4,690 research outputs found
Precise Ages of Field Stars from White Dwarf Companions
Observational tests of stellar and Galactic chemical evolution call for the
joint knowledge of a star's physical parameters, detailed element abundances,
and precise age. For cool main-sequence (MS) stars the abundances of many
elements can be measured from spectroscopy, but ages are very hard to
determine. The situation is different if the MS star has a white dwarf (WD)
companion and a known distance, as the age of such a binary system can then be
determined precisely from the photometric properties of the cooling WD. As a
pilot study for obtaining precise age determinations of field MS stars, we
identify nearly one hundred candidates for such wide binary systems: a faint WD
whose GPS1 proper motion matches that of a brighter MS star in Gaia/TGAS with a
good parallax (). We model the WD's multi-band
photometry with the BASE-9 code using this precise distance (assumed to be
common for the pair) and infer ages for each binary system. The resulting age
estimates are precise to () for () MS-WD systems.
Our analysis more than doubles the number of MS-WD systems with precise
distances known to date, and it boosts the number of such systems with precise
age determination by an order of magnitude. With the advent of the Gaia DR2
data, this approach will be applicable to a far larger sample, providing ages
for many MS stars (that can yield detailed abundances for over 20 elements),
especially in the age range 2 to 8\,\Gyr, where there are only few known star
clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 catalog; Submitted to Ap
Double crystal x-ray diffraction simulations of diffusion in semiconductor microstructures
Diffusion in group IV, III-V and II-VI semiconductors is an interesting problem not only from a fundamental physics viewpoint but also in practical terms, since it could determine the useful lifetime of a device. Any attempt to control the amount of diffusion in a semiconductor device, whether it be a quantum well structure or not, requires an accurate determination of the diffusion coefficient. The present theoretical study shows that this could be achieved via x-ray diffraction studies in quantum well structures. It is demonstrated that the rocking curves of single quantum wells are not sensitive to diffusion. However the intensity of the first order satellite, which is characteristic of superlattice rocking curves, is strongly dependent upon diffusion and it is proposed that this technique could be used to measure the diffusion coefficient D. © 1998 American Institute of Physics
Lake Area Variability Across a Climatic and Vegetational Transect in Southeastern Alberta
Areas of 34 small lakes forming a transect across the southern margin of the Boreal Forest into the Grassland in southern Alberta were obtained from 326 aerial photographs, with at least six photographs for each lake in different months and different years from 1949 to 1992. Standard deviations of standardised lake areas (used as an index of lake area sensitivity to short term climate fluctuations) were plotted against a climatic moisture index; the resulting scatter of points is constrained by a function relating lake sensitivity to long-term regional climatic moisture. The lakes show high sensitivity in the Grassland where potential évapotranspiration exceeds precipitation, a steep drop in sensitivity over a small range of climatic moisture values in the Aspen Parkland, and very low sensitivity in the Boreal Forest where precipitation exceeds potential évapotranspiration.Les superficies de 34 petits lacs constituant un transect à partir de la limite méridionale de la forêt boréale jusqu'à la prairie, dans le sud de l'Alberta. ont été calculées grâce à l'étude de 326 photographies aériennes. Chacun des lacs comptaient au moins six photographies prises à différents mois et échelonnées de 1949 à 1992. Les écarts types de la superficie standardisée des lacs (employés comme indice de la sensibilité de la superficie des lacs aux fluctuations climatiques à court terme) ont été reportés par rapport à l'indice d'humidité. Le nuage de points qui en résulte est commandé par la fonction reliant la sensibilité des lacs à l'humidité du climat régional. Les lacs démontrent une grande sensibilité en prairie où l'évapotranspiration potentielle excède les précipitations, une très forte baisse de sensibilité dans la tremblaie-parc et une très faible sensibilité dans la forêt boréale où les précipitations excèdent