3,390 research outputs found
On the use of machine learning algorithms in the measurement of stellar magnetic fields
Regression methods based in Machine Learning Algorithms (MLA) have become an
important tool for data analysis in many different disciplines.
In this work, we use MLA in an astrophysical context; our goal is to measure
the mean longitudinal magnetic field in stars (H_ eff) from polarized spectra
of high resolution, through the inversion of the so-called multi-line profiles.
Using synthetic data, we tested the performance of our technique considering
different noise levels: In an ideal scenario of noise-free multi-line profiles,
the inversion results are excellent; however, the accuracy of the inversions
diminish considerably when noise is taken into account. In consequence, we
propose a data pre-process in order to reduce the noise impact, which consists
in a denoising profile process combined with an iterative inversion
methodology.
Applying this data pre-process, we have found a considerable improvement of
the inversions results, allowing to estimate the errors associated to the
measurements of stellar magnetic fields at different noise levels.
We have successfully applied our data analysis technique to two different
stars, attaining by first time the measurement of H_eff from multi-line
profiles beyond the condition of line autosimilarity assumed by other
techniques.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Nesting Success of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles, Lepidochelys kempi, at Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1982–2004
The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys kempi, was on the edge of extinction owing to a combination of intense
egg harvesting and incidental capture in commercial fishing trawls. Results from a cooperative conservation strategy initiated in 1978 between Mexico and the United States to protect and restore the Kemp’s ridley turtle at the main nesting beach at Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico are
assessed. This strategy appears to be working as there are signs that the species is starting to make a recovery. Recovery indicators include: 1) increased numbers of nesting turtles, 2) increased numbers of 100+ turtle nesting aggregations (arribadas), 3) an expanding nesting season now extending from March to August, and 4) significant nighttime nesting since 2003. The population low point at Rancho Nuevo was in 1985 (706 nests) and the population began to significantly increase in 1997
(1,514 nests), growing to over 4,000 nests in 2004. The size and numbers of arribadas have increased each year since 1983 but have yet to exceed the 1,000+ mark; most
arribadas are still 200–800+ turtles
Development and evaluation of a prototype global volcano surveillance system utilizing the ERTS-1 satellite data collection system
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Formation of central massive objects via tidal compression
For a density that is not too sharply peaked towards the center, the local
tidal field becomes compressive in all three directions. Available gas can then
collapse and form a cluster of stars in the center, including or even being
dominated by a central black hole. We show that for a wide range of
(deprojected) Sersic profiles in a spherical potential, the tidal forces are
compressive within a region which encloses most of the corresponding light of
observed nuclear clusters in both late-type and early-type galaxies. In such
models, tidal forces become disruptive nearly everywhere for relatively large
Sersic indices n >= 3.5. We also show that the mass of a central massive object
(CMO) required to remove all radial compressive tidal forces scales linearly
with the mass of the host galaxy. If CMOs formed in (progenitor) galaxies with
n ~ 1, we predict a mass fraction of ~ 0.1-0.5%, consistent with observations
of nuclear clusters and super-massive black holes. While we find that tidal
compression possibly drives the formation of CMOs in galaxies, beyond the
central regions and on larger scales in clusters disruptive tidal forces might
contribute to prevent gas from cooling.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. High resolution
version available at
http://www-obs.univ-lyon1.fr/labo/perso/eric.emsellem/preprint
SUNRISE/IMaX observations of convectively driven vortex flows in the Sun
We characterize the observational properties of the convectively driven
vortex flows recently discovered on the quiet Sun, using magnetograms,
Dopplergrams and images obtained with the 1-m balloon-borne Sunrise telescope.
By visual inspection of time series, we find some 3.1e-3 vortices/(Mm^2 min),
which is a factor of 1.7 larger than previous estimates. The mean duration of
the individual events turns out to be 7.9 min, with a standard deviation of 3.2
min. In addition, we find several events appearing at the same locations along
the duration of the time series (31.6 min). Such recurrent vortices show up in
the proper motion flow field map averaged over the time series. The typical
vertical vorticities are <= 6e-3 1/sec, which corresponds to a period of
rotation of some 35 min. The vortices show a preferred counterclockwise sense
of rotation, which we conjecture may have to do with the preferred vorticity
impinged by the solar differential rotation.Comment: To appear in ApJL. 5 Figs, 4 pages. The two animations associated
with the work can be downloaded from
http://www.iac.es/proyecto/solarhr/imaxvortex.html References updated in V
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