66 research outputs found
Comb-calibrated solar spectroscopy through a multiplexed single-mode fiber channel
We investigate a new scheme for astronomical spectrograph calibration using
the laser frequency comb at the Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. Our
concept is based upon a single-mode fiber channel, that simultaneously feeds
the spectrograph with comb light and sunlight. This yields nearly perfect
spatial mode matching between the two sources. In combination with the absolute
calibration provided by the frequency comb, this method enables extremely
robust and accurate spectroscopic measurements. The performance of this scheme
is compared to a sequence of alternating comb and sunlight, and to absorption
lines from Earth's atmosphere. We also show how the method can be used for
radial-velocity detection by measuring the well-explored 5-minute oscillations
averaged over the full solar disk. Our method is currently restricted to solar
spectroscopy, but with further evolving fiber-injection techniques it could
become an option even for faint astronomical targets.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. A video abstract for this paper is available on
youtube. For watching the video, please follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshdZgrt89I . The video abstract is also
available for streaming and download on the related article website of New
Journal of Physic
A Laser Frequency Comb System for Absolute Calibration of the VTT Echelle Spectrograph
A wavelength calibration system based on a laser frequency comb (LFC) was
developed in a co-operation between the Kiepenheuer-Institut f\"ur
Sonnenphysik, Freiburg, Germany and the Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Quantenoptik,
Garching, Germany for permanent installation at the German Vacuum Tower
Telescope (VTT) on Tenerife, Canary Islands. The system was installed
successfully in October 2011. By simultaneously recording the spectra from the
Sun and the LFC, for each exposure a calibration curve can be derived from the
known frequencies of the comb modes that is suitable for absolute calibration
at the meters per second level. We briefly summarize some topics in solar
physics that benefit from absolute spectroscopy and point out the advantages of
LFC compared to traditional calibration techniques. We also sketch the basic
setup of the VTT calibration system and its integration with the existing
echelle spectrograph.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; Solar Physics 277 (2012
The Chromospheric Telescope
We introduce the Chromospheric Telescope (ChroTel) at the Observatorio del
Teide in Izana on Tenerife as a new multi-wavelength imaging telescope for
full-disk synoptic observations of the solar chromosphere. We describe the
design of the instrument and summarize its performance during the first one and
a half years of operation. We present a method to derive line-of-sight velocity
maps of the full solar disk from filtergrams taken in and near the He I
infrared line at 10830 \AA.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Two-dimensional solar spectropolarimetry with the KIS/IAA Visible Imaging Polarimeter
Spectropolarimetry at high spatial and spectral resolution is a basic tool to
characterize the magnetic properties of the solar atmosphere. We introduce the
KIS/IAA Visible Imaging Polarimeter (VIP), a new post-focus instrument that
upgrades the TESOS spectrometer at the German VTT into a full vector
polarimeter. VIP is a collaboration between the KIS and the IAA. We describe
the optical setup of VIP, the data acquisition procedure, and the calibration
of the spectropolarimetric measurements. We show examples of data taken between
2005 and 2008 to illustrate the potential of the instrument. VIP is capable of
measuring the four Stokes profiles of spectral lines in the range from 420 to
700 nm with a spatial resolution better than 0.5". Lines can be sampled at 40
wavelength positions in 60 s, achieving a noise level of about 2 x 10E-3 with
exposure times of 300 ms and pixel sizes of 0.17" x 0.17" (2 x 2 binning). The
polarization modulation is stable over periods of a few days, ensuring high
polarimetric accuracy. The excellent spectral resolution of TESOS allows the
use of sophisticated data analysis techniques such as Stokes inversions. One of
the first scientific results of VIP presented here is that the ribbon-like
magnetic structures of the network are associated with a distinct pattern of
net circular polarization away from disk center. VIP performs
spectropolarimetric measurements of solar magnetic fields at a spatial
resolution that is only slightly worse than that of the Hinode
spectropolarimeter, while providing a 2D field field of view and the
possibility to observe up to four spectral regions sequentially with high
cadence. VIP can be used as a stand-alone instrument or in combination with
other spectropolarimeters and imaging systems of the VTT for extended
wavelength coverage.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics v2:
figures updated with improved qualit
A retrospective of the GREGOR solar telescope in scientific literature
In this review, we look back upon the literature, which had the GREGOR solar
telescope project as its subject including science cases, telescope subsystems,
and post-focus instruments. The articles date back to the year 2000, when the
initial concepts for a new solar telescope on Tenerife were first presented at
