1,585 research outputs found
The use of conventional wind tunnels to simulate planetary atmospheric aerodynamics
Planetary atmospheric simulation in supersonic wind tunnels with carbon dioxide added to dried air working flui
The use of a conventional wind tunnel as a multigas facility
Hypersonic and supersonic wind tunnels as continuous flow multigas facilitie
The White Dwarf Population in NGC 1039 (M34) and the White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation
We present the first detailed photometric and spectroscopic study of the
white dwarfs (WDs) in the field of the ~225 Myr old (log tau_cl = 8.35) open
cluster NGC 1039 (M34) as part of the ongoing Lick-Arizona White Dwarf Survey.
Using wide-field UBV imaging, we photometrically select 44 WD candidates in
this field. We spectroscopically identify 19 of these objects as WDs; 17 are
hydrogen-atmosphere DA WDs, one is a helium-atmosphere DB WD, and one is a cool
DC WD that exhibits no detectable absorption lines. We find an effective
temperature (T_eff) and surface gravity (log g) for each DA WD by fitting
Balmer-line profiles from model atmospheres to the observed spectra. WD
evolutionary models are then invoked to derive masses and cooling times for
each DA WD. Of the 17 DAs, five are at the approximate distance modulus of the
cluster. Another WD with a distance modulus 0.45 mag brighter than that of the
cluster could be a double-degenerate binary cluster member, but is more likely
to be a field WD. We place the five single cluster member WDs in the empirical
initial-final mass relation and find that three of them lie very close to the
previously derived linear relation; two have WD masses significantly below the
relation. These outliers may have experienced some sort of enhanced mass loss
or binary evolution; however, it is quite possible that these WDs are simply
interlopers from the field WD population. Eight of the 17 DA WDs show
significant CaII K absorption; comparison of the absorption strength with the
WD distances suggests that the absorption is interstellar, though this cannot
be confirmed with the current data.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical
Journal. Figures 1, 2 and 3 reduced in resolutio
Determination of S17(0) from published data
The experimental landscape for the 7Be+p radiative capture reaction is
rapidly changing as new high precision data become available. We present an
evaluation of existing data, detailing the treatment of systematic errors and
discrepancies, and show how they constrain the astrophysical S factor (S17),
independent of any nuclear structure model. With theoretical models robustly
determining the behavior of the sub-threshold pole, the extrapolation error can
be reduced and a constraint placed on the slope of S17. Using only radiative
capture data, we find S17(0) = 20.7 +/- 0.6 (stat) +/- 1.0 (syst) eV b if data
sets are completely independent, while if data sets are completely correlated
we find S17(0) = 21.4 +/- 0.5 (stat) +/- 1.4 (syst) eV b. The truth likely lies
somewhere in between these two limits. Although we employ a formalism capable
of treating discrepant data, we note that the central value of the S factor is
dominated by the recent high precision data of Junghans et al., which imply a
substantially higher value than other radiative capture and indirect
measurements. Therefore we conclude that further progress will require new high
precision data with a detailed error budget.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure published versio
Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard I: Limits to Extrasolar Planets Around the White Dwarf G29-38
We present high contrast images of the hydrogen white dwarf G 29-38 taken in
the near infrared with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini North
Telescope as part of a high contrast imaging search for substellar objects in
orbit around nearby white dwarfs.
We review the current limits on planetary companions for G29-38, the only
nearby white dwarf with an infrared excess due to a dust disk. We add our
recent observations to these limits to produce extremely tight constraints on
the types of possible companions that could be present. No objects 6
M are detected in our data at projected separations 12 AU, and no
objects 16 M are detected for separations from 3 to 12 AU, assuming
a total system age of 1 Gyr. Limits for companions at separations 3 AU come
from a combination of 2MASS photometry and previous studies of G29-38's
pulsations. Our imaging with Gemini cannot confirm a tentative claim for the
presence of a low mass brown dwarf. These observations demonstrate that a
careful combination of several techniques can probe nearby white dwarfs for
large planets and low mass brown dwarfs.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, Accepted to Ap
Fine Grid Asteroseismology of R548 and G117-B15A
We now have a good measurement of the cooling rate of G117-B15A. In the near
future, we will have equally well determined cooling rates for other pulsating
white dwarfs, including R548. The ability to measure their cooling rates offers
us a unique way to study weakly interacting particles that would contribute to
their cooling. Working toward that goal, we perform a careful
asteroseismological analysis of G117-B15A and R548. We study them side by side
because they have similar observed properties. We carry out a systematic, fine
grid search for best fit models to the observed period spectra of those stars.
We freely vary 4 parameters: the effective temperature, the stellar mass, the
helium layer mass, and the hydrogen layer mass. We identify and quantify a
number of uncertainties associated with our models. Based on the results of
that analysis and fits to the periods observed in R548 and G117-B15A, we
clearly define the regions of the 4 dimensional parameter space ocuppied by the
best fit models.Comment: The first author would love to hear from you if you found this paper
interesting. email [email protected]
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