137,132 research outputs found
Surface brightness measurements for APM galaxies
This paper considers some simple surface brightness (SB) estimates for
galaxies in the Automated Plate Measuring Machine (APM) catalogue in order to
derive homogeneous SB data for a very large sample of faint galaxies. The
isophotal magnitude and area are used to estimate the central surface
brightness and total magnitude based on the assumption of an exponential SB
profile. The surface brightness measurements are corrected for field effects on
each UK Schmidt plate and the zero-point of each plate is adjusted to give a
uniform sample of SB and total magnitude estimates over the whole survey.
Results are obtained for 2.4 million galaxies with blue photographic magnitudes
brighter than b_J = 20.5 covering 4300 deg^2 in the region of the south
galactic cap. Almost all galaxies in our sample have central surface brightness
in the range 20 to 24 b_J mag per arcsec^2. The SB measurements we obtain are
compared to previous SB measurements and we find an acceptable level of error
of +/- 0.2 b_J mag per arcsec^2. The distribution of SB profiles is considered
for different galaxy morphologies for the bright APM galaxies. We find that
early-type galaxies have more centrally concentrated profiles.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Numerical evaluation of two-loop integrals with pySecDec
We describe the program pySecDec, which factorises endpoint singularities
from multi-dimensional parameter integrals and can serve to calculate integrals
occurring in higher order perturbative calculations numerically. We focus on
the new features and on frequently asked questions about the usage of the
program.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the HiggsTools Final
Meeting, IPPP, University of Durham, UK, September 201
Public contracts as accountability mechanisms: assuring quality in public healthcare in England and Wales
Contracting in the public sector is designed to enhance the accountability of service providers to their funders. The idea is that quality is improved by the use of service specifications, monitoring of performance and imposition of contractual sanctions. Socio-legal and economic theories of contract indicate that it will be difficult to make and enforce contracts to achieve this. The results of a study of National Health Services contracting in England and Wales are reported. We conclude that contracts alone are not sufficient to improve accountability â collibration of various regulatory measures (including more hierarchical mechanisms such as performance targets) is required
SecDec-3.0: numerical evaluation of multi-scale integrals beyond one loop
SecDec is a program which can be used for the factorization of dimensionally
regulated poles from parametric integrals, in particular multi-loop integrals,
and the subsequent numerical evaluation of the finite coefficients. Here we
present version 3.0 of the program, which has major improvements compared to
version 2: it is faster, contains new decomposition strategies, an improved
user interface and various other new features which extend the range of
applicability.Comment: 46 pages, version to appear in Comput.Phys.Com
Structural templating as a route to improved photovoltaic performance in copper phthalocyanine/fullerene (C60) heterojunctions
We have developed a method to improve the short circuit current density in copper phthalocyanine (CuPc)/fullerene (C60) organic solar cells by ~60% by modifying the CuPc crystal orientation through use of a molecular interlayer to maximize charge transport in the direction between the two electrodes. Powder x-ray diffraction and electronic absorption spectroscopy show that a thin 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride interlayer before CuPc growth templates the CuPc film structure, forcing the molecules to lie flat with respect to the substrate surface, although the intrastack orientation is unaffected. This modified stacking configuration facilitates charge transport and improves charge collection
X-ray polarimetry with an active-matrix pixel proportional counter
We report the first results from an X-ray polarimeter with a micropattern gas
proportional counter using an amorphous silicon active matrix readout. With
100% polarized X-rays at 4.5 keV, we obtain a modulation factor of 0.33 +/-
0.03, confirming previous reports of the high polarization sensitivity of a
finely segmented pixel proportional counter. The detector described here has a
geometry suitable for the focal plane of an astronomical X-ray telescope.
Amorphous silicon readout technology will enable additional extensions and
improvements.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
- âŚ