11,197 research outputs found
The Free-Free Opacity in Warm, Dense, and Weakly Ionized Helium
We investigate the ionization and the opacity of warm, dense helium under
conditions found in the atmospheres of cool white dwarf stars. Our particular
interest is in densities up to and temperatures from 1000K to
10000K. For these physical conditions various approaches for modeling the
ionization equilibrium predict ionization fractions that differ by orders of
magnitudes. Furthermore, estimates of the density at which helium
pressure-ionizes vary from to . In this context, the
value of the electron-atom inverse bremsstrahlung absorption is highly
uncertain. We present new results obtained from a non-ideal chemical model for
the ionization equilibrium, from Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) simulations,
and from the analysis of experimental data to better understand the ionization
fraction in fluid helium in the weak ionization limit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in the
Proceedings of the 14th APS Topical Conference on Shock Compression of
Condensed Matter, Baltimore, M
Near-UV absorption in very cool DA white dwarfs
The atmospheres of very cool, hydrogen-rich white dwarfs (Teff <6000 K) are
challenging to models because of the increased complexity of the equation of
state, chemical equilibrium, and opacity sources in a low-temperature, weakly
ionized dense gas. In particular, many models that assume relatively simple
models for the broadening of atomic levels and mostly ideal gas physics
overestimate the flux in the blue part of their spectra. A solution to this
problem that has met with some success is that additional opacity at short
wavelengths comes for the extreme broadening of the Lyman alpha line of atomic
H by collisions primarily with H2. For the purpose of validating this model
more rigorously, we acquired Hubble Space Telescope STIS spectra of 8 very cool
white dwarfs (5 DA and 3 DC stars). Combined with their known parallaxes,
BVRIJHK and Spitzer IRAC photometry, we analyze their entire spectral energy
distribution (from 0.24 to 9.3 micron) with a large grid of model atmospheres
and synthetic spectra. We find that the red wing of the Lyman alpha line
reproduces the rapidly decreasing near-UV flux of these very cool stars very
well. We determine better constrained values of Teff and gravity as well as
upper limits to the helium abundance in their atmospheres.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in the Ap
Homogeneous geodesics of non-unimodular Lorentzian Lie groups and naturally reductive Lorentzian spaces in dimension three
We determine, for all three-dimensional non-unimodular Lie groups equipped
with a Lorentzian metric, the set of homogeneous geodesics through a point.
Together with the results of [C] and [CM2], this leads to the full
classification of three-dimensional Lorentzian g.o. spaces and naturally
reductive spaces
A simple model of ocean temperature re-emergence and variability
A simple stochastic one-dimensional model of interannual mid-latitude sea surface temperature (SST) variability that can be solved analytically is developed. A novel two-season approach is adopted, with the annual cycle divided into two seasons denoted summer and winter. Within each season the mixed layer depth is constant, and the transition of the mixed layer from summer to winter and vice versa is discontinuous. SST anomalies are forced by random atmospheric heat fluxes, assumed to be constant within each season for simplicity, with linear damping to represent atmospheric feedback. At the start of summer the initial SST anomaly is set equal to that at the end of the previous winter, and at the start of winter the initial temperature anomaly is found by instantaneously mixing the summer mixed layer with the heat stored below in the deeper winter mixed layer, thereby explicitly taking into account the ‘re-emergence mechanism’. Two simple auto-regressive equations for the summer and winter SST anomalies are obtained that can be easily solved. Model parameters include seasonal damping coefficients, mixed layer depths and standard deviations of the atmospheric forcing. Analytic expressions for season-to-season correlation and variability and power spectra are used to explore and illustrate the effects of the parameters quantitatively. Among the results it is found that, with regard to winter-to-winter temperature correlation, the re-emergence pathway is more influential than persistence via the summer mixed layer when the winter layer is more than twice the depth of the summer layer. With regard to winter temperature variability, the effect of a deeper winter mixed layer is to decrease the sensitivity to surface forcing and thus decrease variability, but also to increase persistence via re-emergence and thus increase variance at multidecadal scales
The status and future of EUV astronomy
The Extreme Ultraviolet wavelength range was one of the final windows to be
opened up to astronomy. Nevertheless, it provides very important diagnostic
tools for a range of astronomical objects, although the opacity of the
interstellar medium restricts the majority of observations to sources in our
own galaxy. This review gives a historical overview of EUV astronomy, describes
current instrumental capabilities and examines the prospects for future
facilities on small and medium-class satellite platforms.Comment: Published in Advances in Space Researc
Scalar field theory on -Minkowski space-time and Doubly Special Relativity
In this paper we recall the construction of scalar field action on
-Minkowski space-time and investigate its properties. In particular we
show how the co-product of -Poincar\'e algebra of symmetries arises
from the analysis of the symmetries of the action, expressed in terms of
Fourier transformed fields. We also derive the action on commuting space-time,
equivalent to the original one. Adding the self-interaction term we
investigate the modified conservation laws. We show that the local interactions
on -Minkowski space-time give rise to 6 inequivalent ways in which
energy and momentum can be conserved at four-point vertex. We discuss the
relevance of these results for Doubly Special Relativity.Comment: 17 pages; some editing done, final version to be published in Int. J.
Mod. Phys.
Nuclear Structure Calculations with Coupled Cluster Methods from Quantum Chemistry
We present several coupled-cluster calculations of ground and excited states
of 4He and 16O employing methods from quantum chemistry. A comparison of
coupled cluster results with the results of exact diagonalization of the
hamiltonian in the same model space and other truncated shell-model
calculations shows that the quantum chemistry inspired coupled cluster
approximations provide an excellent description of ground and excited states of
nuclei, with much less computational effort than traditional large-scale
shell-model approaches. Unless truncations are made, for nuclei like 16O,
full-fledged shell-model calculations with four or more major shells are not
possible. However, these and even larger systems can be studied with the
coupled cluster methods due to the polynomial rather than factorial scaling
inherent in standard shell-model studies. This makes the coupled cluster
approaches, developed in quantum chemistry, viable methods for describing
weakly bound systems of interest for future nuclear facilities.Comment: 10 pages, Elsevier latex style, Invited contribution to INPC04
proceedings, to appear in Nuclear Physics
A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies: VI. White dwarf cooling sequences
We present a new set of cooling models and isochrones for both H- and
He-atmosphere white dwarfs, incorporating accurate boundary conditions from
detailed model atmosphere calculations, and carbon-oxygen chemical abundance
profiles based on updated stellar evolution calculations from the BaSTI stellar
evolution archive - a theoretical data center for the Virtual Observatory. We
discuss and quantify the uncertainties in the cooling times predicted by the
models, arising from the treatment of mixing during the central H- and
He-burning phases, number of thermal pulses experienced by the progenitors,
progenitor metallicity and the reaction rate. The
largest sources of uncertainty turn out to be related to the treatment of
convection during the last stages of the progenitor central He-burning phase,
and the reaction rate. We compare our new models
to previous calculations performed with the same stellar evolution code, and
discuss their application to the estimate of the age of the solar neighborhood,
and the interpretation of the observed number ratios between H- and
He-atmosphere white dwarfs. The new white dwarf sequences and an extensive set
of white dwarf isochrones that cover a large range of ages and progenitor
metallicities are made publicly available at the official BaSTI website.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, in pres
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