1,129 research outputs found
The HD 192263 system: planetary orbital period and stellar variability disentangled
As part of the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS), we
present new radial velocities and photometry of the HD 192263 system. Our
analysis of the already available Keck-HIRES and CORALIE radial velocity
measurements together with the five new Keck measurements we report in this
paper results in improved orbital parameters for the system. We derive
constraints on the size and phase location of the transit window for HD
192263b, a Jupiter-mass planet with a period of 24.3587 \pm 0.0022 days. We use
10 years of Automated Photoelectric Telescope (APT) photometry to analyze the
stellar variability and search for planetary transits. We find continuing
evidence of spot activity with periods near 23.4 days. The shape of the
corresponding photometric variations changes over time, giving rise to not one
but several Fourier peaks near this value. However, none of these frequencies
coincides with the planet's orbital period and thus we find no evidence of
star-planet interactions in the system. We attribute the ~23-day variability to
stellar rotation. There are also indications of spot variations on longer (8
years) timescales. Finally, we use the photometric data to exclude transits for
a planet with the predicted radius of 1.09 RJ, and as small as 0.79 RJ.Comment: 9 pages, 6 tables, 6 figures; accepted to Ap
Improved Orbital Parameters and Transit Monitoring for HD 156846b
HD 156846b is a Jovian planet in a highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.85) with a
period of 359.55 days. The pericenter passage at a distance of 0.16 AU is
nearly aligned to our line of sight, offering an enhanced transit probability
of 5.4% and a potentially rich probe of the dynamics of a cool planetary
atmosphere impulsively heated during close approach to a bright star (V = 6.5).
We present new radial velocity (RV) and photometric measurements of this star
as part of the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS). The
RV measurements from Keck-HIRES reduce the predicted transit time uncertainty
to 20 minutes, an order of magnitude improvement over the ephemeris from the
discovery paper. We photometrically monitored a predicted transit window under
relatively poor photometric conditions, from which our non-detection does not
rule out a transiting geometry. We also present photometry that demonstrates
stability at the millimag level over its rotational timescale.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A First-Principles Approach to Insulators in Finite Electric Fields
We describe a method for computing the response of an insulator to a static,
homogeneous electric field. It consists of iteratively minimizing an electric
enthalpy functional expressed in terms of occupied Bloch-like states on a
uniform grid of k points. The functional has equivalent local minima below a
critical field E_c that depends inversely on the density of k points; the
disappearance of the minima at E_c signals the onset of Zener breakdown. We
illustrate the procedure by computing the piezoelectric and nonlinear
dielectric susceptibility tensors of III-V semiconductors.Comment: 4 pages, with 1 postscript figure embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf
macros. Also available at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/is_ef/index.htm
Limits on Stellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars With Eccentric Planets
Though there are now many hundreds of confirmed exoplanets known, the
binarity of exoplanet host stars is not well understood. This is particularly
true of host stars which harbor a giant planet in a highly eccentric orbit
since these are more likely to have had a dramatic dynamical history which
transferred angular momentum to the planet. Here we present observations of
four exoplanet host stars which utilize the excellent resolving power of the
Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) on the Gemini North telescope.
Two of the stars are giants and two are dwarfs. Each star is host to a giant
planet with an orbital eccentricity > 0.5 and whose radial velocity data
contain a trend in the residuals to the Keplerian orbit fit. These observations
rule out stellar companions 4-8 magnitudes fainter than the host star at
passbands of 692nm and 880nm. The resolution and field-of-view of the
instrument result in exclusion radii of 0.05-1.4 arcsecs which excludes stellar
companions within several AU of the host star in most cases. We further provide
new radial velocities for the HD 4203 system which confirm that the linear
trend previously observed in the residuals is due to an additional planet.
These results place dynamical constraints on the source of the planet's
eccentricities, constraints on additional planetary companions, and informs the
known distribution of multiplicity amongst exoplanet host stars.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted to Ap
Size, Shape and Low Energy Electronic Structure of Carbon Nanotubes
A theory of the long wavelength low energy electronic structure of
graphite-derived nanotubules is presented. The propagating electrons are
described by wrapping a massless two dimensional Dirac Hamiltonian onto a
curved surface. The effects of the tubule size, shape and symmetry are included
through an effective vector potential which we derive for this model. The rich
gap structure for all straight single wall cylindrical tubes is obtained
analytically in this theory, and the effects of inhomogeneous shape
deformations on nominally metallic armchair tubes are analyzed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 postscript figure
Agile methods in biomedical software development: a multi-site experience report
BACKGROUND: Agile is an iterative approach to software development that relies on strong collaboration and automation to keep pace with dynamic environments. We have successfully used agile development approaches to create and maintain biomedical software, including software for bioinformatics. This paper reports on a qualitative study of our experiences using these methods. RESULTS: We have found that agile methods are well suited to the exploratory and iterative nature of scientific inquiry. They provide a robust framework for reproducing scientific results and for developing clinical support systems. The agile development approach also provides a model for collaboration between software engineers and researchers. We present our experience using agile methodologies in projects at six different biomedical software development organizations. The organizations include academic, commercial and government development teams, and included both bioinformatics and clinical support applications. We found that agile practices were a match for the needs of our biomedical projects and contributed to the success of our organizations. CONCLUSION: We found that the agile development approach was a good fit for our organizations, and that these practices should be applicable and valuable to other biomedical software development efforts. Although we found differences in how agile methods were used, we were also able to identify a set of core practices that were common to all of the groups, and that could be a focus for others seeking to adopt these methods
Phase diagram of an impurity in the spin-1/2 chain: two channel Kondo effect versus Curie law
We consider a magnetic s=1/2 impurity in the antiferromagnetic spin chain as
a function of two coupling parameters: the symmetric coupling of the impurity
to two sites in the chain and the coupling between the two sites .
By using field theory arguments and numerical calculations we can identify all
possible fixed points and classify the renormalization flow between them, which
leads to a non-trivial phase diagram. Depending on the detailed choice of the
two (frustrating) coupling strengths, the stable phases correspond either to a
decoupled spin with Curie law behavior or to a non-Fermi liquid fixed point
with a logarithmically diverging impurity susceptibility as in the two channel
Kondo effect. Our results resolve a controversy about the renormalization flow.Comment: 5 pages in revtex format including 4 embedded figures (using epsf).
The latest version in PDF format is available from
http://fy.chalmers.se/~eggert/papers/phase-diagram.pd
Coherent Control of Photocurrents in Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes
Coherent one photon () and two photon () electronic
excitations are studied for graphene sheets and for carbon nanotubes using a
long wavelength theory for the low energy electronic states. For graphene
sheets we find that coherent superposition of these excitations produces a
polar asymmetry in the momentum space distribution of the excited carriers with
an angular dependence which depends on the relative polarization and phases of
the incident fields. For semiconducting nanotubes we find a similar effect
which depends on the square of the semiconducting gap, and we calculate its
frequency dependence.
We find that the third order nonlinearity which controls the direction of the
photocurrent is robust for semiconducting t ubes and vanishes in the continuum
theory for conducting tubes. We calculate corrections to these results arising
from higher order crystal field effects on the band structure and briefly
discuss some applications of the theory.Comment: 12 pages in RevTex, 6 epsf figure
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