8,596 research outputs found
A catalog of planetary nebulae in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4697
We present a catalog of 535 planetary nebulae discovered in the flattened
elliptical galaxy NGC 4697, using the FORS1 Cassegrain spectrograph of the Very
Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal, Chile.
The catalog provides positions (x, y coordinates relative to the center of
light of NGC 4697, as well as RA, Dec.), and, for almost all PNs, the magnitude
m(5007) and the heliocentric radial velocity in km/s.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, ApJS in pres
The structures underlying soliton solutions in integrable hierarchies
We point out that a common feature of integrable hierarchies presenting
soliton solutions is the existence of some special ``vacuum solutions'' such
that the Lax operators evaluated on them, lie in some abelian subalgebra of the
associated Kac-Moody algebra. The soliton solutions are constructed out of
those ``vacuum solitons'' by the dressing transformation procedure.Comment: Talk given at the I Latin American Symposium on High Energy Physics,
I SILAFAE, Merida, Mexico, November/96, 5 pages, LaTeX, needs aipproc.tex,
aipproc.sty, aipproc.cls, available from
ftp://ftp.aip.org/ems/tex/macros/proceedings/6x9
Face recognition system using fringe projection and moiré: characterization with fractal parameters
We show a new method for face recognition which combines the projection of structures with different characteristics (fringes, bars or grids, dots or speckle) over the face. These projections will then allow the creation of a computer-generated moiré pattern over which different kinds of fractal and complex geometry parameters are then measured. Such parameters will then be used as inputs for a neuro-symbolic hybrid system. Here, we analyze the incidence of some parameters on the efficience for the face recognition method
Detection, photometry and slitless radial velocities of 535 planetary nebulae in the flattened elliptical galaxy NGC 4697
We have detected 535 planetary nebulae (PNs) in NGC 4697, using the classic
on-band, off-band filter technique with the Focal Reducer and Spectrograph
(FORS) at the Cassegrain focus of the first 8-meter telescope unit of the ESO
Very Large Telescope. From our photometry we have built the [O III] 5007
planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) of NGC 4697. It indicates a
distance of 10.5 Mpc, substantially smaller than a previous estimate of 24 Mpc
used in earlier dynamical studies. The PNLF also provides an estimate of the
specific PN formation rate. Combining the information from on-band images with
PN positions on dispersed, slitless grism images, we have obtained radial
velocities for 531 of the 535 PNs. They provide kinematic information up to a
distance of almost three effective radii from the nucleus. Some rotation is
detected in the outer regions, but the rotation curve of this galaxy appears to
drop beyond one effective radius. Assuming an isotropic velocity distribution,
the velocity dispersion profile is consistent with no dark matter within three
effective radii of the nucleus (however, some dark matter can be present if the
velocity distribution is anisotropic). We obtain a blue mass-to-light ratio of
11. Earlier M/L ratios for NGC 4697 were too small, because of the too large
distance used for their derivation.Comment: 52 pages, 24 Postscript figures, ApJ 2001, in pres
Toward better simulations of planetary nebulae luminosity functions
We describe a procedure for the numerical simulation of the planetary nebulae
luminosity function (PNLF), improving on previous work (Mendez & Soffner 1997).
Earlier PNLF simulations were based on an imitation of the observed
distribution of the intensities of [O III] 5007 relative to Hbeta, generated
predominantly using random numbers. We are now able to replace this by a
distribution derived from the predictions of hydrodynamical PN models
(Schoenberner et al. 2007), which are made to evolve as the central star moves
across the HR diagram, using proper initial and boundary conditions. In this
way we move one step closer to a physically consistent procedure for the
generation of a PNLF. As an example of these new simulations, we have been able
to reproduce the observed PNLF in the Small Magellanic Cloud.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
More evidence for an intracluster planetary nebulae population in the Virgo cluster
We surveyed a 50 sq arcmin region in the Virgo cluster core to search for
intergalactic planetary nebulae, and found 11 candidates in the surveyed area.
The measured fluxes of these unresolved sources are consistent with these
objects being planetary nebulae from an intracluster population of stars. We
compute the cumulative luminosity function of these 11 planetary nebula
candidates. If we assume that they belong to the Virgo cluster, their
cumulative luminosity function is in good agreement with planetary nebula
luminosity function simulations. This comparison allows us to estimate the
surface mass density of the intracluster stellar population at the surveyed
field in the cluster core.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. A .ps file is also available at:
http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de:8001/people/mendez/preprints/preprints.htm
The Burst Spectra of EXO 0748-676 during a Long 2003 XMM-Newton Observation
Gravitationally redshifted absorption lines from highly ionized iron have
been previously identified in the burst spectra of the neutron star in EXO
0748-676. To repeat this detection we obtained a long, nearly 600 ks
observation of the source with XMM-Newton in 2003. The spectral features seen
in the burst spectra from the initial data are not reproduced in the burst
spectra from this new data. In this paper we present the spectra from the 2003
observations and discuss the sensitivity of the absorption structure to changes
in the photospheric conditions.Comment: 18 Pages, 3 Figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Vibrating soap films: An analog for quantum chaos on billiards
We present an experimental setup based on the normal modes of vibrating soap
films which shows quantum features of integrable and chaotic billiards. In
particular, we obtain the so-called scars -narrow linear regions with high
probability along classical periodic orbits- for the classically chaotic
billiards. We show that these scars are also visible at low frequencies.
Finally, we suggest some applications of our experimental setup in other
related two-dimensional wave phenomena.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures. Better Postscript figures available on reques
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