20,085 research outputs found
Further constraints on the optical transmission spectrum of HAT-P-1b
We report on novel observations of HAT-P-1 aimed at constraining the optical
transmission spectrum of the atmosphere of its transiting Hot-Jupiter
exoplanet. Ground-based differential spectrophotometry was performed over two
transit windows using the DOLORES spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale
Galileo (TNG). Our measurements imply an average planet to star radius ratio
equal to =(0.11590.0005). This result is consistent
with the value obtained from recent near infrared measurements of this object
but differs from previously reported optical measurements being lower by around
4.4 exoplanet scale heights. Analyzing the data over 5 different spectral bins
600\AA wide we observed a single peaked spectrum (3.7 level)
with a blue cut-off corresponding to the blue edge of the broad absorption wing
of sodium and an increased absorption in the region in between 6180-7400\AA. We
also infer that the width of the broad absorption wings due to alkali metals is
likely narrower than the one implied by solar abundance clear atmospheric
models. We interpret the result as evidence that HAT-P-1b has a partially clear
atmosphere at optical wavelengths with a more modest contribution from an
optical absorber than previously reported.Comment: Accepted by Ap
Properties of massive stars in four clusters of the VVV survey
The evolution of massive stars is only partly understood. Observational
constraints can be obtained from the study of massive stars located in young
massive clusters. The ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV)
discovered several new clusters hosting massive stars. We present an analysis
of massive stars in four of these new clusters. Our aim is to provide
constraints on stellar evolution and to better understand the relation between
different types of massive stars. We use the radiative transfer code CMFGEN to
analyse K-band spectra of twelve stars with spectral types ranging from O and B
to WN and WC. We derive the stellar parameters of all targets as well as
surface abundances for a subset of them. In the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram,
the Wolf-Rayet stars are more luminous or hotter than the O stars. From the
log(C/N) - log(C/He) diagram, we show quantitatively that WN stars are more
chemically evolved than O stars, WC stars being more evolved than WN stars.
Mass loss rates among Wolf-Rayet stars are a factor of 10 larger than for O
stars, in agreement with previous findings.Comment: paper accepted in New Astronom
Protocol-based verification of message-passing parallel programs
© 2015 ACM.We present ParTypes, a type-based methodology for the verification of Message Passing Interface (MPI) programs written in the C programming language. The aim is to statically verify programs against protocol specifications, enforcing properties such as fidelity and absence of deadlocks. We develop a protocol language based on a dependent type system for message-passing parallel programs, which includes various communication operators, such as point-to-point messages, broadcast, reduce, array scatter and gather. For the verification of a program against a given protocol, the protocol is first translated into a representation read by VCC, a software verifier for C. We successfully verified several MPI programs in a running time that is independent of the number of processes or other input parameters. This contrasts with alternative techniques, notably model checking and runtime verification, that suffer from the state-explosion problem or that otherwise depend on parameters to the program itself. We experimentally evaluated our approach against state-of-the-art tools for MPI to conclude that our approach offers a scalable solution
Surface abundances of ON stars
Massive stars burn hydrogen through the CNO cycle during most of their
evolution. When mixing is efficient, or when mass transfer in binary systems
happens, chemically processed material is observed at the surface of O and B
stars. ON stars show stronger lines of nitrogen than morphologically normal
counterparts. Whether this corresponds to the presence of material processed
through the CNO cycle or not is not known. Our goal is to answer this question.
We perform a spectroscopic analysis of a sample of ON stars with atmosphere
models. We determine the fundamental parameters as well as the He, C, N, and O
surface abundances. We also measure the projected rotational velocities. We
compare the properties of the ON stars to those of normal O stars. We show that
ON stars are usually helium-rich. Their CNO surface abundances are fully
consistent with predictions of nucleosynthesis. ON stars are more chemically
evolved and rotate - on average - faster than normal O stars. Evolutionary
models including rotation cannot account for the extreme enrichment observed
among ON main sequence stars. Some ON stars are members of binary systems, but
others are single stars as indicated by stable radial velocities. Hence, mass
transfer is not a simple explanation for the observed chemical properties. We
conclude that ON stars show extreme chemical enrichment at their surface,
consistent with nucleosynthesis through the CNO cycle. Its origin is not clear
at present.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures (+ appendix). A&A accepte
Unified model for vortex-string network evolution
We describe and numerically test the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS)
string evolution model, a simple analytic approach describing a string network
with the averaged correlation length and velocity. We show that it accurately
reproduces the large-scale behaviour (in particular the scaling laws) of
numerical simulations of both Goto-Nambu and field theory string networks. We
explicitly demonstrate the relation between the high-energy physics approach
and the damped and non-relativistic limits which are relevant for condensed
matter physics. We also reproduce experimental results in this context and show
that the vortex-string density is significantly reduced by loop production, an
effect not included in the usual `coarse-grained' approach.Comment: 5 pages; v2: cosmetic changes, version to appear in PR
Probing dark energy beyond with CODEX
Precision measurements of nature's fundamental couplings and a first
measurement of the cosmological redshift drift are two of the key targets for
future high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs such as CODEX. Being able to
do both gives CODEX a unique advantage, allowing it to probe dynamical dark
energy models (by measuring the behavior of their equation of state) deep in
the matter era and thereby testing classes of models that would otherwise be
difficult to distinguish from the standard CDM paradigm. We illustrate
this point with two simple case studies.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
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