l'évapotranspiration potentielle.Die Ausdehnungen von 34 kleinen Seen, welche ein Transect von der sùdlichen Grenze des nôrdlichen Waldgùrtels bis zur Prârie bilden, wurden mittels 326 Luftaufnahmen berechnet; dabei hat man mindestens sechs Aufnahmen fur jeden See gemacht, in verschiedenen Monaten und verschiedenen Jahren von 1949 bis 1992. Die Standardabweichungen von den standardisierten Seen-Oberflàchen (welche als Gradmesser fur die Sensibilitàt der Seen-Oberflâchen auf kurzfristige klimatische Schwankungen benutzt wurden) hat man in Bezug auf den klimatischen Feuchtigkeitsindex ubertragen: die hierdurch erzielte Streuung von Punkten ist durch die Funktion bestimmt, welche die Seen-Sensibilitât mit langzeitiger regionaler klimatischer Feuchtigkeit verbindet. Die Seen weisen eine hohe Sensibilitàt in der Prârie auf, wo die potentielle Evapotranspiration die Niederschlàge ùbertrifft, eine jâhe Abnahme der Sensibilitàt ùber einer kleinen Reihe von klimatischen Feuchtig-keitswerten im Aspen Parkland, und sehr niedrige Sensibilitàt im nôrdlichen WaIdgùrtel, wo die Niederschlàge hoher als die potentielle Evapotranspiration sind
Dynamic settling of particles in shear flows of shear-thinning fluids
Dynamic settling is the phenomenon whereby a relatively dense particle settles through a sheared flow of a non-Newtonian fluid at a speed that depends on the shear rate of the background flow. This means that due to the non-linear rheology, the settling velocity may vary spatially and temporally as the background shear rate of the suspending fluid varies, an effect which does not occur in Newtonian fluids. In this contribution, the consequences of this dependency are explored for a dilute suspension of particles released uniformly from a source in a sustained and externally-driven flow of shear-thinning fluid. It is shown theoretically that the concentration field does not remain uniform, but evolves downstream, allowing calculation of the runout length, settling times and distribution of the deposited particles. Flows with a velocity maximum are demonstrated to affect the concentration field very strongly as they develop a ‘kinematic barrier’ over which settling times are considerably lengthened. Flows with bidisperse suspensions are shown to produce deposits that vary non-monotonically in thickness and composition with distance downstream, an effect which is solely due to dynamic settling. Finally flows of viscoplastic fluids which exhibit yielded and unyielded regions may accentuate the role and effects of the kinematic barrier to settling
Early-type galaxies in the SDSS. II. Correlations between observables
A magnitude limited sample of nearly 9000 early-type galaxies, in the
redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.3, was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
using morphological and spectral criteria. The sample was used to study how
early-type galaxy observables, including luminosity L, effective radius R_o,
surface brightness I_o, color, and velocity dispersion sigma, are correlated
with one another. Measurement biases are understood with mock catalogs which
reproduce all of the observed scaling relations and their dependences on
fitting technique. At any given redshift, the intrinsic distribution of
luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions in our sample are all
approximately Gaussian. A maximum likelihood analysis shows that sigma ~
L^{0.25\pm 0.012}, R_o ~ L^{0.63\pm 0.025}, and R_o ~ I^{-0.75\pm 0.02} in the
r* band. In addition, the mass-to-light ratio within the effective radius
scales as M_o/L ~ L^{0.14\pm 0.02} or M_o/L ~ M_o^{0.22\pm 0.05}, and galaxies
with larger effective masses have smaller effective densities: Delta_o ~
M_o^{-0.52\pm 0.03}. These relations are approximately the same in the g*, i*
and z* bands. Relative to the population at the median redshift in the sample,
galaxies at lower and higher redshifts have evolved only little, with more
evolution in the bluer bands. The luminosity function is consistent with weak
passive luminosity evolution and a formation time of about 9 Gyrs ago.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by AJ (scheduled for April 2003). This
paper is part II of a revised version of astro-ph/011034
A feasibility study for a remote laser water turbidity meter
