899 research outputs found
Night sky at the Indian Astronomical Observatory during 2000-2008
We present an analysis of the optical night sky brightness and extinction
coefficient measurements in UBVRI at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO),
Hanle, during the period 2003-2008. They are obtained from an analysis of CCD
images acquired at the 2 m Himalayan Chandra Telescope at IAO. Night sky
brightness was estimated using 210 HFOSC images obtained on 47 nights and
covering the declining phase of solar activity cycle-23. The zenith corrected
values of the moonless night sky brightness in mag/square arcsecs are 22.14(U),
22.42(B), 21.28(V), 20.54(R) and 18.86(I) band. This shows that IAO is a dark
site for optical observations. No clear dependency of sky brightness with solar
activity is found. Extinction values at IAO are derived from an analysis of
1325 images over 58 nights. They are found to be 0.36 in U-band, 0.21 in
B-band, 0.12 in V-band, 0.09 in R-band and 0.05 in I-band. On average,
extinction during the summer months is slightly larger than that during the
winter months. No clear evidence for a correlation between extinction in all
bands and the average night time wind speed is found. Also presented here is
the low resolution moonless optical night sky spectrum for IAO covering the
wavelength range 3000-9300 \AA. Hanle region thus has the required
characteristics of a good astronomical site in terms of night sky brightness
and extinction, and could be a natural candidate site for any future large
aperture Indian optical-infrared telescope(s).Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, uses basi.cls, accepted for publication in
Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of Indi
Orbital and physical parameters of eclipsing binaries from the ASAS catalogue - IV. A 0.61 + 0.45 M_sun binary in a multiple system
We present the orbital and physical parameters of a newly discovered low-mass
detached eclipsing binary from the All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) database:
ASAS J011328-3821.1 A - a member of a visual binary system with the secondary
component separated by about 1.4 seconds of arc. The radial velocities were
calculated from the high-resolution spectra obtained with the 1.9-m
Radcliffe/GIRAFFE, 3.9-m AAT/UCLES and 3.0-m Shane/HamSpec
telescopes/spectrographs on the basis of the TODCOR technique and positions of
H_alpha emission lines. For the analysis we used V and I band photometry
obtained with the 1.0-m Elizabeth and robotic 0.41-m PROMPT telescopes,
supplemented with the publicly available ASAS light curve of the system.
We found that ASAS J011328-3821.1 A is composed of two late-type dwarfs
having masses of M_1 = 0.612 +/- 0.030 M_sun, M_2 = 0.445 +/- 0.019 M_sun and
radii of R_1 = 0.596 +/- 0.020 R_sun, R_2 = 0.445 +/- 0.024 R_sun, both show a
substantial level of activity, which manifests in strong H_alpha and H_beta
emission and the presence of cool spots. The influence of the third light on
the eclipsing pair properties was also evaluated and the photometric properties
of the component B were derived. Comparison with several popular stellar
evolution models shows that the system is on its main sequence evolution stage
and probably is more metal rich than the Sun. We also found several clues which
suggest that the component B itself is a binary composed of two nearly
identical ~0.5 M_sun stars.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables, to appear in MNRA
Evidence for an anomalous like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry
We measure the charge asymmetry A of like-sign dimuon events in 6.1 fb(-1) of p (p) over bar collisions recorded with the D0 detector at a center-of-mass energy root s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. From A, we extract the like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry in semileptonic b-hadron decays: A(sl)(b) = -0.00957 +/- 0.00251 (stat) +/- 0.00146 (syst). This result differs by 3.2 standard deviations from the standard model prediction A(sl)(b)(SM) = (-2.3(0.6)(+0.5)) x 10(-4) and provides first evidence of anomalous CP violation in the mixing of neutral B mesons
Search for new fermions ("quirks") at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider
We report results of a search for particles with anomalously high ionization
in events with a high transverse energy jet and large missing transverse energy
in fb of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 experiment at
the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Production of such particles
(quirks) is expected in scenarios with extra QCD-like {\it SU(N)} sectors, and
this study is the first dedicated search for such signatures. We find no
evidence of a signal and set a lower mass limit of 107 ~GeV for the mass of a
charged quirk with strong dynamics scale in the range from 10 keV to
1 MeV.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter
Double parton interactions in photon+3 jet events in ppbar collisions sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV
We have used a sample of photon+3 jets events collected by the D0 experiment
with an integrated luminosity of about 1 fb^-1 to determine the fraction of
events with double parton scattering (f_DP) in a single ppbar collision at
sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. The DP fraction and effective cross section (sigma_eff), a
process-independent scale parameter related to the parton density inside the
nucleon, are measured in three intervals of the second (ordered in pT) jet
transverse momentum pT_jet2 within the range 15 < pT_jet2 < 30 GeV. In this
range, f_DP varies between 0.23 < f_DP < 0.47, while sigma_eff has the average
value sigma_eff_ave = 16.4 +- 0.3(stat) +- 2.3(syst) mb.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
Precise measurement of the top quark mass in the dilepton channel at D0
We measure the top quark mass (mt) in ppbar collisions at a center of mass
energy of 1.96 TeV using dilepton ttbar->W+bW-bbar->l+nubl-nubarbbar events,
where l denotes an electron, a muon, or a tau that decays leptonically. The
data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1 collected with the D0
detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We obtain mt = 174.0 +- 1.8(stat)
+- 2.4(syst) GeV, which is in agreement with the current world average mt =
173.3 +- 1.1 GeV. This is currently the most precise measurement of mt in the
dilepton channel.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Dependence of the production cross section on the transverse momentum of the top quark
We present a measurement of the differential cross section for
events produced in collisions at TeV as a function
of the transverse momentum () of the top quark. The selected events
contain a high- lepton (), four or more jets, and a large imbalance
in , and correspond to 1 fb of integrated luminosity recorded
with the D0 detector. Each event must have at least one candidate for a
jet. Objects in the event are associated through a constrained kinematic fit to
the process. Results
from next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations agree with the
measured differential cross section. Comparisons are also provided to
predictions from Monte Carlo event generators using QCD calculations at
different levels of precision.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, updated to reflect the published
versio
Direct measurement of the mass difference between top and antitop quarks
We present a direct measurement of the mass difference between top and
antitop quarks (dm) in lepton+jets top-antitop final states using the "matrix
element" method. The purity of the lepton+jets sample is enhanced for
top-antitop events by identifying at least one of the jet as originating from a
b quark. The analyzed data correspond to 3.6 fb-1 of proton-antiproton
collisions at 1.96 TeV acquired by D0 in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron
Collider. The combination of the e+jets and mu+jets channels yields dm = 0.8
+/- 1.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst) GeV, which is in agreement with the standard
model expectation of no mass difference.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Search for first generation leptoquark pair production in the electron + missing energy + jets final state
We present a search for the pair production of first generation scalar
leptoquarks (LQ) in data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4
fb collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in
ppbar collisions at TeV. In the channel , where q, q' are u or d quarks, no significant excess
of data over background is observed, and we set a 95% C.L. lower limit of 326
GeV on the leptoquark mass, assuming equal probabilities of leptoquark decays
to eq and .Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD-R
Search for the standard model and a fermiophobic Higgs boson in diphoton final states
We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson and a fermiophobic
Higgs boson in the diphoton final states based on 8.2 fb-1 of ppbar collisions
collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. No excess of
data above background predictions is observed and upper limits at the 95% C.L.
on the cross section multiplied by the branching fraction are set which are the
most restrictive to date. A fermiophobic Higgs boson with a mass below 112.9
GeV is excluded at the 95% C.L.Comment: 12 pages, 21 figures, submitted to PR
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