21 research outputs found
The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function at the Dawn of Gaia
The [O III] 5007 Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) is an excellent
extragalactic standard candle. In theory, the PNLF method should not work at
all, since the luminosities of the brightest planetary nebulae (PNe) should be
highly sensitive to the age of their host stellar population. Yet the method
appears robust, as it consistently produces < 10% distances to galaxies of all
Hubble types, from the earliest ellipticals to the latest-type spirals and
irregulars. It is therefore uniquely suited for cross-checking the results of
other techniques and finding small offsets between the Population I and
Population II distance ladders. We review the calibration of the method and
show that the zero points provided by Cepheids and the Tip of the Red Giant
Branch are in excellent agreement. We then compare the results of the PNLF with
those from Surface Brightness Fluctuation measurements, and show that, although
both techniques agree in a relative sense, the latter method yields distances
that are ~15% larger than those from the PNLF. We trace this discrepancy back
to the calibration galaxies and argue that, due to a small systematic error
associated with internal reddening, the true distance scale likely falls
between the extremes of the two methods. We also demonstrate how PNLF
measurements in the early-type galaxies that have hosted Type Ia supernovae can
help calibrate the SN Ia maximum magnitude-rate of decline relation. Finally,
we discuss how the results from space missions such as Kepler and Gaia can help
our understanding of the PNLF phenomenon and improve our knowledge of the
physics of local planetary nebulae.Comment: 12 pages, invited review at the conference "The Fundamental Cosmic
Distance Scale: State of the Art and Gaia Perspective", to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Scienc
Nonlinear weakly curved rod by Γ-Convergence
We present a nonlinear model of weakly curved rod, namely the type of curved rod where the curvature is of the order of the diameter of the cross-section. We use an approach analogous to the one for rods and curved rods and start from the strain energy functional of three dimensional nonlinear elasticity. We do not impose any constitutional behavior of the material and work in a general framework. To derive the model, by means of Γ-convergence, we need to set the order of strain energy (i.e., its relation to the thickness of the body h). We analyze the situation when the strain energy (divided by the order of volume) is of the order h 4. This is the same approach as the one used in Föppl-von Kármán model for plates and the analogous model for rods. The obtained model is analogous to Marguerre-von Kármán for shallow shells and its linearization is the linear shallow arch model which can be found in the literature
Mechanics of Reversible Unzipping
We study the mechanics of a reversible decohesion (unzipping) of an elastic
layer subjected to quasi-static end-point loading. At the micro level the
system is simulated by an elastic chain of particles interacting with a rigid
foundation through breakable springs. Such system can be viewed as prototypical
for the description of a wide range of phenomena from peeling of polymeric
tapes, to rolling of cells, working of gecko's fibrillar structures and
denaturation of DNA. We construct a rigorous continuum limit of the discrete
model which captures both stable and metastable configurations and present a
detailed parametric study of the interplay between elastic and cohesive
interactions. We show that the model reproduces the experimentally observed
abrupt transition from an incremental evolution of the adhesion front to a
sudden complete decohesion of a macroscopic segment of the adhesion layer. As
the microscopic parameters vary the macroscopic response changes from
quasi-ductile to quasi-brittle, with corresponding decrease in the size of the
adhesion hysteresis. At the micro-scale this corresponds to a transition from a
`localized' to a `diffuse' structure of the decohesion front (domain wall). We
obtain an explicit expression for the critical debonding threshold in the limit
when the internal length scales are much smaller than the size of the system.
The achieved parametric control of the microscopic mechanism can be used in the
design of new biological inspired adhesion devices and machines
Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost
universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade.
Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this
time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of
available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the
modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of
multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed
galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major
ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay
between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models,
and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic
measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting
can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies,
such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and
metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet
there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in
a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the
influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The
challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the
observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will
be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where
the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the
text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics &
Space Scienc
Initiation of cracks with cohesive force models : a variational approach
International audienc
Variational Approach to Ductile Fracture: A Simple Model with Gradient-Damage and Plasticity
A cohesive zone model with Barenblatt surface energy : theoretical considerations and numerical simulations
A damage mechanics approach to stress softening and its application to rubber
We analyze stress softening phenomena within the framework of the 'generalized standard material' based on the notion of a 'normal dissipative mechanism'. We prove that the monotonicity properties of the 'yield function' governing such mechanism lead to local and global uniqueness of the response. Applications to oscillators with a single degree of freedom, whose anharmonic spring exhibits stress softening, are also presented