18,046 research outputs found
Non-spherical sources of static gravitational fields: investigating the boundaries of the no-hair theorem
A new, globally regular model describing a static, non spherical gravitating
object in General Relativity is presented. The model is composed by a vacuum
Weyl--Levi-Civita special field - the so called gamma metric - generated by a
regular static distribution of mass-energy. Standard requirements of physical
reasonableness such as, energy, matching and regularity conditions are
satisfied. The model is used as a toy in investigating various issues related
to the directional behavior of naked singularities in static spacetimes and the
blackhole (Schwarschild) limit.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
A source of a quasi--spherical space--time: The case for the M--Q solution
We present a physically reasonable source for an static, axially--symmetric
solution to the Einstein equations. Arguments are provided, supporting our
belief that the exterior space--time produced by such source, describing a
quadrupole correction to the Schwarzschild metric, is particularly suitable
(among known solutions of the Weyl family) for discussing the properties of
quasi--spherical gravitational fields.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures. To appear in GR
How much does teenage parenthood affect long term outcomes? A systematic review.
Background: The rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK are relatively high. Although early entry to parenthood can be a positive experience, most studies find large adverse effects on long term outcomes for the mother, child and father, in addition to being costly for the NHS. This is why the government launched its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1999. However, there is growing evidence that teenage pregnancy might be mainly an indicator of disadvantage which is the underlying cause of the negative outcomes.
Methods: A systematic literature review was undertaken of studies which used a UK dataset to quantify any long term outcomes of a teenage birth upon the mother, father or child. Studies were included if they used appropriate methods to isolate the causal effect of early parenthood. The databases searched included Medline, Cochrane, EconLit and Web of Science.
Results: Six studies were identified by the review; five studies considered the mother’s socioeconomic outcomes, one study reported the child’s outcomes, and no studies met the inclusion criteria for the father’s outcomes. The studies suggested that early motherhood accounts for relatively few of the negative long term socioeconomic outcomes and it is predominantly an indicator of a disadvantaged family background.
Conclusion: Limited evidence is available to understand the long term outcomes associated with teenage birth within the UK for the mother, father and child. Current econometric studies suggest that effective interventions to prevent teenage pregnancies will not eradicate the poorer long term socioeconomic outcomes often associated with early motherhood. Thus policy should focus on reducing initial disadvantage in addition to preventing teenage pregnancy. Additional econometric analyses around the mothers’, fathers’ and children’s long term socioeconomic and health-related outcomes would be
valuable
Kinematic study of planetary nebulae in NGC 6822
By measuring precise radial velocities of planetary nebulae (which belong to
the intermediate age population), H II regions, and A-type supergiant stars
(which are members of the young population) in NGC 6822, we aim to determine if
both types of population share the kinematics of the disk of H I found in this
galaxy.
Spectroscopic data for four planetary nebulae were obtained with the high
spectral resolution spectrograph Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) on the
Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. Data for other three PNe and
one H II region were obtained from the SPM Catalog of Extragalactic Planetary
Nebulae which employed the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer attached to the 2.1m
telescope at the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional, M\'exico. In the
wavelength calibrated spectra, the heliocentric radial velocities were measured
with a precision better than 5-6 km s. Data for three additional H II
regions and a couple of A-type supergiant stars were collected from the
literature. The heliocentric radial velocities of the different objects were
compared to the velocities of the H i disk at the same position.
