VVV Survey Microlensing Events in the Galactic Center Region

Indexación: Scopus.We search for microlensing events in the highly reddened areas surrounding the Galactic center using the near-IR observations with the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea Survey (VVV). We report the discovery of 182 new microlensing events, based on observations acquired between 2010 and 2015. We present the color-magnitude diagrams of the microlensing sources for the VVV tiles b332, b333, and b334, which were independently analyzed, and show good qualitative agreement among themselves. We detect an excess of microlensing events in the central tile b333 in comparison with the other two tiles, suggesting that the microlensing optical depth keeps rising all the way to the Galactic center. We derive the Einstein radius crossing time for all of the observed events. The observed event timescales range from t E = 5 to 200 days. The resulting timescale distribution shows a mean timescale of days for the complete sample (N = 182 events), and days if restricted only for the red clump (RC) giant sources (N = 96 RC events). There are 20 long timescale events ( days) that suggest the presence of massive lenses (black holes) or disk-disk event. This work demonstrates that the VVV Survey is a powerful tool to detect intermediate/long timescale microlensing events in highly reddened areas, and it enables a number of future applications, from analyzing individual events to computing the statistics for the inner Galactic mass and kinematic distributions, in aid of future ground- and space-based experiments.http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa9b29/met

The VVV Survey RR Lyrae Population in the Galactic Center Region

Indexación: Scopus.We gratefully acknowledge the use of data from the ESO Public Survey program ID 179.B-2002 taken with the VISTA telescope, and data products from the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU). Support for the authors is provided by the BASAL Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) through grant PFB-06, and the Ministry for the Economy, Development, and Tourism, Programa Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio through grant IC120009, awarded to the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS). D.M. and M.Z. acknowledge support from FONDECYT Regular grants No. 1170121, and 1150345, respectively. P.H. acknowledges financial support from FONDECYT regular grant 1170305. F.G. acknowledge support from CONICYT-PCHA Doctorado Nacional 2017-21171485 and Proyecto Fondecyt Regular 1150345. J.A.-G. acknowledges support by FONDECYT Iniciacion 11150916. D.M. is also grateful for the hospitality of the Vatican Observatory. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for astronomy; Scikit-learn, NumPy, and matplotlib, a Python library for publication-quality graphics; and Aladin Sky Atlas, developed at CDS, Strasbourg Observatory, France, and TOPCAT.Deep near-IR images from the VISTA Variables in the V a L ctea (VVV) Survey were used to search for RR Lyrae stars within 100 arcmin from the Galactic Center. A large sample of 960 RR Lyrae of type ab (RRab) stars were discovered. A catalog is presented featuring the positions, magnitudes, colors, periods, and amplitudes for the sample, in addition to estimated reddenings, distances, and metallicities, and measured individual relative proper motions. We use the reddening-corrected Wesenheit magnitudes, defined as WKs Ks 0.428 J Ks = - ( - ), in order to isolate bona fide RRL belonging to the Galaxy Center, finding that 30 RRab are foreground/background objects. We measure a range of extinctions from AKs 0.19 = to 1.75 mag for the RRab in this region, finding that large extinction is the main cause of the sample incompleteness. The mean period is P =0.5446±0.0025 days, yielding a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] =-1.30±0.01 (ς = 0.33) dex for the RRab sample in the Galactic Center region. The median distance for the sample is D =8.05±0.02 kpc. We measure the RRab surface density using the less reddened region sampled here, finding a density of 1000 RRab/sq deg at a projected Galactocentric distance RG =1.6 deg. Under simple assumptions, this implies a large total mass (M>109Me) for the old and metal-poor population contained inside RG. We also measure accurate relative proper motions, from which we derive tangential velocity dispersions of ςVl =125.0 and ςVb =124.1 km s-1 along the Galactic longitude and latitude coordinates, respectively. The fact that these quantities are similar indicate that the bulk rotation of the RRab population is negligible, and implies that this population is supported by velocity dispersion. In summary, there are two main conclusions of this study. First, the population as a whole is no different from the outer bulge RRab, predominantly a metal-poor component that is shifted with respect to the Oosterhoff type I population defined by the globular clusters in the halo. Second, the RRab sample, as representative of the old and metal-poor stellar population in the region, has high velocity dispersions and zero rotation, suggesting a formation via dissipational collapse. ©2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aacf9

Regional surface temperature simulations over the Iberian Peninsula: evaluation and climate projections

