232 research outputs found
The Zeta Herculis binary system revisited. Calibration and seismology
We have revisited the calibration of the visual binary system Zeta Herculis
with the goal to give the seismological properties of the G0 IV sub-giant Zeta
Her A. We have used the most recent physical and observational data. For the
age we have obtained 3387 Myr, for the masses respectively 1.45 and 0.98 solar
mass, for the initial helium mass fraction 0.243, for the initial mass ratio of
heavy elements to hydrogen 0.0269 and for the mixing-length parameters
respectively 0.92 and 0.90 using the Canuto & Mazitelli (1991, 1992) convection
theory. Our results do not exclude that Zeta Her A is itself a binary
sub-system; the mass of the hypothetical unseen companion would be smaller than
0.05 solar mass. The adiabatic oscillation spectrum of Zeta Her A is found to
be a complicated superposition of acoustic and gravity modes; some of them have
a dual character. This greatly complicates the classification of the non-radial
modes. The echelle diagram used by the observers to extract the frequencies
will work for ell=0, 2, 3. The large difference is found to be of the order of
42 mu Hz, in agreement with the Martic et al. (2001) seismic observations.Comment: 12 pages, A&A in pres
First-principles study of orthorhombic CdTiO3 perovskite
In this work we perform an ab-initio study of CdTiO3 perovskite in its
orthorhombic phase using FLAPW method. Our calculations help to decide between
the different cristallographic structures proposed for this perovskite from
X-Ray measurements. We compute the electric field gradient tensor (EFG) at Cd
site and obtain excellent agreement with available experimental information
from a perturbed angular correlation (PAC) experiment. We study EFG under an
isotropic change of volume and show that in this case the widely used "point
charge model approximation" to determine EFG works quite well.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Accepted in Physical Review
Heavy Quark Potentials in Quenched QCD at High Temperature
Heavy quark potentials are investigated at high temperatures. The temperature
range covered by the analysis extends from values just below the
deconfinement temperature up to about in the deconfined phase. We
simulated the pure gauge sector of QCD on lattices with temporal extents of 4,
6 and 8 with spatial volumes of . On the smallest lattice a tree level
improved action was employed while in the other two cases the standard Wilson
action was used. Below we find a temperature dependent logarithmic term
contributing to the confinement potential and observe a string tension which
decreases with rising temperature but retains a finite value at the
deconfinement transition. Above the potential is Debye-screened, however
simple perturbative predictions do not apply.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
Combining QCD Matrix Elements at Next-to-Leading Order with Parton Showers in Electroproduction
We present a method to combine next-to-leading order (NLO) matrix elements in
QCD with leading logarithmic parton showers by applying a suitably modified
version of the phase-space-slicing method. The method consists of subsuming the
NLO corrections into a scale-dependent phase-space-slicing parameter, which is
then automatically adjusted to cut out the leading order, virtual, soft and
collinear contributions in the matrix element calculation. In this way a
positive NLO weight is obtained, which can be redistributed by a parton shower
algortihm. As an example, we display the method for single-jet inclusive cross
sections at O(alpha_s) in electroproduction. We numerically compare the
modified version of the phase-space-slicing method with the standard approach
and find very good agreement on the percent level.Comment: 21 pages, 2 eps figures. Revised section 2. To appear in PR
Next-to-Leading Order Cross Sections for Tagged Reactions
We extend the phase space slicing method of Giele, Glover and Kosower for
performing next-to-leading order jet cross section calculations in two
important ways: we show how to include fragmentation functions and how to
include massive particles. These extensions allow the application of this
method to not just jet cross sections but also to cross sections in which a
particular final state particle, including a or -meson, is tagged.Comment: 36 pages, Latex Small corrections to text. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Responses of marine benthic microalgae to elevated CO<inf>2</inf>
Increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are causing a rise in pCO2 concentrations in the ocean surface and lowering pH. To predict the effects of these changes, we need to improve our understanding of the responses of marine primary producers since these drive biogeochemical cycles and profoundly affect the structure and function of benthic habitats. The effects of increasing CO2 levels on the colonisation of artificial substrata by microalgal assemblages (periphyton) were examined across a CO2 gradient off the volcanic island of Vulcano (NE Sicily). We show that periphyton communities altered significantly as CO2 concentrations increased. CO2 enrichment caused significant increases in chlorophyll a concentrations and in diatom abundance although we did not detect any changes in cyanobacteria. SEM analysis revealed major shifts in diatom assemblage composition as CO2 levels increased. The responses of benthic microalgae to rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions are likely to have significant ecological ramifications for coastal systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag
Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) for the Subaru Telescope: Overview, recent progress, and future perspectives
PFS (Prime Focus Spectrograph), a next generation facility instrument on the
8.2-meter Subaru Telescope, is a very wide-field, massively multiplexed,
optical and near-infrared spectrograph. Exploiting the Subaru prime focus, 2394
