30,568 research outputs found
Magnetism in the Square Kilometre Array Era
The unprecedented sensitivity, angular resolution and broad bandwidth
coverage of Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio polarimetric observations will
allow us to address many long-standing mysteries in cosmic magnetism science. I
will highlight the unique capabilities of the SKA to map the warm hot
intergalactic medium, reveal detailed 3-dimensional structures of magnetic
fields in local galaxies and trace the redshift evolution of galactic magnetic
fields.Comment: 4 pages, Invited paper, Proceedings of FM8 "New Insights in
Extragalactic Magnetic Fields", XXXth General Assembly of the IAU, Vienna,
August 20-31, 201
Empirical Study of Simulated Two-planet Microlensing Event
We undertake the first study of two-planet microlensing models recovered from
simulations of microlensing events generated by realistic multi-planet systems
in which 292 planetary events including 16 two-planet events were detected from
6690 simulated light curves. We find that when two planets are recovered, their
parameters are usually close to those of the two planets in the system most
responsible for the perturbations. However, in one of the 16 examples, the
apparent mass of both detected planets was more than doubled by the unmodeled
influence of a third, massive planet. This fraction is larger than, but
statistically consistent with, the roughly 1.5% rate of serious mass errors due
to unmodeled planetary companions for the 274 cases from the same simulation in
which a single planet is recovered. We conjecture that an analogous effect due
to unmodeled stellar companions may occur more frequently. For seven out of 23
cases in which two planets in the system would have been detected separately,
only one planet was recovered because the perturbations due to the two planets
had similar forms. This is a small fraction (7/274) of all recovered
single-planet models, but almost a third of all events that might plausibly
have led to two-planet models. Still, in these cases, the recovered planet
tends to have parameters similar to one of the two real planets most
responsible for the anomaly.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; submitted to ApJ; for a short video
introducing the key results, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhK4a6sbfO
A New Photometric Model of the Galactic Bar using Red Clump Giants
We present a study of the luminosity density distribution of the Galactic bar
using number counts of red clump giants (RCGs) from the OGLE-III survey. The
data were recently published by Nataf et al. (2013) for 9019 fields towards the
bulge and have RC stars over a viewing area of . The data include the number counts, mean distance modulus
(), dispersion in and full error matrix, from which we fit the data
with several tri-axial parametric models. We use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo
(MCMC) method to explore the parameter space and find that the best-fit model
is the model, with the distance to the GC is 8.13 kpc, the ratio of
semi-major and semi-minor bar axis scale lengths in the Galactic plane
, and vertical bar scale length , is (close to being prolate). The scale length of the stellar
density profile along the bar's major axis is 0.67 kpc and has an angle
of , slightly larger than the value obtained from a similar study
based on OGLE-II data. The number of estimated RC stars within the field of
view is , which is systematically lower than the observed
value. We subtract the smooth parametric model from the observed counts and
find that the residuals are consistent with the presence of an X-shaped
structure in the Galactic centre, the excess to the estimated mass content is
. We estimate the total mass of the bar is . Our results can be used as a key ingredient to construct new density
models of the Milky Way and will have implications on the predictions of the
optical depth to gravitational microlensing and the patterns of hydrodynamical
gas flow in the Milky Way.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. MNRAS accepte
Almost sure exponential stability of numerical solutions for stochastic delay differential equations
Using techniques based on the continuous and discrete semimartingale convergence theorems, this paper investigates if numerical methods may reproduce the almost sure exponential stability of the exact solutions to stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs). The important feature of this technique is that it enables us to study the almost sure exponential stability of numerical solutions of SDDEs directly. This is significantly different from most traditional methods by which the almost sure exponential stability is derived from the moment stability by the Chebyshev inequality and the Borel–Cantelli lemma
Mercury deposition in southern New Hampshire, 2006–2009
The atmospheric deposition of mercury (Hg) occurs via several mechanisms including wet, dry, and occult processes. In an effort to understand the atmospheric cycling and seasonal depositional characteristics of Hg, event-based wet deposition samples and reactive gaseous Hg (RGM) measurements were collected for approximately 3 years at Thompson Farm (TF), a near-coastal rural site in Durham, NH, part of the University of New Hampshire AIRMAP Observing Network. Total aqueous mercury exhibited seasonal patterns in Hg wet deposition at TF. The lowest Hg wet deposition was measured in the winter with an average total seasonal deposition of 1.56 μg m−2compared to the summer average of 4.71 μg m−2. Inter-annual differences in total wet deposition are generally linked with precipitation volume, with the greatest deposition occurring in the wettest year. Relationships between surface level RGM and Hg wet deposition were also investigated based on continuous RGM measurements at TF from November 2006 to September 2009. No correlations were observed between RGM mixing ratios and Hg wet deposition, however the ineffective scavenging of RGM during winter precipitation events was evidenced by the less frequent depletion of RGM below the detection level. Seasonal dry deposition of reactive gaseous Hg (RGM) was estimated using an order-of-magnitude approach. RGM mixing ratios and dry deposition estimates were greatest during the winter and spring. The seasonal ratios of Hg wet deposition to RGM dry deposition vary by up to a factor of 80
Semileptonic Decay of and From QCD Sum Rule
We calculate , and to transition form
factors, and study semileptonic decays of and based on QCD sum rule. Measuring these semileptonic decays with
high statistics will give valuable information on the nature of light scalar
mesons.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures,latex,typos and errors correcte
The Magnetized Disk-Halo Transition Region of M51
An excellent laboratory for studying large scale magnetic fields is the grand
de- sign face-on spiral galaxy M51. Due to wavelength-dependent Faraday
depolarization, linearly polarized synchrotron emission at different radio
frequencies gives a picture of the galaxy at different depths: Observations at
L-band (1-2 GHz) probe the halo region while at C- and X- band (4-8 GHz) the
linearly polarized emission probe the disk region of M51. We present new
observations of M51 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at S-band
(2-4 GHz), where previously no polarization observations existed, to shed new
light on the transition region between the disk and the halo. We discuss a
model of the depolarization of synchrotron radiation in a multilayer
magneto-ionic medium and compare the model predictions to the multi-frequency
polarization data of M51 between 1-8GHz. The new S-band data are essential to
distinguish between different models. Our study shows that the initial model
parameters, i.e. the total reg- ular and turbulent magnetic field strengths in
the disk and halo of M51, need to be adjusted to successfully fit the models to
the data.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figures, Conference Proceeding to IAU Focus Meeting 8: New
Insights in Extragalactic Magnetic Field
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