1,832 research outputs found
Supernova cosmology: legacy and future
The discovery of dark energy by the first generation of high-redshift
supernova surveys has generated enormous interest beyond cosmology and has
dramatic implications for fundamental physics. Distance measurements using
supernova explosions are the most direct probes of the expansion history of the
Universe, making them extremely useful tools to study the cosmic fabric and the
properties of gravity at the largest scales. The past decade has seen the
confirmation of the original results. Type Ia supernovae are among the leading
techniques to obtain high-precision measurements of the dark energy equation of
state parameter, and in the near future, its time dependence. The success of
these efforts depends on our ability to understand a large number of effects,
mostly of astrophysical nature, influencing the observed flux at Earth. The
frontier now lies in understanding if the observed phenomenon is due to vacuum
energy, albeit its unnatural density, or some exotic new physics. Future
surveys will address the systematic effects with improved calibration
procedures and provide thousands of supernovae for detailed studies.Comment: Invited review, Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
(submitted version
A Variational Approach for Minimizing Lennard-Jones Energies
A variational method for computing conformational properties of molecules
with Lennard-Jones potentials for the monomer-monomer interactions is
presented. The approach is tailored to deal with angular degrees of freedom,
{\it rotors}, and consists in the iterative solution of a set of deterministic
equations with annealing in temperature. The singular short-distance behaviour
of the Lennard-Jones potential is adiabatically switched on in order to obtain
stable convergence. As testbeds for the approach two distinct ensembles of
molecules are used, characterized by a roughly dense-packed ore a more
elongated ground state. For the latter, problems are generated from natural
frequencies of occurrence of amino acids and phenomenologically determined
potential parameters; they seem to represent less disorder than was previously
assumed in synthetic protein studies. For the dense-packed problems in
particular, the variational algorithm clearly outperforms a gradient descent
method in terms of minimal energies. Although it cannot compete with a careful
simulating annealing algorithm, the variational approach requires only a tiny
fraction of the computer time. Issues and results when applying the method to
polyelectrolytes at a finite temperature are also briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript fil
Detailed Abundances for the Old Population near the Galactic Center: I. Metallicity distribution of the Nuclear Star Cluster
We report the first high spectral resolution study of 17 M giants
kinematically confirmed to lie within a few parsecs of the Galactic Center,
using R=24,000 spectroscopy from Keck/NIRSPEC and a new linelist for the
infrared K band. We consider their luminosities and kinematics, which classify
these stars as members of the older stellar population and the central cluster.
We find a median metallicity of =-0.16 and a large spread from
approximately -0.3 to +0.3 (quartiles). We find that the highest metallicities
are [Fe/H]<+0.6, with most of the stars being at or below the Solar iron
abundance. The abundances and the abundance distribution strongly resembles
that of the Galactic bulge rather than disk or halo; in our small sample we
find no statistical evidence for a dependence of velocity dispersion on
metallicity.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A
Evidence against anomalous compositions for giants in the Galactic Nuclear Star Cluster
Very strong Sc I lines have been found recently in cool M giants in the
Nuclear Star Cluster in the Galactic Center. Interpreting these as anomalously
high scandium abundances in the Galactic Center would imply a unique
enhancement signature and chemical evolution history for nuclear star clusters,
and a potential test for models of chemical enrichment in these objects. We
present high resolution K-band spectra (NIRSPEC/Keck II) of cool M giants
situated in the solar neighborhood and compare them with spectra of M giants in
the Nuclear Star Cluster. We clearly identify strong Sc I lines in our solar
neighborhood sample as well as in the Nuclear Star Cluster sample. The strong
Sc I lines in M giants are therefore not unique to stars in the Nuclear Star
Cluster and we argue that the strong lines are a property of the line formation
process that currently escapes accurate theoretical modeling. We further
conclude that for giant stars with effective temperatures below approximately
3800 K these Sc I lines should not be used for deriving the scandium abundances
in any astrophysical environment until we better understand how these lines are
formed. We also discuss the lines of vanadium, titanium, and yttrium identified
in the spectra, which demonstrate a similar striking increase in strength below
3500 K effective temperature.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Fluorine Abundances in the Globular Cluster M 4
We present chemical abundances for the elements carbon, sodium, and fluorine
in 15 red giants of the globular cluster M 4, as well as six red giants of the
globular cluster Centauri. The chemical abundances were calculated in
LTE via spectral synthesis. The spectra analyzed are high-resolution spectra
obtained in the near-infrared region around 2.3m with the Phoenix
spectrograph on the 8.1m Gemini South Telescope, the IGRINS spectrograph on the
McDonald Observatory 2.7m Telescope, and the CRIRES spectrograph on the ESO
8.2m Very Large Telescope. The results indicate a significant reduction in the
fluorine abundances when compared to previous values from the literature for M
4 and Centauri, due to a downward revision in the excitation