scientific meetings. This comprehensive bibliography contains literature until
the year 2012, i.e., the final stages of commissioning and science
verification. Taking stock of the various publications in peer-reviewed
journals and conference proceedings also provides the "historical" context for
the reference articles in this special issue of Astronomische
Nachrichten/Astronomical Notes.Comment: 6 pages, 2 color figures, this is the pre-peer reviewed version of
Denker et al. 2012, Astron. Nachr. 333, 81
Phase Behavior of Bent-Core Molecules
Recently, a new class of smectic liquid crystal phases (SmCP phases)
characterized by the spontaneous formation of macroscopic chiral domains from
achiral bent-core molecules has been discovered. We have carried out Monte
Carlo simulations of a minimal hard spherocylinder dimer model to investigate
the role of excluded volume interations in determining the phase behavior of
bent-core materials and to probe the molecular origins of polar and chiral
symmetry breaking. We present the phase diagram as a function of pressure or
density and dimer opening angle . With decreasing , a transition
from a nonpolar to a polar smectic phase is observed near ,
and the nematic phase becomes thermodynamically unstable for . No chiral smectic or biaxial nematic phases were found.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 3 eps figures (included
The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) for the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory
The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is a spectropolarimeter built by
four institutions in Spain that flew on board the Sunrise balloon-borne
telesocope in June 2009 for almost six days over the Arctic Circle. As a
polarimeter IMaX uses fast polarization modulation (based on the use of two
liquid crystal retarders), real-time image accumulation, and dual beam
polarimetry to reach polarization sensitivities of 0.1%. As a spectrograph, the
instrument uses a LiNbO3 etalon in double pass and a narrow band pre-filter to
achieve a spectral resolution of 85 mAA. IMaX uses the high Zeeman sensitive
line of Fe I at 5250.2 AA and observes all four Stokes parameters at various
points inside the spectral line. This allows vector magnetograms, Dopplergrams,
and intensity frames to be produced that, after reconstruction, reach spatial
resolutions in the 0.15-0.18 arcsec range over a 50x50 arcsec FOV. Time
cadences vary between ten and 33 seconds, although the shortest one only
includes longitudinal polarimetry. The spectral line is sampled in various ways
depending on the applied observing mode, from just two points inside the line
to 11 of them. All observing modes include one extra wavelength point in the
nearby continuum. Gauss equivalent sensitivities are four Gauss for
longitudinal fields and 80 Gauss for transverse fields per wavelength sample.
The LOS velocities are estimated with statistical errors of the order of 5-40
m/s. The design, calibration and integration phases of the instrument, together
with the implemented data reduction scheme are described in some detail.Comment: 17 figure
Hyperglycemic Myocardial Damage Is Mediated by Proinflammatory Cytokine: Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor
Diabetes has been regarded as an inflammatory condition which is associated with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). The purpose of this study was to examine the expression levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) in patients with early diabetic cardiomyopathy, and to investigate the mechanisms involved in MIF expression and GRK2 activation.83 patients in the age range of 30-64 years with type 2 diabetes and 30 matched healthy men were recruited. Left ventricular diastolic function was evaluated by cardiac Doppler echocardiography. Plasma MIF levels were determined by ELISA. To confirm the clinical observation, we also studied MIF expression in prediabetic rats with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and relationship between MIF and GRK2 expression in H9C2 cardiomyoblasts exposed to high glucose.Compared with healthy subjects, patients with diabetes have significantly increased levels of plasma MIF which was further increased in diabetic patients with Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). The increased plasma MIF levels in diabetic patients correlated with plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and urine albumin levels. We observed a significant number of TUNEL-positive cells in the myocardium of IGT-rats but not in the control rats. Moreover, we found higher MIF expression in the heart of IGT with cardiac dysfunction compared to that of the controls. In H9C2 cardiomyoblast cells, MIF and GRK2 expression was significantly increased in a glucose concentration-dependant manner. Furthermore, GRK2 expression was abolished by siRNA knockdown of MIF and by the inhibition of CXCR4 in H9C2 cells.Our findings indicate that hyperglycemia is a causal factor for increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine MIF which plays a role in the development of cardiomyopathy occurring in patients with type 2 diabetes. The elevated levels of MIF are associated with cardiac dysfunction in diabetic patients, and the MIF effects are mediated by GRK2
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The European Solar Telescope
The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems
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