558 research outputs found
Too Little, Too Late: How the Tidal Evolution of Hot Jupiters affects Transit Surveys of Clusters
The tidal evolution of hot Jupiters may change the efficiency of transit
surveys of stellar clusters. The orbital decay that hot Jupiters suffer may
result in their destruction, leaving fewer transiting planets in older
clusters. We calculate the impact tidal evolution has for different assumed
stellar populations, including that of 47~Tuc, a globular cluster that was the
focus of an intense HST search for transits. We find that in older clusters one
expects to detect fewer transiting planets by a factor of two for surveys
sensitive to Jupiter-like planets in orbits out to 0.5~AU, and up to a factor
of 25 for surveys sensitive to Jupiter-like planets in orbits out to 0.08~AU.
Additionally, tidal evolution affects the distribution of transiting planets as
a function of semi-major axis, producing larger orbital period gaps for
transiting planets as the age of the cluster increases. Tidal evolution can
explain the lack of detected exoplanets in 47~Tuc without invoking other
mechanisms. Four open clusters residing within the {\em Kepler} fields of view
have ages that span 0.4-8~Gyr--if {\em Kepler} can observe a significant number
of planets in these clusters, it will provide key tests for our tidal evolution
hypothesis. Finally, our results suggest that observers wishing to discover
transiting planets in clusters must have sufficient accuracy to detect lower
mass planets, search larger numbers of cluster members, or have longer
observation windows to be confident that a significant number of transits will
occur for a population of stars.Comment: 23 pages including 6 figures, accepted to Ap
A new search for planet transits in NGC 6791
Context. Searching for planets in open clusters allows us to study the
effects of dynamical environment on planet formation and evolution.
Aims. Considering the strong dependence of planet frequency on stellar
metallicity, we studied the metal rich old open cluster NGC 6791 and searched
for close-in planets using the transit technique.
Methods. A ten-night observational campaign was performed using the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (3.6m), the San Pedro M\'artir telescope (2.1m),
and the Loiano telescope (1.5m). To increase the transit detection probability
we also made use of the Bruntt et al. (2003) eight-nights observational
campaign. Adequate photometric precision for the detection of planetary
transits was achieved.
Results. Should the frequency and properties of close-in planets in NGC 6791
be similar to those orbiting field stars of similar metallicity, then detailed
simulations foresee the presence of 2-3 transiting planets. Instead, we do not
confirm the transit candidates proposed by Bruntt et al. (2003). The
probability that the null detection is simply due to chance coincidence is
estimated to be 3%-10%, depending on the metallicity assumed for the cluster.
Conclusions. Possible explanations of the null-detection of transits include:
(i) a lower frequency of close-in planets in star clusters; (ii) a smaller
planetary radius for planets orbiting super metal rich stars; or (iii)
limitations in the basic assumptions. More extensive photometry with 3-4m class
telescopes is required to allow conclusive inferences about the frequency of
planets in NGC 6791.Comment: 23 pages, 23 figures, A&A accepte
A Multi-wavelength View of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421: Correlated Variability, Flaring, and Spectral Evolution
We report results from a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on Mrk 421 over
the period of 2003-2004. The source was observed simultaneously at TeV and
X-ray energies, with supporting observations frequently carried out at optical
and radio wavelengths. The large amount of simultaneous data has allowed us to
examine the variability of Mrk 421 in detail. The variabilities are generally
correlated between the X-ray and gamma-ray bands, although the correlation
appears to be fairly loose. The light curves show the presence of flares with
varying amplitudes on a wide range of timescales both at X-ray and TeV
energies. Of particular interest is the presence of TeV flares that have no
coincident counterparts at longer wavelengths, because the phenomenon seems
difficult to understand in the context of the proposed emission models for TeV
blazars. We have also found that the TeV flux reached its peak days before the
X-ray flux during a giant flare in 2004. Such a difference in the development
of the flare presents a further challenge to the emission models. Mrk 421
varied much less at optical and radio wavelengths. Surprisingly, the normalized
variability amplitude in optical seems to be comparable to that in radio,
perhaps suggesting the presence of different populations of emitting electrons
in the jet. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of Mrk 421 is seen to vary
with flux, with the two characteristic peaks moving toward higher energies at
higher fluxes. We have failed to fit the measured SEDs with a one-zone SSC
model; introducing additional zones greatly improves the fits. We have derived
constraints on the physical properties of the X-ray/gamma-ray flaring regions
from the observed variability (and SED) of the source. The implications of the
results are discussed. (Abridged)Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Ap
Five Kepler target stars that show multiple transiting exoplanet candidates
We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with
the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet
candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these
five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets and provide new
insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. We
discuss the methods used to identify multiple transiting objects from the
Kepler photometry as well as the false-positive rejection methods that have
been applied to these data. One system shows transits from three distinct
objects while the remaining four systems show transits from two objects. Three
systems have planet candidates that are near mean motion
commensurabilities---two near 2:1 and one just outside 5:2. We discuss the
implications that multitransiting systems have on the distribution of orbital
inclinations in planetary systems, and hence their dynamical histories; as well
as their likely masses and chemical compositions. A Monte Carlo study indicates
that, with additional data, most of these systems should exhibit detectable
transit timing variations (TTV) due to gravitational interactions---though none
are apparent in these data. We also discuss new challenges that arise in TTV
analyses due to the presence of more than two planets in a system.Comment: Accepted to Ap
Kerr/CFT, dipole theories and nonrelativistic CFTs
We study solutions of type IIB supergravity which are SL(2,R) x SU(2) x
U(1)^2 invariant deformations of AdS_3 x S^3 x K3 and take the form of products
of self-dual spacelike warped AdS_3 and a deformed three-sphere. One of these
backgrounds has been recently argued to be relevant for a derivation of
Kerr/CFT from string theory, whereas the remaining ones are holographic duals
of two-dimensional dipole theories and their S-duals. We show that each of
these backgrounds is holographically dual to a deformation of the DLCQ of the
D1-D5 CFT by a specific supersymmetric (1,2) operator, which we write down
explicitly in terms of twist operators at the free orbifold point. The
deforming operator is argued to be exactly marginal with respect to the
zero-dimensional nonrelativistic conformal (or Schroedinger) group - which is
simply SL(2,R)_L x U(1)_R. Moreover, in the supergravity limit of large N and
strong coupling, no other single-trace operators are turned on. We thus propose
that the field theory duals to the backgrounds of interest are nonrelativistic
CFTs defined by adding the single Schroedinger-invariant (1,2) operator
mentioned above to the original CFT action. Our analysis indicates that the
rotating extremal black holes we study are best thought of as finite
right-moving temperature (non-supersymmetric) states in the above-defined
supersymmetric nonrelativistic CFT and hints towards a more general connection
between Kerr/CFT and two-dimensional non-relativistic CFTs.Comment: 48+8 pages, 4 figures; minor corrections and references adde
Habitable Zones in the Universe
Habitability varies dramatically with location and time in the universe. This
was recognized centuries ago, but it was only in the last few decades that
astronomers began to systematize the study of habitability. The introduction of
the concept of the habitable zone was key to progress in this area. The
habitable zone concept was first applied to the space around a star, now called
the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. Recently, other, vastly broader, habitable
zones have been proposed. We review the historical development of the concept
of habitable zones and the present state of the research. We also suggest ways
to make progress on each of the habitable zones and to unify them into a single
concept encompassing the entire universe.Comment: 71 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to be published in Origins of Life and
Evolution of Biospheres; table slightly revise
On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes
The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by
grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is
known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping
of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then,
sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is
linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio,
IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino
production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as
briefly reviewed in this paper.
The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is
illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino
detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested
groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic
A Survey on the Krein-von Neumann Extension, the corresponding Abstract Buckling Problem, and Weyl-Type Spectral Asymptotics for Perturbed Krein Laplacians in Nonsmooth Domains
In the first (and abstract) part of this survey we prove the unitary
equivalence of the inverse of the Krein--von Neumann extension (on the
orthogonal complement of its kernel) of a densely defined, closed, strictly
positive operator, for some in a Hilbert space to an abstract buckling problem operator.
This establishes the Krein extension as a natural object in elasticity theory
(in analogy to the Friedrichs extension, which found natural applications in
quantum mechanics, elasticity, etc.).
In the second, and principal part of this survey, we study spectral
properties for , the Krein--von Neumann extension of the
perturbed Laplacian (in short, the perturbed Krein Laplacian)
defined on , where is measurable, bounded and
nonnegative, in a bounded open set belonging to a
class of nonsmooth domains which contains all convex domains, along with all
domains of class , .Comment: 68 pages. arXiv admin note: extreme text overlap with arXiv:0907.144
- âŠ