9,530 research outputs found
The age-metallicity relationship in the Fornax spheroidal dwarf galaxy
We produce a comprehensive field star age-metallicity relationship (AMR) from
the earliest epoch until ~ 1 Gyr ago for three fields in the Fornax dSph galaxy
by using VI photometric data obtained with FORS1 at the VLT. We find that the
innermost one does not contains dominant very old stars (age > 12 Gyr), whereas
the relatively outer field does not account for representative star field
populations younger than ~ 3 Gyr. When focusing on the most prominent stellar
populations, we find that the derived AMRs are engraved by the evidence of a
outside-in star formation process. The studied fields show bimodal metallicity
distributions peaked at [Fe/H] = (-0.95 +- 0.15) dex and (-1.15 or -1.25 +-
0.05) dex, respectively, but only during the first half of the entire galaxy
lifetime. Furthermore, the more metal-rich population appears to be more
numerous in the outer fields, while in the innermost Fornax field the
contribution of both metallicity populations seems to be similar. We also find
that the metallicity spread ~ 6 Gyr ago is remarkable large, while the
intrinsic metallicity dispersion at ~ 1-2 Gyr results smaller than that for the
relatively older generations of stars. We interpret these outcomes as a result
of a possible merger of two galaxies that would have triggered a star formation
bursting process that peaked between ~ 6 and 9 Gyr ago, depending on the
position of the field in the galaxy.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS, in pres
Generalized binary arrays from quasi-orthogonal cocycles
Generalized perfect binary arrays (GPBAs) were used by Jedwab to
construct perfect binary arrays. A non-trivial GPBA can exist only if its energy
is 2 or a multiple of 4. This paper introduces generalized optimal binary arrays
(GOBAs) with even energy not divisible by 4, as analogs of GPBAs. We give a
procedure to construct GOBAs based on a characterization of the arrays in terms
of 2-cocycles. As a further application, we determine negaperiodic Golay pairs
arising from generalized optimal binary sequences of small length.Junta de AndalucÃa FQM-01
On quasi-orthogonal cocycles
We introduce the notion of quasi-orthogonal cocycle. This
is motivated in part by the maximal determinant problem for square
{±1}-matrices of size congruent to 2 modulo 4. Quasi-orthogonal cocycles
are analogous to the orthogonal cocycles of algebraic design theory.
Equivalences with new and known combinatorial objects afforded by this
analogy, such as quasi-Hadamard groups, relative quasi-difference sets,
and certain partially balanced incomplete block designs, are proved.Junta de AndalucÃa FQM-01
Representative galaxy age-metallicity relationships
The ongoing surveys of galaxies and those for the next generation of
telescopes will demand the execution of high-CPU consuming machine codes for
recovering detailed star formation histories (SFHs) and hence age-metallicity
relationships (AMRs). We present here an expeditive method which provides
quick-look AMRs on the basis of representative ages and metallicities obtained
from colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) analyses. We have tested its perfomance by
generating synthetic CMDs for a wide variety of galaxy SFHs. The representative
AMRs turn out to be reliable down to a magnitude limit with a photometric
completeness factor higher than 85 per cent, and trace the chemical
evolution history for any stellar population (represented by a mean age and an
intrinsic age spread) with a total mass within ~ 40 per cent of the more
massive stellar population in the galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
Effects of electron inertia in collisionless magnetic reconnection
We present a study of collisionless magnetic reconnection within the
framework of full two-fluid MHD for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma,
retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure and electron
inertia. We performed 2.5D simulations using a pseudo-spectral code with no
dissipative effects. We check that the ideal invariants of the problem are
conserved down to round-off errors. Our results show that the change in the
topology of the magnetic field lines is exclusively due to the presence of
electron inertia. The computed reconnection rates remain a fair fraction of the
Alfv\'en velocity, which therefore qualifies as fast reconnection
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