A technique to remotely determine the attenuation coefficient (alpha) of the water was investigated. The backscatter energy (theta = 180 deg) of a pulse laser (lambda = 440 - 660 nm) was found directly related to the water turbidity. The greatest sensitivity was found to exist at 440 nm. For waters whose turbidity was adjusted using Chesapeake Bay sediment, the sensitivity in determining alpha at 440 nm was found to be approximately 5 - 10%. A correlation was also found to exist between the water depth (time) at which the peak backscatter occurs and alpha
Imaging of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies in the Near-UV
We present the first ground-based U' (3410 angstroms) images of Ultraluminous
Infrared Galaxies (ULIGs). Strong U' emission (median total M_U' = -20.8) is
seen in all systems and in some cases the extended tidal features (both the
smooth stellar distribution and compact star-forming features) contribute up to
60-80% of the total flux. The star-forming regions in both samples are found to
have ages based on spectral synthesis models in the range 10-100 Myrs, and most
differences in color between them can be attributed to the effects of dust
reddening. Additionally, it is found that star-formation in compact knots in
the tidal tails is most prominent in those ULIGs which have double nuclei,
suggesting that the star-formation rate in the tails peaks prior to the actual
coalescence of the galaxy nuclei and diminishes quickly thereafter. Similar to
results at other wavelengths, the observed star formation at U' can only
account for a small fraction of the known bolometric luminosity of the ULIGs.
Azimuthally averaged radial light profiles at U' are characterized by a sersic
law with index n=2, which is intermediate between an exponential disk and an
r^(-1/4) law and closely resembles the latter at large radii. The implications
of this near-ultraviolet imaging for optical/near-infrared observations of high
redshift counterparts of ULIGs are discussed.Comment: 30 pages, 4 tables, and 9 figures, 2 of which are JPEGs. To appear in
the August, 2000 edition of the Astronomical Journa
Gravitational Lenses With More Than Four Images: I. Classification of Caustics
We study the problem of gravitational lensing by an isothermal elliptical
density galaxy in the presence of a tidal perturbation. When the perturbation
is fairly strong and oriented near the galaxy's minor axis, the lens can
produce image configurations with six or even eight highly magnified images
lying approximately on a circle. We classify the caustic structures in the
model and identify the range of models that can produce such lenses. Sextuple
and octuple lenses are likely to be rare because they require special lens
configurations, but a full calculation of the likelihood will have to include
both the existence of lenses with multiple lens galaxies and the strong
magnification bias that affects sextuple and octuple lenses. At optical
wavelengths these lenses would probably appear as partial or complete Einstein
rings, but at radio wavelengths the individual images could probably be
resolved.Comment: 30 pages, including 12 postscript figures; accepted for publication
in Ap
Spectral Templates from Multicolor Redshift Surveys
Understanding how the physical properties of galaxies (e.g. their spectral
type or age) evolve as a function of redshift relies on having an accurate
representation of galaxy spectral energy distributions. While it has been known
for some time that galaxy spectra can be reconstructed from a handful of
orthogonal basis templates, the underlying basis is poorly constrained. The
limiting factor has been the lack of large samples of galaxies (covering a wide
range in spectral type) with high signal-to-noise spectrophotometric
observations. To alleviate this problem we introduce here a new technique for
reconstructing galaxy spectral energy distributions directly from samples of
galaxies with broadband photometric data and spectroscopic redshifts.
Exploiting the statistical approach of the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, our
iterative training procedure increasingly improves the eigenbasis, so that it
provides better agreement with the photometry. We demonstrate the utility of
this approach by applying these improved spectral energy distributions to the
estimation of photometric redshifts for the HDF sample of galaxies. We find
that in a small number of iterations the dispersion in the photometric
redshifts estimator (a comparison between predicted and measured redshifts) can
decrease by up to a factor of 2.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, LaTeX AASTeX, accepted for publication in A
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