16,237 research outputs found
The acoustic cut-off frequency of the Sun and the solar magnetic activity cycle
The acoustic cut-off frequency -the highest frequency for acoustic solar
eigenmodes- is an important parameter of the solar atmosphere as it determines
the upper boundary of the p-mode resonant cavities. At frequencies beyond this
value, acoustic disturbances are no longer trapped but traveling waves.
Interference amongst them give rise to higher-frequency peaks -the pseudomodes-
in the solar acoustic spectrum. The pseudomodes are shifted slightly in
frequency with respect to p modes making possible the use of pseudomodes to
determine the acoustic cut-off frequency. Using data from GOLF and VIRGO
instruments on board the SOHO spacecraft, we calculate the acoustic cut-off
frequency using the coherence function between both the velocity and intensity
sets of data. By using data gathered by these instruments during the entire
lifetime of the mission (1996 till the present), a variation in the acoustic
cut-off frequency with the solar magnetic activity cycle is found.Comment: Paper accepted in ApJ. 26 Pages, 9 figure
Cosmic magnetic fields and dark energy in extended electromagnetism
We discuss an extended version of electromagnetism in which the usual gauge
fixing term is promoted into a physical contribution that introduces a new
scalar state in the theory. This new state can be generated from vacuum quantum
fluctuations during an inflationary era and, on super-Hubble scales, gives rise
to an effective cosmological constant. The value of such a cosmological
constant coincides with the one inferred from observations as long as inflation
took place at the electroweak scale. On the other hand, the new state also
generates an effective electric charge density on sub-Hubble scales that
produces both vorticity and magnetic fields with coherent lengths as large as
the present Hubble horizon.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of Spanish
Relativity Meeting 2010, Granada, Spain, 6-10 September 201
CP4 miracle: shaping Yukawa sector with CP symmetry of order four
We explore the phenomenology of a unique three-Higgs-doublet model based on
the single CP symmetry of order 4 (CP4) without any accidental symmetries. The
CP4 symmetry is imposed on the scalar potential and Yukawa interactions,
strongly shaping both sectors of the model and leading to a very characteristic
phenomenology. The scalar sector is analyzed in detail, and in the Yukawa
sector we list all possible CP4-symmetric structures which do not run into
immediate conflict with experiment, namely, do not lead to massless or
mass-degenerate quarks nor to insufficient mixing or CP-violation in the CKM
matrix. We show that the parameter space of the model, although very
constrained by CP4, is large enough to comply with the electroweak precision
data and the LHC results for the 125 GeV Higgs boson phenomenology, as well as
to perfectly reproduce all fermion masses, mixing, and CP violation. Despite
the presence of flavor changing neutral currents mediated by heavy Higgs
scalars, we find through a parameter space scan many points which accurately
reproduce the kaon CP-violating parameter as well as oscillation
parameters in K and mesons. Thus, CP4 offers a novel minimalistic
framework for building models with very few assumptions, sufficient predictive
power, and rich phenomenology yet to be explored.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; v2: expanded discussion, extra
references, matches published versio
How to automate a kinematic mount using a 3D printed Arduino-based system
We demonstrate a simple, flexible and cost-effective system to automatize
most of the kinematic mounts available nowadays on the market. It combines 3D
printed components, an Arduino board, stepper motors, and simple electronics.
The system developed can control independently and simultaneously up to ten
stepper motors using commands sent through the serial port, and it is suitable
for applications where optical realignment using flat mirrors is required on a
periodic basis.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
The onset of solar cycle 24: What global acoustic modes are telling us
We study the response of the low-degree, solar p-mode frequencies to the
unusually extended minimum of solar surface activity since 2007. A total of
4768 days of observations collected by the space-based, Sun-as-a-star
helioseismic GOLF instrument are analyzed. A multi-step iterative
maximum-likelihood fitting method is applied to subseries of 365 days and 91.25
days to extract the p-mode parameters. Temporal variations of the l=0, 1, and 2
p-mode frequencies are then obtained from April 1996 to May 2009. While the
p-mode frequency shifts are closely correlated with solar surface activity
proxies during the past solar cycles, the frequency shifts of the l=0 and l=2
modes show an increase from the second half of 2007, when no significant
surface activity is observable. On the other hand, the l=1 modes follow the
general decreasing trend of the solar surface activity. The different
behaviours between the l=0 and l=2 modes and the l=1 modes can be interpreted
as different geometrical responses to the spatial distribution of the solar
magnetic field beneath the surface of the Sun. The analysis of the low-degree,
solar p-mode frequency shifts indicates that the solar activity cycle 24
started late 2007, despite the absence of activity on the solar surface.Comment: To be accepted by A&A (with minor revisions), 4 pages, 3 figures, 1
tabl
On the evolution of the molecular line profiles induced by the propagation of C-shock waves
We present the first results of the expected variations of the molecular line
emission arising from material recently affected by C-shocks (shock
precursors). Our parametric model of the structure of C-shocks has been coupled
with a radiative transfer code to calculate the molecular excitation and line
profiles of shock tracers such as SiO, and of ion and neutral molecules such as
H13CO+ and HN13C, as the shock propagates through the unperturbed medium. Our
results show that the SiO emission arising from the early stage of the magnetic
precursor typically has very narrow line profiles slightly shifted in velocity
with respect to the ambient cloud. This narrow emission is generated in the
region where the bulk of the ion fluid has already slipped to larger velocities
in the precursor as observed toward the young L1448-mm outflow. This strongly
suggests that the detection of narrow SiO emission and of an ion enhancement in
young shocks, is produced by the magnetic precursor of C-shocks. In addition,
our model shows that the different velocity components observed toward this
outflow can be explained by the coexistence of different shocks at different
evolutionary stages, within the same beam of the single-dish observations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Development of the Red Sequence in Galaxy Clusters
We investigate the origin of the color-magnitude relation (CMR) observed in
cluster galaxies by using a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of
a cluster of galaxies and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. The
departure of galaxies in the bright end of the CMR with respect to the trend
defined by less luminous galaxies could be explained by the influence of minor
mergers.Comment: Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 267, 2009. Co-Evolution of Central
Black Holes and Galaxie
Optical sectioning in induced coherence tomography with frequency-entangled photons
We demonstrate a different scheme to perform optical sectioning of a sample
based on the concept of induced coherence [Zou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 318
(1991)]. This can be viewed as a different type of optical coherence tomography
scheme where the varying reflectivity of the sample along the direction of
propagation of an optical beam translates into changes of the degree of
first-order coherence between two beams. As a practical advantage the scheme
allows probing the sample with one wavelength and measuring photons with
another wavelength. In a bio-imaging scenario, this would result in a deeper
penetration into the sample because of probing with longer wavelengths, while
still using the optimum wavelength for detection. The scheme proposed here
could achieve submicron axial resolution by making use of nonlinear parametric
sources with broad spectral bandwidth emission.Comment: Published version. 11 pages, 9 figure
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