379 research outputs found
Double Photoproduction off the Proton at Threshold
The reaction has been measured using the TAPS
BaF calorimeter at the tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron
accelerator. Chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) predicts that close to threshold
this channel is significantly enhanced compared to double pion final states
with charged pions. In contrast to other reaction channels, the lower order
tree terms are strongly suppressed in 2 photoproduction. The consequence
is the dominance of pion loops in the 2 channel close to threshold - a
result that opens new prospects for the test of ChPT and in particular its
inherent loop terms. The present measurement is the first which is sensitive
enough for a conclusive comparison with the ChPT calculation and is in
agreement with its prediction. The data also show good agreement with a
calculation in the unitary chiral approach.Comment: Submitted to PL
Baryon octupole moments
We report on a calculation of higher electromagnetic multipole moments of
baryons in a non-covariant quark model approach. The employed method is based
on the underlying spin-flavor symmetry of the strong interaction and its
breaking.We present results on magnetic octupole moments of decuplet baryons
and discuss their implications.Comment: 3 page
The reaction and the magnetic dipole moment of the resonance
The reaction has been measured with
the TAPS calorimeter at the Mainz Microtron accelerator facility MAMI for
energies between = 1221--1331 MeV. Cross sections differential in
angle and energy have been determined for all particles in the final state in
three bins of the excitation energy. This reaction channel provides access to
the magnetic dipole moment of the resonance and, for the
first time, a value of has been extracted
Reconstruction methods â P‾ANDA focussing-light guide disc DIRC
The Focussing-Lightguide Disc DIRC will provide crucial Particle Identification (PID) information for the P‾ANDA experiment at FAIR, GSI. This detector presents a challenging environment for reconstruction due to the complexity of the expected hit patterns and the operating conditions of the P‾ANDA experiment. A discussion of possible methods to reconstruct PID from this detector is given here. Reconstruction software is currently under development
Photoproduction of eta-mesic 3He
The photoproduction of eta-mesic 3He has been investigated using the TAPS
calorimeter at the Mainz Microtron accelerator facility MAMI. The total
inclusive cross section for the reaction gamma+3He->eta+X has been measured for
photon energies from threshold to 820 MeV. The total and angular differential
coherent eta cross sections have been extracted up to energies of 745 MeV. A
resonance-like structure just above the eta production threshold with an
isotropic angular distribution suggests the existence of a resonant quasi-bound
state. This is supported by studies of a competing decay channel of such a
quasi-bound eta-mesic nucleus into pi^0+p+X. A binding energy of (-4.4+-4.2)
MeV and a width of (25.6+-6.1) MeV is deduced for the quasi-bound eta-mesic
state in 3He.Comment: v1: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL; v2: minor revisions and
corrections, new figure added, 4 pages, 5 figs; v3: minor change
Detecting metal-rich intermediate-age globular clusters in NGC4570 using K-band photometry
âThe original publication is available at www.springerlink.comâ. Copyright Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s10509-009-0093-8Globular cluster systems (GCSs) of most early-type galaxies feature two peaks in their optical colour distributions. Blue-peak globular clusters (GCs) are believed to be old and metal-poor, whereas the ages, metallicities, and the origin of the red-peak GCs are still being debated. We obtained deep K-band photometry and combined it with Hubble Space Telescope observations in g and z to yield a full spectral energy distribution from the optical to the near-infrared. This now allows us to break the ageâmetallicity degeneracy. We used our evolutionary synthesis models galev for star clusters to compute a large grid of models with different metallicities and a wide range of ages. Comparing these models to our observations revealed a large population of intermediate-age (1â3 Gyr) and metal-rich (âsolar-metallicity) GCs, that will give us further insights into the formation history of this galaxy.Peer reviewe
Supersoft X-ray sources identified with Be binaries in the Magellanic Clouds
We investigated four luminous supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) in the Magellanic
Clouds suspected to have optical counterparts of Be spectral type. If the
origin of the X-rays is in a very hot atmosphere heated by hydrogen burning in
accreted envelopes of white dwarfs (WDs), like in the majority of SSS, these
objects are close binaries, with very massive WD primaries. Using the South
African Large Telescope (SALT), we obtained the first optical spectra of the
proposed optical counterparts of two candidate Be stars associated with SUZAKU
J0105-72 and XMMU J010147.5-715550, respectively a transient and a recurrent
SSS, and confirmed the proposed Be classification and Small Magellanic Clouds
membership. We also obtained new optical spectra of two other Be stars proposed
as optical counterparts of the transient SSS XMMU J052016.0-692505 and
MAXI-J0158-744. The optical spectra with double peaked emission line profiles,
are typical of Be stars and present characteristics similar to many high mass
X-ray binaries with excretion disks, truncated by the tidal interaction with a
compact object. The presence of a massive WD that sporadically ignites nuclear
burning, accreting only at certain orbital or evolutionary phases, explains the
supersoft X-ray flares. We measured equivalent widths and distances between
lines' peaks, and investigated the variability of the prominent emission lines'
profiles. The excretion disks seem to be small in size, and are likely to be
differentially rotating. We discuss possible future observations and the
relevance of these objects as a new class of type Ia supernovae progenitors.Comment: Accepted for publication in teh Astrophysical Journa
Exclusive measurement of coherent eta photoproduction from the deuteron
Coherent photoproduction of eta mesons from the deuteron has been measured
from threshold up to incident photon energies of 750 MeV using the photon
spectrometer TAPS at the tagged photon facility at the Mainz microtron MAMI.
