6,320 research outputs found
The HATNet and HATSouth Exoplanet Surveys
The Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) has been in operation
since 2003, with the key science goal being the discovery and accurate
characterization of transiting extrasolar planets (TEPs) around bright stars.
Using six small, 11\,cm\ aperture, fully automated telescopes in Arizona and
Hawaii, as of 2017 March, it has discovered and accurately characterized 67
such objects. The HATSouth network of telescopes has been in operation since
2009, using slightly larger, 18\,cm diameter optical tubes. It was the first
global network of telescopes using identical instrumentation. With three
premier sites spread out in longitude (Chile, Namibia, Australia), the HATSouth
network permits round-the-clock observations of a 128 square arcdegree swath of
the sky at any given time, weather permitting. As of this writing, HATSouth has
discovered 36 transiting exoplanets. Many of the altogether ~100 HAT and
HATSouth exoplanets were the first of their kind. They have been important
contributors to the rapidly developing field of exoplanets, motivating and
influencing observational techniques, theoretical studies, and also actively
shaping future instrumentation for the detection and characterization of such
objects.Comment: Invited review chapter, accepted for publication in "Handbook of
Exoplanets", edited by H.J. Deeg and J.A. Belmonte, Springer Reference Work
Conceptual mechanization studies for a horizon definition spacecraft attitude control subsystem, phase A, part II, 10 October 1966 - 29 May 1967
Attitude control subsystem for spin stabilized spacecraft for mapping earths infrared horizon radiance profiles in 15 micron carbon dioxide absorption ban
Quantitative characterization of the x-ray imaging capability of rotating modulation collimators with laser light
We developed a method for making quantitative characterizations of bi-grid rotating modulation collimators (RMC âs) that are used in a Fourier transform x-ray imager. With appropriate choices of the collimator spacings, this technique can be implemented with a beam-expanded He -Ne laser to simulate the plane wave produced by a point source at infinity even though the RMC âs are diffraction limited at the He -Ne wavelength of 632.8 nm. The expanded beam passes through the grid pairs at a small angle with respect to their axis of rotation, and the modulated transmission through the grids as the RMC âs rotate is detected with a photomultiplier tube. In addition to providing a quantitative characterization of the RMC âs, the method also produces a measured point response function and provides an end-to-end check of the imaging system. We applied our method to the RMC âs on the high-energy imaging device (HEIDI) balloon payload in its preflight configuration. We computed the harmonic ratios of the modulation time profile from the laser measurements and compared them with theoretical calculations, including the diffraction effects on irregular grids. Our results indicate the 25-in. (64-cm) x-ray imaging optics on HEIDI are capable of achieving images near the theoretical limit and are not seriously compromised by imperfections in the grids
HAT-P-25b: a Hot-Jupiter Transiting a Moderately Faint G Star
We report the discovery of HAT-P-25b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting
the V = 13.19 G5 dwarf star GSC 1788-01237, with a period P = 3.652836 +/-
0.000019 days, transit epoch Tc = 2455176.85173 +/- 0.00047 (BJD), and transit
duration 0.1174 +/- 0.0017 days. The host star has mass of 1.01 +/- 0.03
M(Sun), radius of 0.96 +(0.05)-(0.04) R(Sun), effective temperature 5500 +/- 80
K, and metallicity [Fe/H] = +0.31 +/- 0.08. The planetary companion has a mass
of 0.567 +/- 0.022 M(Jup), and radius of 1.190 +(0.081)-(0.056) R(Jup) yielding
a mean density of 0.42 +/- 0.07 g cm-3. Comparing these observations with
recent theoretical models, we find that HAT-P-25b is consistent with a
hydrogen-helium dominated gas giant planet with negligible core mass and age
3.2 +/- 2.3 Gyr. The properties of HAT-P-25b support several previously
observed correlations for planets in the mass range 0.4 < M < 0.7 M(Jup),
including those of core mass vs. metallicity, planet radius vs. equilibrium
temperature, and orbital period vs. planet mass. We also note that HAT-P-25b
orbits the faintest star found by HATNet to have a transiting planet to date,
and is one of only a very few number of planets discovered from the ground
orbiting a star fainter than V = 13.0.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Ap
Birth and Evolution of Isolated Radio Pulsars
We investigate the birth and evolution of Galactic isolated radio pulsars. We
begin by estimating their birth space velocity distribution from proper motion
measurements of Brisken et al. (2002, 2003). We find no evidence for
multimodality of the distribution and favor one in which the absolute
one-dimensional velocity components are exponentially distributed and with a
three-dimensional mean velocity of 380^{+40}_{-60} km s^-1. We then proceed
with a Monte Carlo-based population synthesis, modelling the birth properties
of the pulsars, their time evolution, and their detection in the Parkes and
Swinburne Multibeam surveys. We present a population model that appears
generally consistent with the observations. Our results suggest that pulsars
are born in the spiral arms, with a Galactocentric radial distribution that is
well described by the functional form proposed by Yusifov & Kucuk (2004), in
which the pulsar surface density peaks at radius ~3 kpc. The birth spin period
distribution extends to several hundred milliseconds, with no evidence of
multimodality. Models which assume the radio luminosities of pulsars to be
independent of the spin periods and period derivatives are inadequate, as they
lead to the detection of too many old simulated pulsars in our simulations.
