13,958 research outputs found
Investigating magnetic activity of F stars with the it Kepler mission
The dynamo process is believed to drive the magnetic activity of stars like
the Sun that have an outer convection zone. Large spectroscopic surveys showed
that there is a relation between the rotation periods and the cycle periods:
the longer the rotation period is, the longer the magnetic activity cycle
period will be. We present the analysis of F stars observed by Kepler for which
individual p modes have been measure and with surface rotation periods shorter
than 12 days. We defined magnetic indicators and proxies based on photometric
observations to help characterise the activity levels of the stars. With the
Kepler data, we investigate the existence of stars with cycles (regular or
not), stars with a modulation that could be related to magnetic activity, and
stars that seem to show a flat behaviour.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of IAU Symposium 302 'Magnetic fields
through stellar evolution', 25-30 August 2013, Biarritz, Franc
Perturbations in electromagnetic dark energy
It has been recently proposed that the presence of a temporal electromagnetic
field on cosmological scales could explain the phase of accelerated expansion
that the universe is currently undergoing. The field contributes as a
cosmological constant and therefore, the homogeneous cosmology produced by such
a model is exactly the same as that of CDM. However, unlike a
cosmological constant term, electromagnetic fields can acquire perturbations
which in principle could affect CMB anisotropies and structure formation. In
this work, we study the evolution of inhomogeneous scalar perturbations in this
model. We show that provided the initial electromagnetic fluctuations generated
during inflation are small, the model is perfectly compatible with both CMB and
large scale structure observations at the same level of accuracy as
CDM.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Added new comments to match the published
versio
An effective theory of accelerated expansion
We work out an effective theory of accelerated expansion to describe general
phenomena of inflation and acceleration (dark energy) in the Universe. Our aim
is to determine from theoretical grounds, in a physically-motivated and model
independent way, which and how many (free) parameters are needed to broadly
capture the physics of a theory describing cosmic acceleration. Our goal is to
make as much as possible transparent the physical interpretation of the
parameters describing the expansion. We show that, at leading order, there are
five independent parameters, of which one can be constrained via general
relativity tests. The other four parameters need to be determined by observing
and measuring the cosmic expansion rate only, H(z). Therefore we suggest that
future cosmology surveys focus on obtaining an accurate as possible measurement
of to constrain the nature of accelerated expansion (dark energy and/or
inflation).Comment: In press; minor changes, results unchange
Off-shell effects in the relativistic mean field model and their role in CC (anti)neutrino scattering at MiniBooNE kinematics
The relativistic mean field (RMF) model is used to describe nucleons in the
nucleus and thereby to evaluate the effects of having dynamically off-shell
spinors. Compared with free, on-shell nucleons as employed in some other
models, within the RMF nucleons are described by relativistic spinors with
strongly enhanced lower components. In this work it is seen that for MiniBooNE
kinematics, neutrino charged-current quasielastic cross sections show some
sensitivity to these off-shell effects, while for the antineutrino-nucleus case
the total cross sections are seen to be essentially independent of the
enhancement of the lower components. As was found to be the case when comparing
the RMF results with the neutrino-nucleus data, the present impulse
approximation predictions within the RMF also fall short of the MiniBooNE
antineutrino-nucleus data.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physics Letters
Charged-current inclusive neutrino cross sections in the SuperScaling model including quasielastic, pion production and meson-exchange contributions
Charged current inclusive neutrino-nucleus cross sections are evaluated using
the superscaling model for quasielastic scattering and its extension to the
pion production region. The contribution of two-particle-two-hole vector
meson-exchange current excitations is also considered within a fully
relativistic model tested against electron scattering data. The results are
compared with the inclusive neutrino-nucleus data from the T2K and SciBooNE
experiments. For experiments where GeV, the
three mechanisms considered in this work provide good agreement with the data.
However, when the neutrino energy is larger, effects from beyond the
also appear to be playing a role. The results show that processes induced by
two-body currents play a minor role at the kinematics considered.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Spitzer Uncovers Active Galactic Nuclei Missed by Optical Surveys in 7 Late-type Galaxies
We report the discovery using Spitzers high resolution spectrograph of 7
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in a sample of 32 late-type galaxies that show no
definitive signatures of AGN in their optical spectra. Our observations suggest
that the AGN detection rate in late-type galaxies is possibly 4 times larger
than what optical spectroscopic observations alone suggest. We demonstrate
using photoionization models with an input AGN and an extreme EUV-bright
starburst ionizing radiation field that the observed mid-infrared line ratios
cannot be replicated unless an AGN contribution, in some cases as little as 10%
of the total galaxy luminosity, is included. These models show that when the
fraction of the total luminosity due to the AGN is low, optical diagnostics are
insensitive to the presence of the AGN. In this regime of parameter space, the
mid-infrared diagnostics offer a powerful tool for uncovering AGN missed by
optical spectroscopy. The AGN bolometric luminosities in our sample range from
~3 X 10^41 - ~2 X 10^43 ergs s^-1, which, based on the Eddington limit,
corresponds to a lower mass limit for the black hole that ranges from ~3 X
10^3Mdot to as high as ~1.5 X 10^5Mdot. These lower mass limits however do not
put a strain on the well-known relationship between the black hole mass and the
host galaxy's stellar velocity dispersion established in predominantly
early-type galaxies. Our findings add to the growing evidence that black holes
do form and grow in low-bulge environments and that they are significantly more
common than optical studies indicate.Comment: 8 figures, 17 pages, astro-ph\0801.2766 (Abel & Satyapal 2008; ApJ
accepted) and this posting designed to form a two-part investigatio
Developmental lung expression and transcriptional regulation of Claudin-6 by TTF-1, Gata-6, and FoxA2
The Inertial Stellar Compass: A New Direction in Spacecraft Attitude Determination
The Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) is a real-time, miniature, low power stellar inertial attitude determination system, composed of a wide field-of-view active pixel star camera and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gyro assembly, with associated processing and power electronics. The integrated technologies enable an attitude determination system with an accuracy of 0.1 degree (1 sigma) to be realized at very low power and volume. The attitude knowledge provided by the ISC is applicable to a wide range of space and earth science missions that may include the use of highly maneuverable, stabilized, tumbling, or lost spacecraft. Under the guidance of NASA’s New Millennium ST-6 project, Draper Laboratory is currently developing the Inertial Stellar Compass. Its completion and flight validation will represent a breakthrough in real-time miniature attitude determination sensors. This paper describes system design, development, and validation activities currently underway at Draper
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