For the first time, differential coherent cross sections have been deduced from
the coincident detection of the eta meson and the recoil deuteron. A missing
energy analysis was used for the suppression of background events so that a
very clean identification of coherent eta-photoproduction was achieved. The
resulting cross sections agree with previous experimental results except for
angles around 90 deg in the photon-deuteron cm-system where they are smaller.
They are compared to various model calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
The role of E+A and post-starburst galaxies â II. Spectral energy distributions and comparison with observations
âThe definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15036.xIn a previous paper, we have shown that the classical definition of E+A galaxies excludes a significant number of post-starburst galaxies. We suggested that analysing broad-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs) is a more comprehensive method to select and distinguish post-starburst galaxies than the classical definition of measuring equivalent widths of (HÎŽ) and [O ii] lines. In this paper, we will carefully investigate this new method and evaluate it by comparing our model grid of post-starburst galaxies to observed E+A galaxies from the MORPHS catalogue. In the first part, we investigate the UV-optical-NIR (near-infrared) SEDs of a large variety in terms of progenitor galaxies, burst strengths and time-scales of post-starburst models and compare them to undisturbed spiral, S0 and E galaxies as well as to galaxies in their starburst phase. In the second part, we compare our post-starburst models with the observed E+A galaxies in terms of Lick indices, luminosities and colours. We then use the new method of comparing the model SEDs with SEDs of the observed E+A galaxies. We find that the post-starburst models can be distinguished from undisturbed spiral, S0 and E galaxies and galaxies in their starburst phase on the basis of their SEDs. It is even possible to distinguish most of the different post-starbursts by their SEDs. From the comparison with observations, we find that all observed E+A galaxies from the MORPHS catalogue can be matched by our models. However, only models with short decline time-scales for the star formation rate are possible scenarios for the observed E+A galaxies in agreement with our results from the first paper.Peer reviewe
Filamentary Star Formation in NGC 1275
We examine the star formation in the outer halo of NGC~1275, the central
galaxy in the Perseus cluster (Abell 426), using far ultraviolet and optical
images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. We have identified a
population of very young, compact star clusters with typical ages of a few Myr.
The star clusters are organised on multiple-kiloparsec scales. Many of these
star clusters are associated with "streaks" of young stars, the combination of
which has a cometary appearance. We perform photometry on the star clusters and
diffuse stellar streaks, and fit their spectral energy distributions to obtain
ages and masses. These young stellar populations appear to be normal in terms
of their masses, luminosities and cluster formation efficiency; <10% of the
young stellar mass is located in star clusters. Our data suggest star formation
is associated with the evolution of some of the giant gas filaments in NGC~1275
that become gravitationally unstable on reaching and possibly stalling in the
outer galaxy. The stellar streaks then could represent stars moving on
ballistic orbits in the potential well of the galaxy cluster. We propose a
model where star-forming filaments, switched on ~50~Myr ago and are currently
feeding the growth of the NGC~1275 stellar halo at a rate of ~2-3 solar masses
per year. This type of process may also build stellar halos and form isolated
star clusters in the outskirts of youthful galaxies.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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