The realism of a specifc confguration of the WRF Regional Climate Model (RCM) to represent the observed temperature evolution over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) in the 1971–2005 period has been analyzed. The E-OBS observational dataset was used for this purpose. Also, the added value of the WRF simulations with respect to the IPSL Earth System Model (ESM) used to drive the WRF RCM was evaluated. In general, WRF presents lower temperatures than in the observations (negative biases) over the IP. These biases are comparatively larger than those of the driving ESM. Once the biases are corrected, WRF provides an added value in terms of a higher spatial representation. WRF introduces more variability in some regions in comparison to gridded observation. Warming trends according to the observations are also well represented by the RCM. In the second part of this study, the projections of future climate performed with both the ESM and the RCM were evaluated for the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios during the 21st century. Although both models simulate temperature increases, the RCM simulates a smaller warming than the ESM after the mid-21st century, except for winter. Using the WRF model, the maximum temperature increase reaches 6 ◦C and 3 ◦C for RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 in the south east of the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the 21st century, respectively

Estudio de potencial de utilización de calor solar para procesos industriales en Canarias y Cabo Verde

CIES2020 - XVII Congresso Ibérico e XIII Congresso Ibero-americano de Energia SolarRESUMEN: Las actividades industriales representan el 24,6% del consumo de energía final en Europa y el 65,6% de este consumo energético se utiliza para la generación de calor de procesos. Es por ello que la industria es un sector con gran potencial para la instalación de tecnologías solares de generación de calor de proceso que permitirían reducir de forma importante el consumo de combustibles fósiles convencionales. En este estudio se ha analizado el consumo de energía final del sector industrial en Canarias y Cabo Verde, se ha clasificado por rangos de temperatura y se ha cuantificado el potencial para la instalación de sistemas de generación de calor solar de procesos (instalaciones SHIP, Solar Heat for Industrial Processes). Se han identificado además las actividades y procesos industriales con mayor potencial para la integración de sistemas SHIP. El potencial técnico calculado para la integración de las instalaciones SHIP en Canarias y Cabo Verde es 77 936,9 y 3914,5 MWh, para procesos con temperaturas de operación inferiores a 250ºC, lo que supone una potencia térmica de 65,9 MW y 3,3 MW respectivamente.ABSTRACT: 24,6% of the final energy consumption in Europe goes to industrial activities and 65,6% of this energy consumption is used to generate heat for processes. For this reason, the industry is a sector with a big potential for the integration of solar heat generation technologies that would allow reducing signally the consumption of conventional fossil fuels. In this study, the final energy consumption of the Canary Islands and Cape Verde industrial sectors per range of temperature has been analyzed and the potential of solar heat generation plants for industrial processes (SHIP plants) in both regions has been quantified. Additionally, most applicable industrial activities and processes for the integration of SHIP plants have been identified. The technical potential calculated for the integration of SHIP plants in Canary Islands and Cape Verde in processes with an operating temperature below 250ºC is 77 936,9 and 3914,5 MWh respectively, equivalent to an thermal power of 65,9 and 3,3 MW.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The seasonal distribution of a highly commercial fish is related to ontogenetic changes in its feeding strategy

Improving the knowledge on the biology, ecology and distribution of marine resources exploited by fisheries is necessary to achieve population recovery and sustainable fisheries management. European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is one of the most important target species in the Mediterranean Sea and is largely overexploited by industrial fisheries. Here, we used two methodological approaches to further investigate the seasonal variation in the spatial distribution of European hake considering ontogenetic changes and trophic ecology in the western Mediterranean Sea. Our main aim was to explore if spatial changes in hake distribution were related to trophic behavior, in addition to key environmental factors. We employed a hierarchical Bayesian species distribution modeling approach (B-SDM), using spatial data from two oceanographic surveys conducted during winter and summer. We analyzed how the environmental variables, together with abundance and mean weight distribution of the main preys identified for European hake, affected the seasonal distribution of the species. Results revealed clear differences in the distribution of the European hake between seasons, which were indeed partially correlated to the distribution of their main preys, in addition to the environment. Stable isotope values and Bayesian isotopic mixing models (MixSIAR) revealed substantial seasonal and ontogenetic differences in trophic habits of European hake, partly matching the spatial distribution results. These findings could have implications for a future seasonal-based adaptive fisheries management, as local depletion of prey, or variation in size and condition may affect European hake presence in this area. Moreover, this study illustrates how the sequential application of methodologies provides a more holistic understanding of species seasonality, which is essential to understand the phenological processes of exploited species and their potential shifts due to environmental changes.Postprin

