1,944 research outputs found
Stellar activity as noise in exoplanet detection I. Methods and application to solar-like stars and activity cycles
The detection of exoplanets using any method is prone to confusion due to the
intrinsic variability of the host star. We investigate the effect of cool
starspots on the detectability of the exoplanets around solar-like stars using
the radial velocity method. For investigating this activity-caused "jitter" we
calculate synthetic spectra using radiative transfer, known stellar atomic and
molecular lines, different surface spot configurations, and an added planetary
signal. Here, the methods are described in detail, tested and compared to
previously published studies. The methods are also applied to investigate the
activity jitter in old and young solar-like stars, and over a solar-like
activity cycles. We find that the mean full jitter amplitude obtained from the
spot surfaces mimicking the solar activity varies during the cycle
approximately between 1 m/s and 9 m/s. With a realistic observing frequency a
Neptune mass planet on a one year orbit can be reliably recovered. On the other
hand, the recovery of an Earth mass planet on a similar orbit is not feasible
with high significance. The methods developed in this study have a great
potential for doing statistical studies of planet detectability, and also for
investigating the effect of stellar activity on recovered planetary parameters.Comment: Accepted to MNRA
Searching for magnetic monopoles trapped in accelerator material at the Large Hadron Collider
If produced in high energy particle collisions at the LHC, magnetic monopoles
could stop in material surrounding the interaction points. Obsolete parts of
the beam pipe near the CMS interaction region, which were exposed to the
products of pp and heavy ion collisions, were analysed using a SQUID-based
magnetometer. The purpose of this work is to quantify the performance of the
magnetometer in the context of a monopole search using a small set of samples
of accelerator material ahead of the 2013 shutdown.Comment: 11 page
Deep far infrared ISOPHOT survey in "Selected Area 57", I. Observations and source counts
We present here the results of a deep survey in a 0.4 sq.deg. blank field in
Selected Area 57 conducted with the ISOPHOT instrument aboard ESAs Infrared
Space Observatory (ISO) at both 60 um and 90 um. The resulting sky maps have a
spatial resolution of 15 x 23 sq.arcsec. per pixel which is much higher than
the 90 x 90 sq.arcsec. pixels of the IRAS All Sky Survey. We describe the main
instrumental effects encountered in our data, outline our data reduction and
analysis scheme and present astrometry and photometry of the detected point
sources. With a formal signal to noise ratio of 6.75 we have source detection
limits of 90 mJy at 60 um and 50 mJy at 90 um. To these limits we find
cumulated number densities of 5+-3.5 per sq.deg. at 60 um and 14.8+-5.0 per
sq.deg.at 90 um. These number densities of sources are found to be lower than
previously reported results from ISO but the data do not allow us to
discriminate between no-evolution scenarios and various evolutionary models.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic
The nature of the Class I population in Ophiuchus as revealed through gas and dust mapping
The Ophiuchus clouds, in particular L~1688, are an excellent region to study
the embedded phases of star formation, due to the relatively large number of
protostars. However, the standard method of finding and characterizing embedded
young stellar objects (YSOs) through just their infrared spectral slope does
not yield a reliable sample. This may affect the age determinations, often
derived from the statistics on the total number of embedded YSOs and pre-main
sequence stars within a cloud.Our aim is to characterize the structure of
protostellar envelopes on an individual basis and to correctly identify the
embedded YSO population of L1688. Spectral maps of the HCO+ J=4--3 and C18O
J=3--2 lines using the HARP-B array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and
SCUBA 850 micron dust maps are obtained of all sources in the L1688 region with
infrared spectral slopes consistent with, or close to, that of embedded YSOs.