Dithered radio luminosities proportional to the square root of the spin-down
luminosity accommodate the observations well and provide a natural mechanism
for the pulsars to dim uniformly as they approach the death line, avoiding an
observed pile-up on the latter. There is no evidence for significant torque
decay (due to magnetic field decay or otherwise) over the lifetime of the
pulsars as radio sources (~100 Myr). Finally, we estimate the pulsar birthrate
and total number of pulsars in the Galaxy.Comment: 27 pages, including 15 figures, accepted by Ap
The LWA1 Radio Telescope
LWA1 is a new radio telescope operating in the frequency range 10-88 MHz,
located in central New Mexico. The telescope consists of 258 pairs of
dipole-type antennas whose outputs are individually digitized and formed into
beams. Simultaneously, signals from all dipoles can be recorded using one of
the instrument's "all dipoles" modes, facilitating all-sky imaging. Notable
features of the instrument include high intrinsic sensitivity (about 6 kJy
zenith system equivalent flux density), large instantaneous bandwidth (up to 78
MHz), and 4 independently-steerable beams utilizing digital "true time delay"
beamforming. This paper summarizes the design of LWA1 and its performance as
determined in commissioning experiments. We describe the method currently in
use for array calibration, and report on measurements of sensitivity and
beamwidth.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures, accepted by IEEE Trans. Antennas & Propagation.
Various minor changes from previous versio
The Mass-Radius Relationship for Very Low Mass Stars: Four New Discoveries from the HATSouth Survey
We report the discovery of four transiting F-M binary systems with companions
between 0.1-0.2 Msun in mass by the HATSouth survey. These systems have been
characterised via a global analysis of the HATSouth discovery data, combined
with high-resolution radial velocities and accurate transit photometry
observations. We determined the masses and radii of the component stars using a
combination of two methods: isochrone fitting of spectroscopic primary star
parameters, and equating spectroscopic primary star rotation velocity with
spin-orbit synchronisation. These new very low mass companions are HATS550-016B
(0.110 -0.006/+0.005 Msun, 0.147 -0.004/+0.003 Rsun), HATS551-019B (0.17
-0.01/+0.01 Msun, 0.18 -0.01/+0.01 Rsun), HATS551-021B (0.132 -0.005/+0.014
Msun, 0.154 -0.008/+0.006 Rsun), HATS553-001B (0.20 -0.02/+0.01 Msun, 0.22
-0.01/+0.01 Rsun). We examine our sample in the context of the radius anomaly
for fully-convective low mass stars. Combining our sample with the 13 other
well-studied very low mass stars, we find a tentative 5% systematic deviation
between the measured radii and theoretical isochrone models.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Inverse Eigenvalue Problems for Perturbed Spherical Schroedinger Operators
We investigate the eigenvalues of perturbed spherical Schr\"odinger operators
under the assumption that the perturbation satisfies . We show that the square roots of eigenvalues are given by the square
roots of the unperturbed eigenvalues up to an decaying error depending on the
behavior of near . Furthermore, we provide sets of spectral data
which uniquely determine .Comment: 14 page
Null Energy Condition Violation and Classical Stability in the Bianchi I Metric
The stability of isotropic cosmological solutions in the Bianchi I model is
considered. We prove that the stability of isotropic solutions in the Bianchi I
metric for a positive Hubble parameter follows from their stability in the
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. This result is applied to models inspired by
string field theory, which violate the null energy condition. Examples of
stable isotropic solutions are presented. We also consider the k-essence model
and analyse the stability of solutions of the form .Comment: 27 pages, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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