29,162 research outputs found
Metallicity of high stellar mass galaxies with signs of merger events
We focus on an analysis of galaxies of high stellar mass and low metallicity.
We cross-correlated the Millenium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) and the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy catalogue to provide a sample of MGC objects with high
resolution imaging and both spectroscopic and photometric information available
in the SDSS database. For each galaxy in our sample, we conducted a systematic
morphological analysis by visual inspection of MGC images using their
luminosity contours. The galaxies are classified as either disturbed or
undisturbed objects. We divide the sample into three metallicity regions,
within wich we compare the properties of disturbed and undisturbed objects. We
find that the fraction of galaxies that are strongly disturbed, indicative of
being merger remnants, is higher when lower metallicity objects are considered.
The three bins analysed consist of approximatively 15%, 20%, and 50% disturbed
galaxies (for high, medium, and low metallicity, respectively). Moreover, the
ratio of the disturbed to undisturbed relative distributions of the population
age indicator, Dn(4000), in the low metallicity bin, indicates that the
disturbed objects have substantially younger stellar populations than their
undisturbed counterparts. In addition, we find that an analysis of colour
distributions provides similar results, showing that low metallicity galaxies
with a disturbed morphology are bluer than those that are undisturbed. The
bluer colours and younger populations of the low metallicity, morphologically
disturbed objects suggest that they have experienced a recent merger with an
associated enhanced star formation rate. [abridged]Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in pres
Impact of an AGN featureless continuum on estimation of stellar population properties
The effect of the featureless power-law (PL) continuum of an active galactic
nucleus (AGN) on the estimation of physical properties of galaxies with optical
population spectral synthesis (PSS) remains largely unknown. With this in mind,
we fit synthetic galaxy spectra representing a wide range of galaxy star
formation histories (SFHs) and including distinct PL contributions of the form
with the PSS code STARLIGHT to study to which
extent various inferred quantities (e.g. stellar mass, mean age, and mean
metallicity) match the input. The synthetic spectral energy distributions
(SEDs) computed with our evolutionary spectral synthesis code include an AGN PL
component with and a fractional contribution to the monochromatic flux at 4020 \AA. At the
empirical AGN detection threshold that we
previously inferred in a pilot study on this subject, our results show that the
neglect of a PL component in spectral fitting can lead to an overestimation by
2 dex in stellar mass and by up to 1 and 4 dex in the light-
and mass-weighted mean stellar age, respectively, whereas the light- and
mass-weighted mean stellar metallicity are underestimated by up to 0.3
and 0.6 dex, respectively. Other fitting set-ups including either a
single PL or multiple PLs in the base reveal, on average, much lower
unsystematic uncertainties of the order of those typically found when fitting
purely stellar SEDs with stellar templates, however, reaching locally up to
1, 3 and 0.4 dex in mass, age and metallicity, respectively. Our results
underscore the importance of an accurate modelling of the AGN spectral
contribution in PSS fits as a minimum requirement for the recovery of the
physical and evolutionary properties of stellar populations in active galaxies.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Structure and decays of nuclear three-body systems: the Gamow coupled-channel method in Jacobi coordinates
Weakly bound and unbound nuclear states appearing around
particle thresholds are prototypical open quantum systems. Theories of such
states must take into account configuration mixing effects in the presence of
strong coupling to the particle continuum space.
To describe structure and decays of three-body systems, we
developed a Gamow coupled-channel (GCC) approach in Jacobi coordinates by
employing the complex-momentum formalism. We benchmarked the new framework
against the complex-energy Gamow Shell Model (GSM).
The GCC formalism is expressed in Jacobi coordinates, so
that the center-of-mass motion is automatically eliminated. To solve the
coupled-channel equations, we use hyperspherical harmonics to describe the
angular wave functions while the radial wave functions are expanded in the
Berggren ensemble, which includes bound, scattering and Gamow states.
We show that the GCC method is both accurate and robust. Its
results for energies, decay widths, and nucleon-nucleon angular correlations
are in good agreement with the GSM results.