reconfigurable fibers will be distributed over the 1.3 deg field of view. The
spectrograph has been designed with 3 arms of blue, red, and near-infrared
cameras to simultaneously observe spectra from 380nm to 1260nm in one exposure
at a resolution of ~1.6-2.7A. An international collaboration is developing this
instrument under the initiative of Kavli IPMU. The project is now going into
the construction phase aiming at undertaking system integration in 2017-2018
and subsequently carrying out engineering operations in 2018-2019. This article
gives an overview of the instrument, current project status and future paths
forward.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Proceeding of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation 201
The Origins and Evolutionary Status of B Stars Found Far From the Galactic Plane II: Kinematics and Full Sample Analysis
This paper continues the analysis of faint high latitude B stars from Martin
(2004). Here we analyze the kinematics of the stars and combine them with the
abundance information from the first paper to classify each one. The sample
contains 31 Population I runaways, fifteen old evolved stars (including five
BHB stars, three post-HB stars, a pulsating helium dwarf, and six stars of
ambiguous classification), one F-dwarf, and two stars which do not easily fit
in one of the other categories. No star in the sample unambiguously shows the
characteristics of a young massive star formed in situ in the halo. The two
unclassified stars are probably extreme Population I runaways. The low binary
frequency and rotational velocity distribution of the Population I runaways
imply that most were ejected from dense star clusters by DES (dynamic ejection
scenario). However we remain puzzled by the lack of runaway Be stars. We also
confirm that PB 166 and HIP 41979 are both nearby solar-metallicity BHB stars.Comment: 59 pages including 14 Figures, 12 Tables; Accepted for publication in
the Astronomical Journa
On-orbit performance of the Gaia CCDs at L2
The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite was launched into orbit around L2
in December 2013 with a payload containing 106 large-format scientific CCDs.
The primary goal of the mission is to repeatedly obtain high-precision
astrometric and photometric measurements of one thousand million stars over the
course of five years. The scientific value of the down-linked data, and the
operation of the onboard autonomous detection chain, relies on the high
performance of the detectors. As Gaia slowly rotates and scans the sky, the
CCDs are continuously operated in a mode where the line clock rate and the
satellite rotation spin-rate are in synchronisation. Nominal mission operations
began in July 2014 and the first data release is being prepared for release at
the end of Summer 2016.
In this paper we present an overview of the focal plane, the detector system,
and strategies for on-orbit performance monitoring of the system. This is
followed by a presentation of the performance results based on analysis of data
acquired during a two-year window beginning at payload switch-on. Results for
parameters such as readout noise and electronic offset behaviour are presented
and we pay particular attention to the effects of the L2 radiation environment
on the devices. The radiation-induced degradation in the charge transfer
efficiency (CTE) in the (parallel) scan direction is clearly diagnosed;
however, an extrapolation shows that charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) effects
at end of mission will be approximately an order of magnitude less than
predicted pre-flight. It is shown that the CTI in the serial register
(horizontal direction) is still dominated by the traps inherent to the
manufacturing process and that the radiation-induced degradation so far is only
a few per cent. Finally, we summarise some of the detector effects discovered
on-orbit which are still being investigated.Comment: Published in A&A Gaia special featur
Euclid preparation. XXIX. Water ice in spacecraft part I:The physics of ice formation and contamination
Molecular contamination is a well-known problem in space flight. Water is the most common contaminant and alters numerous properties of a cryogenic optical system. Too much ice means that Euclid's calibration requirements and science goals cannot be met. Euclid must then be thermally decontaminated, a long and risky process. We need to understand how iced optics affect the data and when a decontamination is required. This is essential to build adequate calibration and survey plans, yet a comprehensive analysis in the context of an astrophysical space survey has not been done before. In this paper we look at other spacecraft with well-documented outgassing records, and we review the formation of thin ice films. A mix of amorphous and crystalline ices is expected for Euclid. Their surface topography depends on the competing energetic needs of the substrate-water and the water-water interfaces, and is hard to predict with current theories. We illustrate that with scanning-tunnelling and atomic-force microscope images. Industrial tools exist to estimate contamination, and we must understand their uncertainties. We find considerable knowledge errors on the diffusion and sublimation coefficients, limiting the accuracy of these tools. We developed a water transport model to compute contamination rates in Euclid, and find general agreement with industry estimates. Tests of the Euclid flight hardware in space simulators did not pick up contamination signals; our in-flight calibrations observations will be much more sensitive. We must understand the link between the amount of ice on the optics and its effect on Euclid's data. Little research is available about this link, possibly because other spacecraft can decontaminate easily, quenching the need for a deeper understanding. In our second paper we quantify the various effects of iced optics on spectrophotometric data
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