410 research outputs found
Deuterium toward the WD0621-376 sight line: Results from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) Mission
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer observations are presented for
WD0621-376, a DA white dwarf star in the local interstellar medium (LISM) at a
distance of about 78 pc. The data have a signal-to-noise ratio of about 20-40
per 20 km/s resolution element and cover the wavelength range 905-1187 \AA.
LISM absorption is detected in the lines of D I, C II, C II*, C III, N I, N II,
N III, O I, Ar I, and Fe II. This sight line is partially ionized, with an
ionized nitrogen fraction of > 0.23. We determine the ratio (2). Assuming a standard interstellar
oxygen abundance, we derive . Using the
value of N(H I) derived from EUVE data gives a similar D/H ratio. The D I/N I
ratio is (2).Comment: accepted for publication in the ApJ
Exoplanet HD 209458b : Evaporation strengthened
Following re-analysis of Hubble Space Telescope observations of primary
transits of the extrasolar planet HD209458b at Lyman-alpha, Ben-Jaffel (2007,
BJ007) claims that no sign of evaporation is observed. Here we show that, in
fact, this new analysis is consistent with the one of Vidal-Madjar et al.
(2003, VM003) and supports the detection of evaporation. The apparent
disagreement is mainly due to the disparate wavelength ranges that are used to
derive the transit absorption depth. VM003 derives a (15+/-4)% absorption depth
during transit over the core of the stellar Lyman-alpha line (from -130 km/s to
+100 km/s), and this result agrees with the (8.9+/-2.1)% absorption depth
reported by BJ007 from a slightly expanded dataset but over a larger wavelength
range (+/-200 km/s). These measurements agree also with the (5+/-2)% absorption
reported by Vidal-Madjar et al. (2004) over the whole Lyman-alpha line from
independent, lower-resolution data. We show that stellar Lyman-alpha
variability is unlikely to significantly affect those detections. The HI atoms
must necessarily have velocities above the escape velocities and/or be outside
the Roche lobe, given the lobe shape and orientation. Absorption by HI in
HD209458b's atmosphere has thus been detected with different datasets, and now
with independent analyses. All these results strengthen the concept of
evaporating hot-Jupiters, as well as the modelization of this phenomenon.Comment: To be published in ApJ
Proteus: A Hierarchical Portfolio of Solvers and Transformations
In recent years, portfolio approaches to solving SAT problems and CSPs have
become increasingly common. There are also a number of different encodings for
representing CSPs as SAT instances. In this paper, we leverage advances in both
SAT and CSP solving to present a novel hierarchical portfolio-based approach to
CSP solving, which we call Proteus, that does not rely purely on CSP solvers.
Instead, it may decide that it is best to encode a CSP problem instance into
SAT, selecting an appropriate encoding and a corresponding SAT solver. Our
experimental evaluation used an instance of Proteus that involved four CSP
solvers, three SAT encodings, and six SAT solvers, evaluated on the most
challenging problem instances from the CSP solver competitions, involving
global and intensional constraints. We show that significant performance
improvements can be achieved by Proteus obtained by exploiting alternative
view-points and solvers for combinatorial problem-solving.Comment: 11th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques
in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems. The final
publication is available at link.springer.co
Osteochondral transfer using a transmalleolar approach for arthroscopic management of talus posteromedial lesions
SummaryCharacterizing osteochondral lesions of the talus has enabled the strategies of surgical management to be better specified. The main technical problem is one of access for arthroscopy instruments to posteromedial lesions. A range of techniques and approaches has been described in ankle arthroscopy in general, and a transmalleolar approach provides reliable and efficient access in these cases. It is frequently used for transchondral drilling, but also enables satisfactory implant positioning in autologous osteochondral mosaicplasty procedures. We report our technique and results on five cases with a minimum 1.2 years’ follow-up
Characterization of the four new transiting planets KOI-188b, KOI-195b, KOI-192b, and KOI-830b
The characterization of four new transiting extrasolar planets is presented
here. KOI-188b and KOI-195b are bloated hot Saturns, with orbital periods of
3.8 and 3.2 days, and masses of 0.25 and 0.34 M_Jup. They are located in the
low-mass range of known transiting, giant planets. KOI-192b has a similar mass
(0.29 M_Jup) but a longer orbital period of 10.3 days. This places it in a
domain where only a few planets are known. KOI-830b, finally, with a mass of
1.27 M_Jup and a period of 3.5 days, is a typical hot Jupiter. The four planets
have radii of 0.98, 1.09, 1.2, and 1.08 R_Jup, respectively. We detected no
significant eccentricity in any of the systems, while the accuracy of our data
does not rule out possible moderate eccentricities. The four objects were first
identified by the Kepler Team as promising candidates from the photometry of
the Kepler satellite. We establish here their planetary nature thanks to the
radial velocity follow-up we secured with the HARPS-N spectrograph at the
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. The combined analyses of the datasets allow us to
fully characterize the four planetary systems. These new objects increase the
number of well-characterized exoplanets for statistics, and provide new targets
for individual follow-up studies. The pre-screening we performed with the
SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence as part of that study
also allowed us to conclude that a fifth candidate, KOI-219.01, is not a planet
but is instead a false positive.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables, final version accepted for publication
in A&
CoRoT 101186644: A transiting low-mass dense M-dwarf on an eccentric 20.7-day period orbit around a late F-star
We present the study of the CoRoT transiting planet candidate 101186644, also
named LRc01_E1_4780. Analysis of the CoRoT lightcurve and the HARPS
spectroscopic follow-up observations of this faint (m_V = 16) candidate
revealed an eclipsing binary composed of a late F-type primary (T_eff = 6090
+/- 200 K) and a low-mass, dense late M-dwarf secondary on an eccentric (e =
0.4) orbit with a period of ~20.7 days. The M-dwarf has a mass of 0.096 +/-
0.011 M_Sun, and a radius of 0.104 +0.026/-0.006 R_Sun, which possibly makes it
the smallest and densest late M-dwarf reported so far. Unlike the claim that
theoretical models predict radii that are 5%-15% smaller than measured for
low-mass stars, this one seems to have a radius that is consistent and might
even be below the radius predicted by theoretical models.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 8 pages, 10
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