Selected 350 micron maps obtained with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
are presented as well. The properties, extent and variation of dense gas,
column density and dust on scalesup to 1' are probed at 15" resolution. Using
the spatial variation of the gas and dust, together with the intensity of the
HCO+ J=4--3 line, we are able to accurately identify the truly embedded YSOs
and determine their properties. RESULTS The protostellar envelopes range from
0.05 to 0.5 Msun in mass. The concentration of HCO+ emission (~0.5 to 0.9) is
generally higher than that of the dust concentration. Combined with absolute
intensities, HCO+ proves to be a better tracer of protostellar envelopes than
dust, which can contain disk and cloud contributions. Our total sample of 45
sources, including all previously classified Class I sources, several
flat-spectrum sources and some known disks, was re-classified using the ....Comment: accepted for publication in A&A, 29 pages including online appendi
Phonons and solitons in the "thermal" sine-Gordon system
Standard methods of stochastic processes are used to study the coupling of the sine-Gordon system with a heat reservoir. As a result we find thermal phonons with an average energy of kB T per mode. The translational mode (zero mode) is found to carry an average energy of 1/2kBT. This last value is just the energy in the Brownian motion of a thermal soliton. These results are in agreement with those obtained by the use of a statistical-mechanical description of a dilute soliton gas. Connection of the above results with Josephson junctions and the extension of the analysis to more general equations is also discussed
Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma)
The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0 -> K*0 gamma
and Bs0 -> phi gamma has been measured using 0.37 fb-1 of pp collisions at a
centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The
value obtained is BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) = 1.12 +/- 0.08
^{+0.06}_{-0.04} ^{+0.09}_{-0.08}, where the first uncertainty is statistical,
the second systematic and the third is associated to the ratio of fragmentation
fractions fs/fd. Using the world average for BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma) = (4.33 +/-
0.15) x 10^{-5}, the branching fraction BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) is measured to be
(3.9 +/- 0.5) x 10^{-5}, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 table
Measurement of the CKM angle γ from a combination of B±→Dh± analyses
A combination of three LHCb measurements of the CKM angle γ is presented. The decays B±→D K± and
B±→Dπ± are used, where D denotes an admixture of D0 and D0 mesons, decaying into K+K−, π+π−, K±π∓, K±π∓π±π∓, K0Sπ+π−, or K0S K+K− final states. All measurements use a dataset corresponding to 1.0 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. Combining results from B±→D K± decays alone a best-fit value of
γ =72.0◦ is found, and confidence intervals are set
γ ∈ [56.4,86.7]◦ at 68% CL,
γ ∈ [42.6,99.6]◦ at 95% CL.
The best-fit value of γ found from a combination of results from B±→Dπ± decays alone, is γ =18.9◦,
and the confidence intervals
γ ∈ [7.4,99.2]◦ ∪ [167.9,176.4]◦ at 68% CL
are set, without constraint at 95% CL. The combination of results from B± → D K± and B± → Dπ±
decays gives a best-fit value of γ =72.6◦ and the confidence intervals
γ ∈ [55.4,82.3]◦ at 68% CL,
γ ∈ [40.2,92.7]◦ at 95% CL
are set. All values are expressed modulo 180◦, and are obtained taking into account the effect of D0–D0
mixing
Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0→K∗0μ+μ−
The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0→ K ∗0 μ + μ − are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions
Observation of two new baryon resonances
Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding
to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb recorded by the LHCb experiment.
In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content are
expected in this mass region: the spin-parity and
states, denoted and .
Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass
differences and the width of the heavier state to be
MeV,
MeV,
MeV, where the first and second
uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the
lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of
MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative
production rates of these states are also reported.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
Study of B0(s)→K0Sh+h′− decays with first observation of B0s→K0SK±π∓ and B0s→K0Sπ+π−
A search for charmless three-body decays of B 0 and B0s mesons with a K0S meson in the final state is performed using the pp collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1, collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the LHCb experiment. Branching fractions of the B0(s)→K0Sh+h′− decay modes (h (′) = π, K), relative to the well measured B0→K0Sπ+π− decay, are obtained. First observation of the decay modes B0s→K0SK±π∓ and B0s→K0Sπ+π− and confirmation of the decay B0→K0SK±π∓ are reported. The following relative branching fraction measurements or limits are obtained B(B0→K0SK±π∓)B(B0→K0Sπ+π−)=0.128±0.017(stat.)±0.009(syst.), B(B0→K0SK+K−)B(B0→K0Sπ+π−)=0.385±0.031(stat.)±0.023(syst.), B(B0s→K0Sπ+π−)B(B0→K0Sπ+π−)=0.29±0.06(stat.)±0.03(syst.)±0.02(fs/fd), B(B0s→K0SK±π∓)B(B0→K0Sπ+π−)=1.48±0.12(stat.)±0.08(syst.)±0.12(fs/fd)B(B0s→K0SK+K−)B(B0→K0Sπ+π−)∈[0.004;0.068]at90%CL
- …