We have demonstrated that a three-body GSM formalism
explicitly constructed in cluster-orbital shell model coordinates provides
similar results to a GCC framework expressed in Jacobi coordinates, provided
that a large configuration space is employed. Our calculations for
systems and O show that nucleon-nucleon angular correlations are
sensitive to the valence-neutron interaction. The new GCC technique has many
attractive features when applied to bound and unbound states of three-body
systems: it is precise, efficient, and can be extended by introducing a
microscopic model of the core.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Multi-site observations of Delta Scuti stars 7 Aql and 8 Aql (a new Delta Scuti variable): The twelfth STEPHI campaign in 2003
We present an analysis of the pulsation behaviour of the Delta Scuti stars 7
Aql (HD 174532) and 8 Aql (HD 174589) -- a new variable star -- observed in the
framework of STEPHI XII campaign during 2003 June--July. 183 hours of high
precision photometry were acquired by using four-channel photometers at three
sites on three continents during 21 days. The light curves and amplitude
spectra were obtained following a classical scheme of multi-channel photometry.
Observations in different filters were also obtained and analyzed. Six and
three frequencies have been unambiguously detected above a 99% confidence level
in the range 0.090 mHz--0.300 mHz and 0.100 mHz-- 0.145 mHz in 7 Aql and 8 Aql
respectively. A comparison of observed and theoretical frequencies shows that 7
Aql and 8 Aql may oscillate with p modes of low radial orders, typical among
Delta Scuti stars. In terms of radial oscillations the range of 8 Aql goes from
n=1 to n=3 while for 7 Aql the range spans from n=4 to n=7. Non-radial
oscillations have to be present in both stars as well. The expected range of
excited modes according to a non adiabatic analysis goes from n=1 to n=6 in
both stars.Comment: 8 pages, 7 fugures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in
Astronomical Journa
Roles of proton-neutron interactions in alpha-like four-nucleon correlations
An extended pairing plus QQ force model, which has been shown to successfully
explain the nuclear binding energy and related quantities such as the symmetry
energy, is applied to study the alpha-like four-nucleon correlations in
1f_{7/2} shell nuclei.
The double difference of binding energies, which displays a characteristic
behavior at , is interpreted in terms of the alpha-like
correlations. Important roles of proton-neutron interactions forming the
alpha-like correlated structure are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The measurement errors in the Swift-UVOT and XMM-OM
The probability of photon measurement in some photon counting
instrumentation, such as the Optical Monitor on the XMM-Newton satellite, and
the UVOT on the Swift satellite, does not follow a Poisson distribution due to
the detector characteristics, but a Binomial distribution. For a single-pixel
approximation, an expression was derived for the incident countrate as a
function of the measured count rate by Fordham, Moorhead and Galbraith (2000).
We show that the measured countrate error is binomial, and extend their
formalism to derive the error in the incident count rate. The error on the
incident count rate at large count rates is larger than the Poisson-error of
the incident count rate.Comment: 4 pages, 2 postscript figures, submitted to MNRA
The radiating part of circular sources
An analysis is developed linking the form of the sound field from a circular
source to the radial structure of the source, without recourse to far-field or
other approximations. It is found that the information radiated into the field
is limited, with the limit fixed by the wavenumber of source multiplied by the
source radius (Helmholtz number). The acoustic field is found in terms of the
elementary fields generated by a set of line sources whose form is given by
Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, and whose amplitude is found to be
given by weighted integrals of the radial source term. The analysis is
developed for tonal sources, such as rotors, and, for Helmholtz number less
than two, for random disk sources. In this case, the analysis yields the
cross-spectrum between two points in the acoustic field. The analysis is
applied to the problems of tonal radiation, random source radiation as a model
problem for jet noise, and to noise cancellation, as in active control of noise
from rotors. It is found that the approach gives an accurate model for the
radiation problem and explicitly identifies those parts of a source which
radiate.Comment: Submitted to Journal of the Acoustical Society of Americ
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