From the analysis of radial velocities it is found that H II regions and
A-type supergiants do share the kinematics of the H I disk at the same
position, as expected for these young objects. On the contrary, planetary
nebula velocities differ significantly from that of the H I at the same
position. The kinematics of planetary nebulae is independent from the young
population kinematics and it is closer to the behavior shown by carbon stars,
which are intermediate-age members of the stellar spheroid existing in this
galaxy. Our results are confirming that there are at least two very different
kinematical systems in NGC 6822
Main-Sequence and sub-giant stars in the Globular Cluster NGC6397: The complex evolution of the lithium abundance
Thanks to the high multiplex and efficiency of Giraffe at the VLT we have
been able for the first time to observe the Li I doublet in the Main Sequence
(MS) stars of a Globular Cluster. At the same time we observed Li in a sample
of Sub-Giant (SG) stars of the same B-V colour. Our final sample is composed of
84 SG stars and 79 MS stars. In spite of the fact that SG and MS span the same
temperature range we find that the equivalent widths of the Li I doublet in SG
stars are systematically larger than those in MS stars, suggesting a higher Li
content among SG stars. This is confirmed by our quantitative analysis. We
derived the effective temperatures, from H fitting, and NLTE Li
abundances of the stars in our the sample, using 3D and 1D models. We find that
SG stars have a mean Li abundance higher by 0.1dex than MS stars, using both 1D
and 3D models. We also detect a positive slope of Li abundance with effective
temperature. These results provide an unambiguous evidence that the Li
abundance changes with evolutionary status. The physical mechanisms responsible
for this behaviour are not yet clear, and none of the existing models seems to
describe accurately these observations. Based on these conclusions, we believe
that the cosmological lithium problem still remains an open question.Comment: Proceedings of the contributed talk presented at the IAU Symposium
26
UNSUPERVISED LEARNING FOR RIPENESS ESTIMATION FROM GRAPE SEEDS IMAGES
Estimating the current stage of grape ripeness is a crucial step in wine making and becomes especially important during harvesting. Visual inspection of grape seeds is one method to achieve this goal without performing chemical analysis, however this method is prone to failure. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised visual inspection system for grape ripeness estimation using the Dirichlet Mixture Model (DMM). Experimental analysis using real world data demonstrates that our approach can be used to estimate different ripeness stages from unlabeled grape seeds catalogs
The Chemical Composition of Cernis 52 (BD+31 640)
We present an abundance analysis of the star Cernis 52 in whose spectrum we
recently reported the napthalene cation in absorption at 6707.4 {\AA}. This
star is on a line of sight to the Perseus molecular complex. The analysis of
high-resolution spectra using a chi^2-minimization procedure and a grid of
synthetic spectra provides the stellar parameters and the abundances of O, Mg,
Si, S, Ca, and Fe. The stellar parameters of this star are found to be T_{eff}
= 8350 +- 200 K, logg= 4.2 +- 0.4 dex. We derived a metallicity of [Fe/H] =
-0.01 +- 0.15. These stellar parameters are consistent with a star of
\Msun in a pre-main-sequence evolutionary stage. The stellar spectrum is
significantly veiled in the spectral range 5150-6730 {\AA} up to almost 55 per
cent of the total flux at 5150 {\AA} and decreasing towards longer wavelengths.
Using Johnson-Cousins and 2MASS photometric data, we determine a distance to
Cernis 52 of 231 pc considering the error bars of the stellar
parameters. This determination places the star at a similar distance to the
young cluster IC 348. This together with its radial velocity, v_r=13.7+-1 km/s,
its proper motion and probable young age support Cernis 52 as a likely member
of IC 348. We determine a rotational velocity of v\sin i=65 +- 5 km/s for this
star. We confirm that the stellar resonance line of \ion{Li}{1} at 6707.8 {\AA}
is unable to fit the broad feature at 6707.4 {\AA}. This feature should have a
interstellar origin and could possibly form in the dark cloud L1470 surrounding
all the cluster IC 348 at about the same distance.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
The periodic standing-wave approximation: post-Minkowski computation
The periodic standing wave method studies circular orbits of compact objects
coupled to helically symmetric standing wave gravitational fields. From this
solution an approximation is extracted for the strong field, slowly
inspiralling motion of black holes and binary stars. Previous work on this
model has dealt with nonlinear scalar models, and with linearized general
relativity. Here we present the results of the method for the post-Minkowski
(PM) approximation to general relativity, the first step beyond linearized
gravity. We compute the PM approximation in two ways: first, via the standard
approach of computing linearized gravitational fields and constructing from
them quadratic driving sources for second-order fields, and second, by solving
the second-order equations as an ``exact'' nonlinear system. The results of
these computations have two distinct applications: (i) The computational
infrastructure for the ``exact'' PM solution will be directly applicable to
full general relativity. (ii) The results will allow us to begin supplying
initial data to collaborators running general relativistic evolution codes.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, RevTe
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