potentials of the HF(1-0) R9 line used in the analysis. The fluorine abundances
obtained for the M 4 red giants are found to be anti-correlated with those of
Na, following the typical pattern of abundance variations seen in globular
clusters between distinct stellar populations. In M 4, as the Na abundance
increases by +0.4 dex, the F abundance decreases by -0.2 dex. A
comparison with abundance predictions from two sets of stellar evolution models
finds that the models predict somewhat less F depletion (-0.1 dex) for
the same increase of +0.4 dex in Na
Extended calculations of energy levels, radiative properties, , hyperfine interaction constants, and Land\'e -factors for nitrogen-like \mbox{Ge XXVI}
Employing two state-of-the-art methods, multiconfiguration
Dirac--Hartree--Fock and second-order many-body perturbation theory, highly
accurate calculations are performed for the lowest 272 fine-structure levels
arising from the , , , ~(), (), and ()
configurations in nitrogen-like Ge XXVI. Complete and consistent atomic data,
including excitation energies, lifetimes, wavelengths, hyperfine structures,
Land\'e -factors, and E1, E2, M1, M2 line strengths, oscillator
strengths, and transition rates among these 272 levels are provided.
Comparisons are made between the present two data sets, as well as with other
available experimental and theoretical values. The present data are accurate
enough for identification and deblending of emission lines involving the
levels, and are also useful for modeling and diagnosing fusion plasmas
Incorporation of excluded volume correlations into Poisson-Boltzmann theory
We investigate the effect of excluded volume interactions on the electrolyte
distribution around a charged macroion. First, we introduce a criterion for
determining when hard-core effects should be taken into account beyond standard
mean field Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) theory. Next, we demonstrate that several
commonly proposed local density functional approaches for excluded volume
interactions cannot be used for this purpose. Instead, we employ a non-local
excess free energy by using a simple constant weight approach. We compare the
ion distribution and osmotic pressure predicted by this theory with Monte Carlo
simulations. They agree very well for weakly developed correlations and give
the correct layering effect for stronger ones. In all investigated cases our
simple weighted density theory yields more realistic results than the standard
PB approach, whereas all local density theories do not improve on the PB
density profiles but on the contrary, deviate even more from the simulation
results.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
Optical response of two-dimensional electron fluids beyond the Kohn regime: strong non-parabolic confinement and intense laser light
We investigate the linear and non-linear optical response of two-dimensional
(2D) interacting electron fluids confined by a strong non-parabolic potential.
We show that such fluids may exhibit higher-harmonic spectra under realistic
experimental conditions. Higher harmonics arise as the electrons explore
anharmonicities of the confinement potential (electron-electron interactions
reduce this non-linear effect). This opens the possibility of controlling the
optical functionality of such systems by engineering the confinement potential.
Our results were obtained within time-dependent density-functional theory,
employing the adiabatic local-density approximation. A classical hydrodynamical
model is in good agreement with the quantum-mechanical results.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Persistence length of a polyelectrolyte in salty water: a Monte-Carlo study
We address the long standing problem of the dependence of the electrostatic
persistence length of a flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) on the screening
length of the solution within the linear Debye-Huckel theory. The
standard Odijk, Skolnick and Fixman (OSF) theory suggests ,
while some variational theories and computer simulations suggest . In this paper, we use Monte-Carlo simulations to study the conformation
of a simple polyelectrolyte. Using four times longer PEs than in previous
simulations and refined methods for the treatment of the simulation data, we
show that the results are consistent with the OSF dependence . The linear charge density of the PE which enters in the coefficient of
this dependence is properly renormalized to take into account local
fluctuations.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Various corrections in text and reference
Assessing cost-effectiveness of early intervention in Alzheimer's disease: An open-source modeling framework
This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordIntroduction: We develop a framework to model disease progression across Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to assess the cost-effectiveness of future disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD. Methods: Using data from the US National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, we apply survival analysis to estimate transition from predementia to AD dementia and ordered probit regression to estimate transitions across AD dementia stages. We investigate the cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical treatment scenario for people in MCI due to AD. Results: We present an open-access model-based decision-analytic framework. Assuming a modest DMT treatment effect in MCI, we predict extended life expectancy and a reduction in time with AD dementia. Discussion: Any future DMT for AD is expected to pose significant economic challenges across all health-care systems, and decision-analytic modeling will be required to assess costs and outcomes. Further developments are needed to inform these health policy considerations
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