5 figure

On radiative corrections for unpolarized electron proton elastic scattering

A statistical analysis of the elastic unpolarized electron proton scattering data shows that, at large momentum transfer, the size and the $\epsilon$ dependence of the radiative corrections, as traditionally calculated and applied, may induce large correlations of the parameters of the Rosenbluth fit, which prevent a correct extraction of the electric proton form factor. Using the electron QED structure (radiation) function approach the cross section of elastic electron-proton scattering in leading and next-to leading approximations is calculated and expressed as a correction to the Born cross section, which is different for the electric and the magnetic contribution. When properly applied to the data, it may give the solution to the problem of the discrepancy of the polarized and unpolarized results on electron proton scattering.Comment: 11 pagex, 5 figure