Optical observations of very low ionization HII regions in the large Magellanic cloud

Several very low ionization isolated HII regions were detected on a prism-objective plate of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Most of the objects show a very weak (OIII) lambda 5007 emission line and, on the other hand the (OII) lambda 6584 doublets are very intense. This kind of objects seem to be ideal in order to determine accurate N and O abundance, avoiding the use of large ionization correction factors in the N abundance determination. Spectrophotometric observations of these regions were carried out with the 4 m telescope and the 2-D Frutti spectrograph at Cerro Tololo, and with the 1.52 m and the Image Dissector Scanner (IDS) at La Silla, ESO. The wavelength range lambda lambda 3700 to 7000 A was covered. Calibrated fluxes of the emission lines detected were measured, and from these data preliminary results of physical conditions of the gas as well as some ionic abundances were derived. Comparisons of the observations with ionization structure models show that the effective temperatures of the ionizing stars are less than 35,000 K. Possible abundances gradients across the large megallanic cloud are discussed

Faint emission lines in the Galactic H II regions M16, M20 and NGC 3603

We present deep echelle spectrophotometry of the Galactic {\hii} regions M16, M20 and NGC 3603. The data have been taken with the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph in the 3100 to 10400 \AA range. We have detected more than 200 emission lines in each region. Physical conditions have been derived using different continuum and line intensity ratios. We have derived He$^{+}$, C$^{++}$ and O$^{++}$ abundances from pure recombination lines as well as abundances from collisionally excited lines for a large number of ions of different elements. We have obtained consistent estimations of the temperature fluctuation parameter, {\ts}, using different methods. We also report the detection of deuterium Balmer lines up to D$\delta$ (M16) and to D$\gamma$ (M20) in the blue wings of the hydrogen lines, which excitation mechanism seems to be continuum fluorescence. The temperature fluctuations paradigm agree with the results obtained from optical CELs and the more uncertain ones from far IR fine structure CELs in NGC 3603, although, more observations covering the same volume of the nebula are necessary to obtain solid conclusions.Comment: 22 pages, 13 Tables, 7 Figures. Accepted for publication by MNRA

Vanishing chiral couplings in the large-N_C resonance theory

The construction of a resonance theory involving hadrons requires implementing the information from higher scales into the couplings of the effective Lagrangian. We consider the large-Nc chiral resonance theory incorporating scalars and pseudoscalars, and we find that, by imposing LO short-distance constraints on form factors of QCD currents constructed within this theory, the chiral low-energy constants satisfy resonance saturation at NLO in the 1/Nc expansion.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Version published in Physical Review D. Some equations to facilitate the discussion have been adde

Millimagnitude Photometry for Transiting Extrasolar Planetary Candidates. V. Follow-up of 30 OGLE Transits. New Candidates

We used VLT/VIMOS images in the V band to obtain light curves of extrasolar planetary transits OGLE-TR-111 and OGLE-TR-113, and candidate planetary transits: OGLE-TR-82, OGLE-TR-86, OGLE-TR-91, OGLE-TR-106, OGLE-TR-109, OGLE-TR-110, OGLE-TR-159, OGLE-TR-167, OGLE-TR-170, OGLE-TR-171. Using difference imaging photometry, we were able to achieve millimagnitude errors in the individual data points. We present the analysis of the data and the light curves, by measuring transit amplitudes and ephemerides, and by calculating geometrical parameters for some of the systems. We observed 9 OGLE objects at the predicted transit moments. Two other transits were shifted in time by a few hours. For another seven objects we expected to observe transits during the VIMOS run, but they were not detected. The stars OGLE-TR-111 and OGLE-TR-113 are probably the only OGLE objects in the observed sample to host planets, with the other objects being very likely eclipsing binaries or multiple systems. In this paper we also report on four new transiting candidates which we have found in the data.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Detection of emission in the Si i 1082.7 nm line core in sunspot umbrae

We analyze spectropolarimetric sunspot umbra observations taken in the near-infrared Si i 1082.7 nm line taking NLTE effects into account. The data were obtained with the GRIS instrument installed at the German GREGOR telescope. A point spread function (PSF) was constructed using prior Mercury observations with GRIS and the information provided by the adaptive optics system of the GREGOR telescope. The data were then deconvolved from the PSF using a principal component analysis deconvolution method and were analyzed via the NICOLE inversion code. The Si i 1082.7 nm line seems to be in emission in the umbra of the observed sunspot after the effects of scattered light are removed. We show how the spectral line shape of umbral profiles changes dramatically with the amount of scattered light. Indeed, the continuum levels range, on average, from 44% of the quiet Sun continuum intensity to about 20%. The inferred levels are in line with current model predictions and empirical umbral models. Current umbral empirical models are not able to reproduce the emission in the deconvolved umbral Stokes profiles. The results of the NLTE inversions suggests that to obtain the emission in the Si i 1082.7 nm line, the temperature stratification should first have a hump located at about log tau -2 and start rising at lower heights when moving into the transition region. This is, to our knowledge, the first time the Si i 1082.7 nm line is seen in emission in sunspot umbrae. The results show that the temperature stratification of current umbral models may be more complex than expected with the transition region located at lower heights above sunspot umbrae. Our finding might provide insights into understanding why the sunspot umbra emission in the millimeter spectral range is less than that predicted by current empirical umbral models