Indirect Dark Matter Detection from Dwarf Satellites: Joint Expectations from Astrophysics and Supersymmetry

We present a general methodology for determining the gamma-ray flux from annihilation of dark matter particles in Milky Way satellite galaxies, focusing on two promising satellites as examples: Segue 1 and Draco. We use the SuperBayeS code to explore the best-fitting regions of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) parameter space, and an independent MCMC analysis of the dark matter halo properties of the satellites using published radial velocities. We present a formalism for determining the boost from halo substructure in these galaxies and show that its value depends strongly on the extrapolation of the concentration-mass (c(M)) relation for CDM subhalos down to the minimum possible mass. We show that the preferred region for this minimum halo mass within the CMSSM with neutralino dark matter is ~10^-9-10^-6 solar masses. For the boost model where the observed power-law c(M) relation is extrapolated down to the minimum halo mass we find average boosts of about 20, while the Bullock et al (2001) c(M) model results in boosts of order unity. We estimate that for the power-law c(M) boost model and photon energies greater than a GeV, the Fermi space-telescope has about 20% chance of detecting a dark matter annihilation signal from Draco with signal-to-noise greater than 3 after about 5 years of observation

High-redshift post-reionization cosmology with 21cm intensity mapping

We investigate the possibility of performing cosmological studies in the redshift range 2.5<z<5 through suitable extensions of existing and upcoming radio-telescopes like CHIME, HIRAX and FAST. We use the Fisher matrix technique to forecast the bounds that those instruments can place on the growth rate, the BAO distance scale parameters, the sum of the neutrino masses and the number of relativistic degrees of freedom at decoupling, Neff. We point out that quantities that depend on the amplitude of the 21cm power spectrum, like f\u3c38, are completely degenerate with \u3a9HI and bHI, and propose several strategies to independently constrain them through cross-correlations with other probes. Assuming 5% priors on \u3a9HI and bHI, kmax=0.2 h Mpc-1 and the primary beam wedge, we find that a HIRAX extension can constrain, within bins of \u394 z=0.1: 1) the value of f\u3c38 at 4%, 2) the value of DA and H at 1%. In combination with data from Euclid-like galaxy surveys and CMB S4, the sum of the neutrino masses can be constrained with an error equal to 23 meV (1\u3c3), while Neff can be constrained within 0.02 (1\u3c3). We derive similar constraints for the extensions of the other instruments. We study in detail the dependence of our results on the instrument, amplitude of the HI bias, the foreground wedge coverage, the nonlinear scale used in the analysis, uncertainties in the theoretical modeling and the priors on bHI and \u3a9HI. We conclude that 21cm intensity mapping surveys operating in this redshift range can provide extremely competitive constraints on key cosmological parameters

On velocity-dependent dark matter annihilations in dwarf satellites

Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellites are a prime target for Dark Matter (DM) indirect searches. Recently the importance of possible long-range interactions has been recognized, as they can boost the expected DM gamma ray signal by orders of magnitude through an effect commonly known as the Sommerfeld enhancement. However, for such analyses precise modelling of DM phase-space distribution becomes crucial and can introduce large uncertainties in the final result. We provide a pioneering attempt towards a comprehensive investigation of these systematics. First, the DM halo profiles are constrained using Bayesian inference on the available stellar kinematic datasets with a careful treatment of observational and theoretical uncertainties. We consider both cuspy and cored parametric DM density profiles, together with the case of a non-parametric halo modelling directly connected to observable quantities along the line-of-sight. After reconsidering the study case of ergodic systems, the basic ingredient of all previous analyses, we investigate for the first time scenarios where DM particles are allowed to have anisotropic velocity distributions. Referring to a generalized J-factor, sensitive to velocity-dependent effects, an enhancement (suppression) with respect to the isotropic phase-space distributions is obtained for the case of tangentially (radially) biased DM particle orbits. We provide new estimates for J-factors for the eight brightest Milky Way dwarfs also in the limit of velocity-independent DM annihilation, in good agreement with previous results in literature, and derive data-driven lower-bounds based on the non-parametric modelling of the halo density. This work presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the aforementioned effects and falls within the interest of current and future experimental collaborations involved in DM indirect detection programs